The Red Sox made a recent trade, acquiring Wyatt Mills from the Royals for minor leaguer Jacob Wallace last week. Mills, a 27-year-old right-handed reliever was designated for assignment by Kansas City after they signed Ryan Yarborough out of free agency.
“We had been talking to Boston for a little bit,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo told RedSoxDigest.com. “We knew that they had an interest in him.”
Mills poses as an interesting get for Boston, with a delivery almost like John Schreiber — somebody Boston heavily utilized this year with him having an unexpected year of dominance out of the bullpen.
“He’s got a different delivery. Not quite sidearm, but a low three-quarter slot with a different look,” said Picollo. “When teams put bullpens together, sometimes that factors in.
“We really liked Wyatt, we liked his ability to get left-handers out so we didn’t feel like he could only face right-handed hitters — he can face righties and lefties,” he continued. “He did a nice job when he was with us … We knew there’d be some interest from other teams in the league.”
Picollo notes that Mills was at Kansas City’s pre-draft workout in Kansas City back in 2017, though he was drafted by the Mariners. A comparison for Mills that Picollo threw out was former Royals reliever Louis Coleman, who is now retired after nine seasons in the majors (2011-2018). While Coleman struggled in the glory years of Kansas City (2014 and 2015), he was able to notch a 0.61 ERA in 27 outings for KC in 2013.
Mills’ numbers — a 4.79 ERA with Kansas City in 2022 and a 4.60 ERA on the year in total with both the Royals and Mariners — may not look that great on paper, but Picollo adds that may have been inflated with fatigue.
“He pitched a lot, “Picollo said. “He was used quite often … And essentially, we sent him back to the minor leagues (in September) just to give him a little breather.
“Wyatt’s a quality pitcher. As we like to say, he’s a major-league pitcher,” he added. “We do believe that he does have major-league quality and that he’s gonna help the Red Sox. He’s a good guy for them to acquire from us.”
Picollo has faith that Mills will trend in the right direction moving forward, saying “there’s reason to believe he’ll trend in the right direction.” With him being added to the 40-man roster, he’ll likely be in the conversation to make Boston’s Opening Day roster.
“He’s still a young major-league pitcher,” said Picollo. “Guys are gonna learn as they go. They refine their pitches, they trust what they’re doing better, and they tend to trend in a positive direction — so I don’t see any reason why Wyatt won’t do that.”
Does Mills have the capability to become a high-leverage specialist with his funky delivery?
“Maybe in time,” Picollo responded. “The way we used him was to come in, maybe with a guy on-base, try to get a ground ball, and get the last out of an inning. Then roll him into the next inning, and try to face a couple of right-handed hitters, if there was a lefty in there that was mixed in we weren’t afraid to use him because he is pretty effective against lefties. And his strike percentage is good.
“So, who knows where guys go, but I think that different type of look for right-handers or left-handers tends to be more situational,” added Picollo. “It depends on how you define leverage … I think based on how the bullpen is built for whatever team he is on will dictate what leverage situation he comes in. “
Who Boston traded for Mills
“We really liked Wallace,” said Picollo. “We liked him out of the draft out of UConn, our area scouts there really liked him, our regional supervisor really liked him. And then when you start looking at some video on him and some of the reports that the professional scouts have turned in on him. It’s a big arm, there’s power to it.”
Picked up from Colorado in 2019, the 24-year-old right-hander in Wallace had a rough 2021 in High-A Greenville but bounced back in 2022 with a solid 3.81 ERA for Double-A Portland. Kansas City assigned Wallace to Double-A Northwest Arkansas after acquiring him.
“Good fastball, and he’s been throwing a couple of different types of breaking balls but later in the year it looked like he settled in on one that seemed to work a little bit better … He does have some characteristics of a good changeup as well … We like him, and we’re glad we got him.”
Something that stands out about Wallace though is a 7.78 walks per nine innings, which would rank dead last in all of Major League Baseball by a longshot had he posted that mark at the majors.
“We’re certainly aware of it,” Picollo said. “Those numbers don’t lie. But when you think you can come up with a plan to help a guy address a deficiency and make it better, there’s reason to have optimism and reason to think we can help him.
“He’s really not too dissimilar from some pitchers we’ve acquired in the past and have had similar types of issues,” he went on to say. ” … You’re always on the lookout for guys that you can help improve. If we can push the right buttons, maybe he’s that guy for us. You can’t deny the stuff, and that’s the thing that stood out for us the most.”
Benintendi deal retrospective
Ahead of the 2021 season, Boston dealt homegrown outfielder Andrew Benintendi to the Royals in exchange for Franchy Cordero, Josh Winckowski, and three additional younger prospects that were players to be named later.
And now, Benintendi just inked a five-year deal with the White Sox.
“It was a good trade for us. First of all, Andrew’s a really good player, I hate that he’s in our division right now — I wasn’t too excited about that. But Andrew did a great job for us, really consistent player.”
Benintendi was dealt at the deadline in 2022 to the Yankees.
“The Yankees happened to be the team that had the most interest and were willing to part ways with the prospects we liked. The return on him was good for us — we were able to turn the trade from a couple of years ago into a few more prospects.”
Hosmer, former Royal, DFA’d due to trade
Something that came from the trade, however, was former Royal Eric Hosmer getting designated for assignment by Boston in order to make room for Mills. A homegrown Royal, the 33-year-old first baseman spent eight years with KC from 2011-2017 and was a key part of their World Series in 2015.
“That was just more coincidence than anything else obviously, but because of Hos’s history with us, to be very honest, we didn’t like seeing that,” Picollo said. “But Hos is a great player, he’s gonna land on his feet, somebody’s gonna see a need for him and have an opportunity for him and hopefully that happens for him soon.”
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