The Diamondbacks Acquire Kyle Lewis for Cooper Hummel

Mike Hazen rolls the dice on the oft injured former Rookie of the year

Diamondbacks 40-Man Roster Transactions: 2022-23 Offseason

The Diamondbacks have announced agreement on a trade for right handed outfielder Kyle Lewis of the Seattle Mariners, sending backup catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel back to Seattle. 

Just this past Tuesday we reported that Mike Hazen made clear his intentions to get another right handed outfielder after DFA'ing Jordan Luplow and Stone Garrett. He wasted no time in doing so, acquiring the right-handed hitting Lewis.

Lewis was a first round draft pick, 11th overall in the 2016 draft. He overcome an ACL injury in his first season in that organization to make his major league debut in 2019. With his rookie status still intact in the 2020 Pandemic season he won the AL rookie of  year award. That season he hit .262/.363/.437, .801 OPS and 11 homeruns in 58 games. In the pitcher-friendly ballpark in Seattle, that was good for a 124 OPS+, or about 24% above league average. 

However his next two seasons were lost to injury. He suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee in 2021, and missed significant time due to a concussion in 2022. Never able to get it going he was optioned back to AAA as the Mariners had more productive options. Over the last two seasons he's appeared in just 54 games, batting .215 with 8 homers and a 89 OPS+. 

Asked what he liked about Lewis, Hazen said Lewis was:

" He's a good fit for us, we're taking a shot at some upside here. He has the power potential, he's gotten on base when healthy. We feel like this is a good opportunity for us to acquire some potential impact."

Hazen also mentioned that he had liked Lewis a lot going into the 2016 draft. The Red Sox drafted at No. 12 that year, one slot behind the Mariners. 

Addressing the injury history, Hazen said that Lewis finished the season healthy and they feel the concussion injury was an outlier.

The knee injuries seem to have sapped much of  Lewis' speed however. Whereas his sprint speed was previously close to 28 feet per second, ranking around the 70th percentile, his 24.1 feet per second registered in 2022 was in the 2nd percentile, meaning he was nearly the slowest player in MLB.  Hazen said they're aware of these factors and the team will look for Lewis to play left field and DH, and he will not be used in centerfield at all. He'll be called upon to bang the ball around from the right side, and that's what they're looking for.   

The other aspect of this trade I asked Hazen about is the fact that Lewis has hit left handed pitching over 100 OPS points lower in his MLB career than he has right handed pitching.

Kyle Lewis Career Platoon Splits

Hazen pointed out that major and minors combined the sample sizes are still small, but also mentioned that Lewis hit left handed pitching very well in the minors this past season. That's true. In 68 PA he hit .288/.382/.458, .840 OPS

The switch hitting Hummel came to the Diamondbacks organization as an outfielder, but had catching experience in the Brewers organization before coming to Arizona. He was up with the team for a while in the early part of the year, but did not hit well and was optioned to Reno. While there the team decided to have him work at catcher, and then quickly recalled him to the major league team to be Carson Kelly's backup behind the plate. When the season was over they sent Hummel to the Arizona Fall League to continue working at the position. 

Hummel hit just .176/.274/.307, .581 OPS, 66 OPS+ in 201 plate appearances. Hazen described Hummel as more of a depth option at this point. 

Regarding the catching position going forward, Hazen wasn't entirely clear the future path he'll take. He seemed to be saying the most logical outcome would be to find a backup however.