Yanks take one, trade for another in Rule 5 Draft
By
Cabral. (Photo Credit: www.prorumors.com)
The Angels agreed to sign both Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson this morning, but the Yankees managed to steal the spotlight with their moves during the Rule 5 Draft. Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit. The Yankees selected 26-year-old right-hander Brad Meyers from the Nationals with their pick, then later acquired 22-year-old left-hander Cesar Cabral from the Royals for cash. He was Kansas City’s pick from the Red Sox organization. The Yankees did not lose any players during the Rule 5 Draft, and Greg Golson has been released to make room on the 40-man roster.
Meyers was Washington’s fifth round pick in 2007, and Baseball America ranked him as their 27th best prospect prior to last season. “Meyers pounds the zone with a polished four-pitch mix,” they wrote in their Prospect Handbook. “His 88-90 mph fastball bumps 92, and it plays up because of the deceptive angles created by his lanky body [Ed. note: 6-foot-6, 195 lbs.] and high front side in his delivery (video). He has excellent command of his fastball and three secondary pitches: an average changeup, average slider and a short curve that he uses as a show pitch.”
Meyers. (Photo Credit: John C. Whitehead/The Patriot News)
The problem with Meyers has been health, specifically foot problems. He missed some time with a heel injury in 2009, then suffered a stress fracture in his left foot while jogging after the season. He had surgery, returned to the mound, then missed more time because some screws in his foot were giving him trouble. Meyers made 24 starts (and one relief appearance) in 2011, pitching to a 3.18 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and a miniscule 1.0 BB/9 in 138.2 IP. The Yankees are almost certainly looking at him in a long relief role. As per the Rule 5 Draft rules, they must carry him on their 25-man active roster all season or put him on waivers and offer him back to the Nationals.
Cabral is in a slightly different situation. He was a Rule 5 Draft selection last year, so if the Yankees don’t keep him on their active roster but he clears waivers, they don’t have to offer him back to Boston. He can elect free agency if that happens though. Cabral was in the Rays organization at this time last year, though he did not crack their top 30 list in the Prospect Handbook. He owns a low-90′s fastball with a changeup that’s better than his breaking ball, so that doesn’t exactly make him a traditional lefty specialist candidate. Sure enough, he had a reverse split this season and has in the past as well. Here’s some video.
The Yankees apparently liked Cabral enough that they tried to trade with Astros, Twins, and Mariners — owners of the top three picks in the Rule 5 Draft — to make sure they got him. The ended up making the deal with the Royals, who picked fifth. Due to waiver claims and such, Cabral has now been part of the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, and Blue Jays organizations in the last year or so. Both he and Meyers will audition for jobs in Spring Training, but as is always the case with these guys, they’re unlikely to stick.
46 Comments»
RAB Info
The Founders
Mike Axisa, Ben Kabak, Joe Pawlikowski
Editor-In-Chief
Mike Axisa Archives | Email
Managing Editors
Ben Kabak Archives | E-mail
Joe Pawlikowski Archives | E-mail
Contributing Editors
Larry Koestler (Archives)
Moshe Mandel (Archives)
Stephen Rhoads (Archives)
Weekend Writers
Hannah Ehrlich (Archives)
Matthew Warden (Archives)
Special Contributor
J.R. O'Grady (Archives)
Technical Consultant
Jay Gordon
Subscribe to RAB by RSS and Twitter
Follow @RiverAveBlues Search RAB
Banner Design By
The Mason Williams Watch
was Greg Golson’s rocket arm released from RAB?
Meyers and Cabral…CHAMPIONSHIP!!!
Meyers and Cabral > Pujols and CJ > Bell and Reyes
#winningtheoffseason
Losing Golson knocks us dead even with the Angels though.
Montero=Pujols
Banuelos=Wilson
Yankee$ not spending wisely.
Hopeful analysis.
Unfortunately, Golson = Mays, so we’re still beat.
Also,
Lavarnway = Piazza
Ranaudo = Seaver
Iglesias = Ozzie Smith
Beat even more.
Middlebrooks = Schmidt?
Right. Forgot about him.
And that’s only just part of the Class of 2035 HOF.
Wow I was hoping montero=Cabrera…didn’t realize he=pujols. Montero is a savings of over 200 million in dinero.
He is dinero. This has been known around here for sometime now.
I try to do my small little part.
Cashman was quoted as saying that Noesi will not be the long man this year. He’s starting the rotation in AAA or the majors
Great. A new day is coming!
Hate to ask, but where’s your source?
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-yo.....pujols-wow
Pick Cesar cabral and brad myers in rule 5 draft and call it an offseason. Don’t want to overpay for anything.
