One small deal that escaped my attention on Wednesday amid the rush of moves at the deadline was the Rays' trade of former top prospect Jesus Sanchez, still just 21, to the Marlins in a four-player deal that sent reliever/opener Ryne Stanek to Miami and brought Trevor Richards and Nick Anderson to Tampa Bay.
The Marlins seem to be pouncing on high-upside prospects whose stars have dimmed this year, even if that means a lower probability of success than other prospects they might target, with Jazz Chisholm coming over in a trade for Zac Gallen and Sanchez coming for two players they acquired for virtually nothing.
Sanchez has very quick, strong hands, with a furious swing and aggressive approach that have earned him comparisons to the late Oscar Taveras for several years. His exit velocities are strong, but so far he hasn't reached expectations in the power or OBP departments, and because he's a corner outfielder and likely not an average defender out there, the bar for him to clear to become a star or even an above-average regular is very high. He's also really young to be in Triple-A, and in hindsight, the Rays might have pushed him to Double-A too quickly. The Marlins have no reason to rush Sanchez to the majors and can let him start 2020 in Triple-A and spend most of the year there at age 22 before bringing him up, perhaps emphasizing a little more patience and work to get into hitters' counts.
Stanek is probably best known as the Rays' regular "opener," having started 56 games the past two years while throwing 112 innings in that span. He throws very hard and has three pitches, but he has had a slew of injuries and probably will stay in a relief role for good.
The Marlins acquired Anderson in a minor league swap for a player who never saw the majors (Brian Schales) and signed Richards, an undrafted free agent, out of the independent Frontier League. Flipping those two guys for a major league reliever and a high-ceiling prospect, even a flawed one, is an impressive bit of legerdemain and the kind of move we didn't see from the Marlins under their previous ownership.
Richards is a changeup guy, throwing it 38% of the time, which might not be often enough, as everything else he throws is below average, but he provides bulk innings, and the Rays might gain something by working on his pitch mix.
Anderson is the potential hidden gem here, with a mid-90s fastball with above-average spin and a knockout breaking ball with very low spin -- which, from what we know so far in the Statcast era, is a positive -- missing a ton of bats while giving up a lot of hard contact when hitters do put the ball in play. He's a rookie this year, with five years of control remaining, and I can understand the thinking that there might be more production here, given the disconnect between his pure stuff and his batted ball results.
The Rays do have a 40-man crunch coming up this winter, and Sanchez was due to be added. They traded Joe McCarthy to the Giants for the same reason. That said, they don't have much outfield depth in the upper minors at this point. They might feel that they have their right-field solution in Austin Meadows, but behind him there's a gap before you get to the next potential regular in their system. The Marlins, meanwhile, seem to be comfortable taking big risks for big payoffs, and I love that approach, recognizing that you can still walk away from the table empty-handed.