FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Kansas City Royals added a high-leverage arm to their bullpen on Saturday, buying John Schreiber from the Red Sox in trade for minor-league pitcher David Sandlin.
“Absolutely nothing but love and thanks to all that I interacted with inside the Royals org,” Sandlin wrote on X, previously Twitter. “Forever grateful for my time with the org and all the teammates I had this last year and half. Excited for new beginnings and can’t wait to get to work. The goal doesn’t change! #RedSox”
The Red Sox add a high Royals pitching prospect to a farm system that should develop extra beginning pitching. The commerce additionally opens a spot on the 40-man roster and shaves about 1,000,000 {dollars} off a Red Sox payroll that’s already tens of thousands and thousands beneath the bottom luxurious tax threshold.
The Royals had been “pushing hard” to get Schreiber, Alex Cora stated, and the Red Sox had their eye on Sandlin.
Sandlin, 22, pitched for the University of Oklahoma earlier than the Royals chosen him within the eleventh spherical of the ’22 draft. In that yr’s College World Series semifinals, he struck out 12 Texas A&M batters to advance Oklahoma to the finals, however they in the end fell to Ole Miss.
“We had identified (Sandlin) early on as someone that we think is on the rise, has the makings of a legitimate starting pitcher,” Craig Breslow stated shortly after the commerce turned public. “Loved the stuff, loved the make-up, and we’ve seen the stuff take a pretty significant step forward.”
The 6-foot-4 right-hander’s “stuff” now features a fastball that may contact 98-99 mph, however normally hovers between 95-97, Breslow stated. There’s additionally a “good breaking ball, and a change(up) that we see room to optimize,” the chief baseball officer stated. “So, it was a combination of kind of, raw stuff, projection, and the chance to maybe tweak the usage a little bit and improve performance.”
It wasn’t simple for the Red Sox to half with Schreiber, however baseball is because it ever was: a enterprise.
“Any time you make these trades, you have to recognize that we’re trading a really talented pitcher in Schreiber over there, and that was difficult,” Breslow stated. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but like I said, I feel like my job is to do what is best for the organization, and I think this was a chance to do that.”
“I think we talked for a while about our right-handed relief depth,” stated Breslow. “That’s something that we feel strongly about, something we feel confident in, and the need, when the opportunity exists, to create more starting pitching depth … I think this was one example of a chance to do that.”
MLB Pipeline ranked Sandlin No. 19 within the Royals’ high 30 prospects for 2023. Baseball America had him at No. 20 in his earlier group, and final month, named him one of many Royals’ three potential breakout prospects for 2024. In up to date staff rankings earlier this week, The Athletic positioned him at No. 7.
If wholesome, Sandlin might rise by means of his new group pretty rapidly. He excelled in Single-A final yr, posting a 3.38 ERA, 79 strikeouts, and 13 walks issued throughout 12 begins (58.2 innings). His subsequent promotion to High-A got here to a halt after two video games because of a season-ending indirect damage.
Source: www.bostonherald.com