Going Deep: Analyzing the Prospects in the 3-Way Sonny Gray Trade

The Yankees and Reds finalized the long-awaited Sonny Gray trade on Monday, but not before Mariners General Manager Jerry DiPoto, who clearly felt neglected, decided to get his team involved. Now that the dust has settled, here is the official trade:

Cincinnati gets: RHP Sonny Gray, LHP Reiver Sanmartin

New York gets: OF Josh Stowers, 2019 CBB pick (36th overall)

Seattle gets: 2B Shed Long

The Reds also agreed to a three-year, $30.5M extension with Gray, including a $12M club option for 2023.

While Gray to Cincinnati is worth evaluating, this post will discuss the other three prospects who are changing hands.

 

3 New Prospects, 3 New Teams

 

Shed Long is the most notable piece, going from Cincinnati to Seattle. Long is coming off a 12 homer, 19 steal season at Double-A last year. At five-foot-eight, many wrote him off as a speed-first utility infielder type. However, Long packs a real punch with the stick, and has shown the potential to be a 15-20 home run hitter in the show. Factor in the speed, which could play up in Seattle’s offense, and you have the makings of a 15/15 guy at the Major League level.

This trade is nice for Long’s value simply from a depth perspective. Long was buried behind multiple infielders in Cincinnati and was facing an even worse situation in New York before he was flipped to Seattle, who just moved Robinson Cano as they venture into a rebuild. Long will be a big part of that and could reach the big leagues as soon as 2019.

Long checked in just outside our top 100 prospects list in October, and a move to Seattle should help his value in the short-term, although he certainly would have benefited from the hitter-friendly confines of Great American Ballpark and/or Yankee Stadium. Still—I like him as a borderline top 100 dynasty prospect and would not be surprised to see him impacting regular fantasy teams in 2019.

Josh Stowers is the other big piece, a speedy outfielder who was drafted by Seattle in the second round in 2018 and will head to New York to replenish their OF-starved farm system. Stowers’ calling card is on the basepaths, where he swiped 60 bases in college (without getting caught once) and another 20 at short-season A-ball last summer. He has a little pop, with five home runs in 58 games—but projects to be a good defensive center fielder with a patient, contact oriented approach at the plate and the ability to win a fantasy league on the bases.

He’s still a long, long ways away from the big leagues, but in deeper dynasty formats he is worth keeping an eye on. New York has a full outfield right now, but in recent years they have traded nearly every outfield prospect in their farm, making Stowers a prime candidate for a future job patrolling the outfield in pinstripes.

The last prospect dealt was Reiver Sanmartin, a big left-hander who went from New York to Cincinnati. He spent three years in the lower levels with the Rangers, but ended up getting traded to the Yankees for Ronald Herrera last year and pitched at four different levels, reaching Double-A for one start.

Across 67.1 innings (10 starts), Sanmartin posted an outstanding 58/4 K/BB ratio along with a 2.81 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP. There’s not a ton of data out there on Sanmartin, but he is a soft-tossing left-hander who sits around 90-91 and uses a three-pitch mix with an outstanding command of the strike zone.

Sanmartin’s lack of velocity probably points to a future in the bullpen, where he could let his fastball loose and focus on developing a strong secondary. As of now, he does not have fantasy value in even the deepest dynasty formats.

(Photo by John Adams/Icon Sportswire)