Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Hot Stove Update: 3-Way Trade; Beane Keeps Trading; Nathan to the Tigers

The Hot Stove kept crackling away today as the Reds, D'Backs and Rays completed a confusing 3-way trade.  The D'Backs shipped overpaid reliever Heath Bell to the Rays and sent LHP prospect David Holmberg to the Reds.  The Rays got Bell and Reds catcher Ryan Hanigan while sending unheard of minor league RHP Justin Choate and a PTBNL to the D'Backs.  This one is a bit of a head scratcher from the D'Backs point of view.  It appears that they were so desperate to unload Bell and his $5.5 M salary(I thought it was more than that) they not only gave him away, they were willing to give up a pretty good pitching prospect to make it happen.  The Reds trade away a catcher they probably don't need anymore and got a nice pitching prospect.  The Rays apparently hope Bell can help their bullpen and were willing to take on his salary to get an inexpensive catcher as part of the deal.  Everybody seems to think this is a prelude to more deals from the D'Backs.

The Tigers signed Joe Nathan for 2 years $20 M.  On the heels of the Doug Fister trade, this looks like a disastrous series of decisions.  Nathan deepens their bulpen but is not a clear upgrade on anybody they already had

Now back to Trader Billy.  He started the day by trading OF prospect Michael Choice to the Rangers for OF Craig Gentry and RHP Josh Lindblom.  The Rangers also received 2B Chris Bostick in the deal.  Gentry has been strictly a platoon player(plays only against LHP's) with Texas but sports an outstanding OBP, is an accomplished basestealer and plays superior defense in CF.  Choice is a promising hitting prospect who plays only corner OF and whose power seemed to go a bit backwards in the last 2 seasons.  From this trade, it appears the A's are all in to make a run in 2014 and are dedicated to the platoon model.  Choice is a guy who could make them regret the trade in future years.

Billy wasn't done as he further fortified his bullpen by acquiring Luke Gregerson from the Padres for Seth Smith. I think this is a solid move by Beane, especially if he is going for it in 2014, which he clearly is.  Can't say I ever been all that impressed by Seth Smith and I'll be happy to not have to watch Gregerson and his maddening slider as often next year.

Looks like there may be more Hot Stove news coming later in the day, so stay tuned!

8 comments:

  1. Beane is still 2 titles beyond Sabean though and 2 beyond the king of low budgets, Florida.

    Gotta at least win one before coming out with Moneyball II. Hopefully there will be a shining trophy to distract readers from seeing how much he's stolen from Sabean.

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  2. I like the Tigers moves. By moving Cabrera to 1st, opens up 3rd for Castellanos, Kinsler at 2nd, Iglesias with some major talent at SS, Martinez at DH, hitting behind Cabrera, Avila behind the dish, an OF of Hunter, Jackson and soon to be Shin Soo Choo. Plus they still have a big three in their rotation. All the while they picked up a young lefty with promise and a couple auxiliary pieces. Nice work Dombrowski, the team is not as old and slow as it was. And definitely gunning for a title

    I also like the ambitious moves by the A's. Title hopes as well. I'm kind of excited to see what Billy gets back for Brett Anderson.

    What's Sabes up to? I understand he does not have the resources to wheel and deal, but if he were to deal Escobar and Susac, I wonder what he could bring back.

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  3. Payroll constraints aren't an issue for the Giants, despite their combined commitment of $168.5 million to right fielder Hunter Pence, Lincecum, Hudson, Vogelsong and Lopez.

    "We have plenty of money to spend," Sabean said.

    This made me laugh. How much money can you actually spend if you aren't willing to sign a top free agent that will cost a draft pick? Yanks I guess found their wallets. Beane needs to look for some common sense, I can't figure out any of these moves as it just seems like he is paying more money for guys that at best will be around the same effectiveness as the cheaper options he had last year (Kazmir instead of Colon and Jim Johnson instead of Balfour?). I love the Rockies signing of Morneau, he sucks and will be injured half the year. Is Sabean still on thanksgiving day vacation or did he lose his cellphone today or fall asleep at the tanning salon?

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    1. Sabes is just sitting back watching other teams make stupid deals.

      Do you really want the Giants to spend $153 M plus lose a draft pick on a guy who has averaged 100 games played over the last 4 seasons?

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    2. No, I don't want Elsbury but why would Sabes make that statement?? Unless he is planning on getting a guy like Bautista who is making 15 million a year or whatever, saying you have plenty of money to spend and then giving excuses as to why you don't actually spend it is garbage. Is he going to blame the ballpark again for not being able to spend that money on a LF? Nobody wants to trade with him? Can't afford to give up that sweet draft pick since we do so well drafting out of the top 10 in the first round!! Lots of excuses and lots of lip service and so far little results. I'm not frustrated that Sabes hasn't made the moves we see being made but I am frustrated that he hasn't found his own deals to make. If we have plenty of money to spend than don't use draft picks or anything else as an excuse as to why you don't spend.

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    3. Pato,

      Can you please have just on ounce of patience? My gosh! Sabes has said money is not a limiting factor. Chris Haft on sfgiants.com headlined that he will be shopping for a LF at the Winter Meetings. Can you please just wait until those meetings are over before you torch Sabes for what he didn't do?

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    4. When have you ever known me to be patient?

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  4. dont know if all his moves will work out, but its so much fun watching beane do his thing during the offseason

    bacci

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