With the trade of right-hander Mike Leake to the San Francisco Giants late Thursday night, the Reds effectively turned two free-agent-to-be pitchers into five prospects, when combined with the earlier trade of ace Johnny Cueto to the Kansas City Royals. Leake is going to come in and really help our already veteran rotation, give a bit more oomph to it. He is a ground ball machine whose strike-throwing ways should translate extremely well to AT&T Park. He gave up hits in the first and second innings and none after that.
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“He’s pitched in a small ballpark, which has not been his best friend”, Giants general manager Bobby Evans said. Mella-who will turn 22 on August 2-broke out notably in 2014, when he made 18 starts and posted a strikeout rate of 8.8 per nine and an impressive 2.0 BB/9 walk rate.
Walt Jocketty and the Reds have to be absolutely thrilled to get this kind of return for Leake. It was Leake. It was Leake. Leake even grew up a Giants fan because of his father, whose favorite player is Willie Mays.
While the Reds welcome two more talented players, they say goodbye to Leake, who has been a reliable member of the starting rotation over the last six seasons.
The defending World Series champions acquired one of the hottest pitchers in the majors.
Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi has reported that the other player is 26-year-old Adam Duvall, who plays first and third base. This season, Duvall had 26 homers and a. 548 slugging percentage for Triple-A Sacramento. Overall, Leake is 9-5 with a 3.56 ERA in 21 starts this season.
Leake, it has been said by Heyman and others, was keen on possibly being traded to the Giants. The trade deadline is 4 p.m. ET Friday. Duvall’s played a handful of games in left field (10 games thus far this season at Triple-A) and playing there may be the Reds’ ultimate intention for him.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the Padres put starting pitcher James Shields on waivers in August.
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Christopher Smith of MassLive.com brings up some interesting points, saying that the team should wait to bring in Leake after the season, rather than dealing for him at the deadline. His power profile might lead him to the back end of the bullpen if he can’t cultivate all three pitches into solid offerings, but with Aroldis Chapman’s exit looming sometime between 24 hours and 14 months, that might not be the worst result. The 27-year-old Leake has allowed only two earned runs in his last four starts, all victories.
