According to Ken Rosenthal and Robert Murray of The Athletic, the Cleveland Indians have acquired left-handed reliever Brad Hand and right-handed reliever Adam Cimber from the San Diego Padres in exchange for catching prospect Francisco Mejia.
Hand, 28, debuted as a 21-year-old with the Florida Marlins back in 2011, but didn’t fully find his footing until he was claimed off waivers by San Diego in 2016.
That year, he appeared in a league leading 82 games and registered a 2.92 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 1.108 WHIP and 136 ERA+.
After making his first All-Star Game in 2017, the Padres inked Hand to a three-year extension through 2020 with a club option for 2021.
Despite the extension, Hand’s name has frequently been rumored as a trade candidate the last couple seasons, and now he’s finally been traded.
On Tuesday, he appeared in his second All-Star Game and pitched a clean eighth inning. He came back out for the ninth and induced a pop out, but was then removed for Ross Stripling.
Cimber, 28 next month, debuted with the Padres this season and appeared in 42 games prior to the All-Star break.
The 2013 ninth round selection has been good for 0.4 bWAR, while recording a 3.17 ERA, 2.32 FIP, 127 ERA+ and 1.076 WHIP in 48.1 innings.
The big haul, perhaps, is on the San Diego side, as they are getting highly touted catcher Francisco Mejia.
Mejia, 22, was just ranked the No. 5 prospect in all of baseball by Keith Law this morning in his midseason top 50 prospects update. He is also ranked the No. 24 prospect in baseball by Baseball America, and No. 15 by MLB Pipeline.
The Dominican Republic native got a cup of coffee with the Indians last year, and was called up just before the All-Star break this season, logging two plate appearances.
At Triple-A this year, Mejia hit .279/.328/.426 with seven homers and 45 RBI. This is coming off a year where he was named Eastern League Rookie of the Year.
Other than catcher, Cleveland had experimented with Mejia in the outfield and more recently at third base.
The Indians are getting three-plus years of control with hand and five plus with Cimber. However, letting Mejia go might prove to be a big loss. Just goes to show how coveted relievers are in today’s game.
