Trade Former A Prospect Pak to Marlins for Bledey originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Athletics traded former prospect AJ Park to the Miami Marlins for former No. 4 pick JJ Bledey, the teams announced Saturday.
The A’s once represented Puck and fellow left-hander pitcher Jesus Luzardo with future 1-2 hits in their rotation, and now both have been dealt to the Marlins in the last two years.
Picked sixth overall in the 2016 MLB Draft, Park was expected to compete for the starting spin Placed with the A’s this spring and expressed his desire to do so to manager Mark Kotsey in the offseason.
In December, Kotsey spoke with NBC Sports California’s Brody Brazil and noted that he thought Park was ready, physically and mentally, to play the entire MLB season on the rotation.
But “A” has several open day rotation candidates, including Paul Blackburn, James Kaprielian, JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Dalton Jeffries, Adam Oller and Shintaro Fujinami, so they traded from deep.
Park will now try to rotate the Marlins.
Park was called up as a starter, but a hand injury left him in the reliever role, and after a tough 2021 season, he began to pull out of the bullpen in 2022. had a 3.12 ERA.
From 2017 to 2021, Park was the #1, #2, or #3 prospect in the A farm system according to MLB Pipeline.
Bleday, a 25-year-old outfielder, hit .167/277/.309 with five homers and 16 RBIs in 65 games for the Marlins last season.
As highly publicized as Pack, Bledey was the Marlins’ second prospect in 2020 and 2021 by the MLB Pipeline. But after getting a shot at the MLB level last season, he struggled at the plate.
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The Fives hope the change of scenery will help Bledday reach his potential.
Pac and Luzardo were roommates in the minor leagues while with the A’s, and now they will try to get into the Marlins rotation together.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
