The Los Angeles Dodgers announced on Thursday the acquisitions of lefty minor league pitcher Jackson Ferris and 18-year-old minor league outfielder Zyhir Hope from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for right-handed pitcher Yency Almonte and infielder Michael Busch.
Ferris, 19, made 18 appearances for Single-A Myrtle Beach last season, posting a 2-3 record with a 3.38 ERA. He struck out 77 batters in 56.0 innings while allowing 35 hits. During his junior year at IMG Academy (FL), he went a perfect 8-0 with a 0.55 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 50.2 innings. The left-hander pitched for Team USA in the summer of 2021 before being drafted by the Cubs in the second round (47th overall) out of IMG Academy.
The left-handed hitting and lefty throwing Hope appeared in 11 games for the AZL Cubs last season. He slashed .286/.419/.543 with three homers and nine RBI in those contests. He was drafted in the 11th round of the 2023 First Year Player Draft out of Colonial Forge High School (VA). In his final high school season, he hit .538 with nine homers and 38 RBI while stealing 29 bases.
Almonte, 29, made 49 appearances for the Dodgers last season, tossing 48.0 innings and allowing 27 earned runs. He struck out 49 batters while posting a 5.09 ERA before landing on the injured list with a right knee in August.
In 2022, Almonte posted a 1.02 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 35.1 innings in his first season with the Dodgers. He has pitched parts of six seasons with Colorado (2018-2021) and Los Angeles (2022-2023) with a 7-6 combined record and a 4.51 ERA in 196 games. He was originally signed as a minor league free agent by the Dodgers in March of 2022.
Busch, 26, played in 27 games for the Dodgers last season, hitting two homers and driving in seven runs. He was named Triple-A Player of the Year after finishing the campaign with a .323 batting average, 27 homers and 90 RBI for the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
In four minor league seasons, the left-handed hitting Busch slashed .283/.390/.529 with 79 homers and 267 RBI. He was originally drafted by the Dodgers in the first round (31st overall) of the 2019 First Year Player Draft out of the University of North Carolina.
(Juan Dorado furnished the information provided in this report)
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I’m happy for Busch. He really never got a real shot here and it looks like he’ll be the Cubs first baseman going forward, so good for him.
We’ve got a lot of righty bullpen arms, so although I’m an Almonte fan because he seems like a really nice guy, I don’t expect we’ll miss him much.
It looks like AF got two potentially high ceiling prospects while at the same time making some room on the 40-man roster. If either or both develop to their full potential it will have been a good trade. We won’t know that for a few years, though, because one of the guys is 19 and the other is 20.
As someone online pointed out our pitching staff now has Ferris and Buehler.
Two out of every five days will be Ferris/Buehler’s day off. (Badaboom!)
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Do u think Vargas gets a shot? Not much room as the team is currently. I wish they would trade Taylor even if they need to put some cash with the deal.
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I’d rather they trade Margot and keep Taylor who can play 6 positions.
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Sorry, didn’t answer your question. Assuming he isn’t traded before ST (and I don’t think he will be), I think they’ll see how Vargas does this spring. If he has a good spring, I think he makes the opening day roster and they move someone else out.
If he has a poor spring, I think he goes back to OKC for a while. Of course, injuries could also factor in to all of this.
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Good for Busch, he deserves a shot. He wasn’t going to get a real shot in L.A., Almonte wasn’t the same pitcher last year as he was in 22.
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I figured a trade was coming but I didn’t expect it to be Busch for prospects.
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Every year we kept Busch without giving him a chance to play on a regular basis, his trade value went down. He had nothing left to show at AAA so this was probably the time to trade him.
Maybe AF tried to include him in a trade for a major player but it never came together so this was plan B, moving a 40-man roster guy for promising prospects who don’t have to be put on the roster for a few years.
We’ll have to wait a few years to see if this trade actually pans out for the Dodgers. In the meanwhile, the Cubs get a guy who should play regularly for them and who has now escaped the “prison” of being blocked on the Dodger roster. I wish him well.
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Do you think Vargas gets moved also, or does AF keep him for depth
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I’m no more the expert than anyone else who comments here, but I would say he’ll probably have a chance to win a spot on the roster in spring training. If he has a good spring, I could see them trading Margot to make room for him.
Of course, if another GM comes to Andrew with a proposal that’s just too good to resist, I suppose he would certainly consider including him in a trade. But everything being equal I would guess they plan to keep him and give him a chance to show what he has without the hand/finger injuries he tried to play through last year. I think he’s athletic enough that he could play a decent left field, and he does have options remaining so could always start the year at OKC.
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Before the off season started, I thought Vargas and Busch, along with other prospects, might go in some kind of package for starting pitching, and still thought that just a few days ago. Now that they moved Busch for prospects, I’m starting to think that they’ll hold on to Vargas. I realized that as much as it sucks for Vargas, he does have major league experience, if there is an injury he could fill a hole very easily. Your scenario of beating out Margot is a definite possibility, that I hadn’t really considered, also.
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With all the pitchers due back later this year or next (Kershaw, Ohtani, May, Gonsolin), I don’t see AF making a trade for another big-time starter at this point.
Also, don’t see a trade for another big-time position player.
I do think the odds are at least 50-50 that we sign a back-of-the-rotation starter, for example Ryu, who would come fairly cheaply and only be a one-year commitment, but that wouldn’t involve a Vargas trade.
Andrew always used to consult me before making moves, but he seems to have lost my phone number, so I guess I’ll just have to wait to see how this all plays out. There have been mentions of possibly bringing Kenley back. If AF calls me, I’m a big NO on that one.
I wouldn’t mind adding a closer, but not Kenley. I personally wouldn’t spend the money on Hader, but it ain’t my money. Guardian closer Clase has also been mentioned in rumors but he would cost a lot of prospects. Although he isn’t a closer, I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing Brasier return.
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There is one open spot on the 40-man roster. I believe they will probably use that on a reliever.
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Why not let Ryan or Frasso relieve? They both have the stuff to get 3 outs.
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Lots of possibilities for the bullpen this year:
Phillips, Graterol, Vesia, Ferguson, Feyereisen, Treinen, Kelly, Hurt, Grove, D. Hudson, Yarbrough, Varland, Vanasco.
I’m guessing that Stone, Knack, Ryan and Frasso will be used as starters until they feel they’ve run out of the options listed above, since starters always seem to be valued more than relievers.
At such point that they decide any of these four guys don’t have a future as a starter (or have a better future as a reliever), you’ll probably see them in LA pretty quickly.
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I believe you’re right about that Jefe. But development of starters from a Major League bullpen has been done before. Maybe not for two times through the lineup but one time through the bottom of the order could get them ready to start a few, or to be used as the now popular Opener. From what I’ve read about some of these guys their stuff is ready. Give them their debut.
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If it’s OK with you and it’s OK with AF and it’s OK with Doc, I won’t stand in the way.
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