Let me tell you a secret about sports media, specifically the prospect writers: No one knows anything. There’s experience to draw upon, trends to identify, projectable attributes, and other buzzwords that make you think someone knows what they’re talking about when talking about players acquired.
That doesn’t mean scouts and other evaluators’ opinions don’t matter, but sometimes the hardest thing to do is be patient. So I ask you, a quick exercise this morning, go back to this date, December 9, 2015, it’s David Stearns first Winter Meetings and Adam Lind is traded.
The return from the Mariners are three teenagers that had what we call “high-risk, high-reward,” translation: we have no idea how this could play out. Do you remember any of the players acquired back?
RHP Carlos Herrera, he was released in A-Ball. RHP Daniel Missaki was recovering from Tommy John surgery at the time of the trade. He ended up never throwing a pitch in the organization, and is now in the Japan’s Eastern League.
The last pitcher? Freddy Peralta. At 5’11 and a funky arm slot, you just never know what you’re looking at until it arrives.
