Thanks to his gaudy strikeout totals – even stacked against mediocre results otherwise – Jake Diekman has been a popular lefty reliever on the trade rumor circuit, and he’s on the way out from Kansas City.
Left-handed reliever Jake Diekman has been traded to the Oakland A's, league sources tell ESPN. Diekman had been pursued by a number of teams on trade market before Kansas City agreed to deal him to A's. Oakland bullpen has monster stuff with Treinen, Hendriks, Trivino, Diekman.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 27, 2019
The Cubs had obliquely been connected to Diekman (insofar as he’s a lefty and they had only one in the bullpen for a while), but with the addition of Derek Holland – a LOOGY at this point – the Cubs simply need to be in the market for a GOOD reliever, regardless of his handedness.
I’ll be curious to see the return, because we haven’t seen too many reliever trades just yet. Wonder what the market looks like.
UPDATE: For what it’s worth:
His career line is instructive: in 160 pro games Blanco has hit .283/.342/.436 with 49 SB in 58 attempts (nice) and 22 triples (very nice).
Ismael Aquino is the lottery-ticket 20-year-old arm I’d be trying to get as a throw-in in every deal. Not bad for 2 months of a set-up guy.
— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) July 27, 2019