Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Deivi Cruz Acquired by Nationals

As a follow-up to the outrighting of Danny Rueckel, the Nationals acquired 2B/3B/SS Deivi Cruz from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for 23 year old Savannah RH RP Ben Cox. Cruz will assume Rueckel's spot on the 40-man but a move will need to be made to add him to the 25-man active roster. Jason Bergmann or Marlon Byrd could be optioned back to New Orleans or Luis Ayala could be placed on the DL. As for Cruz as a player, nothing special. He'll join Guzman/Carroll as the shortstop/utility IF (with Carroll/Cruz occasionally filling in for Vidro). In comparison:
  • Guzman 114G - 196/238/276 - 20BB/62K
  • Carroll 90G - 246/331/271 - 28BB/48K
  • Cruz 81G - 268/301/397 - 10BB 31K
As you can see, it's certainly nothing to get excited about. Though it apparently puts the brakes on the Ryan Zimmerman experiment. He may not get called up at all though I expect Bowden to preen by adding him to the big league club. What did the Nationals give up? Once again, not a whole lot. Cox was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 19th round (564th overall) of the 2004 amateur entry draft. He spent last year with Vermont and this year in Savannah.
  • 2004: 22G of relief, 33.1IP 31H 18R(11ER) 1HR 20BB 37K 2.97ERA 2-0 with 3 saves
  • 2005: 42G of relief 63IP 55H 24R(21ER) 6HR 33BB 51K 3.00ERA 4-4 with 6 saves

Cox is not unlike any other RH RP in the minors, he could be good but more than likely will not be anything more than minor league roster filler. All in all, a deal barely worth noting.

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