5:01pm: MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets that the Twins sent $75K to the Mariners in the deal, which will leave Seattle on the hook for just over $600K of Duke’s salary.
4:36pm: The Mariners have deepened their relief corps as they continue to stock up for a potential postseason run, adding veteran lefty Zach Duke in a trade with the Twins. In exchange for Duke, an impending free agent who is owed about $683K of his $2.05MM salary through season’s end, Minnesota will receive right-hander Chase De Jong and minor league corner infielder Ryan Costello. Because De Jong was already on the Mariners’ 40-man roster, Seattle won’t need a corresponding move for Duke.
Duke, 35, had Tommy John surgery in 2016 but returned for the last couple months of the 2017 season and pitched well enough to land a big league deal from the Twins this offseason. Minnesota was rewarded with 37 1/3 innings of 3.62 ERA ball from Duke, who has averaged 9.4 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 without allowing a home run this season. Duke’s superb 58.8 percent ground-ball rate ties a career-high (set in 2016 prior to his surgery).
As one would expect, Duke comes with a fairly notable platoon split. Minnesota has used him in 45 games this season but only allowed him to total 37 1/3 innings — a split that is indicative of his status as more of a lefty specialist than a full-inning setup piece. Indeed, left-handed opponents have mustered just a .237/.274/.288 slash against Duke, while righties have hit slashed a much more potent .303/.409/.351 against the veteran southpaw.
Duke will give the Mariners a lefty option to step into the role which Seattle had hoped fellow veteran Marc Rzepczynski could fill in 2017-18. Unfortunately for Seattle, Rzepczynski’s two-year, $11MM deal proved to be a substantial misstep. “Scrabble” struggled in both seasons with Seattle and was released earlier this season. Duke will complement James Pazos and Roenis Elias as southpaw options in manager Scott Servais’ bullpen, giving him a trio of lefties to deploy as matchups dictate.
As for the Twins, they’ll acquire a former second-round pick (Blue Jays, 2012) with minor league options remaining in De Jong. The 24-year-old made his big league debut with Seattle last season but was hit hard in 28 1/3 innings. De Jong yielded 20 runs on 31 hits (five homers) and 13 walks with just 13 strikeouts in 28 1/3 MLB frames last season.
That said, De Jong is still just 24 years of age and has had a solid, if unspectacular season pitching for Seattle’s Double-A affiliate this season. Through 120 2/3 innings, De Jong has notched a 3.80 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.9 HR/9 and a 39.2 percent ground-ball rate. Despite some big league experience, he technically retained his prospect status and ranked 28th in an admittedly dismal Mariners’ farm system, per Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com.
Costello, 22, was the Mariners’ 31st-round pick in the 2017 draft out of Central Connecticut State University. He’s posted solid numbers in the Class-A Midwest League this season, though as a college bat playing against younger competition, that should be the expectation. In 406 trips to the plate, Costello has hit .266/.360/.486 with 16 homers, 24 doubles and a pair of triples while posting a 12.6 percent walk rate against a 20.2 percent strikeout rate. He won’t factor in anywhere near the top of the Twins’ prospect rankings, but he’ll add a left-handed bat with some pop to the lower levels of the Twins’ system.
De Jong is the more immediate return for the Twins, and while he profiles more as a swingman than a rotation option, that’s not a bad return for a couple of months of a lefty specialist who was set to hit free agency. Of course, it’s also a pretty easy commodity for the Mariners to surrender in order to improve their options in high-leverage spots down the stretch and, ideally, into the postseason. It’s hardly an exciting trade, but it’s one that makes a fair bit of sense for both parties involved.
Jon Heyman of Fancred reported that the Mariners had a deal to acquire Duke (via Twitter). Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the return (also via Twitter).
Dealin Dipoto!
Go Jerry I have faith in you unlike Moreno.
Moreno is an owner. Dipoto is a GM
He is stating that he trusts in Jerry Dipoto, unlike Arte Moreno did when Dipoto was GM with LAA.
Jerry was GM with Moreno’s team though, and Moreno sided with Scioscia over Dipoto.
That is the truth scioscia has been, is and will continue to be the big problem with the Angels. I don’t care if he has 2500 wins he is never going to win another World Series with this team all he does is divide and it’s all about favoritism.
Moreno had hired and fired Dipoto. Thus, Moreno lacked faith in Dipoto.
Moreno didn’t fire Dipoto. Dipoto created the mess then quit during the season!
Dipoto created the mess? You mean the signing Moreno forced him to make? Like Hamilton. The GM only has as much power as the owner gives him. Oh, and look how they have done without him. How many playoffs has Trout been to?
Moreno should sell to a true Angel fan that wants to win doesn’t do a half way job just for show……watch trout walk that will be the nail in the coffin
How are the Angels doing since DiPoto left?
I’d say pretty good considering it was Dipoto who left the damn farm in complete and utter shambles and probably the root cause as to WHY trout hasn’t been to the playoffs..
He traded Segura for a rental in Greinke, gave up clevinger for basically crap in return, and signed Hamilton and Pujols
3 years later Eppler has been doing a good job correcting DiPotos mistakes by bringing the farm back from utter ruin and last I checked DiPoto has the Mariners farm now next to last? Good luck lol
It’s a hit and miss with long-term contracts. Pool halls will retire and enter the Hall of Fame as an angel right after Vlad so that’s not a mistake as for Hamilton you win some you lose some
And Alice talk about Appler so he treats away a first round draft pick for Simmons and where has Simmons taken the Angels yeah he’s great but he was in the last piece we needed where as Newcomb is already in the big leagues thank you very much
Over the last decade or so, sometimes that has been difficult to tell
But I think his comment has more to do with Arte taking the side of Scioscia over Dipoto a few years back
BOOM… deadline dealing!
I’m okay with this
Solid trade, good rental player who can help down the stretch without giving up much
Lefties hitting .237/.274/.288 off Duke. Like the trade a lot. A second lefty with a dominant James Pazos.
Just say LOOGY
Don’t see this moving the needle at all in helping the Mariners getting the last WC spot. Certainly is low cost but their rotation is not going to have what it takes to maintain the record they achieved the first 2 1/2 months of the year, IMO. Starters ERA’s have gone up from 2.97 in May, to 3.86 in June, to 4.43 in July. They have been playing only .500 ball the last 6 weeks.
Fortunately the deadline is tomorrow and they have time to make an upgrade.
Wonder if they’re going to go for a starter with the Adam Warren deal
this is pretty much a dump of duke and his 600k to clear way for one of the young relief arms to take his spot. Buesnitz and Moya should get a good 20-30 innings out of the bullpen so we can see what we got. Underwhelming return but something is better than nothing I guess?
I wouldn’t call it underwhelming, de Jong is a borderline MLB ready pitcher with decent upside for two months of a guy that is solid but definitely not a game changer. If de Jong turns into a solid 7th inning guy or something of that nature you pretty much swapped the same level pitcher but with way more team control. It certainly isn’t flashy but I would say the twins did alright here.
Dejong barely throws 88, I don’t see him being anything close to a 7th inning guy.
While velocity is a good thing to have it’s far from a requirement to be good. Also, he averaged just under 91 mph in 2017 which means he tops out over 91 which is not that slow.
That’s very slow for a late inning reliever.
Didn’t expect much of anything from a Duke trade just glad a younger guy who will be part of the future will now get a chance.