The Royals have acquired reliever Albert Abreu from the Rangers for minor league pitcher Yohanse Morel, according to announcements from both clubs. Kansas City will announce additional corresponding moves once Abreu reports to the team in the coming days.
Abreu, 26, spent around two months in Arlington. Texas acquired him from the Yankees in exchange for backstop Jose Trevino in the week leading up to Opening Day. The Rangers had acquired Mitch Garver to join a catching group that also included Jonah Heim and Sam Huff, and they felt that freed them to deal from their group behind the plate in hopes of adding a potential long-term bullpen piece.
The acquisition didn’t pan out as the team had hoped, as Abreu struggled mightily over seven appearances. He only allowed three runs in 8 2/3 innings, but he walked 12 batters and surrendered a pair of homers in that limited time. There’s little chance of Abreu sustaining an acceptable ERA so long as he’s struggling with free passes to that extent, and Texas designated him for assignment on Monday.
Strike-throwing has been a problem for Abreu throughout his professional career, albeit not quite to the extent it was during his limited time as a Ranger. A well-regarded prospect during his time in the Astros and Yankees farm systems, he was nevertheless forced to the bullpen because of a lack of control. That has been borne out in his big league work, as the Dominican Republic native walked an elevated 12.2% of opponents over 36 2/3 frames with New York last season — his first with an extended workload at the big league level.
That Abreu has attracted interest from a handful of teams in spite of his control problems is a testament to his high-octane stuff, however. He’s averaged nearly 98 MPH on his fastball in each of his past two seasons, showcasing elite arm speed. He backs that up with an upper-80s slider and changeup that each drew strong reviews from prospect evaluators, and the breaking ball has been a quality swing-and-miss offering at the MLB level.
With that kind of arsenal, it’s not hard to dream on Abreu carving out a future in a big league bullpen. Even if his spotty control limits him to lower-leverage work, the Royals can hope to coax better results out of his intriguing pitch mix. If they can, Abreu could be a long-term option. He won’t eclipse his first full year of MLB service until this season, meaning he’d be controllable through the end of the 2027 campaign. He’s out of minor league option years, though, meaning Kansas City needs to keep him on the active roster or make him available to rival clubs themselves.
That the Royals parted with a young arm to acquire Abreu suggests they’re prepared to afford him that opportunity. Kansas City is near the top of the league in waiver priority, but they parted with Morel to ensure no other team acquired Abreu via a trade of their own. It’s the second trade of Morel’s career, as he was dealt from the Nationals alongside Kelvin Gutierrez and Blake Perkins in the 2018 swap that sent Kelvin Herrera to Washington.
Morel, 21, was a fairly well-regarded prospect very early in his professional career. He twice appeared among Baseball America’s ranking of the top 30 minor league talents in the Kansas City system, but he hasn’t garnered a mention in either of the past two years as he’s struggled at High-A. Morel moved to the bullpen last season but was tagged for a 6.66 ERA through 50 innings. The Royals decided not to add to him to the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft (which never ended up transpiring), and he’s repeated the level in 2022.
Through 17 2/3 innings this season, Morel has a more suitable 4.09 ERA. He’s punched out 25.9% of opponents with an elevated 12.3% walk rate. Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin of Fangraphs wrote last week that his arsenal is headlined by a plus split-changeup. He’ll again be Rule 5 eligible this winter if he doesn’t earn a spot on the Texas 40-man roster.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
You misspelled “designated Carlos Santana for assignment.”
Hey TLB, just because you have the superpower of seeing the future, don’t scoop tomorrow’s headline!
There is probably zero chance the Royals eat Santana’s contract until at least after the trade deadline if they can’t move him
It’s just prorated $10m, it’s not THAT much in the context of a major league payroll. Continuing to expose him every day has actually hurt his trade value (if he had any to begin with).
It is perplexing if the Royals really think Santana will just turn it around to the point where someone would want to take on any of that contract. Its now a 900 AB trend of around a 190/320/330 slash line for a 1B that is 36 years old. Its over. Holding back Italian Breakfast in Omaha is detrimental to the present and future of the franchise. .
If he was hitting the ball out of the park when he actually does make contact even hitting .190 (or .161, as is the case so far this season) someone would probably take him. Really i think that is all they are hoping for, he starts hitting a few out and they are able to spin him for a lottery ticket or two
that walk rate is…not pretty!
