Following his acquisition from the Tampa Bay Rays organization in Thursday’s trade involving Lucas Duda, right-handed pitcher Drew Smith will report to Double-A Binghamton, according to Steve Gelbs of SNY.
Smith, 23, was originally acquired by the Rays on April 28 from the Detroit Tigers, who selected him in the third round of the 2015 draft from Dallas Baptist University. He began the 2017 season with the Lakeland Tigers of the Florida State League, and has pitched across the top three levels of the Rays system since the trade.
In 45 relief innings this season, Smith has pitched to a 1.60 ERA with 40 strikeouts against nine walks. On June 22, he surrendered the first and only home run of his professional career to Mets prospect Peter Alonso, who was the 438th batter Smith had faced in the minor leagues.
The Rumble Ponies have featured a solid bullpen this season, led by Tim Peterson and Ben Griset, but they will receive a welcome jolt in Smith, who will certainly be given a chance to move quickly through the upper minors. Although the organization employs a few sneaky good reliever prospects, Smith’s track record puts him at the top of the group.
May have been assigned to AA instead of AAA, because Binghamton will be in the playoffs.
Or you can get a better assessment of the talent at a pitcher neutral site of Binghamton then Los Wages.
Both are valid theories. But I’m not sure that there’s any need to speculate on this. The org sends the player wherever it feels he needs to go. There doesn’t have to be any hidden meaning or secret, undisclosed reason. Minor leagues are not linear. Every org has a different pool of talent. One team’s AAA player is another team’s AA player.
Just for clarification, Drew Smith is a AA pitcher, not a AAA pitcher. He was in AA when the Mets acquired him. He pitched just one inning in AAA earlier this year and was then sent back down the next day. So there’s no dubious reason for his being assigned to Binghamton.
Putting $ aside, this is a terrible trade by the Mets.
Can Drew ever replace 30 HR per year?
Typical personnel decision by Mets
Turner, Kazmir, Murphy, deals make we throw up
Sandy, TC and Jeff gotta go
Short-sighted analysis. Duda was gone at the end of the year, anyway. And they have a big time prospect whom they feel is ready. Anything you get for Duda is better than letting him walk for nothing. Besides, he is unreliable and streaky, and when he slumps, he is a black hole in the middle of the order. He accumulates most of his stats in 2 or 3 a few short bursts durign the season, and does nothing for 18 to 20 of the season’s 26 weeks.
I’m not thrilled with the return. But you can’t kill them over this trade, either.