Ten intriguing players who should get a shot to shine after the MLB trade deadline

Most of the energy of the MLB trade deadline is focused on the good teams that are getting better. Of course! They’ve gotten reinforcements and are preparing for battle in August and September. They deserve kudos for trying to make their team better.

But the other side of the trade always holds some intrigue. With the veterans out of the way, there’s playing time to be had on teams that are mostly trying to figure out who can be part of their next good squad. Young players who they acquired from other organizations, or young players who can step into the void — these guys deserve some attention as well.

Let’s highlight who might do the most with added burn these next couple of months.

Getting the shot right away

Miguel Vargas, White Sox

It’s not immediately clear where Vargas will play, as his manager mentioned the corner outfield and also second and third, but he should play. He’s projected to be at least 10 percent better than league average by virtually every projection system, and that is something only Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn have in common on that White Sox team. So he’ll play, but how good will he be?

The strengths are clear — he makes good contact and has a great eye. Vargas chases at pitches outside the zone less than about two-thirds of the league, and his swinging strike rate would be in the top 20 percent of the league. Everything hangs on the power, since his defensive and base running values will be minimal.

The good is that he’s hit a ball 110.8 mph this year, and that’s just about average for qualified hitters. The bad is that he hasn’t quite tapped into that raw power with in-game power yet, showing below-average barrel rates despite high fly ball rates. His bat speed is slightly below average, with a longer-than-average swing, but he still makes that good contact. The bet here is that he can hit .260 with 20-homer power and be about a league-average player in the big leagues. He’ll have to come through big-time on the power potential to be more than that.

Here’s a look at some of his comps based on swing speed, swing length, and contact rates. As you can see, it’s not a no-doubt package of skills.

Kyle Stowers, Marlins

All signs point to Kyle Stowers being the new Marlin who gets the first crack at the active roster, especially now that Bryan De La Cruz is headed to the Pirates. At 26 years old, in his peak age range, it’s absolutely time for Miami to give him a couple of months with full-time play to see what it has. The time for developing in the minors is done.

The bad news is that he strikes out too much, and even the “process” indicators show that he’ll continue to sport a rate around 30 percent. He does have the power and patience to make this sort of three-true-outcome approach work. His top-end exit velocities in Triple-A would be in the top third of the league and his isolated slugging percentage in the minors has been excellent.

As you can see from his heat maps below, he mostly likes the ball middle-in, but if you look at his power over the course of his three attempts at the majors, he can still put a drive on balls middle-out. Covering some of the outer half (with power) will be the difference between a .220/20 type who slides into a platoon and more of a .230/30 type who could play every day.

Hayden Birdsong, Giants

“Much of our player development is now done at the major league level,” David Forst said, of his own Oakland Athletics organization. But it’s probably at least somewhat true of any organization, given the highest-paid and (probably) best coaches are at the major league level. That’s interesting even to Birdsong on the Giants, because since he’s gotten to the major leagues, he’s done some work on his arsenal.

• He’s added around an inch of vertical and horizontal movement on the fastball.
• He’s added more than two inches of drop on the curveball.
• He’s added a tick of velocity and an inch of drop on the changeup.

This current version of Birdsong threatens to have three plus secondary pitches. The worry is always about the fastball. Not only is it poor in shape, but this is what the heat map looks like for his four seamer.

That’s a lot of noncompetitive pitches above the zone. Birdsong could show enough command of the breaking pitches to use the four-seam as an out-pitch, or start to corral the four-seam better, but this is a key part of his development that is up in the air.

Marco Luciano, Giants

The book on Luciano has always been that the bat is ahead of the glove, and so the fact that the Giants traded away their designated hitter and then called up their young bat should be a good sign for Luciano’s immediate playing time. That’s huge, because between the injuries, the thing that has been lacking for him is time on the field. He has only 715 plate appearances in the last two years combined.

Of those PA, 473 have come at the Triple-A and MLB levels, so we have batted ball data for him there, and all he’s done is hit the ball super hard. In fact, with his combined 48 percent hard-hit rate, 111.8 max EV, he’d stack up well against the following mid-career veteran hitters even if he doesn’t make a ton of contact:

There’s a range in power outcomes here, but it’s not a bad place to live. Luciano has a good eye, has been making more contact this year, and has good underlying power numbers. He could break out and hit for a middling average with good power even if the best positions on the diamond seem to be out of play for him.

Bowden Francis, Blue Jays

Now given a chance in the Jays rotation, Francis can show off that he has:

• A four-seamer with plus ride and average velocity.
• A pair of decent, if slow, breaking balls with the curve slightly ahead (.298 slugging against).
• A brand new spanking splitter that Stuff+ loves and hasn’t given up an extra-base hit yet.

