Phillies acquire Nelson and Sands from Yankees

The Phillies have acquired right-handed pitcher Nick Nelson and catcher Donny Sands from the New York Yankees in exchange for left-handed pitcher Joel Valdez and first baseman T.J. Rumfield, President of Baseball Operations David Dombrowski announced today.

Nelson, 25, spent the majority of the 2021 season with triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he made 24 relief appearances and five starts, posting a 3.81 ERA with 62 strikeouts in 52.0 innings. He also appeared in 11 games over several stints with the Yankees, logging more than one inning in six of those appearances and striking out 22 of the 78 batters he faced (28.2%). Nelson has appeared in 105 minor league games (79 starts) and has made 22 career major league appearances (two starts) after being selected by New York in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB Draft.

Sands, a right-handed hitting catcher, played in 94 games between double-A Somerset and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, slashing .261/.326/.466 with 16 doubles, 18 home runs, 56 RBI and 32 walks to 57 strikeouts. Defensively, he logged 640.1 innings in 76 games behind the plate, posting a .994 fielding percentage with only five passed balls while throwing out 11 of 86 potential base stealers. The 25-year-old was ranked the No. 28 prospect in the Yankees system by MLB Pipeline in 2021. He was selected by New York in the eighth round of the 2015 MLB Draft.

Valdez, 21, spent the 2021 season with the rookie-level Dominican Summer League Phillies Red, posting a 1.63 ERA in 15 starts. A native of the Dominican Republic, he was signed by the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 2018.

The 21-year-old Rumfield was a 12th-round selection by the Phillies in the 2021 MLB Draft out of Virginia Tech. He made his professional career debut with single-A Clearwater in 2021, batting .250 in 27 games.