Jays trade for Yangervis Solarte

I was hoping for some news.

Jeff Passan tweeted that the Jays have traded for Yangervis Solarte. No word on who is going to San Diego.

Solarte played all the infield positions for the Padres last year. He hit .255/.314/.416 with 18 home runs in 128 games. He played mostly second base, 79 games there. He had 28 games at short, 22 at third and 8 at first.

He would fill the need for middle infield depth. Fangraphs numbers suggest he’s fairly average at the infield spots (and my virus scan suggests Fangraphs is having troubles with malware, maybe stay off the page for a bit).

I’d think there would be prospects going to the Padres but no idea who.

We’ll update as news comes out. I’m ok with getting him, we clearly needed more help in the middle infield and I didn’t want to see Barnes and Goins get 700 at bats again.

Update:

Solarte is not making a ton of money. $4.1 million this year. Team options for $5.5 and $8 million for the next two seasons.

Update:

Robert Murray is saying that Edward Olivares and a “small piece” are the parts moving to the warmth of San Diego.

Minor Leaguer saw Olivares play and says this:

Olivares can hit the ball out to all fields, has great strength (power and arm) and great speed on the basepaths and in the outfield.

I’ve seen him misplay a few balls in spring training, Lansing, and Dunedin. Not a great result for a small sample size.

He did have 17 homers in 464 PA in Lansing in 2017, but, before hitting Lansing, he had 5 homers in roughly the same number of at bats in the lower minors. He has 47 steals. Had a .277/.330/.500 line in Lansing, .221/.312/.265 in 77 PA in Dunedin, all this year.

He turns 22 in March, I really didn’t see him as someone that was likely to make the majors, but he’d be worth watching to see if the power continues to improve.

Jared Carkuff, a 24-year old, right-handed pitcher is the ‘small piece’. He was a 35th round pick in 2016. He pitched where ever we needed an arm last year. 3.86 ERA, 15 walks, 51 strikeouts in 63 innings, spread between Buffalo, Dunedin, Lansing and Vancouver. Not really a prospect.

Update:

It appears the trade is official: