Tag Archives: Dominican Summer League

New York Yankees Acquire Amed Rosario from Washington Nationals

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Amed Rosario is heading to the Big Apple.

The New York Yankees have acquired the 29-year-old Dominican professional baseball utility player from the Washington Nationals in exchange for two minor leaguers, giving the club a versatile right-handed hitter it had coveted before Thursday’s trade deadline.

Amed Rosario A former top prospect with the New York Mets, Rosario is batting .270 with five home runs and a .736 OPS this season. But he’s hitting .299 with an .816 OPS against left-handed pitchers this season and the Yankees are expected to use him primarily against lefties.

Defensively, he gives manager Aaron Boone a multipurpose player.

Rosario has started 20 games at third base and 13 at second base this season and has also made starts at each outfield position and at shortstop during his nine-year career.

The move comes a day after the Yankees completed a trade with the Colorado Rockies for veteran third baseman Ryan McMahon.

Unlike McMahon, who is under contract for the next two seasons for $32 million, Rosario will become a free agent after this season.

The Yankees will pay Rosario the balance of the one-year, $2 million deal he signed with Washington in January.

“When I heard where I was going, I kind of didn’t believe it,” Rosario said in Minnesota after the Nationals’ game vs. the Twins on Saturday. “I mean, at some point I kind of knew I was going to get traded, but I didn’t know it was going to be today.”

The Yankees nearly signed Rosario before last season, but he chose to sign a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Tampa Bay Rays instead. He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in late July and finished the season with the Cincinnati Reds after being claimed off waivers.

“He’s actually been a guy who we’ve tried to kind of get the last couple of years to varying degrees,” Boone said. “Provides some defensive versatility, speed and really gets lefties, so I think it kind of makes our bench and the balance of our roster a little more workable.”

This is the third straight year Rosario has been moved close to the trade deadline.

The Yankees will be his sixth team since the end of the 2023 season.

“I feel great, because whenever teams are in playoff contention they always acquire me towards the end,” Rosario said. “I just feel really good about that.”

Rosario cost the Yankees right-hander Clayton Beeter, a 26-year-old right-hander in Triple-A who has made five major league relief appearances, and Browm Martinez, an 18-year-old outfielder in the Dominican Summer League.

The Yankees acquired Beeter, a second-round pick in 2020, from the Dodgers for Joey Gallo in 2022. He made his major league debut last season and gave up six runs in 3⅔ innings across two relief appearances this season.

Martinez is batting .404 with a 1.139 OPS in 18 games this season, his second in the Dominican Summer League. He signed with the Yankees for $130,000 last year.

Los Angeles Dodgers’ Top Prospect Josue De Paula Wins MVP Award at MLB Futures Game Following Three-Run Home Run

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Josue De Paula is a most valuable player…

The 20-year-old Dominican American baseball player, the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ top prospect, blasted a three-run home run in the MLB Futures Game to lead the National League to a 4-2 win over the American League at Truist Park, winning the Larry Doby Award as the exhibition’s MVP.

Josue De PaulaAfter flying out in his first at-bat, De Paula, the NL‘s starting left fielder, saw two sliders from 6-foot-10 left-hander Noah Schultz, the Chicago White Sox‘s top prospect.

De Paula took the first pitch for a ball and the second for a strike. Schultz tried sneaking another one by De Paula and the left-handed slugger pounced, swatting the hanging slider 416 feet over the right-field wall.

“I just wanted to go up there and see ball, hit ball,” De Paula said, “knowing that we didn’t have any information on these pitchers.”

De Paula was born and raised in New York City, but his family moved to the Dominican Republic in 2021 so he could pursue a professional baseball career after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down his high school baseball season.

He signed with the Dodgers for $397,500 in January 2022 during what would’ve been his junior year of high school.

After spending that summer in the Dominican Summer League, De Paula returned to the United States to play for Low-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2023. This season, he’s batting .265 with 10 home runs and an .835 OPS in 78 games for High-A Great Lakes.

He has spent his offseasons training in the Dominican Republic with New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto and Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

“It’s a lot on the mental side, not physical, because I feel like all the physical is always going to be there,” De Paula said. “The mental tips and just how to go about their work, how to go about their day, their routine, just how to handle yourself.”

LuJames Groover, a third baseman in the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ organization, delivered the only multihit outing with two infield singles. He scored the NL‘s fourth run of the fourth inning on Chicago Cubs outfield prospect Owen Caissie‘s double.

The AL scored the game’s first two runs on an infield single from White Sox prospect Braden Montgomery in the third inning and Texas Rangers top prospect Sebastian Walcott‘s sacrifice fly in the fourth.

New York Yankees top prospect George Lombard Jr. played all seven innings for the AL, starting at second base before moving to shortstop. He went 1-for-2 with a double, walk, steal and run scored.

Atlanta Braves pitching prospect JR Ritchie started for the NL in his organization’s home ballpark and tossed a scoreless inning with two strikeouts and a walk. New York Mets prospect Jonah Tong, whose 125 strikeouts led the minors entering the weekend, followed Ritchie and tossed another scoreless inning with a fastball that touched 97 mph. He struck out Seattle Mariners catching prospect Harry Ford on a curveball.

“I honestly felt more comfortable than I thought I was going to,” said Tong, who has a 1.83 ERA in 15 starts for Double-A Binghamton this season. “Just taking a really deep breath and realizing that I’ve been here. The stage was a little bit bigger, but it was a lot of fun.”

Milwaukee Brewers Acquire Carlos Santana from Pittsburgh Pirates

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Things are brewing for Carlos Santana.

The Milwaukee Brewers have acquired the 37-year-old Dominican-American professional baseball player and first baseman from the Pittsburgh Pirates, attempting to shore up a tepid offense as they try to hold onto first place in the National League Central.

Carlos SantanaSantana was dealt to a contender for the second consecutive season after going from Kansas City to Seattle last year. Long considered a clubhouse leader, Santana will fill in at first base for Rowdy Tellez, who, while recovering from a forearm injury, tore a fingernail on a chain-link fence while shagging batting practice. 

In exchange for Santana, who is hitting .235/.321/.412 with elite defense at first base, the Pirates will receive 18-year-old shortstop Jhonny Severino, who signed with Milwaukee for $1.23 million last year and is currently playing in the Arizona Complex League.

At 57-46, the Brewers have clawed back into the NL Central pole position despite scoring just 423 runs — three fewer than their top-notch pitching staff has allowed.

While a resurgent Christian Yelich has paced the offense, only one other season-long regular, catcher William Contreras, has an OPS above .700.

Milwaukee, which shipped closer Josh Hader to San Diego at the trade deadline last season and blew a three-game division lead, was expected to add players on the margins rather than go after bigger-name players.

Santana is owed around $2.5 million for the remainder of the season.

Severino hit .268 with a team-leading 25 RBIs in 48 games while playing in the Dominican Summer League in 2022.