Nationals Farm Authority

Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post broke the news, the Nationals are going to trade 2B Jose Vidro and $4M of his remaining $16M owed to the Seattle Mariners for 25-year old OF Chris Snelling and 22-year old RHRP Emiliano Fruto.

Who did the Nationals get?

Snelling was Seattle’s #4 prospect according to Baseball America entering the 2006 season. Fruto was ranked #9. Neither guy ranked in Baseball America’s 2007 Top 10 prospects list. Snelling had too many ABs and Fruto just missed according to Jim Callis of Baseball America who put Fruto in the 11-20 range for 2007.

Chris Snelling has been on Seattle’s prospect radar for what feel like a decade. He made his major league debut at 20 in 2002. Scouts have described him as having quick hands, and a solid eye at the plate with solid gap power. He is rated as an average OF defender. The biggest problem Snelling has had in his professional career has been staying healthy. Torn miniscus, sprained knee, broken throwing hand, torn ligaments in left (throwing) wrist, stress fracture in his right ankle, broken right thumb, blown out left knee, bone bruise in his right knee, and the list goes on. He’s in his first year of arbitration eligibility so the Nationals have control over his contract for the next three seasons. If (and that’s a HUGE if) he can stay healthy, he’s a viable option for the OF in Washington, likely in LF.

Year	Team	Age	Level	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG
1999	Everett	17	A-	69	265	46	81	10	50	8	9	33	306	388	498
2000	Wisconsin	18	A	72	259	44	79	9	56	7	4	34	305	386	483
2001	San Bernar	19	A+	114	450	90	151	7	73	12	5	45	336	418	491
2002	SanAntonio	20	AA	23	89	10	29	1	12	5	1	12	326	429	506
	Seattle	20	MLB	8	27	2	4	1	3	0	0	2	148	207	259
2003	SanAntonio	21	AA	47	186	24	62	3	25	1	7	8	333	371	468
	Tacoma	21	AAA	18	67	11	18	3	10	1	0	5	269	333	433
2004	Az Marin	22	Rk	10	32	8	10	0	9	1	0	7	313	476	500
2005	Tacoma	23	AAA	65	246	50	91	8	46	2	3	36	370	452	553
	Seattle	23	MLB	15	29	4	8	1	1	0	2	5	276	382	448
2006	Tacoma	24	AAA	69	241	36	52	5	39	4	2	31	216	326	340
	Seattle	24	MLB	36	96	14	24	3	8	2	1	13	250	360	427

Fruto was signed by the Mariners out of Colombia in 2000. He made his major league debut in 2006 working out of the bullpen for the Mariners. Baseball America considered him the pitcher with the best pure stuff in the organization. He has a plus changeup (BBA ranked as best in organization in 2007), plus curveball, low-90s fastball, and an average slider. The questions surrounding Fruto have supposedly been maturity and poise. He has a huge upside and the Nationals could realistically consider him an option for the starting rotation in 2007. As previously mentioned, his service clock has just started and he’s at roughly 75 days service time. This means the Nationals will control his salary for the next three seasons and then he’ll be arbitration eligible.

Year	Team	Age	Level	W	L	G	GS	GF	SV	IP	ERA	WHIP	HR9	BB9	K9
2001	Az Marin	17	Rk	5	3	12	12	0	0	61.67	5.84	1.54	0.4	3.2	7.4
2002	Wisconsin	18	A	6	6	33	13	9	1	111.67	3.55	1.40	0.5	4.4	8.0
2003	Inl Empire	19	A+	7	8	42	4	25	7	78.67	3.78	1.50	0.6	4.4	9.5
	Tacoma	19	AAA	1	0	1	0	0	0	4.00	0.00	0.75	0.0	4.5	4.5
2004	SanAntonio	20	AA	3	3	43	1	13	1	68.33	5.66	1.67	0.8	4.9	7.4
2005	SanAntonio	21	AA	2	3	40	0	24	12	66.67	2.56	1.17	0.8	3.0	8.5
	Tacoma	21	AAA	1	2	9	0	4	0	11.00	13.09	2.00	0.8	9.0	9.8
2006	Tacoma	22	AAA	1	3	28	0		10	45.33	3.18	1.19	0.2	4.2	10.9
	Seattle	22	MLB	2	2	23	0	6	1	36.00	5.50	1.61	1.0	6.0	8.5