Braves trade Jhoulys Chacin to Angels for prospect Adam McCreery

This afternoon the Atlanta Braves traded right-handed starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin to the Los Angeles Angels for left-handed pitching prospect Adam McCreery. Chacin is well-known of course but McCreery is rather anonymous. Let's change that.

Adam McCreery is a huge 6-8, 195 pound left-hander drafted by the Angels in the 22nd round in 2014 from Azusa Pacific University. Unusually for a college pitcher, he has spent his first two professional seasons in the Arizona Rookie League, throwing 38 innings overall for a combined 3.52 ERA, with a 49/33 K/BB and 22 hits allowed. He also features a very high ground ball rate, with a 2.71 GO/AO, and has held left-handed hitters to a mere .125 average as a pro.

McCreery was a highly-regarded prospect in high school but injuries and mechanical problems hampered his draft stock coming out of college. He's reportedly been clocked as high as 95 MPH but his short slider and so-so change-up need a lot more polish, as does his overall sense of command and control. At age 23 he is very old for a rookie ball arm, but a 6-8 lefty with a live arm gets plenty of chances. His size and his fastball have been too much for rookie left-handed hitters to handle, but he has to solve his control problems to thrive at higher levels.

He's a lottery ticket but a nice one for the Braves.

Here's some nice PerfectGame video of McCreery in college.