MLB trade report: Atlanta gets flexibility with Aaron Bummer, Cal Quantrill poor fit in Colorado

With the contract tender deadline approaching for arbitration-eligible players, two AL Central teams made trades, both sending pitchers in their half of the deals. A look at both trades below:

Atlanta acquires LHP Aaron Bummer from the White Sox for RHP Michael Soroka, INF Nick Lopez, INF Braden Shewmake, LHP Jared Shuster and RHP Riley Gowens

We have our first significant trade of the offseason, as the White Sox begin what I hope is the process of selling off pretty much everyone by trading lefty reliever Aaron Bummer to Atlanta for Five Guys.

Atlanta gets Bummer, a solid left-handed reliever who had his worst year as a big leaguer in 2023 due to a spike in his walk rate (that’s on him) and a spike in his BABIP (which looks like bad luck). He’s always limited hard contact and shown he can get right-handers out, so he’s a capable full-inning guy who could probably handle high-leverage work if the walks come back down. With Tyler Matzek still coming back from late-2022 Tommy John surgery, Bummer gives Atlanta a second lefty behind A.J. Minter to start the season, and plenty of flexibility if and when Matzek returns to the majors.

The White Sox went for quantity, which makes some sense given the state of their system, but the quantity/quality ratio here also gives you some idea of just how bad the system looks — the White Sox had the 40-man roster space for all five of these guys, several of whom were going to be non-tenders/non-selections for Atlanta and probably for lots of other teams as well.

Shortstop Nicky Lopez is the most famous guy in the deal, and White Sox GM Chris Getz knows Lopez from their time together in Kansas City. Lopez is basically a CR2032 battery who can play plus defense at shortstop or second base; he puts the ball in play a ton, but has no power, with a career .319 slugging percentage that might even overstate the case and just six homers in 1,901 plate appearances. There is some irony in the White Sox acquiring a better-fielding Nick Madrigal, although they had nobody in their middle infield worth playing anyway and Lopez at the very least gives them some defensive value.

Michael Soroka missed 2021 and nearly all of 2022 due to two tears of an Achilles tendon, while his 2023 season ended with an injured list stint for shoulder inflammation, which also sent him to the injured list in 2018 and 2019. The good news for the White Sox is that when he pitched in 2023, his velocity was back, and he was fairly effective in Triple A despite a shift in his pitch usage. He was a sinker/slider guy before 2021, but this year leaned more on the four-seamer than the sinker, cutting his groundball rate to about 44 percent last year from 51 percent in 2019, his only full season of work in the majors. He’s got one year to free agency, so the White Sox may just be hoping they get three or four healthy months from him, perhaps getting better results by restoring the sinker atop his pitch hierarchy, so they can trade him in July.

Lefty Jared Shuster was Atlanta’s first-round pick in 2020 out of the baseball factory of Wake Forest, a command and control lefty with solid secondaries, and had success all the way up through Double A in 2022. He struggled in Triple A and the majors last year, both with command and with hitters getting too much of his fringy four-seamer, which is 90-92 mph and flat with a little run. His slider is a 55 (in the 20-80 scouting scale), and the changeup has been that good in the past, although he missed with it more often in the majors than he had in the minors and gave up more hard contact even though the pitch missed some bats. He also walked way too many right-handed batters at both levels, which I think was a case of trying to avoid hard contact on the four-seamer. There’s still back-end potential here but he’s a full grade of command away from it.

Braden Shewmake was Atlanta’s second first-round pick in 2019, an infielder who might stick at shortstop but looked like he’d hit enough for any infield spot; unfortunately, he just hasn’t hit at all since the pandemic, with a .237/.299/.407 line as a Triple-A repeater in 2023, a line that came with mediocre contact quality. He does make contact (19.3 percent strikeout rate in Triple A) and looks like he could probably handle shortstop in the majors, so I can see the appeal, especially if the White Sox think they can get him to harder contact. He’s about to turn 26, though, so the odds are long.

Right-hander Riley Gowens was a 23-year-old redshirt junior at Illinois whom Atlanta drafted in the ninth round this past July. He’s a strike-thrower with a bunch of 45s in his arsenal, working with a clean delivery but not a ton of arm speed. He’s probably an org pitcher barring a big change in any of his stuff.

Colorado acquires RHP Cal Quantrill from Cleveland for C Kody Huff

The Rockies acquired right-hander Cal Quantrill, who had been designated for assignment by Cleveland, for catching prospect Kody Huff. Quantrill’s a command guy with low strikeout rates and seems like a poor fit for Colorado, where balls in play are worth more and right now the Rockies’ defense is around average. I do understand the need to acquire innings, but I’m worried about Quantrill becoming either very homer-prone or just giving up too many hits to give the Rockies the bulk they want. He would have been a great fit for someone like the Padres, though.

Huff was the Rockies’ seventh-round pick in 2022 out of Stanford, a high baseball IQ guy (and son of Diamondbacks scout Tim Huff) who makes a lot of contact, something Cleveland values more than perhaps any other team, without much power. Huff hit .262/.357/.374 last year as a 22-year-old in Low-A Fresno, a good park for power. I think he can be a backup in the majors — Drew Butera had a 12-year career with a similar skill set.

(Top photo of Aaron Bummer: Gerry Angus / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)