Last time, we made it almost to Thanksgiving and covered what will probably be the winter's biggest trade. Let's keep on rollin', baby. You know what time it is.
11/22: Angels trade OF Peter Bourjos and minor league OF Randal Grichuk to the Cardinals for 3B David Freese and RP Fernando Salas. Third base was a need for the Angels after their trade of Alberto Callaspo to Oakland, and in Freese they get two years of a solution. How good will Freese be? Well, according to Baseball Reference, he collapsed not just offensively but defensively in 2013. At age 30, it's possible he's out of his peak years, but 2013 was the first time in his career that he failed to post an OBP over .350. I think Freese will be fine and I would have liked this as a buy-low move for the Angels. But is this really the buy-low price? Given Cards GM John Mozeliak's track record, most just assume that any trade he makes with a less-heralded GM is a win for the Cardinals. Whether you think the return of Bourjos (a good glove, mediocre bat CF) and Grichuk (A pretty good outfield prospect) is good depends mainly on what you think Bourjos will do in a full season's worth of at-bats. In Jerry Dipoto's defense, he traded Bourjos while he still had some value and improved the lineup for at least one year. Also, let's take into account that both teams were dealing from depth. Matt Carpenter will move to 3B and rookie Kolten Wong takes over at second in St. Louis, while Bourjos was blocked by some dudes named Trout and Hamilton in Anaheim. This doesn't look like a franchise-altering deal, but I think the Angels got the best player and aren't taking as many risks with young players. The Angels, therefore, are the winners. Whether or not they win more winter and make a real run at the AL West crown remains to be seen.
11/22: Rockies sign RP Latroy Hawkins, 1 year, $2.5M. Because 41 year old closers in Coors Field always work out. It's not a ton of money, but Colorado runs on a pretty tight budget. Since relievers are all failed starters, and the Rockies churn out failed starters at an alarming rate, there's almost certainly a cheaper, better option already in the organization. Low-risk, yes, but the reward is practically zero. Latroy's the loser here. It's nice to have a closer job, and people like saves, but at a certain point the gas is going to run out. Pitching at Coors will only make it happen faster.
11/25: Cardinals sign SS Jhonny Peralta, 4 years, $53M. Here's the signing that set the stage for all the rampant WTFery that follows. Here's a shortstop who's going to play next year at 32, who served a PED suspension last year (I'm not moralizing, just saying, he missed 50 games), who's had 2 All-Star years and 4 mediocre ones in what should have been his prime. And he's worth that contract? I get wanting to be proactive so as not to start next year with Pete Kozma in the lineup. But signing Peralta this early in the offseason suggests that the Cardinals really think he was the best value they could get at short. I'm almost positive he wasn't. Why not go after one of Seattle's middle infielders? Why not wait and see if the draft pick signing cost deflated the Stephen Drew market? How about Alexei Ramirez? I mean, I guess the 2014 Cardinals are improved by this addition, but maybe not by much, and avoiding long-term costs like this for non-elite players is part of what's made St. Louis so successful in the past decade. This won't turn into a loss for the Cardinals for a year or two, but I think it will eventually. Peralta wins big, probably even bigger than he thought he would at season's end.
11/25: Dodgers sign SP Dan Haren, 1 year, $10M (Vesting option for 2015). For most of the aughts, Haren was secretly one of the best pitchers in the game. He made three straight All-Star teams, leading the league in WHIP in 2009 and leading three times in K/BB ratio. Unfortunately for him, 2012 was among his worst years as a starter and his attempt to rebuild value with Washington in 2013 went just about the same. So he gets another one year deal, with a higher guarantee than I expected. Most "prove it" contracts come with a low base salary and significant incentives, but even if Haren goes out and pitches like a replacement pitcher again he'll still cash in. The Dodgers are more concerned about the long term financial picture, of course, and they can take an eight-figure short term gamble on anyone they want. If Haren is indeed healthy and effective, the Dodgers will look good for a second straight NL West title and again they'll head into October with as good a rotation as any team in the game. I'm not super-sanguine about that, though. It's just a guess, but I think the last two years are an indication of how the rest of Haren's career is going to look. The Dodgers will lose this deal, but it's a loss they can easily afford.
11/25: Indians sign OF David Murphy, 2 years, $12M. He's 32 and coming off a down year in Texas, which should be concerning to Indians fans. On the other hand, he's replacing the offensively challenged Drew Stubbs in the lineup. Outside of last year, Murphy's been running a career .800 OPS, which is better than what Stubbs brings. Cleveland is paying for a slight upgrade and that's what they're getting, but it's kind of hard to imagine the Indians repeating their 2013 Wild Card appearance without some kind of significant addition.
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