You know that the Yankees consistently have the highest payroll in baseball, right?
I did not know that. Source?
Oh boy…
Getcha popcorn ready.
What’s your source that the Yankees are cheap?
Fuck that.
Get Darvish add him amongst your pitching prospects that they keep proping up (warren,phelps,noesi, mitchell,banuelos,betances) and sign Jones THEN call it a offseason.
Yu ain’t matsuzaka…clever name lol.
Must be Brackman’s stock really fell as, in essence, Yanks have higher opinion of Meyers and Cabral!
they don’t cost 2 million dollars
Anyone else scared that Texas is going to get Darvish? If Cashman’s saying that the yankees will be “cautious” with Darvish means he’s gonna but in a 30 Mill bid which everyone knows will be short, what’s the point?
As far as I can tell the point is to pay for a player what you think he’s worth…
Haven’t you learned not to believe everything that Cashman says?
What would be the upside to him announcing to all that he’s all in on Darvish?
Yu never know. Like in fantasy auction drafts when you bid on someone for value thinking people will definitely bid more…then you win with that bid.
/Poor analogy
Please, no one should be “scared” about anything regarding the Yankees.
You do know, this is the team that won 97 Games and was one little hit away from advancing to the ALCS, right? This team is fine, people need to slow down and take a deep breath. Don’t worry about Texas, or Anaheim, or Boston, or whoever the fuck. If the Yankees execute what they’re supposed to do, they’ll have number 28.
This sentiment here is exactly why I want Brian Cashman to be GM for life.
got to say i am def scared. Im really starting to believe Cash when he talks and he is really trying to shy away from Yu. Hopefully its just a smokescreen and we snatch him up
If Cashman doesn’t think Yu is a good value, why should he spend money he feels he’s wasting? (Not saying he doesn’t think Yu is a good value, just if he doesn’t…)
Fear is never a good reason to do anything. If they were to actually shy away from him, I would first laugh a little inside, then not blame them for it.
There are logical reasons for and against going all out for this guy. The team being royally fucked without him does not fall under logical reasons, though.
Alderson says mets lost $70million last year not including getting Madoff’d. Yanks should say ha ha we can add that to our payroll and still turn a profit. Be modest though and just add prince 8/180.
Do you really think Cashman can pretend nothing has changed with Albert and Wilson in Anaheim? If they had gone to highest bidder Miami vs both to angels that is an entirely different scenario. Cashman has to move to a more aggressive plan B.
Plan B is about to post…
Those signing don’t change how good the Yankees are… they potentially make a team that was previously significantly worse than the Yankees competitive with the top teams in the league, that doesn’t suddenly turn logic upside down and mean Cashman should start throwing money at any short-term fix he can find.
Meyers looks like he’s had some very studly statistics as a starting pitcher when healthy.
I like the selection very much and am very impressed with the recent Yankee decision making.
I only wish I had more confidence in the Yankees when it comes to health-related stuff.
Sounds like Cashman thought Lozano approached yanks about pujols to drive up price, apparently that was not the case. Cash ninja probably thought Albert was staying in st Louis possibly Miami, he got arte-ninja’d.
Nahh. I don’t think he wants another 10-year/$200 million plus contract on the books right now. I suspect he thinks that one $20-something million per year geriatric player is enough.
Here’s hoping CC’s knee doesn’t have him joining ARod in that category anytime soon.
Not to mention that, as awesome as it would be, you can’t have both Pujols and Tex play 1st at the same time.
Pujols was always going to be a luxury item for the Yankees, nothing more.
And the RedSox smear campaign on Cabral starts in 3…..2…..1…
Also love the news that we might sign Adam Miller to an milb contract. I know with his injuries, nowhere near as good as he was before, but the risk for us is minimal, and maybe he can thrive in the pen.
Love the Brad Meyers pickup — and the numbers game with Cabral and Miller. Throw enough promising arms into the system and eventually you wind up with a good one here or there. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And you get all three for $250 million less than Pujols.
On the other hand, I think the Angels got a steal with C.J. Wilson. I can’t believe that other teams weren’t more aggressive.
I’m wondering if the interest in Cabral is because the Yankees feel like they can teach this kid to throw a slider (ala Nova last year) to help getting lefties out. I remember RAB did a post on how Rothchild seem to have the pitchers throw a good percentage more breaking balls than in the past, so could the interest in Cabral be because they think the slider can be much better than it is now?
His stuff seems to be from 90-95 on the fastball, which is pretty good for a lefty, and seems to have pretty good control too. If he can just develop his slider a bit, he could be a steal, as a lefty in the pen that can get righties out.