ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.-The Tampa Bay Rays have traded right-handed pitcher Jake Odorizzi to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for minor league shortstop Jermaine Palacios.
Odorizzi, 27, departs among franchise leaders with 124 starts (fifth), 698 innings (sixth), 40 wins (tied for sixth) and 639 strikeouts (fifth). Since 2014, his first full season in the majors, Odorizzi has made 19 scoreless starts, tied for third in the American League over that span behind Chris Sale (24) of the White Sox and Red Sox and Carlos Carrasco (20) of the Indians. He has gone 40-38 with a 3.83 ERA (705.1-IP, 300-ER) in 129 career appearances (126 starts) in the majors, with all but two of those starts coming since a December 2012 trade from the Kansas City Royals to the Rays.
In 2017, Odorizzi was 10-8 with a 4.14 ERA (143.1-IP, 66-ER) in 28 starts. He led the AL with 12 starts allowing 3 hits or fewer, breaking the club record previously held by Matt Moore (11) in 2013. Despite stints on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain and lower back strain, the 2017 season marked his fourth consecutive year of at least 28 starts. Of his 80 runs allowed, 54 came in to score on a career-high 30 home runs allowed. He yielded 1.88 home runs per nine innings, tied for the highest rate in club history (min. 100 IP). He finished the season going 3-1 with a 1.03 ERA (26.1-IP, 3-ER) in 5 starts in September, a club-record ERA for the month and the third-best ERA for any month in club history.
Palacios, 21, split the 2017 season between Class-A Cedar Rapids and Class-A Fort Myers, batting .296/.333/.454 (149-for-504) with 21 doubles, 10 triples, 13 home runs, 67 RBI and 20 stolen bases. In his fourth minor league season, he established career highs in runs (82), hits, triples, homers, runs batted in and steals. He ranked sixth among Twins minor leaguers in batting avg. and third in stolen bases. He was named the Midwest League Player of the Week for April 17-23, batting .516 (16-for-31) with five extra-base hits (3-2B, 1-3B, 1-HR) and 7 RBI in seven games. He was selected to the MWL midseason All-Star Team but did not play, and was promoted to Fort Myers on June 23. Following the season, he was named to the Twins Organizational All-Star Team by MLB.com.
Palacios was signed as an international free agent out of Venezuela on September 6, 2013. Over four minor league seasons, he has hit .290/.345/.426 (342-for-1,178) with 63 doubles, 23 triples, 17 home runs, 161 RBI and 46 stolen bases. Throughout his career, he has made starts at shortstop (248), third base (39), second base (3) and left field (1). In 2016, he was limited to 71 games with Cedar Rapids with a left wrist injury. He split the 2015 season between the Gulf Coast League Twins and Rookie-level Elizabethtown, led Twins minor leaguers with a .370 avg. (87-for-235) and was named to the organizational's All-Star Team by MLB.com. He appeared in 49 games with the Dominican Summer League Twins in 2014, his first professional season.
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