The Pittsburgh Pirates announced that they have completed the Arquimedes Caminero deal with the Seattle Mariners, acquiring left-handed pitcher Jake Brentz and right-handed pitcher Pedro Vasquez. Brentz is 21 years old and currently in Low-A ball, while Vasquez is 20 years old and teammates with Brentz in Low-A.
The Pirates have received LHP Jake Brentz & RHP Pedro Vasquez from Seattle as the 2 PTBN to complete the 8/6 Arquimedes Caminero trade.
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 2, 2016
Vasquez is a 6’4″ right-handed pitcher, who has made eight starts for Clinton in the Midwest League. He has a 2.28 ERA in 43.1 innings, with a .223 BAA, an 0.90 WHIP and 30 strikeouts. He spent last season in the Dominican Summer League, where he pitched well as a first year pro. Vasquez has made quite a jump since then, and put up strong numbers, especially the four walks in 43.1 innings.
Brentz was originally drafted in the 11th round by the Blue Jays in 2013, so he is in his fourth season of pro ball. Over three levels, he has a 5.32 ERA in 45.2 innings, with 36 walks and 50 strikeouts. He was ranked 25th in the Mariners system coming into the season by Baseball America due to his low-90s fastball, which touches 96 MPH from an easy arm action. They called him a raw pitcher, with a high ceiling, who will need time to develop.
While Vasquez is younger and has the better stats, MLB Pipeline’s post-draft prospect update had Brentz as #26 for the Mariners and Vasquez wasn’t in the top 30. They call Brentz an impressive athlete, who is still considered raw due to concentrating on being a position player in high school. He was an 11th round pick, but it took $700,000 to sign him away from college.
Fangraphs has a video of Vasquez from June, where he was sitting 90-93, throwing mostly fastballs. He also had a low 80s slider and another pitch in the 80s they called a split/change.
+ posts
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
I like the approach to take the highest upside guys vs. guys closest to the majors or simply performing well with lower ceilings. I wasn’t that enamored of Caminero and think this is fair return. I was not expecting a Nova-type return on Caminero, especially b/c he was a middle reliever. Of course, I wasn’t expecting the actual Nova return either but that’s a horse of a different color . . .
Return allows you to judge NH in comparison to two other general managers. Looks like they both got the better of him.
Completely agree. These guys aren’t half the prospects that even Polo or Tarpley are. Let alone McGuire and Ramirez.
Why would they be? Nova is a starter, Caminero is a garbage time reliever who got demoted this year.
Nova’s career numbers as a starter are worse than Caminero as a reliever
Most do
Will either of these guys even report to West Virginia (or wherever) or will we not see them until instructs?
Ho hum…but it was expected, considering it was for Caminero
I see the interest as he has the highly valued downward plane. But Vasquez does a lot of feet shuffling, I wonder if that would be called a balk
Yeh, but can either of them carry Tito Polo’s athletic supporter?
🙂
Tito…………..Polo………..it just rolled off the tongue!
Is Brentz close to been rule 5 eligible?
After next year
How do these pitchers compare to Tarpley? Would Tarpley be ranked ahead of or behind these hurlers? I still think they should have DFA’d Locke and kept Caminero, but it looks like I am in the minority.
My initial thought is both behind Tarpley, but I try not to make rash judgments and they were acquired 30 mins ago. Most of my time was spent writing and looking for info
Funny the DSL player is a beast in 1st year on
Mainland but fourth year pro struggles. Not bad for Cam I guess. I forget what we sent to
The Marlins for him.
Caminero was purchased from the Marlins.
Do they break our top 50?
Yes, it’s broken now
Can you fix it by say…Saturday?
We were just talking it over after getting as much info as we could. The top 50 will not be updated until the book, no reason to at this point, season ends Monday. But we have an idea though after much discussion.
More than I thought they’d get, which isn’t saying much.
I was thinking they would get more once I saw what they gave up for Nova, but this is the type of return I originally thought they would get.