As the deadline closes in, contenders are making supplementary deals Tuesday, headlined by the New York Yankees acquiring Mark Leiter Jr. from the Chicago Cubs.
Leiter has had a solid season, far better than his 4.21 ERA suggests.
It’s a 90-94 mph two-seamer setting up a splitter, curveball, and slider, the splitter of which is one of the elite secondaries in all of baseball. Batters are hitting .053 with just three singles and a 62% whiff rate this season off the pitch.
Leiter’s curveball and slider also miss bats, and he mixes in an 88 mph cutter, primarily versus left-handed batters. Lefties have torched his fastball (.345 BAA, .493 SLGA), but haven’t solved anything else, so the right-hander is far from a specialist, yielding a .200/.265/.267 slash versus lefties and a .188/.278/.250 line versus right-handed hitters.
In return, the Cubs received middle infielder Ben Cowles and right-hander Jack Neely. Cowles, 24, has flashed average power in his career, but not until 2024 has he made enough contact to grab the attention of the parent club. His career 26% strikeout rate in the minors has sunk to 17.7% in 88 games in Double-A this season.
He’s likely just a utility player, but he’s put himself on the radar.
Neely, also 24, is a pure reliever with a four-seamer up to 97 mph and a slider (83.88) flashing depth and tilt. Both pitches have a chance to miss bats.
The Yankees shore up their bullpen with Leiter, and the Cubs, who acquired right-handed reliever Nate Pearson and infielder Isaac Paredes last week, get a couple of upper-minors depth pieces that may help their big club as early as next season for two-plus years of Leiter. If Cowles can start for a few years, the outlook of this trade changes.
The Yankees are a half-game back of the Baltimore Orioles as play starts Tuesday.
TRADE GRADES (20-80 Scale)
New York: 60
Chicago: 45
The Arizona Diamondbacks add Josh Bell in a trade with the Miami Marlins, covering for the Christian Walker injury. In exchange, the Snakes will cover $2.25 million of the remaining $5.9 million on Bell’s contract. Bell will be a free agent after this season.
Walker was placed on the 10-day IL with an oblique injury suffered Monday night. Bell, 31, was batting just .239/.305/.394 for the Marlins, but owns a career 113 wRC+ and is capable of flipping a switch for short periods.
Miami continues its rebuild, moving Bell after shipping out IF/OF Jazz Chisholm over the weekend and right-hander Trevor Rogers earlier Tuesday. Saving some payroll is a good move, but the club’s overall approach to… being a baseball team is absurdly offensive.
Arizona begins Tuesday’s game a half-game out of the No. 2 and 3 Wild Card spots, currently occupied by the New York Mets and San Diego Padres.
TRADE GRADES (20-80 Scale)
Arizona: 50
Miami: 45
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