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In January, the Dodgers signed a pair of Mexican teenagers: a 19-year-old outfielder named Antonio Torres. Torres was notably not traded to the Phillies as the final part of the deal that sent Roberto Hernandez to Los Angeles. So he doesn't matter.
No, our interest lies in an 18-year-old right handed hurler named Victor Arano. The over six feet tall, sort of lumpy Arano went to the Arizona Rookie League, where he threw 49.1 innings and logged a K for every IP, with only 13 walks.
Jason Parks of Baseball Prospectus started getting phone calls in the middle of the night from complete strangers, screaming questions at him* about whether he'd heard of this Arano kid.
From True Blue L.A.:
"I got the velocity reports, I got the secondary reports, there was one team that really wanted to acquire him in some fashion down the line," Parks said. "Arano is not the most projectible arm, a little more polished than the average AZL [Arizona Rookie League] arm, the body is a lot more mature than the other kids in that league."
Parks added that Arano "is 6'2" maybe a little shorter than that, he's a got a little bit of belly already, that said he is already pumping low 90s fastballs, arm is loose, delivery is very easy. He can throw a curveball for strikes, he can turnover a changeup."
Arano got himself onto the Baseball America top Dodgers prospect list this year, as the man at #29.
The Phillies' acquisition of him will pluck Arano out of the Great Lakes, where he'd been throwing for the Dodgers' terrible Single A Midwestern League affiliate and drop him where every young man dreams of going one day: Clearwater, Florida, where the heartwarming stories about manatees are counterbalanced by the horrifying stories of restaurants being secretly run by cockroaches.
With the Great Lakes, Arano had appeared in 22 games, notching a 4.08 ERA, 83 SO, and 20 BB over 86 IP. Here he is striking out a Bowling Green Hot Rod who will never be a Tampa Bay Ray. It was his seventh on the day.
We can finally consider the Roberto Hernandez Era closed in Philadelphia. May his reign be soon forgotten.
*This is not the exact way that this happened.