The Tampa Bay Rays have acquired Cuban outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. from the Miami Marlins, adding a left handed fourth outfielder to the Spring Training mix. He has an option remaining, and will be competing with Chandler Simpson and Richie Palacios for an outfield slated to already include two left handed hitters in Jake Fraley and Cedric Mullins.
Signed in 2018 for $1 million, alongside his more heralded brother who signed for more than $5 million but is already out of baseball, Mesa Jr. has been on the fringe of Miami’s top-thirty prospects with a reputation for some swing and miss that was cleaned up in 2025, cutting his strikeout rate from 22% in 2024 to 15% last season. He has generally shown an ability to tighten up his swing mechanics and hitf/x at every level.
Despite a slow start to the year due to a hamstring injury in Spring Training, Mesa Jr. boasted a 136 wRC+ in Triple-A in 42 games before earned his major league promotion in 2025, picking up 34 days of service time over 16 games in his age-23 season, showing some surprising pop in the bat, hitting his first career homerun to the second deck on his birthday:
The return for Mesa Jr. was prospect Angel Brachi, an 18 year old infielder who put up a 142 wRC+ in 228 PA in the DSL. He ranked in the top-50 prospects at FanGraphs last season with a utility infielder projection, which is about the same value Mesa Jr. offers the Rays now.
To make room on the 40-man roster, left handed INF Brett Wisely has been designated for assignment, an expected outcome after he had previously been bumped down the depth chart by the acquisition of Gavin Lux.
Read the full article here