The Milwaukee Brewers shipped starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo to the Texas Rangers on Monday and cashed in on a younger, talented minor league hurler, Corey Knebel, as part of the deal.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports provided the full details of the trade:
Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal noted how Knebel is fit to help the Brewers as a reliever in the future:
Knebel is on the move for the second time in less than a year, yet that shouldn't be viewed as a knock on his talent. The right-handed 23-year-old has exceptional movement on his curveball to complement fastball velocity that holds steady in the mid-90s.
Detroit Tigers Vice President Al Avila weighed in on Knebel's stuff in May 2014 as he transitioned to Triple-A ball, per MLive.com's Chris Iott:
We would like to see him continue to develop the command of his fastball. When he is able to more consistently command his fastball, then look out. ... He has a good changeup that he did not need to use much. But we would like him to so he can continue to develop and have it in his back pocket when he needs to. ...
Knebel has excellent stuff. Really, on most days, he overmatched hitters in Double-A to the point where he did not have to locate/command his fastball that much.
ESPNDallas.com's Calvin Watkins ranked Knebel 10th overall in the Rangers farm system as of November 2014 and included the opinion of ESPN's Keith Law regarding Knebel as a prospect:
Corey Knebel is a reliever, a tough competitor with a mid-90s fastball, a grade-55 curveball that misses some bats, below-average command, and a high-effort arm swing that's hard for him to repeat. He doesn't have the pure stuff to be a closer (he can be an elite reliever, top 25 or so in the game) but if he can finish the curveball consistently enough he'll have a solid career working in the seventh or eighth inning.
A dominant stint in Double-A saw Knebel get promoted, where he held opponents to a .109 batting average for the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens in 14 appearances.
Even when he had a brief stint with the Tigers at the MLB level, Knebel's seven runs (six earned) yielded over 8.2 innings still featured 11 strikeouts in that span. As long as Knebel can develop better control on his fastball, he figures to have a bright MLB future.
The good news about moving to Milwaukee is that Knebel doesn't have pressure to ascend into a starter's role since the Brewers staff ranked third in baseball in quality starts in 2014.
If he establishes a spot in the bullpen in 2015, Knebel should have plenty of leads to work with in a middle relief role, permitting him to maintain aggressiveness thanks to a limited pitch count. It's still important for Milwaukee to work with Knebel on strategy, though, and to cut down the amount of walks he tends to dish out.
In 45.1 minor league innings this last year, Knebel had a 5-1 record with a stellar 2.18 ERA but did concede 22 walks to go with 63 strikeouts. That he still maintained a WHIP of 0.99 is a testament to how much upside Knebel has as he seeks to take the next step toward full-time MLB status as a Brewer.
Note: Stats are courtesy of MiLB.com.
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