Milwaukee Brewers send Wendell Rijo to Yankees to complete Erik Kratz trade

A few weeks ago, the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Erik Kratz from the New York Yankees in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Today, the club announced that they had finalized that trade by sending infield prospect Wendell Rijo to the Bronx:

The Brewers acquired Wendell Rijo along with Aaron Wilkerson back in the summer of 2016 in the Aaron Hill trade with Boston. He was considered to be a potential high-upside lottery ticket when he first arrived in the organization and briefly ranked among the club’s top 30 prospects (per MLB Pipeline), but he was never really able to capitalize on those tools and string together much production. The athletic infielder saw time at shortstop, third base, and second base while playing for Milwaukee’s Class-A Advanced and AA affiliates over parts of the past three seasons, but in 159 games and 522 plate appearances he could only manage a .212/.297/.306 slash line with eight home runs and 13 stolen bases. He’ll turn 23 in September.

Kratz, meanwhile, has made some important contributions since joining his new team. He’s provided quality defense while starting 7 games behind the plate and in 29 plate appearances he has hit .385/.448/.769 with three home runs. The 38 year old is also one of the most interesting players in baseball, as I explored recently for BP-Milwaukee.

Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs