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Hey, look! We have some actual Cubs news this morning. On January 21, the Cubs acquired righthanded reliever Travis Lakins from the Red Sox for what was described then as “future considerations.”
Ten days later, the Cubs lost Lakins to the Orioles on a waiver claim.
However, the Cubs still owed something to the Red Sox for the trade, and Monday, we learned what that “something” was:
#RedSox acquire catcher Jhonny Pereda from the #Cubs, completing the January 21 trade for RHP Travis Lakins. Pereda, whose best tool is his 60-grade arm, was No. 29 on the #Cubs' 2019 preseason Top 30 list.
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 23, 2020
Stats & more on the 23-year-old Venezuelan: https://t.co/63vbf5Qhsb pic.twitter.com/IbhuglINer
Jhonny Pereda hit .241/.336/.305 with two home runs in 98 games for Double-A Tennessee last year, the only games he has played above A ball. He will turn 24 in about three and a half weeks. As noted in the MLB Pipeline tweet, his best tool is defense, but with a career minor-league OPS of .651 in 1,900 plate appearances, he doesn’t appear to project as much more than a backup catcher at the MLB level.
The Cubs, of course, have other catchers in their system who are better prospects, including Miguel Amaya and P.J. Higgins, so the loss of Pereda won’t hurt too much. It’s too bad that the Cubs don’t have anything at all to show for this trade, though.