3/19/2010: Fargo, ND – While most teams are looking to sort out who will make their final twenty five from those in Spring Training camp already, Fargo made a deal to acquire another potential 3B option for the team that struggled at the position last season.  The trade involved Crystal Lake’s Jesús Márquez and $1,000,000 in cash to the Dinosaurs in exchange for 25-year old minor league right fielder John McCarty.

Márquez has played third base for Crystal Lake the last three years, but only partially last season due to injury and a downturn in his production.  He suffered an injured posterior cruciate ligament which put him out for 7 weeks, and a torn thigh muscle which resulted being out for 4 weeks.  He hit about fifty points less in his OPS and brings some questions regarding whether he can return to his .708 OPS he posted in 2008 and .699 in 2007.  Because of this, GM Cristian Shofar stated that Spring Training invitee Rubén Leal will be in the mix for playing time and another invitee, Joe Hubbard, will be a phone call away at AAA Sioux Falls.

When asked what they liked about Márquez, Shofar stated, “He has an excellent eye at the plate, some power, and will put the ball in play often… We really like his arm at third.”  Both moves made this offseason to improve the infield (including the trade for Cipriano Carnossi) have brought in players with team options for next season.  We see here the flexibility the team seems to value with regard to contracts and the team’s roster makeup.

Right fielder John McCarty never seemed to break through onto the team’s major league roster and was slated for another season at Sioux Falls before the trade was announced.  The departure of McCarty does weaken the major league ready outfield depth for the team, who now has two thirty-something journeymen in outfielders Carlos Torres and Orlando Díaz, along with two young prospects in Simon-Olivier Lavoie and Noah Robinson, both 22 years old and not really ready for major league exposure.

In other news, starting pitcher Armando Gallegos suffered a torn biceps muscle and will be out two to three months at the beginning of the season.  Gallegos was slated for one of the two spots up for grabs this year in the rotation, with Frank Helms having a great spring and grabbing the other.  Gallegos’s injury has forced the team to promote prospect Anastasio Juárez to compete for the open spot (along with Jesús Núñez).  The problem this has created is that Juárez is out of options and cannot be sent down if he proves ineffective.  A couple of other moves made recently would indicate that the loser of the Núñez/Juárez battle may slot in as the seventh bullpen man, but nothing has been set in stone per reports from team officials.

Steve Youngblood

–Fargo Gazette