Yankees trade for Miami's Jon Berti. Rortvedt sent to Tampa

Yankees To Acquire Jon Berti From Marlins In Three-Team Deal; Rays Also Involved
The Rays are sending outfield prospect Shane Sasaki to Miami as part of the deal, De Nicola reports.

www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/03/marlins-trade-jon-berti-yankees.html

The Yankees and Marlins are in agreement on a trade sending utility infielder Jon Berti from Miami to New York, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald. Berti, 34, is earning $3.6MM in the second season of a two-year, $5.725MM contract and is controllable through the 2025 season via arbitration.

Berti will give the Yankees an option to open the season at third base, with DJ LeMahieu (bone bruise in foot) and Oswald Peraza (shoulder strain) slated to hit the injured list, and he can back up nearly any spot on the diamond once LeMahieu returns. He’s fresh off a strong .294/.344/.405 batting line (103 wRC+) with seven homers and 16 stolen bases in a career-high 424 plate appearances with the Fish in 2023.

While Berti doesn’t bring any power to the table — last season’s seven homers were a career-high — he’s been a roughly league-average performer at the plate throughout his career thanks to an above-average walk rate, lower-than-average strikeout rate and plus speed that helps him leg out his share of infield hits (and stretch some would-be singles into doubles). Overall, Berti is a career .258/.337/.368 hitter — about 4% worse than league-average (by measure of wRC+) when weighting for the Marlins’ quite pitcher-friendly home environs.

Berti swiped 41 bags in just 102 games back in 2022, and while he ran less often in 2023, that didn’t have anything to do with a drop-off in speed. Statcast ranked Berti in the 95th percentile of MLB players with an average sprint speed of 29.3 feet per second last season.

Defensively, Berti has played every position other than catcher or first base. He’s spent more time at third base than any other position (1050 innings), but he’s also logged 792 innings at second base, 764 innings at shortstop and 577 frames in the outfield (281 in left, 231 in center and 65 in right). Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average agree that he’s been a plus defender at each of third base, shortstop and left field.

Given Berti’s experience at the hot corner and the injuries to both LeMahieu and Peraza, there’s a strong chance that the Yankees’ newest acquisition will start tomorrow’s season opener at third base. He’ll likely be the team’s primary third baseman in the short term, and the versatility that both Berti and LeMahieu bring to the table will give manager Aaron Boone plenty of lineup options once the bone bruise in LeMahieu’s foot mends.

John Cruz
The Yankees gave most of their 2022 international bonus pool money to Top 100 Prospect Roderick Arias but also found a bargain in Cruz. He signed for $75,000 out of the Dominican Republic and was one of several standouts on a prospect-laden team in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League last summer. The youngest batting qualifier in the circuit at age 17, he led the FCL with 47 RBI and ranked second with 10 homers.

After looking launch-happy and passive during his 2022 pro debut, Cruz displayed a better approach and more power last year. His quick left-handed stroke produces loud contact when he connects, and he could grow into plus pop if he fills out his projectable frame and adds more polish as a hitter. He controls the strike zone fine for a teenager, but his aggressiveness leads to less-than-ideal contact.

Cruz presently has solid speed but is still learning to make the most of it on the bases and in the outfield. He's not an instinctive defender and spent most of his FCL time in right field, where he displays solid arm strength. To make it in center, he'd need to improve his reads and routes while retaining his quickness as he matures physically.

www.mlb.com/prospects/yankees/john-cruz-800476

I like the trade, but I’d like to see OzCabs get a couple weeks at third before we ditch him for Berti. Berti is a good option to pinch run, fill in and share some time at third, short, and second.

The typical Yankee move would be to go with Berti at third due to his experience, but before we kick a younger player to the curb for him, I’d like to see if OzCabs has stepped his game up a notch…

Berti is pretty versatile, has played all middle infield positions, some 3rd and OF. I thought our bench was really weak and this helps a bit. 

I wonder if this trade means that the Yanks believe DJ LeMahieu could be out of action longer than anticipated.

Prospect and a Catcher