Brave Transactions: Adam Duvall For Sims, Wisler, and Tucker

The Braves announced a trade tonight shortly after the conclusion of a 5-3 win over the Miami Marlins.

The Atlanta #Braves today acquired OF Adam Duvall from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for RHP Lucas Sims, RHP Matt Wisler and OF Preston Tucker. pic.twitter.com/6iGNlYmZvf

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 31, 2018

Adam Duvall

Duvall is an 11th-round pick by the Giants in 2010 out of Louisville, and traded to the Reds at the 2015 trade deadline for right-handed starter Mike Leake. The Reds brought him up the majors that August 31 and he’s been a mainstay in left field and the Reds line-up since then. The 29-year-old has hit .235/.297/.469 for Cincinnati in 1697 plate appearances over those years, most notably amassing 84 home runs and 460 strikeouts. Duvall represented the Reds in the 2016 All-Star Game after hitting 23 home runs in the first half of the season.

Duvall has been a plus defender in left field, and can also cover first and third base in a pinch.

Duvall does have a tendency to hit better against left-handed hitters (career 108 wRC+ versus lefties, 92 against righties), and would seem to be a good option to play in left field against tough left-handed starters with Ender Inciarte going to the bench and Ronald Acuna moving to center.

This season, Duvall has hit only .205/.286/.399, good for an 82 wRC+ and 0.6 fWAR. His overall lack of production, plus the emergence of rookies Jesse Winker and Phil Ervin, made him expendable for the Reds.

Lucas Sims

On August 22, 2017, former Braves 1st-rounder Sims pitched 6 innings of 3-hit , shut-out ball to lead Atlanta past the Seattle Mariners by a 4-0 score. The game marked his fifth big league start and it seemed like the Snellville native would be able to carve out a place with the Braves despite the tidal wave of high-quality pitching matriculating to the majors.

Instead, Sims would pitch to a 7.06 ERA the rest of the way while bouncing from the rotation to the bullpen and back again. This season Sims was not given an opportunity to start at all with the big league club and mostly struggled out of the bullpen, allowing 9 earned runs in 10.1 innings pitched. That said, he has had a strong season with AAA Gwinnett, pitching to a 2.84 ERA in 15 games (14 starts) and striking out more than 10 batters per nine innings.

Sims has a fastball/curveball/change-up/slider four-pitch mix as a starter. As a reliever, Sims will ditch the slider. The fastball is a 91-93 four-seamer with some arm-side run but without depth or command. His best pitch his a tight 1-7 curveball; when he can drop that in for strikes, he can put together a dominant outing. The change-up is a pitch that comes and goes depending on his feel, and the slider is more of a change-of-pace offering for the third and fourth times through an order should he get that far.

Sims is only 24 years old, and has less than a full season of service time.

Matt Wisler

Wisler is a former 7th-round pick by the San Diego Padres in 2011 and was considered a Top 50 prospect by Baseball America in 2014 and 2015. Wisler was traded just before Opening Day 2015 to the Braves along with minor leaguer Jordan Paroubeck, Cameron Maybin, the corpse of Carlos Quentin, and a 1st-round supplemental draft pick that the Braves converted into third base prospect Austin Riley in exchange for right-handed closer Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton Jr.

Wisler made his major league debut on June 19, 2015 with 8 innings of 6-hit, 1-run ball against the New York Mets. Wisler would go the rest of 2015 in the big league rotation. He had his ups-and-downs that season, but the rebuilding Braves could afford to be patient with Wisler and fellow young acquisition Mike Foltynewicz as they tried to learn the ropes.

Wisler would continue to struggle in 2016, and the Braves finally pulled the plug in late July, optioning Wisler back to AAA just before the team would start a winning surge to finish out the season. He would return in September and make a handful of solid starts before being sidelined with a rib injury to close out the season. After the Braves acquired veteran starters Bartolo Colon, Jaime Garcia, and R.A. Dickey for the 2017 season to join Julio Teheran, Wisler couldn’t pitch his way past Foltynewicz for the 5th-starter spot and ended up back in AAA to start the season. Wisler would end up only making one start for Atlanta, pitching 19 mostly terrible relief outings.

