After being claimed by Phillies, Nicasio dealt to Cardinals for prospect

In a move to avoid helping a "direct competitor," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington placed Juan Nicasio on irrevocable outright waivers and one of the club's top relievers was claimed by the Phillies last Thursday.

Six days later, the Phillies dealt Nicasio to the Cardinals, who are four games behind the first-place Cubs in the Central Division, in exchange for minor league second baseman Eliezer Alvarez, St. Louis' No. 19-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline.

Although Nicasio will not be eligible for the postseason since he was acquired after September 1, he will be able to help the Cardinals' push for the playoffs, a scenario Huntington wanted to avoid in exchange for what he believed to be a low-level prospect.



"For the number of reasons we talked about," Huntington said last Sunday when asked why the Pirates did not simply keep Nicasio. "How to respect Juan; we were going to go younger. We were going to go with some of our guys that are still under control or are under contract next year in the leverage situations. ... Our hope was instead of taking somebody’s 52nd-best prospect and place them with competition that can help them win in the postseason and generate revenue for next year, our thought was we take the opportunity to see if we can place him in the American League."

It seems as if the Phillies got more in return than Huntington would have expected. Alvarez, a 22-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, is batting .248 with five home runs and 28 RBI while spending 54 of 61 games this season at Class AA Springfield.

This is only his second year of full-season minor league baseball after he led the Cardinals' organization with a .323 average and 36 stolen bases at Class A Peoria in 2016. According to Baseball America, Alvarez was the Cardinals' No. 10 best prospect entering the season. However, he struggled to start 2017 and was placed on the disabled list with a sprained ankle in May. He is batting .286 over his last 10 games.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the cost for the Phillies was a $50,000 waiver-claim fee and six days of Nicasio's salary, which was approximately $120,000.

Huntington told reporters he tried to trade Nicasio after the Pirates fell out of playoff contention, but another National League rival blocked a planned transaction with another club by putting in a claim for the right-handed reliever.

With that avenue no longer viable, Huntington went to the unorthodox option of outright waivers, which meant every team in the league had the chance to claim Nicasio without giving the Pirates anything in return. However, instead of going to an American League contender as Huntington hoped, Nicasio ended up claimed by the last-place Phillies last Thursday.

Nicasio, 31, had a 2.85 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP in a league-leading 65 appearances (60 innings). He was primarily used as a setup man for Felipe Rivero this season after functioning in a swingman role last year, splitting his 2016 between the rotation and long relief.

Entering Wednesday, the Cardinals were 71-67, winners in seven of their last 10. Their bullpen's 4.00 ERA ranks 10th in Major League Baseball, but their closer, Trevor Rosenthal, will miss the rest of the season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery.

Nicasio will now likely take over that eighth-inning role with Seung-Hwan Oh shifting back to the ninth inning. This could also put the Cardinals in position to re-sign Nicasio for 2018.

Nicasio’s full-season salary this year was $3.65 million, but he was owed roughly $600,000 when the Pirates placed him on waivers, which Huntington described as “a real amount of money.”