The Arizona Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins kicked off Major League Baseball’s trade deadline a few days early.
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Late Thursday night, the Diamondbacks and Marlins agreed to a deal that sent left-handed reliever A.J. Puk to Arizona in exchange for two of the Diamondbacks’ top-30 prospects: infielder Deyvison De Los Santos (No. 14 per MLB Pipeline) and outfielder Andrew Pintar (No. 30).
Puk, 29, is the big fish (no pun intended) in the deal. The 6-foot-7 left-hander has been dominant out of the bullpen the last few seasons, and took his game to the next level this year.
The Marlins opened the season with Puk in their rotation as he attempted to transition to being a starting pitcher. However, that experiment didn’t last long, as Puk struggled in his four starts to the tune of a 9.22 ERA.
Puk transitioned to the bullpen in May, and has been sensational in those 28 appearances, sporting a 2.08 ERA across 30.1 innings pitched. He’s allowed opposing batters to hit just .159 as a reliever, and he has 33 strikeouts to just six walks. He’s also allowed just two home runs.
Puk’s dominance as a reliever is carrying over from the last two seasons. In 2023, the lefty made 58 relief appearances, sporting a 3.97 ERA with 78 strikeouts in 56.2 innings. In 2022, he made 62 relief appearances with the Oakland Athletics, sporting a 3.12 ERA with 76 strikeouts in 66.1 innings pitched.
Puk will now join an Arizona bullpen that is among the worst in MLB this year. Diamondbacks relievers have a combined 4.24 ERA, which is 22nd in the league. Their lefty relievers have been even worse, sporting a 6.15 ERA on the year, which is 29th in MLB, only better than the Los Angeles Angels.
The Diamondbacks desperately needed a lefty arm, so they paid the high price to get Puk, who’s eligible for arbitration in 2025 and isn’t a free agent until 2027.
As for the return, De Los Santos is the headlining prospect in this package. The 21-year-old has appeared in 87 games across Double-A and Triple-A this season, slashing a combined .325/.376/.635 with 28 home runs, 84 runs batted in, and an OPS of 1.011. He could be ready to make his MLB debut as soon as later this season.
As for Pintar, he has an OPS of .852 across Rookie Ball, High-A, and Double-A on the year. The 23-year-old was drafted in the fifth round of the 2022 MLB Draft, and has an expected debut year of 2026, per MLB Pipeline. De Los Santos has plus power, while Pintar has plus speed.
This is a pretty big haul for Puk, who wasn’t even the best left-handed reliever on the Marlins this year (that title belongs to Tanner Scott). However, the Diamondbacks have been hot since June going 28-18, and have won eight of their last 11 games. With the pitching reinforcements coming back to the rotation in Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez, Arizona has full confidence in a late season run and potential dominant October performance like they had in 2023 when they surprisingly reached the World Series. Now they have a shutdown left-handed reliever to help their cause.
MLB’s trade deadline is 6 p.m. ET on July 30 — but the fun has already begun.
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