First sentence- change “agreed” to “acquired”
The Royals pitching is just awful.
At this point they’re desperate.
The idea that their manager and pitching coaches are going to fix this guy – or any guy…….
They could trade for Cy Young and Mathenaloser and 20% Moore would have him losing within seconds of his arrival. Probably would never happen as the the new owner “ I only bought it for an investment “ wouldn’t pay anyone .50 a year.
I’m imagining a baseball version of “The Walking Dead.”
Well Cy Young does hold the major league record for career losses.
Acquiring Trevino for Abreu and Robby Ahlstrom was a great, great move for the Yankees. Jose leads all catchers in Strike Rate and he’s tied for the lead in Framing Runs, he calls a great game, he’s been clutch as heck, hits for a decent average with some pop, and he grew up dreaming of being a Yankee. Very likeable player who’s obviously well-liked by his teammates, too.
Cash, you struck gold. Cap tip to you.
Yeah, Travino has been surprisingly good with the bat this year. I would like to see him get the starting job over Higgy instead of the platooning they’re doing now.
Higgy is a disappointment. He obviously has the pop to hit home runs but he just can’t hit for average. I have a feeling Trevino will end up getting the bulk of the innings without Boone making any kind of announcement about it.
Remember the Gallo trade?
Jonah > Trevino. currently has the highest wOBA on the Rangers (minimum 90 PA) and has a slash line of .279/.361/.512 which are all team leading. He leads all catchers in wRC+ and is second in catcher WAR so far this year. He is 7th in Catcher Framing Runs, 2nd in Strike Rate (behind only Trevino) which puts him in the 98th percentile in Framing. Heim leads all AL Catchers in WAR (1.2) while the next two that follow are Sean Murphy and Ryan Jeffers who both have a wRC+ that are not close to league average. In fact the two best wRC+’s in the AL are both on Texas with Heim and Mitch Garver who has 110 wRC+
Glad he’s doing well but I have no complaints (other than he’s platooning with Higgy instead of starting) with Trevino. Maybe my expectations have been lowered by watching Sanchez have to run to the backstop every third pitch but Trevino seems just fine to me.
Gallo, on the other hand…..
Jonah came from the A’s as part of the Khris Davis trade. But to your point, Trevino became expendable last offseason from the Rangers because the catching depth they already had in house with Jonah Heim and Sam Huff (and with plans to acquire Mitch Garver). If the Rangers had that one to do all over again, would they have rather hung onto Trevino, instead of Albert Abreu? Or traded him for a very low level prospect that is years away? Sure! But they can’t feel that bad, because they absolutely fleeced the Yanks in the Joey Gallo deal.
We know where jonah came from.. the point was Cashman is no trader. He makes very bad trades.
Glen Otto alone has already made the Gallo trade worth it
No, they had to trade Trevino because no room for playing time
I remember too well the Gallo trade. I watched two of the Yankee prospects play a great game for the Rangers just a few days ago. Glenn Otto held the Rays to four hits, two runs, one earned, through six innings, and Josh Smith went 3-4 in his major league debut, scoring twice.
Nevertheless, I have no problem giving Cashman credit when he does well, and I don’t think a lot of Yankee fans expected Trevino to be as important to the team as he’s been. So the cap tip stands.
Too bad he sorely missed on Gallo. Giving up Duran, Smith, and Otto. Otto looks like he’s here to stay. Smith was raking before he got hurt yesterday and Duran called up today.
Yet another dumb move by my Royals
Pretty much every move by the Royals is dumb. The Royals front office is made up entirely of pea-sized brained buffoons.
Why do the Royals think they can fix a struggling pitcher when all they do is make pitchers worse. Singer, Lynch, Kowar, and Bubic would all be Cy Young candidates if they had been drafted by another team. I’ve pretty much given up on the Royals at this point.
Actually, since returning from AAA Brady Singer has pitched very well. I just don’t want Cal Eldred to ruin him!
Give up in the Royals? Where were you during that 1986-2014 era?
If I were Abreu I’d just simply stop walking guys.
Yeah, it seems to be a poor decision.
Props for thinking outside the box though…literally.
Ideal analytics guy. In the bullpen looks awesome. Facing batters he sucks. ⚾️
Another pitcher with a huge arm and no control signed as an int’l FA by Houston
How many of these guys can there be?
Dayton Moore is a joke!