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Tuesday’s News & Notes

Nats Flip Candelario for Two Cubs Prospects

For the third straight year, the Washington Nationals are selling at the trade deadline rather than dealing away a prospect who will flourish in his new organization buying. Jeimar Candelario, a free agent signed this past November on a one-year deal, was sent to the Cubs in exchange for SS Kevin Made and LHP D.J. Herz.

Made (pronounced mah-day) was posting a .240/.328/.355 line in the Midwest League and has been assigned to the Blue Rocks. He’s a glove-first infielder who needs to make more consistent, hard contact.

Herz was 1-1 in 14 starts across 59 innings with a line of 3.97/3.85/1.42 in the Southern League and has been assigned to the Senators. Control has not been his strong suit (5.64 BB/9) but he does have strikeout stuff (12.2 K/9) with a low-80s CH and a low-90s FB. Scouts believe he’ll eventually be converted to relief.

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester OFF DAY @ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:35 p.m. Rutledge (1-0, 5.57) vs. Barclay (AAA debut)
Harrisburg OFF DAY @ Erie, 6:05 p.m. Saenz (0-4, 6.90) vs Hurter (5-5, 3.83)
Wilmington OFF DAY vs. Hudson Valley, 6:35 p.m. Alvarez (5-3, 2.92) vs. Beck (0-0, 0.60 ERA)
Fredericksburg OFF DAY vs. Salem, 7:05 p.m. Cornelio (2-7 , 4.88) vs. TBD
FCL Nationals Won, 4-1
(5 inn).		 @/vs. FCL Astros, 10 a.m.
DSL Nationals Won, 10-4 @ DSL Phillies White, 11 a.m.

Rochester Red Wings, 15-12, 6th place I.L. East, 2½ GB – 49-51 Overall
For the second straight week, the Red Wings took four-of-six from their opponent but didn’t gain any ground in the standings. It remains to be seen who will be recalled to take Candelario’s place in D.C. RHP Hobie Harris was recalled to take the place of Trevor Williams, who was placed on the bereavement list.

Harrisburg Senators, 12-15, 5th place E.L. Southwest, 5GB – 43-52 Overall
Harrisburg broke out for 13 runs on Sunday, which will hopefully carry over this week when they visit first-place Erie. Herz last pitched on July 29, so presuming the Nationals would like to keep him starting so he can work on locating his pitches, he’ll likely make his first appearance on Friday or Saturday.

Wilmington Blue Rocks, 11-19, 6th Place, 9GB, Sally Lg. North – 40-54 Overall
The Blue Rocks split their series last week on the road and return home to host the Renegades. Something will have to give on defense as both Made and Jordy Barley have primarily played SS in their careers and the team’s current 2B (Viandel Peña) has only played 17G at 3B. DH is already clogged with Will Frizzell and Branden Boisserie and it would appear that the Nats are committed to T.J. White learning the position. It also seems unlikely that the current OF of Lile-De La Rosa-McKenzie will change, either.

Fredericksburg Nationals, 12-17, 6th Place, 6GB, C.L. North – 42-50 Overall
Fredericksburg dropped its first four games against Myrtle Beach before winning back-to-back games over the weekend. Like the Blue Rocks, it would appear the FredNats will be playing out the string as the pitching simply is not there. Rumors have swirled about coming and goings to the southern ‘Burg but the acquisition of Made would seem to rebut the chatter on Sunday about Sammy Infante going to Wilmington.



FCL Nationals 4 FCL Marlins 1 (5 inn.)
• Agostini (W, 1-5) 4⅓ IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 2K, HR
• Jimenez ⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Pinckney 2-3, 2R, 2B
• Snell 1-2, R, HR, 2RBI, SB

The F-Nat built an early 4-0 lead and got the requisite 15 outs before the rains came. After a 42-minute delay, they called it. Gabriel Agostini got his first win with one run allowed on a HR and four hits total over four and a 1/3rd innings. He walked three and struck out two. Ryan Snell’s two-run HR, his first as a pro, broke the game open in the 4th while Andrew Pinckney led the FCL Nationals hit column with a single and a double.

