Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers have acquired prospects Jordan Paroubeck and Caleb Dirks from the Braves in exchange for the Dodgers’ final international slot allotment of $294,000. As Dustin predicted and explained yesterday, it only makes sense for the Dodgers to deal away their slot money after they decided to go all-out in international spending.
The 20-year-old Paroubeck is now going to his third team in 2015. Earlier in the year he was acquired by the Braves in a trade with the Padres that sent Craig Kimbrel west. Paroubeck performed well in Rookie-ball last year, putting up a .286/.346/.457/.803 line, but it’s his tools that make him worth acquiring. In his book, Minor League Ball‘s John Sickels gives Paroubeck a high ceiling alert and notes that he has an alluring combination of “above-average speed” and “above-average power”. Although he’s still raw, the power and speed combination gives him his high upside, which is why I’m actually quite shocked the Dodgers were able to acquire him for cash. There’s a ton of risk here in terms of him as a prospect, but it’s rare that a team is able to pry away a high upside guy in a deal like this.
22-year-old Dirks is more along the lines of the prospects you expect to receive in these deals, not because he’s bad but because he’s a reliever that was taken in the middle rounds. In 59 innings as a pro, he’s put up a 1.53 ERA and a 66/27 K/BB ratio, including a 0.68 ERA in 26.2 innings this year split between low-A and A-ball. Dirks features a 92-93 mph fastball and a fringy slider, and all he’s done is strike people out and not allow runs as a pro.
As with the previous deal for Chase De Jong and Timothy Locastro from the Blue Jays, Paroubeck and Dirks aren’t top-of-the-line prospects, but they are surprisingly legit prospects to acquire for what amounts to essentially nothing lost for the Dodgers.
Boy, this is nice.
