The Arizona Diamondbacks optioned their rookie outfielder-infielder Brandon Drury to Triple-A Reno on Sunday afternoon to clear a spot for right-hander Shelby Miller who was activated from the disabled list.
The D’Backs wanted him to get more playing time in the minors rather than squander development time on the big-league bench, where Drury started just four of the past 11 games.
Drury, 23, was batting .275/.313/.456 this season with 11 doubles, eight home runs and 18 RBI in 204 at-bats with 46 strikeouts. After batting .294 in April as part of a platoon, Drury was batting just .193 with a .528 OPS over the last 30 days and had been getting less and less playing time as he was striking out in more than third of his at-bats during that span.
Over the weekend, John Harper of the Daily News speculated that he would be a good target for the Mets as an answer to the loss of third baseman David Wright. However a source told him that the D-Backs would be asking for a lot in return and that any trade would begin with Zack Wheeler.
A 13th round pick in 2010, Drury is a very versatile player who has played both corner outfield spots as well as second and third base during his minor and major league career. He started 38 of his 51 games in the outfield this season for Arizona.
I like Drury, but I read one account by another Mets Blogger who likened him to a young David Wright – which is not even close to an accurate comp. Unlike Wright, who was a top ten MLB prospect, Drury barely scraped the bottom ten percentile on most top 100 prospect lists.
The knock on Drury is that he doesn’t walk and swings at anything in the strike zone – an approach much more similar to a young Daniel Murphy than a young David Wright who was a very disciplined hitter. Additionally, Drury has no base-stealing speed to speak of unlike Wright – or Murphy for that matter – both of whom had solid speed in their skill sets.
Defensively, he rates below average at third base by scouts and metrics. However, that could improve with more consistent playing time at the major league level as he rated higher at third in his minor league career. Wright of course, was an excellent defensive third baseman right from the word go and throughout his career until injuries affected his play over the last two seasons.
Drury’s potential to improve is there, especially given his age (he’ll be 24 in August). However, I see him still as a work in progress as a major leaguer as do the D’Backs, and I’m not sure he can step in right now and help the Mets in the short term.
Ultimately, Drury projects to be a contact hitter who drives the ball gap to gap and should develop into a 20-25 homer hitter with a good average and glove.
But trading Zack Wheeler plus another prospect for Drury now, is definitely NOT the way to go for the Mets. That’s assuming the D’Backs have any intentions of dealing him. Wheeler alone would be an overpay.
Or let me put it another way. If the Mets were a year or two away from contending, I would be more interested in Drury than I am now.
