This article is part of our Collette Calls series.
The final day of trading season was surprisingly busy with a lot of that activity coming in the final hour. Quite honestly, there were too many deals to summarize into one single piece, so I am going to focus on three: the Rangers acquiring Carlos Beltran and Jonathan Lucroy as well as the Giants and Rays trading Matts.
Jonathan Lucroy
Once Lucroy exercised his right to block a trade to Cleveland, it was pretty much a lock he was going to end up in Texas. Miller Park is a good hitters' park, and Globe Life Park is once again playing like a hitters' park in 2016 after a few neutral years. Lucroy moves out of a division in which he faced the Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals pitching an inordinate number of times to a division where the pitching has not been as good. Lucroy will move down in the lineup, likely to the sixth spot, but will have better talent in front of him and behind him. RosterResource projects Lucroy to hit sixth with Adrian Beltre and Rougned Odor in front of him with Nomar Mazara and Mitch Moreland behind him. While Lucroy will lose a handful of at-bats, he should have ample RBI chances and be driven in quite a bit in an overall stronger lineup.
Lucroy should also help the pitching staff as he is one of the best pitch framers in the game. Since Texas did not acquire a starting pitcher at the deadline, it will have
The final day of trading season was surprisingly busy with a lot of that activity coming in the final hour. Quite honestly, there were too many deals to summarize into one single piece, so I am going to focus on three: the Rangers acquiring Carlos Beltran and Jonathan Lucroy as well as the Giants and Rays trading Matts.
Jonathan Lucroy
Once Lucroy exercised his right to block a trade to Cleveland, it was pretty much a lock he was going to end up in Texas. Miller Park is a good hitters' park, and Globe Life Park is once again playing like a hitters' park in 2016 after a few neutral years. Lucroy moves out of a division in which he faced the Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals pitching an inordinate number of times to a division where the pitching has not been as good. Lucroy will move down in the lineup, likely to the sixth spot, but will have better talent in front of him and behind him. RosterResource projects Lucroy to hit sixth with Adrian Beltre and Rougned Odor in front of him with Nomar Mazara and Mitch Moreland behind him. While Lucroy will lose a handful of at-bats, he should have ample RBI chances and be driven in quite a bit in an overall stronger lineup.
Lucroy should also help the pitching staff as he is one of the best pitch framers in the game. Since Texas did not acquire a starting pitcher at the deadline, it will have to out-slug teams and maximize its strong bullpen. Jeremy Jeffress now helps set up Sam Dyson, giving the Rangers two similar hard-throwing righties that generate a lot of groundballs. Perhaps Lucroy's ability to create strikes from balls can help some of the Texas starters do a little better, and his throwing skills should slow opponents. The revolving door at catcher for Texas has thrown out 31 percent of runners this season (17 of 55). Overall, the move for Lucroy should be a slight bump in value given the better talent around him in the lineup and a slight upgrade in the home ballpark.
Carlos Beltran
The Rangers doubled down on their postseason bet by adding Carlos Beltran to the mix and paid a big price for the elder DH sending Dillon Tate to the Yankees. The switch-hitting Beltran should hit third in the lineup behind Jurickson Profar and Ian Desmond with Adrian Beltre behind him. Beltran should not long for RBI opportunities in the lineup and Beltre behind him should help him avoid being pitched around, as well.
Beltran is likely to miss the comforts of Yankee Stadium. While he switch hits, a majority of his at-bats will come from the left side, and Yankee Stadium's home run park factors for lefties is well above the league average, while Globe Life Park is only slightly above the average. Another added benefit of the move for Beltran is that he can play DH most games rather than be forced to play in the field, which should help keep his legs fresh for the rest of the season. While Texas already had a good lineup, Beltran is now arguably its best hitter and in a prime spot to be a big run producer the rest of the way.
Matt Moore
The Giants too, looking to distance themselves from the Dodgers after their rivals added Josh Reddick and Rich Hill, reached out to Tampa Bay to acquire Matt Moore. Moore is not quite the pitcher he was pre-injury velocity wise, but over this summer, has looked as good as he has looked in quite some time. In his last 10 starts, Moore has had a 2.81 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP as he has stopped chasing strikeouts and instead has chased weak contact.
His strikeout rate has fallen to 18 percent during this run with a 7 percent walk rate, but there is a noticeable change in Moore's approach of late -- more strikes. He has been getting ahead in the count and then having batters go after his pitches versus being able to lock in on what they are looking for. The move to the NL should help Moore get some of his strikeout rate back, and his fly-ball rate should rather enjoy AT&T Park, but watch those starts in Colorado.
Matt Duffy
To acquire Moore, the Giants had to part with 25-year-old Matt Duffy. Duffy looked like the third baseman of the future for the Giants but started slowly this season and an injury, during interleague play at Tropicana Field, has him on the disabled list. Duffy is blocked at third base by the face of the franchise, Evan Longoria, so to the delight of fantasy owners Duffy will finish the season as the everyday shortstop. He will then have 3B/SS eligibility during next year's draft and perhaps the new home park will help him untap some hidden offensive potential much like it did for Logan Forsythe. Forsythe's bat was suspect when he left San Diego but has blossomed in 2016 with the Rays into an effective hitter at the top of the lineup.
Duffy is moving from a park that plays to the league average for right-handed power to one that does suppress it a bit, but he does hit the ball to all fields and will get to enjoy the coziness of Fenway Park and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, as well as Rogers Centre in an unbalanced schedule. It is unlikely he ever hits 20 homers in a season, but the all-fields approach should allow him to hit for a higher average since he can beat shifts, and the dual-position eligibility is a bonus heading into 2017 drafts. The move to short displaces 2016 surprise Brad Miller, who will now gain first-base eligibility, perhaps enough to be a rare SS/1B eligible player in 2017. He is not happy about being moved off shortstop, but defensive metrics of any flavor are not kind to his rebuttal. It is likely left field is his eventual future, but for a defensive-first club such as Tampa Bay, it was clear that Miller was not going to live at shortstop beyond 2016.
