Pirates Trade for Yamaico Navarro

By Paul Sporer

As the Rule 5 Draft drew closer, the Kansas City Royals knew they wanted to participate which meant they had to clear a roster spot.  In case you are unaware, a Rule 5 Draftee must stay on a team’s 25-man major league roster all year or he has to be offered back to the original team.  So the Royals found a trade partner in the Pittsburgh Pirates dealing Yamaico Navarro off of their 25-man roster for a pair of minor leaguers: Brooks Pounders and Diego Goris.

Pounders is a 2009 2^nd round pick who projects as a right-handed reliever and potential emergency spot starter (nine starts in his 61 minor league appearances).  The 20-year old had a breakout season in the Sally League this year dramatically raising his strikeout rate from 6.2 to 9.8 while also shaving his 3.2 walk rate down to 1.9 for a 5.1 K/BB ratio in 66 innings.

Despite the lofty strikeout mark, Pounders isn’t a hard thrower as he gets by with a high 80s-low 90s fastball that has more command than movement.  This is a situation where the numbers alone simply don’t tell a complete story as the 5.1 K/BB ratio would have most statheads drooling at the prospects of Pounders, but the stuff just isn’t there to match.  He also struggles with a flyball tendency that has left his home run rate per game over 1.0 each of the past two seasons (1.2 in 108 IP since 2010).

The bottom is that he is already a reliever for a reason and while he might reach the majors and have some effective innings, his skills aren’t something that can’t be replaced by a throngs of other right-handed arms littered throughout just about every organization in the league.

Goris is an unknown commodity, but likely even less of a prospect than Pounders.  He has spent the last four years in the Dominican Summer League showing incremental improvements as a utility player.  Primarily a shortstop (101 of 219 games played there), he has seen his OPS improve yearly in scant samples ranging from 44 to 68 games played.  He started at .567 as a 17-year old in 2008 followed by seasons of .681, .793 and last year’s .898 in a career-high 289 plate appearances.

Navarro started 2011 in the Boston Red Sox organization where Baseball America ranked him the 12^th-best prospect for the second straight year (including 2010 when the Sox were ranked the 5^th-best organization overall by BA).   He has spent five years working his way through the minor leagues after a year in the Dominican Summer League, posting solid numbers yearly except for his 2009 season that was cut short and derailed by a broken hand (career-low .702 OPS).

Though a limited sample of 75 games and 309 plate appearances, his .797 OPS at AAA is his best performance in any league since a .906 mark in High-A across parts of 2008 and 2009.  He has exemplary bat speed from which he draws his power and shows low-teens home run potential despite his 5’11/170 frame.  He has shown the ability to be patient for stretches as evidenced by his 9% walk rate over his entire career including 11% and 10% marks the last two years in the minors, respectively, but he will go through bouts of over-aggression which results more in strings of weak contact than egregious strikeout totals (career 16% strikeout rate).

I wrote about Navarro from a fantasy angle back in May at my other site, but the Red Sox didn’t get him up until July and traded at the end of the month for Mike Aviles, who is a pretty reasonable comp for what Navarro can become except Aviles didn’t get a shot until age 27 whereas Navarro is just 24 and already has a couple cups of coffee under his belt.  He has come up primarily as a shortstop with 312 of 470 minor league games played there, but he has experience at third base and second base as well as token appearances at all three outfield spots.

A bat with pop who can work his way around the diamond is a perfect player for the National League for obvious reasons, but also for this Pirates team as they can work him into the lineup based more on need without fear of him blocking someone else.  Navarro should have a legitimate shot at a roster spot in Spring Training and at worst be among the first up from Indianapolis should he miss out in March.  Given the Royals’ desire to free up their spot for Cesar Cabral, whom they took with the 5^th pick of the draft from the Red Sox as it all comes back full circle to the Sox.

Another strong move by the front office this offseason.