Escalona Dealt to Philly-West For 2nd Baseman Cartwright

Recently DFA’d lefty relief pitcher Sergio Escalona was dealt to the Houston Astros on Monday for minor league infielder Albert Cartwright (pictured).  The trade saw yet another acquisition of talent with a track record in the Phillies organization by former Philadelphia general manager, and current guy in charge of the Astros organization, Ed Wade. 

Cartwright, a 5-feet-10-inch 180 pound right-handed batter, was selected by Houston in the 36th round of the 2007 amateur draft.  Last season, in 127 combined games at High A level Lancaster and Double Corpus Christi, Cartwright posted a .294 batting average with 10 homers, 31 steals and 87 runs scored.  Much of that production was compiled with the Class High A Jethawks.  As a member of the Double A Hooks, Cartwright produced a low .561 OPS in 140 at bats.  Cartwright, 23, committed 29 errors in 116 games as a second baseman in 2010.

The 26-year-old Escalona, who went 4-8 with a 3.81 ERA in 50 games in relief for the Double A Reading Phillies in 2010, was moved by the Phillies to make room for recently re-signed reliever JC Romero on the team’s 40-man roster.  Wade was, of course, the GM in Philadelphia when Escalona was signed as an amateur free agent out of his native Venezuela in 2004.

The list for Houston’s recent players and team personnel with Phillies ties is long and includes individuals such as Brett Myers, Geoff Geary, Chris Coste, Mike Bourn, Pedro Feliz, Jason Michaels, “Jay” Happ as well as manager Brad Mills.

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Jay Floyd is PhilliesNation’s minor league contributor.  You can read more from Jay at his site, PhoulBallz.com.