A.J. Puk traded to Arizona Diamondbacks for prospects De Los Santos, Pintar

[Kevin Barral]

With five days to go until the MLB trade deadline, the Miami Marlins dealt one of their most valuable assets.

On Thursday evening, the Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to a trade exchanging left-handed reliever A.J. Puk for corner infielder Deyvison De Los Santos and outfielder Andrew Pintar. De Los Santos would have ranked eighth and Pintar would have ranked 21st on Baseball America's upcoming D-backs Top 30 prospects list. The deal is official.

Puk, 29, began the season as a starting pitcher for the Marlins. When that experiment failed, he went back to being a reliever and has been dominant, posting a 2.08 ERA and a 2.42 FIP. Currently, Puk is riding a streak of 16 ⅔ innings (14 appearances) without allowing an earned run. The Diamondbacks will have him under club control for two additional seasons via arbitration, which played a major role in the quality of the prospects coming to Miami.

The main piece of the package is Deyvison De Los Santos. Between Double-A and Triple-A, De Los Santos has slashed .325/.376/.635/1.011 this season with 28 home runs (most in Minor League Baseball) and 84 RBIs. He has homered 14 times at each level while being among the youngest players in those leagues. De Los Santos just turned 21 in June.

The Cleveland Guardians selected De Los Santos in the Rule 5 Draft last offseason, but returned him to Arizona. He isn't currently on the 40-man roster. 

De Los Santos' offensive profile is power over hit, showing a maximum exit velocity of 116.0 mph. Despite his excellent 2024 production, there are concerns about his low walk rate and high groundball rate. He's likely to report to AAA-Jacksonville.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Deyvison De Los Santos (@d.santos0721)

 

Along with De Los Santos, the Marlins acquired Andrew Pintar. At 23 years old, Pintar has seen action primarily at High-A where he's slashed .304/.403/.516/.919 with nine home runs, 32 RBIs and a 160 wRC+. He recently earned the promotion to AA where he's struggled through ten games (.184/.289/.234/.526). Overall, he has stolen 19 bases in 20 attempts.

Defensively, Pintar has split time between the outfield and middle infield positions during his career. He will likely report to Pensacola, a very pitcher-friendly environment, and will be challenged more than he was with the Diamondbacks.

This trade is the first deadline deal completed between the Marlins and Diamondbacks since 2020 when the Marlins acquired Starling Marte in exchange for Caleb Smith, Humberto Mejía and Julio Frias. The year before that, they famously swapped Jazz Chisholm Jr. for Zac Gallen.

The 2024 deadline is on July 30. Expect the Marlins to swing a couple more deals by then.

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[Chad Turner]

So awesome.  We got a BAT!

 

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

Thumbs up.

[Russell]

Only going by the prospect ratings of these guys I think the Marlins did great here and GLAD Bendix did not bungle this one like he did Luzardo.

Puk means very little on a team going to lose 90+ this year and perhaps next year as well. Next year totally dependent upon the health of Sandy and Eury and further development & health of Cabrera.

If Puk can nab 2 top 30 guys then I have to believe that Scott can land 2 top 10 guys. 2 top 5?

Good job Mr Bendix

[One Regend]

8 hours ago, Russell said:

Only going by the prospect ratings of these guys I think the Marlins did great here and GLAD Bendix did not bungle this one like he did Luzardo.

Puk means very little on a team going to lose 90+ this year and perhaps next year as well. Next year totally dependent upon the health of Sandy and Eury and further development & health of Cabrera.

If Puk can nab 2 top 30 guys then I have to believe that Scott can land 2 top 10 guys. 2 top 5?

Good job Mr Bendix

Tanner Scott is a 2 month rental, so I have to believe he's either going to yield a lower quality return, unless he's packaged with somebody else.

Also, the Marlins losing 90 is very generous. I can easily see them break the '98 record of 108 losses.

Regardless, the return they got for AJ Puk is great. I just hope De Los Santos doesn't end up going the direction of Lewis Brinson.

[Russell]

2 hours ago, One Regend said:

Tanner Scott is a 2 month rental, so I have to believe he's either going to yield a lower quality return, unless he's packaged with somebody else.

Also, the Marlins losing 90 is very generous. I can easily see them break the '98 record of 108 losses.

Regardless, the return they got for AJ Puk is great. I just hope De Los Santos doesn't end up going the direction of Lewis Brinson.

I didn’t realize only under contract for this year and thus the rental BUT Baltimore is in bad shape with Kimbrel and they think a closer is the missing link for a World Series then you never know.  In 2003 the Marlins traded the former no.1 overall pick Adrian Gonzalez for Urbina because that was ultimately what they thought was missing and lo and behold they won it. Gonzalez went onto a very solid career, I don’t think the Marlins envisioned him having the power he eventually showed but I’m sure that FO makes that trade again because it did in fact end with a 03’ WS title.

[One Regend]

1 hour ago, Russell said:

I didn’t realize only under contract for this year and thus the rental BUT Baltimore is in bad shape with Kimbrel and they think a closer is the missing link for a World Series then you never know.  In 2003 the Marlins traded the former no.1 overall pick Adrian Gonzalez for Urbina because that was ultimately what they thought was missing and lo and behold they won it. Gonzalez went onto a very solid career, I don’t think the Marlins envisioned him having the power he eventually showed but I’m sure that FO makes that trade again because it did in fact end with a 03’ WS title.

To be fair, the way the market views relief help today is vastly different than the way relief help was viewed back then. I'm sure there are a lot of teams today much less willing to give up what the Marlins gave up for Urbina back then, for an elite 2 month rental closer now.

[Russell]

On 7/26/2024 at 8:46 PM, One Regend said:

To be fair, the way the market views relief help today is vastly different than the way relief help was viewed back then. I'm sure there are a lot of teams today much less willing to give up what the Marlins gave up for Urbina back then, for an elite 2 month rental closer now.

Let's see Marlins just got 3 of the Padres top 5 prospects according to MLB with their # 24 to boot.  Don't kid yourself the majority of this package is because of a 2 month rental for Scott, and nothing to do with Brian Hoeing.  I'd say I called this one correctly!  For a team by my memory that hasn't been to the World Series since 1998 a top flight RP if believed to be a missing piece to compete for a World Series is what it takes to play.

Again good job, Mr. Bendix.

[One Regend]

1 hour ago, Russell said:

Let's see Marlins just got 3 of the Padres top 5 prospects according to MLB with their # 24 to boot.  Don't kid yourself the majority of this package is because of a 2 month rental for Scott, and nothing to do with Brian Hoeing.  I'd say I called this one correctly!  For a team by my memory that hasn't been to the World Series since 1998 a top flight RP if believed to be a missing piece to compete for a World Series is what it takes to play.

Again good job, Mr. Bendix.

I guess I can be surprised sometimes. Nice job on Bendix's part.