Cincinnati Reds Trade Mike Leake to San Francisco Giants

Per CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman (and confirmed by both teams), Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mike Leake has been traded to the San Francisco Giants for a pair of minor leaguers.

reds receive two minor leaguers back for leake. big move for giants, who are going for 4 rings in 6 years.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 31, 2015

One of those two players is 21-year-old right-handed pitcher Keury Mella, according to a report by Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area. Mella was recently ranked the Giants No. 1 prospect in MLB.com’s midseason rankings. Baseball America ranked him at No. 4 in their preseason rankings.

Mella has pitched at High-A San Jose in 2015, going 5-3 with a 3.31 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He’s struck out 83 and walked 26 in 81.2 innings pitched. He throws a sinking fastball in the mid-90s and has what has been described as a “power curveball” in his MLB Pipeline profile.

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Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi has reported that the other player is 26-year-old Adam Duvall, who plays first and third base. The Giants No. 25 prospect in MLB.com’s midseason rankings, Duvall has raked in Triple-A Sacramento this season, hitting .279/.323/.509 with 25 doubles, 26 home runs, and 79 runs batted in. Duvall has some major league experience, hitting .179/.234/.342 in 77 plate appearances with the Giants in 2014. Ironically, his first big league home run came against Leake.

Walt Jocketty and the Reds have to be absolutely thrilled to get this kind of return for Leake. The team got another power arm in Mella to go along with their ever-growing collection of talented young pitchers, and a power-hitting utility player in Duvall, who could immediately step in as a member of the Reds’ bench. Kudos to Jocketty for getting great returns in the two trades he’s made thus far.

While the Reds welcome two more talented players, they say goodbye to Leake, who has been a reliable member of the starting rotation over the last six seasons. He wraps up his Reds career with a record of 62-47, a 3.87 ERA, 4.17 FIP and 1.28 WHIP. This year, he’s put up some of the best numbers of his career (9-5, 3.56 ERA) and his last four starts have been pure dominance. In that time, Leake has allowed only two runs and 15 hits in 30 innings and walked just four.

The Reds are surely not done dealing, as they’ve reportedly had discussions with the New York Mets about dealing Jay Bruce and the Arizona Diamondbacks have an offer on the table for Aroldis Chapman. Marlon Byrd is also a candidate to be moved, though there haven’t been any recent rumors regarding him. Stay tuned.

Cincinnati Reds Trade Mike Leake to San Francisco Giants

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