Last week the Indians designated Jeanmar Gomez for assignment to clear a roster space for one of their shiny new free agent additions. Today, as Keith Law reported, the club traded Gomez to Pittsburgh for minor league outfielder Quincy Latimore.
Cleveland has traded RHP Jeanmar Gomez to Pittsburgh for minor league OF Quincy Latimore
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) January 9, 2013
Since breaking into the Big Leagues in 2010, Gomez has thrown 206.2 innings for the Indians with a career record of 14-16 and 5.18 ERA. While never a strikeout pitcher (he had the seventh lowest K% in the AL last season among pitchers with at least 80 IP), the 24 year old Gomez may be able to find success in the NL, where his groundballing ways (career GB% of 49.2%) could play a bit better in the back end of a rotation.
Of course, around these parts, Gomez will always be best remembered for the perfect game he tossed for the Double-A Aeros against the Trenton Thunder in May 2009. The best laid plans of Aeros and Thunder….
Latimore is a soon-to-be 24 year old former 4th round draft pick who has never progressed beyond Double-A in the Pirates organization. Last season, over 126 games for the Altoona Curve, Latimore bat .251/.321/.433 (.754 OPS) with 10 stolen bases. He has demonstrated some skill for hitting LHP, posting an .840 OPS against southpaws in his two Double-A seasons with Altoona, and his OBP-AVG split would suggest a degree of patience at the plate, but his overall skill-set would fall somewhere between “nebulous” and “dubious” on a Big League prospect scale.
Gomez likely would have struggled to make the Indians’ rotation out of spring training considering the recent additions of Trevor Bauer, Brett Myers, and Scott Kazmir, and the consequent roster crunch likely cost him his spot. The trade at least (and probably at most) brings an organizational player to the Indians and prevented the club from getting nothing in return for clearing Gomez from the roster.
