Marlins trade Hayden Cantrelle for Luke Williams

Hayden Cantrelle lasted less than two months in the Marlins organization. The Double-A infielder acquired by the Fish right before Opening Day was flipped to the Giants on Thursday for utility guy Luke Williams. Williams had been designated for assignment by San Francisco last weekend.

Williams, 25, is a career .245/.308/.318 hitter (73 wRC+) in 120 major league plate appearances. Most of those reps came with the Phillies last season, the team that selected him in the third round of the 2015 draft. He has experience at every infield and outfield position. The right-handed batter isn’t prospect-eligible by my criteria due to games spent on MLB active rosters.

Williams earned the nickname “Captain America” for his contributions to Team USA during the qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.

The Giants took the unusual step of DFA’ing Williams with all three of his minor league options intact. With Jon Berti and Joey Wendle both on the verge of returning from the injured list, I suspect that the Marlins will send Williams to Triple-A Jacksonville.

The impact of COVID cases on 40-man roster space gives me a headache, but I’m fairly sure that a corresponding move is required to make room for Williams on the 40-man. Perhaps transferring Paul Campbell to the 60-day IL?

The 23-year-old Cantrelle got off to a great start with Double-A Pensacola, homering in three of his first six games. He was the club’s main second baseman.

But his production dropped off precipitously from there. He just snapped an 0-for-17 slump on Wednesday. Overall, Cantrelle posted a .185/.312/.337 slash line (78 wRC+) in 28 games played with very high walk and strikeout rates.

Cantrelle’s side hustle is vlogging and running his own lifestyle brand, 5Guy. Maybe we’ll get another reaction video from his YouTube account shortly.

Best of luck, Hayden.