Coming in before the David Freese signing, the Dodgers first off-season transaction appears to be the trade on Thursday that sent left-hander Manny Banuelos to the Chicago for infielder Justin Yurchak. This is no doubt one of many off-season transactions to follow especially at the minor league level.
It also appears the Dodgers did not see a role on the team for the 27-year-old Banuelos who most likely would have opted for free agency if not kept on the Dodgers 40-man roster.
Yurchak was selected by the Chicago White Sox as a third baseman in the 12th round of the 2017 First-Year Player Draft out of SUNY Binghamton University.
He was born in Clifton park, New York and attended Shenendehowa High School in his home town. Following his graduation from high school he headed off the Wake Forest University. As a freshman the 6’1” /204-pound left-handed hitter played in 47 games. He hit .313 and posted an OBP of .424 with 5 homers and 30 runs batted in. His signature plate discipline was already on display as he walked 30 times while striking out only 22 times. He was named to the 2015 ACC All-Freshman Team.
Although he had a very successful year at Wake Forest he made a decision to transfer to SUNY Binghamton for the 2016 season. He felt that Wake Forest was not quite the right fit for him and Binghamton was a school much closer to home and he knew the coaches there from his high school days. The big catch was that he had to sit out one year before being eligible to play for the Bearcats. One would think the all practice; no play season would be very taxing for a youngster raring to get on the field. However, Yurchak made the best of the situation, watching, learning, cheer leading and practicing hard.
“Really, I was just as involved in those games as everyone else,” said Yurchak. “Some of the wins we had this past year were some of the most exciting games I’ve been a part of.”
Following his college season, with all of his game time spent on the bench, he signed up to play with the Bourne Braves of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League competing against many top college players. As a 19-year-old he hit .295 while continuing to accumulate free passes by walking 25 times. An added bonus was that his grand-parents who live in Cape Cod came to many of his games. He was named a CCBL all-star and for the first time in his young career started to play first base. His all-star selection was unexpected.
“It was extremely humbling to be named one of the all-stars out here,” said Yurchak, a high school shortstop and college third baseman who spent his time with the Braves playing first base. “There’s so much talent out here that really everyone is deserving of making the all-star game.”
His 2017 college season with Binghamton caught the attention of MLB scouts as he posted a triple slash of .320/.474/.442 in almost 200 trips to the plate. He walked 41 times and only struck out in 12 plate appearances. Yurchak spoke about the upcoming draft and was unsure if the would be selected.
“Yeah, it was kind of a tough situation because it’s in the midst of your school season and you’re trying to talk to all these scouts and work with your advisor and everything. I had no idea who I would be drafted by or if I would get drafted at all so when the White Sox called it was a great feeling.”
Following the draft Yurchak was assigned to the Great Falls Voyagers of the rookie level Pioneer League where his slash line over 60 games was .345/448/.520 along with eight home runs, 46 runs scored and 27 runs batted in. Once again, his 43 walks outnumbered his 33 strikeouts.
Justin Yurchak played the entire 2018 season with the Kannapolis Intimidators of the Class-A South Atlantic League playing almost exclusively at first base. For the first time in his career he found the going a bit tough. His triple slash fell off to .256/.348/.326 and he hit just one home run. He walked 45 times in 95 games and struck out 53 times.
The expectation for Yurchak would be that he starts the 2019 season with the Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League and look to regain his batting stroke. One would expect that since he is a good athlete that the Dodgers will not use him strictly as a first baseman. At the plate scouts have thought his swing to be a little long although he has good bat control.
Discussion (52)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Jared Walker homered in his first AFL game but then fell into a 2-for-23 tailspin that included 15 strikeouts. He has tried to adopt a more patient approach and flourished since, batting .286/.407/.619 in his last six contests.
“It’s more about trying to put the ball in play a little more, cutting down with two strikes, trying to take the little base hit over the shortstop’s head, something simple like that,” Walker said. “It’s been better the last two weeks, starting out was a little slow, but I feel like it’s picking up.”
Bowden was just debating Grandal on SiriusXM. $18 million for 1 year or 3 for $36-42 million which would you do? They make a good point that today’s GM’s are smarter and won’t give out deals like Martin and McCann got that were failures for their organizations. Grandal could have taken the $18 million knowing that the QO couldn’t be put on him next year. He did what most of us thought turning down the offer, but it couldn’t have been easy. Two straight post-season benchings may have affected his decision.
Sickels top 20 for the Dodgers:
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https://www.minorleagueball.com/2018/11/12/18088804/los-angeles-dodgers-top-20-prospects-for-2019
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Omar Estevez making a move.
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From the comments:
Joc did not hit there, though he had just a month worth of PAs
Corey Seager (19 years old, 2013) – 309/.389/.529 in 312 PAs
Bellinger went straight from Ogden to Rancho, Yusniel Diaz went straight to Rancho
Verdugo (19, 2015) – .295/.325/.394 in 444 PAs
Lux (19, 2017) – .244/.331/.362 in 501 PAs
Keibert (18, 2017) – .317/.372/.423
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I know anything can happen to catching prospects, but I think Keibert is real deal. If you hit in the Midwest League at 18/19, you’re starting in the bigs in at least 3 years. I also think Verdugo needs to be given a chance somewhere. He held his own in 2015.
Hawkeye
I like both Wood and Ryu.
And I think your right that Wood should go back to his wind up, or some kind of wind up.
The more deception a pitcher can have, has to make it harder on hitters.
And with the way our front office stocks piles starting pitchers, I don’t think we know what they will do.
