Never content to stand pat at the trade deadline, Neal Huntington pulled the trigger on a five-player deal with Arizona, dealing P D.J. Carrasco, OF Ryan Church, and IF Bobby Crosby for C Chris Snyder and minor-league SS Pedro Ciriaco. To fill the holes on the Pirate roster, 1B Jeff Clement and SS Argenis Diaz will be recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis today.
The 29-year-old Snyder, who once suffered a fractured testicle, is batting .231 with 10 home runs and 32 RBIs in 65 games. But more important than his mediocre bat is his strong defense, throwing out 30% of runners and compiling a .999 fielding percentage over the past three years. With the deal in the books, Dejan Kovacevic said that Ryan Doumit will be playing mostly outfield in the future, so Pirate fans will no longer be subjected to his offensive-to-the-eyes style of defense.
The 24-year-old Ciriaco was batting .256 for Class AAA Reno, with six home runs, 51 RBIs and 14 steals. Much like Snyder, he is considered a strong defensive player. I'm assuming hell slide into Diaz's vacated spot at Indy.
In exchange for the two defenders, the Pirates gave up a trio of players past the age of 30 who weren't in their long-range plans. Carrasco had made it known to Huntington that he wanted to be traded to a contender, so it's kind of funny that he ended up on another last-place team in Arizona. As for the bats, Church was hitting .182 and Crosby was at .224. Combined, all three players were scheduled to earn $1.23 million the rest of the season, money that could best be spent elsewhere.
Snyder is due $1.69 million for the rest of this season and $5.75 million for 2011, with a club option worth $6.75 million for 2012 and a $750,000 buyout. But don't fret, about $3 million will be sent to the Pirates by Arizona as part of the deal.
With the deadline approaching, there are still a few Bucs who may be playing elsewhere in the near future, especially Paul Maholm and Octavio Dotel, who have both been named in a number of potential deals. However, it sounds as if Garrett Jones will be staying put after his name was floated earlier in the week.
7 comments:
This one will probably pus us over the top. Championship, boys.
Good trade. Sending dead weight to Arizona for somebody who knows how to catch and a minor-leaguer.
Just wish this was followed by a Doumit trade.
How many gold medals has Ryan Doumit ever won? He's no olympic champion. I think it's a great sign that we may actually be making transactions now on the basis of competition rather than economics.
Doumit doesn't like it? Then step up and be an impact catcher.
Any trade that involves me not having to watch Ryan Church play baseball anymore is a win. The fact that we also got a catcher who can, you know, catch the ball is an added bonus.
And this decent trade was totally made up for with the salary dumps of Dotel and Lopez.
Two 27 year old career minor leaguers will really make us a better team next year!
The return we got for Dotel was two of LA's top 10 prospects. The last time McDonald qualified as a prospect he was ranked #1 in their system. He also looked decent as a starter last year.
The Lopez return was underwhelming, but so is Lopez. I see it as a wash.
Also, you realize the Pirates actually took on payroll at the deadline, right? You can't call it a salary dump if they are, in fact, adding salary.
Oh, and also the Pirates sent cash with Dotel to the Dodgers and are covering whatever performance bonuses the players reach.
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