Astros acquire Aledmys Diaz from Blue Jays
The Houston Astros picked up some infield depth on Saturday, acquiring middle infielder Aledmys Diaz from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for right-handed pitcher Trent Thornton.
Diaz is a natural shortstop, but played a career-high 38 games at third base with the Blue Jays last season. The potential he offers as a versatile utility man could be benefit Houston, should it lose Marwin Gonzalez to free agency.
"He's got some versatility, got some power and can do a lot of things," Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said of Diaz, according to MLB.com's Brian McTaggart. "It seems like it's an opportunity for us to improve our team. We're dipping into prospect depth, but one area we probably have some surplus, it's in the upper-level pitching area."
The 28-year-old Cuban played in 130 games for Toronto last year, and hit .263/.303/.453 (102 wRC+) while slugging a career-best 18 home runs and 55 RBIs. Defensively, he was worth minus-9 defensive runs saved as a shortstop, and minus-1 at third base. Diaz is under team control for another four seasons, and will not become arbitration eligible until 2020.
Diaz's best season came in 2016, when he put up a .879 OPS and 17 home runs in 111 games for the St. Louis Cardinals, en route to his first and only All-Star appearance and a fifth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Thornton, a fifth-round draft pick in 2015, was ranked as the Astros' 24th-best prospect by MLB Pipeline prior to Saturday's trade. The 25-year-old spent his 2018 season pitching at Triple-A Fresno, where he posted a 4.42 ERA, 1.198 WHIP, and 122 strikeouts (8.8 per nine innings) to 31 walks across 24 appearances, 22 of them starts.
The Blue Jays will need to add Thornton to the 40-man roster before Tuesday in order to protect him from being selected in next month's Rule 5 draft.