Impressive Thayron Liranzo ranking doesn't matter for Dodgers after trade deadline
Baseball's season may be winding down, but some minor league sluggers are finishing off the year with a bang. This week on MLB Pipeline, Sam Dykstra and Jonathan Mayo singled out the hottest hitting prospect from each MLB club's farm system over the last 30 days, and Los Angeles Dodgers fans may have bristled at the sight of catching prospect Thayron Liranzo on the list as a member of the Detroit Tigers farm system.
The Dodgers sent Liranzo to the Tigers, along with shortstop Trey Sweeney, as part of the Jack Flaherty deal at the trade deadline, and both prospects have been making strong first impressions in their new organization.
Sweeney has made his MLB debut as part of the youth movement that has given rise to the Tigers' late-season surge, and Liranzo has been raking with High-A West Michigan – hence his inclusion on this list.
Liranzo, a switch-hitter, is batting .333/.465/.594 with four homers, six doubles, 17 walks and just 14 strikeouts over the last 30 days. According to MLB Pipeline's rankings, he has already overtaken both Dillon Dingler and Josue Briceño as the top catching prospect in Detroit's system, and he is the Tigers' No. 6 prospect overall.
Is it possible that the Flaherty trade wasn't quite as lopsided in favor of the Dodgers as it was originally thought to be? Perhaps. Still, Liranzo's dominance down the stretch isn't all bad news for the Dodgers – especially considering that Los Angeles' hottest hitting prospect happens to be a catcher, too.
Impressive Thayron Liranzo ranking doesn't matter for Dodgers after trade deadline
The Dodgers' representative on Dykstra and Mayo's rankings is Dalton Rushing, a hot-hitting catcher, who also happens to be Los Angeles' No. 1 prospect overall.
Rushing has had a standout season and has only gotten exponentially better since making the jump from Double-A Tulsa to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Over the last 30 days, he has slashed .294/.425/.529 en route to a .954 OPS over 106 plate appearances. On the season, he's hitting .274 with a .900 OPS and 22 homers.
So, while the Dodgers may have given up a hot-hitting catcher at the trade deadline, it would appear that they're doing just fine. Maybe the Flaherty trade was a win-win, after all.
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