Nats’ Organization Excited About Return For Ross Detwiler
By Ricky Keeler
As the Winter Meetings came to a close out in San Diego, the Washington Nationals dealt away one of their starting pitchers in Ross Detwiler to the Texas Rangers in exchange for two minor league prospects. While the sixth pick in the 2007 MLB draft showed some flashes in 2012 when he went 10-8 with a 3.40 ERA in 33 games (27 starts), the 28-year-old made just 13 starts in 2013 and none this past season.
Washington ended up dealing from a position of strength with the amount of talent they have in the rotation and now they seem to really like the two prospects they got back before they even played a game in their organization.
In an article written by Lacy Lusk of Baseball America, he talks about how the manager of the high-A Potomac Nationals, Tripp Keister, is already raving about second baseman Chris Bostick and a righty reliever by the name of Abel De Los Santos. Keister said in the piece:
"“I hated to see Ross go, but it was a great job by our pro scouts to get who they got.” (h/t: Baseball America)"
Last season, Bostick was in the Carolina League, playing for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. He was taken by the Oakland A’s in the 44th Round of the 2011 Draft out of Aquinas Institute in Rochester, New York. He was traded to the Texas Rangers last offseason in the deal that sent center fielder Craig Gentry and relief pitcher Josh Lindblom to Oakland. Outfielder Michael Choice also went to Texas in the deal.
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In 130 games down in high-A, the 21-year old hit .251 with 11 home runs and 62 RBI’s. The 11 home runs was tied for third on a team that featured star third base prospect Joey Gallo. Plus, he was fourth in RBI’s.
As far as De Los Santos goes, he is a 22-year-old reliever who can get the fastball up into the mid 90’s in terms of velocity. He was picked up by the Rangers as an international free agent in 2010 and finished this past season playing for the Hickory Crawdads in the South Atlantic League (Low-A).
The bulk of the season for De Los Santos occurred down in Myrtle Beach as well. In 33 relief appearances, he went 5-2 with a 1.97 ERA and had eight saves in nine opportunities. After the All-Star Break, he struck out 34 batters in 21 appearances, giving up just seven earned runs.
When he moved up to Hickory, his control was on point. Even though it is a small sample size, he walked only one batter in 10.2 innings while striking out 12. In each of the past two seasons, De Los Santos has registered at least ten strikeouts per nine innings.
While giving up a player the Nationals took in the first round wasn’t easy for their organization, they got two players that are still not in AA yet, but are exceeding at the lower levels of the minor leagues and at least, improve the depth of the Nats’ farm system.