We had four lefties in the rotation before, along with Maeda.
i guess the real question with Ryu is are they content with him playing 1-yr at 17.9 or will they try to lower the AAV and work out a 3-yr deal. Ryu strikes me as someone who wants to be a Dodger. The Dodgers may not want to do a 3 year deal with his injury history. However, let’s not act like he’s Brett Anderson when it comes to injuries. He really only had the one injury until this season’s freaky injury and Ryu came back better than I thought he would from such an injury.
Of the 7 receiving QO’s, only Ryu accepted. The Dodgers officially have 39 on the roster; 23 pitchers, 3 catchers, 6 infielders, and 7 outfielders. We should start to see some small movement during the next week…some players traded in small deals and some DFA. A week from tomorrow, the roster has to be set including all that need to be protected from Rule 5 draft. Now the “fun” should begin.
OK, this is who we know is in the rotation:
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1. Kershaw
2. Buehler
3. Ryu
4. Hill
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On the bubble: Stripling, Maeda, Wood
Looks like it’s official. Ryu accepts the QO and Grandal declines.
I am not a fan of Ryu… I hope he ends up signing elsewhere. I want pitchers on the staff that I can feel confident in when they take the mound in a playoff series… Ryu doesn’t pass that test for me. Plus… he didn’t pitch in 2015 and has only pitched a total of 213 inning over the last 3 seasons for the Dodgers.
He’s been very injury-prone the last several years and I don’t think that’s going to miraculously go away. How many red flags do you need?!
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I think I like Alex Wood more than most people on here… maybe not as much as AC but…
However it might be time to move on from Alex as well… although I think he would be great as a #5 starter for the team next year.
I just don’t think the Dodgers FO and Management believe in him / trust him… similar to the way they have treated Hill over the last few years.
I don’t think that feeling is completely unjustified… but he did happen to give one of the best starting pitching performances that I’ve seen in a high pressure game over the last few years by a Dodger pitcher (not named Walker Behhler)… in game 4 of the 2017 World Series. And I still believe to this day that we would have won game 7 of that series had Alex started that game instead Yu know who.
Re the fires: I was flying back to LAX last night from Chicago (Bears game baby!). As we approached downtown, we could smell the smoke from the fires IN the plane. That was very surreal. I wasn’t sitting on the right side of the plane, however; I wanted to look outside to the right and see if I could see the smoke from the Malibu fires.
Re the Dodgers: I agree; I think Grandal declines our QO and Ryu accepts, with the intent to sign on for 3 more years. I LOVE that move. I trust Ryu more than I trust Wood, and I have no problem trading Wood and Strip for some impact minor league talent. Unlike AC, I don’t see him winning 20 games (unless we’re talking over a 2 year span). I think Wood is a back of the rotation starter, and fortunately for us, we have several of them now, and several more on the way (who will all cost a lot less than Wood)
DC
Thank you for your contributions to this site!
If Ryu accepts the QO, what are the chances that the Dodgers offer him a longer term contract (let’s say 3 years) with a lower AAV?
QO decision time this afternoon. I don’t have strong feelings either way. For the sake of discussion, I’ll say Grandal declines and Ryu accepts.
Daughter in Chico had a few anxious moments but has made it through (so far) unscathed.
I am not near the fires, about 2 hours North, but the sky is smoke filled and a lot of junk in the air way up here.
Speaking of smoke: Are all of our Dodger Brothers and Sisters safe from the wildfires?
All quiet on the Western front. Maybe too much smoke.
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Rams win again. Lots of offense yesterday from both Seattle and LA.
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I like watching Ball play. He is a Jason Kidd type player. With the game on the line and a second on the clock would you rather see Ball shoot from the three point line or Shaq from the free throw line?
BTW,
DC told me he would not be a part of a pay site. I suspect AC feels the same. Motion carries 3-0. This site shall remain free.
Justin Yurchak did not get me to sit up and take notice when he was in the Pioneer League even though it appears that he had a good start to his career. I do not follow SALLY even though one of my favorite MiLB parks is in that league…Piedmont. Fantastic location.
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The Dodgers do like their LHH 1B, even though many are converted 3B. Edwin RIos, Matt Beaty, Jared Walker, and now Justin Yurchak. Justin should get a good look and potential ABs of Nick Yarnall. SALLY is much more of a hitters league than is the Midwest League, so if assigned to Great Lakes, which I agree is where he will start, it will be a test.
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He is one that we just have to wait and see how he develops.
Update on fall league and winter league minor league ball.
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Not a lot of good news.In the Arizona Fall League Jared Walker, Cody Thomas and Errol Robinson are all hitting less than their weight. Keibert Ruiz is hitting .286 with an OBP of .357 along with six walks and 2 strikeouts.
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After being the pitcher of the week last week Ben Holmes gave up five runs in three innings on Sunday. Andre Scrubb and Nolan both have inflated ERA’s but Long gave up nothing in his last two one-inning outings. Oh yes, Jordan Sheffield has given up three hits in eight innings with seven K’s and two walks.
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In the Dominican Winter League Christian Santana is hitting .319, second in the league, with an OBP of .347. He has struck out 13 times with only two walks. Catcher Hamlet Marte, at .278, is fourth in the league with an OBP of .381. He has not played since November 8.
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Joe Broussard has an ERA of 5.06 while Victor Gonzalez has an ERA of 4.91. Those ERA’s are a bit deceiving as always with relievers one bad outing inflates the ERA. Elio Serrano has not pitched since October18 so he may well be shut down.