Jaime Cerda

The Royals acquired Cerda from the New York Mets in exchange for Shawn Sedlacek, a pitcher that didn’t seem likely to get another opportunity in Kansas City, so any value from Cerda was an improvement. In that vein, Cerda was a nice surprise. He spent only a few weeks in Triple-A at the beginning of the season and then filled a middle-relief/lefty specialist role the rest of the season. He walked far too many but often pitched around those problems. Tough on lefties and not overly exposed against righties, Cerda is a nice fit for Tony Pena, a manager who isn’t prone to using a reliever for just one or two batters.

Cerda is at times effective as a left-handed specialist and middle reliever but walks too many (20 in 32.2 IP) to be relied on in tight situations. Cerda will again bounce between Triple-A and the majors.

Cerda was effective out of the pen, with a 2.45 ERA, but he needs to cut down on the walks (14 in 25 innings). Still, his upside right now is as a lefty-specialist.