DSL Nationals 10 DSL Cardinals 4
• Farias 3IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 5K, 2HBP, WP
• Jo. Hernandez (W, 1-0) 1IP, 1H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 1K
• R. Cuevas (H, 1) 3IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 5K, HBP, BK
• Joaquin 3-4, 2R, 2B, RBI
• Acevedo 2-3, 2R, BB, 2B, HR, 3RBI, 2SB
• Obispo 2-5, R, 2B, 3B, RBI, CS

The DSL Nationals won easily as they rapped out 13 hits in a 10-4 win over the DSL Cardinals. Victor Farias went the first three and let in a run on four hits while striking out five and not issuing a walk (though he did hit two batters). The win went to Jose Hernandez despite coughing up two runs in the 4th on a walk, triple, and a sac fly. Andy Acevedo reached base three times, drove in three, scored twice, and stole two bases while Juan Obispon racked up five total bases with a double and a triple to lead the D-Nats attack.

Programming Note

This year, my semi-annual minor-league baseball trip takes me north to (mostly) Pennsylvania with stops in Altoona, Erie, Binghamton, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Saturday I’ll be going to Citizens Bank Park.

I bring this up because there may be some abbreviated writeups as the one downside to a swing like this are the longer drives between stops, excacerbated by day game after a night game tonight and tomorrow. BUT, I will be seeing two affiliates on the road, which means a couple of bonus posts… unless the Friday night game goes late.

15 Commments

  1. Cool Hand Luke !!
    I’m seeing you played by Chevy Chase in a wood paneled Woody with Ruth Gordon on the roof covered in a tarp flapping open in the breeeze with John Candy playing the PA state trooper pulling you over
    Ok Luke my helium in the balloon was let out after the review on Herz and Made
    Made and Barley . If they were lab experiments at Ft Belvedere they might be called MK 1 and MK 1 plus .
    Let’s hope Hobie Harris gets back to his spring training health and hum baby level .

    1. Why do I have a sinking feeling that Davey will keep playing Vargas? It’s the perfect opportunity to give Alu a couple of MLB months to see if he can hit.

      1. Build trade value in Vargas for winter dealing ?
        I’m sure Alu will be up sooner than later

  3. I’m not thrilled with the trade return for Candy. Both guys will be Rule 5-eligible this year. Both are struggling. I would have preferred one good prospect to two marginal ones.

    1. *shrugs* position players just don’t draw the return that pitching does at the deadline, and in particular rental players. From what I’ve seen in scrolling through the regular sites, the professionals think that the trade makes perfect sense (KLaw was highest on the return, calling it a “coup” for the Nats) and most fans are “meh” to hostile.

      The next step, judging from past experience, is that fans will assume that Rizzo got better offers and refused them. In about 18 months fans will choose a flourishing prospect/rookie from one of the teams said to be in the Candelario negotiations and simply assume (without any particular reason to do so) that Rizzo could have had him but failed. For GMs, that’s an occupational hazard.

      1. I don’t think Rizzo failed at all, but neither do I believe it was a “coup” in any way. Herz profiles like Mitchell Parker. Made is still very young and seems to have decent gap power. He makes contact, but his BABIP “luck” has been terrible. If we could only graft Make’s contact with Infante’s power . . .

    2. Agreed. The return was surprisingly low. I’d have thought we’d have gotten at least one player with a bit more upside than either of these guys, even if they were super young/raw with some big flaws (kind of like Jarlin Susana), OR relatively developed guys without high ceilings (like Mason Thompson). Neither Herz nor Made seem to have much of a ceiling and also arent particularly well developed. Like if everything falls into place with Herz, he’s a back of rotation starter, but much more likely a reliever. Made too doesn’t seem to have a big tool. He’s merely okay defensively and doesn’t have any power projection. If he makes the majors, it looks like he’d be a lot like Ildemaro Vargas.

      I don’t doubt Rizzo took the best offer, but it’s definitely surprising that was the best offer on the table…

      The biggest boon from all of this is that it SHOULD finally allow Alu to get a run of starts. At least he better! I’ll be insanely frustrated if Vargas and Chavis gobble up the starts at 3B.

  4. The larger issue is that Rizzo is in a pickle right now. Ownership is pushing him to try to have something close to a .500 team next year, which is why he’s hanging onto guys like Thomas and Finnegan unless he gets a super offer (which I doubt he will). At the same time, it isn’t going to make sense to add a bunch of big free agents this offseason, particularly in field players, with so many prospects on the horizon for 2025. So it’s hard to envision the 2024 Nats looking a lot different than they do now, other than having an innings-limited Cavalli in the rotation.

  5. Was listening to Jim Callis and he didn’t like the way the Cubs handled him. He’s only 20 and Callis said he needs to stay at Wilmington for least the rest of this year.

  7. Pinckney (hitting 2nd), Dugas (7th), Nunez (9th), YoYo (3rd), all playing tonight for FredNats. Marcus Brown on roster.

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