Dodgers Team News

Dodgers Complete First Trade of 2019 With Tampa Bay Rays

The Dodgers completed the final big trade of the 2018 calendar year when Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, and Alex Wood were sent to the Cincinnati Reds. Now, the team has completed a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays to consummate 2019 properly.

The deal was announced on twitter by the team’s official twitter account.



Los Angeles sent right-handed pitcher Caleb Sampen to Tampa Bay in exchange for right-handed pitcher Jaime Schultz. Moreover, we have an interesting note on the player acquired by the Dodgers. Let’s take a look at his MLB.com profile, shall we?

A quick glance at the stats alone displays a pitcher with a 5.64 ERA in 22 games for Tampa Bay in 2018. However, Schultz had 35 strikeouts in 30.1 innings pitched. Equally important is his spin rate on his fastball – an average of 2,403 on his typical four-seamer. This is greater than the league average of 2,263 by a good margin.

By comparison, it appears similar to that of Walker Buehler; who had 2,415 in his spin rate on his typical fastball. Furthermore, the Dodgers may have just acquired a very good right-handed pitcher that you will be seeing make an impact at some point in 2019.

Often, it is the trade that seems a mere quiet footnote on the transaction log that ends up being a significant move. File away the name Jaime Schultz in the meantime while we wait to see the cement hardens and how the value plays out for the Dodgers.

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

5 Comments

    1. SoCal, as always when you post here; a great point. I have a good feeling on this guy for when the weather gets hot

      1. Thanks. Scouting reports are really good on Schultz, get him with Honeycutt, Prior, perhaps Koufax, Kershaw, Hill, etc. and Dodgers may have themselves another gem.

        1. I can feel it. I don’t know much about the guy we sent back; you always hope that guy doesn’t develop after the fact (roll of the eyes).

          1. Baseball America did not even have a draft scouting report on Sampen who was a college senior. He did K almost 13 hitters per 9 IP in rookie ball, but a very small sample size. Dodgers have plenty of arms at the lower levels and lost quite a few as minor league free agents after 2018 season, so need to restaff AAA and AA for sure.

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