Arizona Diamondbacks add two big leaguers, two prospects in trade with Seattle Mariners
Jun 3, 2015, 6:37 PM | Updated: 8:42 pm
Wednesday afternoon, the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Mark Trumbo and Vidal Nuno to the Seattle Mariners for catcher Welington Castillo, relief pitcher Dominic Leone, infielder Jack Reinheimer and outfielder Gabby Guerrero.
Two of the players the D-backs received — Castillo and Leone — were playing at the big league level with the Mariners this season.
The other two were with Double-A Jackson.
But really, who are these guys?
In Castillo, the D-backs are adding a 28-year-old who spent the first five seasons of his career with the Chicago Cubs before being traded to Seattle this season. A career .250 hitter, he has 29 home runs and 112 RBI.
With starter Tuffy Gosewisch done for the season with an ACL injury, Arizona’s depth behind the plate was being tested.
D-backs GM Dave Stewart, as a guest of Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Wednesday, said Castillo will hopefully give the team some stability behind the plate.
“Our reports on him are good,” the GM said. “Talked to some people internally over there, they said that he does a very, very good job with handling the pitching staff, which is our main priority. But we’ll also get a little offense from him as well.”
The D-backs will also be adding Leone, a right-handed reliever who has posted a 6.35 ERA in 11.1 innings this year but went 8-2 with a 2.17 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 66.1 innings in 2014.
“We’re expecting first just to see him and get to know who he is,” Stewart said. “We know that he’s capable of pitching well at the major league level, and then once he gets adjusted then we’ll make the decision what role we use him in.”
While Castillo and Leone are expected to go straight from the Mariners to the D-backs, the other two players might be the most intriguing of the haul.
Reinheimer, a middle infielder, was batting .277 with one home run, 16 RBI, 12 stolen bases and 14 walks this season. The 22-year-old is a career .275 hitter over the course of three minor league seasons.
“Our scouting people, Mike Russell in particular, who has spent some time looking at their team before we made this deal, compared him to Brandon Drury,” Stewart said. “And Brandon Drury, as you know, is one of our top prospects, and he’s a baseball player, so we’re looking for big things from him.”
And Guerrero, who is the nephew of nine-time MLB All-Star and one-time AL MVP Vladimir Guerrero, was rated as the seventh-best prospect in the Mariners farm system before this season by Baseball America.
The 21-year-old was hitting .215 with two home runs and 15 RBI this season, but last year, in 131 games with High-A High Desert, batted .307 with 18 home runs and 96 RBI.
“He’s a big, strong, physical guy that’s got great upside,” Stewart said. “We saw him in spring training, he played against us and I believe he had two hits against our team in that game.”
Stewart noted how Guerrero performed last season.
“And then he’s got great bloodlines,” he added. “There’s no question about this guy’s ability to play the game. He’s 21 years old, he’s in Double-A already. We’re looking for big things from him, but the key to this is he’s young and we’ve got time to let him develop.”
