The Caesars agreed to send catcher Christian Bethancourt to the Brooklyn 42s for outfielder Kevin Kiermaier. Both players will receive the same league minimum salary in 2015 and have similar service time with Kiermaier spending 58 days in his BSL rookie season compared to Bethancourt's 47.
The Caesars were looking to trade from their catching depth to improve depth at positions of need. Bethancourt sat behind John Jaso, Wilin Rosario, and Stephen Vogt on the depth chart prior to the trade. Kiermaier is eligible at all outfield positions in 2015 and projects to be the Rays' starting rightfielder. He should see the requisite 20 games in CF needed to retain his eligibility there.
Any discussion regarding Kiermaier begins with his defensive ability. He was nominated for a Gold Glove last year and inspired D-Rays Bat to relive his highlights in a two part series. The numbers back this up. Kiermaier began 2014 in AAA Durham and was called up twice until finally sticking around following his May 31st callup. As such, he only appeared in 108 MLB games where he played CF and RF. No outfielder with at least 800 innings had a higher UZR/150 than Kiermaier's 36.3. The next closest was Mets' defensive whiz Juan Lagares at 25.3. Kiermaier was much better in RF but held his own in CF. The scouting backs up the numbers. Coming into 2014, Kiermaier was rated as the Rays #10 prospect by Baseball America and the best defensive outfielder and arm in the system. Baseball Prospectus rated him 8th in the organization with similar praise for his defensive ability.
Kiermaier still has some questions regarding his offensive ability. His career minor league line was .278/.352/.398 in 1,649 plate appearances with 15 career home runs and he stole 86 bases while being caught 32 times. His overall major league line in 2014 was .263/.315/.450 with 10 home runs (one was of the inside the park variety) and but he was only successful in five of his nine stolen base attempts. Within his MLB line was a huge platoon split as the left handed hitter had an .840 OPS against RHP and a .497 OPS against LHP. Additionally he hit .315/.353/.574 in his first 50 games and struggled to a .213/.280/.331 line in his final 59 games. The Caesars expect his 2015 offensive performance to be slightly worse than his overall 2014 line and hope to see him steal bases more in line with his minor league rate. He saw just over 20% of his 2014 plate appearances against LHP and that should be the maximum allowed in 2015.
Ultimately, the trade was extremely fair. Bethancourt is a highly regarded, defense first catching prospect and rated in the back half of most publications' top 100 prospects coming into 2014 and should retain a spot there on the 2015 lists. He's a career .270/.300/.379 hitter in 2,189 minor league plate appearances over seven seasons. There are significant questions about the development of his bat. He appears to be in line to see the majority of playing time for the Braves at catcher in 2015. The Caesars feel Kiermaier is the more likely bet to have a playable bat and their catcher depth afforded them the chance to trade Bethancourt. The Caesars originally acquired Bethancourt from the Line in the November 2013. Bethancourt was traded along with Donn Roach and Orlando Arcia to the Caesars for David Freese, Charlie Morton, and Dan Uggla. This could turn out to be a win-win trade for both teams.
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