So Cleveland just bought itself a new bullpen, so to speak, but doing so comes at a huge price -- the No. 5 overall prospect in the game, and their No. 1 prospect, catcher Francisco Mejia, who was blocked in Ohio but still projects as a star and seems like he should have returned more than two relief pieces.
The Padres acquired Brad Hand on waivers before the 2016 season, and since then he's been outstanding for San Diego, throwing 213 innings with 280 strikeouts and just 65 unintentional walks, a 2.66 ERA and a composite .138/.231/.268 line against left-handed batters over the past two and a half years.
Adam Cimber is a similar something-from-nothing prospect, a longtime reliever in the Padres' system who was never anywhere on my prospect rankings for them because he has a below-average fastball. He has found success by throwing sinkers in the mid-80s and never walking anybody -- although as you might expect from his repertoire, he gets destroyed by left-handed batters (.293/.391/.569 this year).
So Cleveland gets a right-handed specialist plus a lefty specialist who has some value against right-handers in exchange for its best prospect. Cleveland's bullpen has been awful this year -- the relievers' ERA of 5.28 is second worst in the AL, ahead of only Kansas City -- so it needed a boost, but man, the rent is too damn high.
The Padres have to feel more than vindicated after they were vilified for failing to trade Hand at last year's deadline and, in the words of other teams, demanding too much for a reliever who was barely 18 months off the scrap heap. Francisco Mejia checked in at No. 5 overall on my latest prospects ranking, a gifted hitter who projects to hit for very high averages with 20-plus homers (well, in a neutral park, at least) and who catches well enough to stay at the spot with a plus-plus arm, and he immediately becomes a top-three prospect in an already-loaded Padres system. I have more on him in today's top 50 prospects update.
The Padres' system didn't have much catching between the majors, where they have defensive wizard and offensive cipher Austin Hedges, and low-A Fort Wayne, where 19-year-old Luis Campusano, their second-round pick from last year, is having a solid pro debut but is clearly several years away.
Hedges is a tremendous pitch framer and has a cannon for an arm, but he's now 25 with 730 major league PA under his belt and has improved to a .289 OBP this year. He has power but hasn't even hit enough to get to it in games. If you think pitch-framing value is being measured accurately and is entirely to the catcher's credit, then Hedges' glove might be worth two-plus wins a year, on top of his throwing and the sheer value of having him at the position at all. I have enough questions about the reliability of framing measurements, and how easily catchers can improve at that, that I don't think Hedges is good enough to block Mejia -- who may still learn to be a good or even just average framer with reps.
Mejia projects as a 4-5 win player, and Hedges can't be that with sub-.300 OBPs and little game power. And if Mejia isn't their long-term catcher -- either because his defense is worse than expected or because he hits so well that the Padres want to move him to a position where he will play more regularly -- then Hedges is still there to pick up the slack until Campusano or someone else arrives.