Transaction Analysis: Nunez’s Career-Year Moves to San Francisco

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Acquired LHP Adalberto Mejia from San Francisco Giants in exchange for IF-R Eduardo Nunez. [7/28]

In Adalberto Mejia, Minnesota adds a left-handed pitching prospect who's perhaps more attractive for the attainability of his floor than the loftiness of his ceiling. That said, a rebuilding club trading away a utility infielder for Mejia–a team-controlled piece who could eat innings pitching for league minimums his first 2-3 years of service time–seems like a good get.

He's got a large, durable frame–though he's the type of body that might also need to keep maintaining his weight as time progresses. His velocity and stuff increased the last two years after conditioning and dieting became priorities for him, and more velocity and durability came from trimming up his body. Now listed at a sturdy 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, Mejia's frame has the look of one that will hold up over a long big-league season.

In the stuff department, his arsenal is more that of a "pitcher" than a blow-you-away power type of guy, though he isn't a soft-tossing lefty, either. He'll sit in the 90-93 mph range with his fastball, but he's able to consistently change hitters' looks at the pitch because of a good ability to cut his fastball and move it around the strike zone. He also will occasionally drop his arm slot to a slingy, low-three-quarters release point for another look at his fastball.

He throws both a curveball and slider, though the curveball was more used as a wrinkle pitch to left-handed hitters in my two looks at him this season. The slider is a sweepy, long-tilted glider that's effective because he's able to locate it for strikes, though in itself, it isn't a dynamic swing-and-miss pitch. He rounds out a deep arsenal with a changeup that he has very good feel for; able to sell the pitch at arm speed and fade it down and away from right-handed hitters. No one pitch truly dominates a lineup, but his ability to mix sequences and stay around the zone with average stuff plays up the effectiveness of his individual offerings.

Mejia is a classic lefty starter profile: durably-framed, with the sum of the parts and deep arsenal amounting to a back-of-the-rotation arm. He's been assigned to Triple-A Rochester, though he's a minor-league piece that could debut sooner rather than later. —Adam McInturff

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Acquired IF-R Eduardo Nunez from Minnesota Twins in exchange for LHP Adalberto Mejia. [7/28]

Prior to this year Eduardo Nunez had never gotten as many as 350 plate appearances in a season and he was slated for a backup role again after playing sparingly for the Twins in 2014 and 2015. Then he hit .373 in April and .320 in May to grab hold of the starting shortstop job and by the time the All-Star break rolled around it was tough to make a particularly strong argument against Nunez being the cellar-dwelling Twins' mandatory representative.

As a 29-year-old career-long utility man with a .267/.308/.388 hitting line from 2010-2015 his first half screamed fluke and sure enough he's come back down to earth, posting a .625 OPS since early June and a .550 OPS in July. With that said, he's topped a .750 OPS in each of the past two seasons, leads the league with 27 steals in 33 attempts this year, and can play anywhere in the infield. He's a poor, mistake-prone defender at shortstop, but with Brandon Crawford locked in there the Giants are no doubt looking at Nunez mostly as a third baseman and as overall depth.

San Francisco third basemen–Matt Duffy until he got hurt, followed by Ruben Tejada and most recently Conor Gillaspie–have combined to hit .253/.312/.370, so even after turning back into a pumpkin Nunez is capable of providing an upgrade at the plate along with lots of speed and versatility. And he's under team control for 2017 via arbitration should the Giants become believers in the second half or find Nunez's total inability to keep his helmet on his head while running the bases endearing.

From the Twins' point of view the move is a no-brainer, although sending away an "All-Star" in his first trade as interim general manager may sound like a bold decision by Rob Antony. Nunez is a mediocre veteran who didn't figure into the team's plans and, on a contending team like the Giants, is a part-timer. This is Minnesota turning an unexpected short-term asset into a potential long-term asset, which is exactly what a rebuilding team should be doing. —Aaron Gleeman