In comes Frazier!

With a ton of salary free, the Flagstaff Outlaws decided to spend a little of that money prior to the draft, acquiring Jonathan Villar and his 10.5M salary from the Cleveland Rocks, but Cleveland also sends young outfielder Clint Frazier to encourage the Outlaws to take on that money.

“It’s a gamble, but we like Frazier and we’ve got the flexibility,” Outlaws GM Greg Newgard said. “If you remember, it wasn’t too long ago that we took on a 36M contract in Zach Greinke from Cleveland for J.P. Crawford. That deal worked alone on the bounce-back we got out Greinke last season.”

To offset some of the money involved, Flagstaff was able to send Dominic Leone and Matt Albers back to Cleveland, making the total hit to the salary just under 8M.

“Villar wasn’t terrible and can play at SS for us this year, so it’s a somewhat useful buy here.”

The Outlaws still project to have about 30M free going into the draft.