The Bellwater Ironclads acquired left-handed reliever Grant Mercer ahead of the trade deadline Tuesday, sending infield prospect Casey Holbrook to a rival organization in a move General Manager Sandra Tolliver said was designed to protect a bullpen that has carried the team since spring.
Mercer, a 29-year-old left-hander, posted a 3.02 ERA in 22 relief appearances for his previous organization’s Triple-A affiliate this season, with a strikeout rate the Ironclads’ front office identified early in the summer as the kind of swing-and-miss weapon the bullpen lacked from the left side, even after a clean opening homestand for the relief corps. Tolliver said the team had scouted him since spring training, well before this year’s injury to closer Julio Vasquez made the need more urgent.
“This isn’t a panic move because of what happened to Julio earlier this season,” Tolliver said. “We identified Mercer as a target in spring training. The fact that we’ve now lived through one bullpen injury just reinforced how much we wanted a left-hander with swing-and-miss stuff before the deadline passed.”
A price the front office was willing to pay
Odom, a 22-year-old infielder who had spent most of the season at the organization’s Double-A affiliate, was regarded as one of the system’s better pure hitting prospects, and Tolliver acknowledged the trade was not without cost. “Casey’s going to play in the big leagues somewhere, probably sooner rather than later,” she said. “We don’t make that trade lightly. But this is a season where we think our big-league bullpen matters more than a prospect two levels away.”
You don’t get haunted by a September collapse and then flinch at the deadline because the return price is a good prospect. We spent all winter building this bullpen. Adding Mercer is us finishing that job in July instead of stopping halfway.
Sandra Tolliver, General Manager, Bellwater Ironclads
Filling a specific hole
Manager Ray Delacroix said Mercer will work primarily as a matchup weapon against left-handed hitters in the seventh and eighth innings, a role the bullpen has lacked since Vasquez’s shoulder strain forced Desmond Cade into the closer’s role earlier this season. Vasquez has since returned from the injured list, but Delacroix said the additional depth gives him more flexibility late in games regardless of who is available on a given night.
“Every bullpen in this league gets tested by injuries and fatigue over a full season,” Delacroix said. “Grant gives us an option we simply didn’t have before today. That’s not a knock on anybody currently in the pen. It’s just a hole we’ve known about since spring.”
Cade, who took over as closer during Vasquez’s absence and has continued pitching in high-leverage innings since Vasquez’s return, said he welcomed the addition. “More good arms means less pressure on all of us,” Cade said. “I don’t care whose name is next to the save. I care about whether we’re getting outs when it matters, and Grant’s track record says he gets outs.”
Mercer, speaking to reporters after arriving at Founders Park, said he was told by his previous organization’s front office about the trade Tuesday morning and was on a flight to Bellwater by early afternoon. “It happened fast,” he said. “But I’ve followed this team’s story a little from a distance, what happened last September and how they’ve responded this year. I wanted to be part of a bullpen that’s building something instead of just surviving.”
Tolliver said the trade closes out the front office’s deadline business barring a late, unexpected opportunity, and that the roster is now largely set for what she called the most important stretch of the season. “We’re not looking to make another move,” she said. “We think the bullpen we have right now, with Grant in it, gives us the best chance we’ve had in years to be playing meaningful games in September instead of watching a tiebreaker decide it again.”
The Ironclads entered the deadline within striking distance of a playoff spot, and Delacroix said the trade sends a signal to the clubhouse about the organization’s intentions for the rest of the season. “When the front office gives up a prospect like Casey at the deadline, that tells the guys in this room that ownership believes this season is worth pushing for,” he said. “We intend to reward that belief.”
Vasquez, back from the injured list stint that sidelined him earlier this season, said the addition of another trusted arm takes pressure off a bullpen that has already had to adjust once this year. “We proved to ourselves we could handle an injury without falling apart,” Vasquez said. “Adding Grant on top of that just makes it harder for teams to find a soft spot in our pen in September.”
Odom is expected to report to his new organization’s Double-A affiliate this week, a transition Tolliver said the front office handled directly with the prospect before finalizing the deal. “We told Casey exactly why we were making this move and what it meant for his opportunity somewhere else,” she said. “That doesn’t make trading a well-liked young player easy. It just means we did right by him on the way out.”
With the deadline now behind them, the Ironclads turn their attention to a second-half schedule that includes a stretch of 16 games against the three teams currently ahead of them in the standings. Tolliver said the front office believes the bullpen, as constructed with Mercer now in the mix, is built for exactly that kind of gauntlet. “We’re not hoping to survive the second half,” she said. “We built this bullpen to win it.”