Padres traded recently DFA'd Miles Mikolas and Jaff Decker to Pittsburgh Pirates for Alex Dickerson
#Padres acquire former Poway High & @IUBloomington star 1B/OF Alex Dickerson from @Pirates for RHP Mikolas & OF Decker. (1/2)
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) November 25, 2013Dickerson, 23, hit .288 w/ 36 doubles & 17 HR for Altoona (AA). FSL Player of Year in ‘12. Big 10 Triple Crown winner in ’10. (2/2)
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) November 25, 2013Thanks, official Padres Twitter account!
Last week, Miles Mikolas and Jaff Decker were designated for assignment to make some space on the 40 man roster. Today, they were designated for another team. The Padres acquired Alex Dickerson in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Mikolas and Decker.
Dickerson, a first baseman/outfielder, has been part of the Pirates organization since 2011 when he was drafted by Pittsburgh in that year's draft. But, the 2011 draft was the 2nd time Dickerson had been drafted. Originally, Dickerson had been drafted 3 years before by the Washington Nationals out of Poway High but opted to attend college at Indiana University-Bloomington.
As the stats provided by the tweets above show, Dickerson has some very respectable numbers. 36 doubles and 17 home runs at 23 years of age. Last year, he was rated as the 13th best prospect in the Pirates organization by MLB.com and 22nd by SBNation's Minorleagueball.com. MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo also called him the 7th best 1B prospect in baseball back in January. He then went on to have a solid 2013 season and show versatility by playing the OF. Why the Pirates would let that sort of talent go, I don't know. Especially with them designating Garrett Jones, another 1B/OF player, for assignment. The likely explanation is that they were looking to get deeper on their 40 man roster (due to lack of depth in their upper level minors) and to add an OF and a RP for a prospect that would not be ready for a couple of years. However it still seems like an overpay for the players they got and from the Padres perspective it looks like they got a good young player for 2 that no longer may have had a future in San Diego.
Best of luck to Alex Dickerson in the Padres organization. Maybe one day we'll see the Poway native up here in the big leagues with another Poway native, Padres pitcher Nick Vincent. Only time will tell.