The Cincinnati Reds announced late Monday evening that they have traded Adam Duvall to the Atlanta Braves for RHP Lucas Sims, RHP Matt Wisler, and OF Preston Tucker. All three players have MLB experience for the Braves. Tucker will report to Detroit tomorrow and join the Reds. Sims and Wisler were both with the Braves AAA club.
Tucker will report to Reds, Sims, Wisler TBD. Dick Williams said team is still engaged in talks leading up to 4 pm deadline
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) July 31, 2018
Dick Williams said #Reds view Lucas Sims as the centerpiece of the Adam Duvall trade. They see him as a starting pitcher in the future.
— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) July 31, 2018
Here is what the Reds got:
Preston Tucker is a 28 year old, former 7th round pick of the Astros. He has played in 208 MLB games, and has been up and down between the majors and the minors since 2015. Tucker is hitting .256/.307/.444 with a 101 wRC+ in 127 PA this season. Last season, Tucker hit 24 HR in 569 PA at AAA. He can play both corner OF spots, but has never played CF. He is a left-handed bat who can not hit lefties (.461 career OPS vs LHP, .743 vs RHP). The Reds will have him under control through 2022. He is earning $565,000 this season.
Matt Wisler is 25 years old. He was the Braves #2 prospect (top pitching prospect) when he was called up in 2015. He was originally a 7th round pick of the Padres in 2011. He was traded to the Braves for Craig Kimbrel. Wisler has not been able to translate his minor league success in the majors, as he has a 5.27 ERA/4.93 FIP in 74 appearances (49 starts). Wisler has made just 3 starts in the big leagues this year, but did pitch 7.0 innings of 2-hit baseball against the Padres. He has a 4.37 ERA/3.25 FIP in 13 starts this year at AAA. Wisler features a fastball (93.1 avg), sinker, changeup, slider, and cutter. The Reds will have him under team control through 2022.
Luke Sims is 24 years old. He was the Braves first round draft pick (#21 overall) in 2012. Sims was the Braves #16 prospect when he was called up in 2016. He has only appeared in 6 games for the Braves in 2018 (all in relief), but he does have a 2.84 ERA/3.67 FIP with a 10.23 K/9 in 14 starts at AAA. Sims features a fastball (93.1 avg), sinker, changeup, slider, and cutter.
Adam Duvall will certainly be missed in Cincinnati. Duvall was always a class act, and is a good hitter vs LHP (101 wRC+ in 2018, 108 career). Steve said it best below. It would have been nice to keep Duvall, but this seems like a pretty good haul for a platoon guy/bench bat.
Dick Williams on #Reds trading Adam Duvall: "It's very important to continue to have a focus on the future. When we looked at next year, we saw Winker and Schebler really emerging as corner outfielders that we think are going to have a lot of success in the Major Leagues."
— Joe Danneman (@FOX19Joe) July 31, 2018
Solid reasoning. Would have been nice to be able to keep Duvall as a RH bat off the bench, but Price/Riggleman didn't seem to be able to resist starting him.
That said, Duvall is a spare part given Winker and Schebler. Pitching is a need relative to position players now. https://t.co/hPCqc7OMYK
— Steve Mancuso (@spmancuso) July 31, 2018
Most extra-base hits in NL since 2016
Nolan Arenado 220
Charlie Blackmon 196
Freddie Freeman 195
Kris Bryant 183
Paul Goldschmidt 180
Anthony Rizzo 179
Adam Duvall 175
Matt Carpenter 175— Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) July 31, 2018