Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:46 pm
The Cape Bear Bandits and the Phanatics pulled off a blockbuster trade after 30 hours of intense negotiations with Super-Star Joes Ramirez,SP Marco Gonzales and RP pitcher Yimi Garcia packing their bags and leaving town. Coming over in the deal was 1B/OF Ryan Mountcastle and future stars OF Alex Kiriloff and future "ACE" Grayson "G-ROD" Rodriguez as the Bandits start the long process of rebuilding in this very competitive league. "Its good to get that deal done and finally move on," Pork" CHOPS" Murphy said in a press release from the security tightened Spring Training grounds in Tampa." It was hard to trade Ramirez but Management need to put their own stamp on this team and the future just got brighter in Tampa Bay."
BREAKDOWN OF THE TRADE
1B/OF Ryan Mountcastle
Mountcastle batted .333/.386/.492 with five doubles, five home runs and 23 RBIs in 140 plate appearances in 2020. He ranked first among AL rookies in on-base percentage, tied for first in three-hit games (five), second in OPS (.878), batting average and slugging percentage, third in multi-hit games (14), fifth in hits (42), tied for sixth in RBIs and eighth in home runs. His 30 hits and 19 RBIs in September led the Orioles.
OF Alex Kirilloff
One thing is for certain, he doesn’t get rattled and he doesn’t let his nerves or excitement show. He’s stoic and in the zone. He’s calm, yet fierce. He’s everything you’d want in a veteran, packaged into a young 23 year old kid. That said, this will be the toughest phase of his career. This will be the best pitching he’ll ever encounter, and how he learns and adapts will be telling of how far he can go. The opportunity is there for the taking as our scouts say he will be playing in 2022 either as a DH or OF for the Cubbies.
SP Grayson "G-ROD" Rodriguez
Rodriguez was excellent in his first professional season. Pitching the entire year with Delmarva, the 19-year-old was 10-4 with a 2.68 ERA, earning a shared claim for the team’s Jim Palmer Minor League Pitcher of the Year award.
Yes, it’s just the Low-A level, and Rodriguez has a ways to go before he’s ready to toe the mound at Tampa, but all a player can do is handle the assignment he’s given, and Rodriguez passed his test in style. He struck out 129 batters in 94 innings, compiled a 0.989 WHIP, and surrendered only a .171 opponents’ batting average and .518 opponents’ OPS. Rodriguez is a classic power pitcher. He towers at 6-foot-5, and he has a velocity-laden arsenal to go with that frame. His fastball reaches the high 90s, and he has a hard-breaking slider that he used to punch out hitters this year at a rate of 12.35 per nine innings.Fangraphs has Rodriguez’s ETA at 2023, while MLB has it at 2022. However you slice it, it won’t be anytime soon. But Cubby fans have all the reason in the world to get excited about what he’ll look like when he finally gets the call.