That’s enough to get excited about, particularly with this thing helping him against lefties.

The Jays will want to push his innings, so expect him (health willing) to pitch the rest of the way with an OK strikeout rate and a low fours ERA.

Joey Loperfido, Blue Jays

It behooves the Blue Jays to see what they have with Joey Loperfido over the last two months. He’s 25, with an unclear defensive home, and an outsized strikeout rate. Will he hit for enough power to overcome the shortcomings? At that age, you’re not really hoping for a ton more development, since 26-27 is the established peak age for major league hitters. That’s why the Jays will play him nearly every day despite the fact that Davis Schneider, Spencer Horwitz and Addison Barger are all vying for time on the same team. He has plus bat speed, and top-end exit velos, so the biggest thing for Loperfido is getting the ball in the air. Maybe Daulton Varsho and Schneider can help, as both specialize in that particular strength. If it works out, it’s a low batting average, decent OBP, high power package that adds just a little more speed than people expect.

Nate Pearson, Cubs

The Cubs traded a high-stuff low-command reliever to the Rays in the Isaac Paredes deal (Hunter Bigge), and then they got another one with the same profile back in a trade with the Jays (Nate Pearson). Their new version lives 97-98 mph with a plus four-seamer in the top 10 percent of the league, with two breaking balls with 130+ Stuff+ — that’s something no other pitcher with at least 40 innings can say this season. Porter Hodge has a similar package, but the two of them should be battling for the Cubs closer job as soon as next week. Pearson commands this slider pretty well; maybe the key will be pushing that usage even further to limit the command problems.

Might have to wait a bit:

Connor Norby, Marlins

This new Marlin is all over the place. He’s had slugging percentages close to .600 in the minors, in decent samples, and also ones as low as .425. He struck out 19.9 percent of the time his first time at Double-A, and 27.7 percent of the time his last time at Triple-A. He hasn’t hit a single ball particularly hard (109.9 max EV in over 1,000 Triple-A at-bats), but his in-game power has been pretty good. It doesn’t look like he has the arm for third, but he might have the lateral ability to play second. He could play the outfield, but the Marlins actually have a couple outfielders, and one came with him to Miami from Baltimore. There’s no slam dunk portion of the profile.

But if Norby reaches the upper end of his in-game power, it’ll unlock a lot of playing time for him. He could hit .240 with a good on-base percentage and 20-homer power. He might even add double-digit steals. He could play an average second base. These are the things you’re betting on if you acquire a player like Norby, and the currency you’re giving the player is opportunity.

Deyvison De Los Santos, Marlins

If you want power potential, how about the guy with the huge homers who will probably take over now that Josh Bell is gone from Miami? It’s a typo, but right now FanGraphs has his Triple-A hard-hit rate at 1,066.7 percent, and if anyone could do it, it might be this round-bodied, bad-glove moonshot mister? There are only 13 players who have hit the ball harder than De Los Santos in the majors this year, and they have names like Bobby Witt Jr., Shohei Ohtani and Yordan Alvarez. And De Los Santos hasn’t really shown a terrible strikeout rate in the minors, either.

That strikeout rate will probably rise a little in the big leagues — he didn’t have a great swinging strike rate, but swung so often that he usually made some contact before he struck out — so he might not have a great batting average or on-base percentage. It’s doubtful that he’s a plus defender even at first base. But give him this shot, and he could hit .240 while hitting the ball super hard and far for your team, real or fake.

Junior Caminero, Rays

The Rays depth chart went from confusing to perhaps even more confusing once they went through the trade deadline. They lost Isaac Paredes, Amed Rosario, and Randy Arozarena, and they gained Christopher Morel, Dylan Carlson, and called up Curtis Mead. They still have Johnny DeLuca and Richie Palacios in place, and they still have platoons planned in at least three spots. If they continue to be strict about that usage, that’s bad news for right-handers DeLuca and Mead, but in the first lineup against righties after the deadline, they started DeLuca in center and brought the switch-hitting Carlson off the bench in the fifth inning. Mead was nowhere to be found. Morel seems to be a lineup lock at DH or second. DeLuca can play center, but Mead might have more power potential. Carlson has shown glimpses but has fallen from grace. Palacios is decent but may be a role player.

Junior Caminero has more upside than most of these players because he makes a lot of really powerful contact. He’ll edge his way onto the roster eventually. But this depth chart is always a mess and will continue to be as the Rays try to sort through what they have.

(Top photo of Kyle Stowers: Christopher O’Meara / Associated Press)