In 2018, the 25-year-old Wisler has spent most of the season in AAA again, though he did make 3 emergency starts for Atlanta with a combined 3.63 ERA. His work out of the bullpen however continued to be terrible, and he has been in Gwinnett since July 2, definitely passed on the depth chart by the likes of Sean Newcomb, Max Fried, Mike Soroka, and now Kolby Allard who makes his major league debut tonight.

Wisler has five pitches: a four-seam fastball, a sinker, a slider, a curve, and a change-up. Of the five pitches, only the slider has been a reliable major-league caliber pitch, but it’s good enough that some think he could build a career around it, perhaps as a short-outing reliever where he could just throw the four-seamer, slider, and change.

Preston Tucker

Tucker was a 7th-round pick by the Houston Astros out of the University of Florida in 2012. Tucker zoomed up the Astros farm system and made his major league debut with the rebuilding club on May 7, 2015. Tucker mashed 13 taters in only 98 games, giving some to hope that he could be a contributor to the young club. It was not to be however as Tucker would struggle in 2016, eventually being optioned to AAA by the Astros for good on August 11. He would not get another opportunity with the club as the Astros won a World Series in 2017 while Tucker cooled his heels all season with the AAA Fresno Grizzlies.

The Braves claimed Tucker off waiver in December 2017, and he made the Opening Day roster, claiming the larger half of a left-field platoon with Peter Bourjos. Tucker started the season hot, helping the Braves get off to a 4-2 start with key hits against Philadelphia and Washington. On April 5, Tucker was hitting .429 with 2 home runs on the young season, but naturally that kind of hitting wouldn’t last. By April 24, Tucker was hitting .254/.289/.465 and the Ronald Acuna era officially began.

Tucker has been a solid pinch-hitting option for Atlanta since then, going .265/.324/.412 with a home run in that role. Tucker was optioned to AAA Gwinnett on July 27 to make room for the return of Max Fried to the rotation.

Tucker has a quick, strong left-handed swing and a very aggressive approach. This combo has lead to some long home runs, but also a 26% strikeout rate on the season. Tucker is also a poor outfielder and baserunner, so his only value is what he can give his team with his bat. For Houston and Atlanta that hasn’t generally been enough. Tucker was a first baseman in college and could presumably back-up the position if given the opportunity.

What This Trade Means For Atlanta

In the short term. Atlanta acquired sorely needed right-handed power that can slot behind Nick Markakis in the line-up and give opposing pitchers and managers something new to deal with. Alternatively, Duvall can come off the bench, from where he has hit .268/.359/.607 with 6 home runs in 64 career plate appearances.

Duvall has three years of team control remaining, each of which Duvall would be eligible for arbitration. This technically makes Duvall a potential replacement for impending free agent Nick Markakis next season if the Braves elect to allow Markakis to leave and/or they do not sign or trade for another outfielder, but I would be surprised if the Braves don’t make another move to address the outfield. I think the presence of Duvall does make it easier if the Braves elect to trade Ender Inciarte this offseason, allowing Acuna to slide to center permanently.

For Duvall, the Braves gave up three players that didn’t seem to have a place on the suddenly contending team anymore. As a side note, the trade also clears a net of two 40-man roster spots. One will be used for left-handed starter Kolby Allard, who will make his professional debut today. If rumors are true, the other may be used later in the week for right-handed prospect Touki Toussaint. To sum up recent developments:

We got Brach, Venters, and Duvall for stuff that either we can’t use, or shouldn’t use

— el yeti estúpido de los bravos (@JDunnah) July 31, 2018

 

What This Trade Means For Cincinnati

The Reds acquired two cost-controlled potential starting pitchers and a solid bench bat for an outfielder about to hit his arbitration season and was already losing playing time to rookie outfielders.

While both Sims and Wisler may struggle with the smaller dimensions of Great American Ballpark, both are strong change-of-scenery bounce-back candidates. I personally believe Sims has good enough stuff to be a major league back-of-the-rotation starter, while Wisler could still be an interesting reliever if allowed to take on the role full-time. I believe the Braves mishandled both of these pitchers’ development by swapping them in and out of rotations and bullpens so much over the least two seasons.

Both pitchers struggle with their emotions on the mound. Wisler seemed to lose confidence after the 2016 season. Sims seems to put too much pressure on himself when given major league opportunities. Hopefully the Reds will be able to let them work on these issues during the final two months of the regular season.

Tucker can be a solid bench bat for Cincinnati, and may get some playing time as the season winds down with the Winker likely out for the season.