D-Rays Complete Deal With Dodgers

After successfully completing the Danys Baez trade in January, the Dodgers and Devil Rays have matched up again on a multi-player swap.  This time L.A. sent Jae Seo, Dioner Navarro, and a PTBNL to the D-Rays for Toby Hall and Mark Hendrickson.

With a .258 batting average on balls in play, Hendrickson has been the 11th luckiest starter in baseball this year.  Given the D-Rays' team BABIP of .316, we can be fairly confident that the 32 year-old southpaw will not maintain his hit rate of 8.13 per nine.  His peripherals are otherwise unimpressive - 3.4 BB/9, 5.1 K/9, 1.0 HR/9.  Prior to this season, Hendrickson had allowed almost 11 hits per nine innings in the Majors.  His control is better than this, but he's in for a steep decline overall. 

Despite an ERA near 6, I'm not sure Jae Seo is much worse than Hendrickson.  Though no one seems to trust Seo to succeed, he has managed a 3.85 career ERA in almost 400 innings leading up to this season.  Hendrickson doesn't seem like a significant upgrade, especially half a season worth of him.

The exchange of Toby Hall for Dioner Navarro is another clear win for Tampa Bay.  Navarro is still just 22 and hasn't had a full trial in the Majors.  Any backstop that young who can draw a walk 10% of the time has value.

I think this is a disappointing move for the Dodgers.  While it's true they may not miss Navarro or Seo, Hendrickson is not the #3 starter the team needs to run away with the NL West.

Comments

[TheRealErik]

"Despite an ERA near 6, I'm not sure Jae Seo is much worse than Hendrickson."

I'll tell you something else... i'd rather have Seo than Hendrickson.

There are rumors going around that the Mets are looking to get Lugo and Seo from the D-Rays.

If Duquette were still around, i'd be putting my David Wright jersey on Ebay right now.

[Adam]

I think this is a great deal for the D-rays, and I'm not just saying this as a fan. You get a great catching prospect who can anchor that spot for many years to come. With the pitchers it's really just switching 2 OK starters. Remember the D-rays made this deal to get Navarro.

[BigRed]

Wow talk about a steal for the D-Rays, last year in the majors Navarro hit .270 but had a 20/21 walk-strikeout rate in 50 AB's which is impressive for a 22 year old catcher. This deal just doesnt make sense to me from the Dodgers standpoint, dont they already have a backup catcher in Alomar Jr.? What do they need Toby Hall for?

Hendrickson is only a marginally better pitcher than Seo, and he's not the pitcher that the Dodgers need to make a push for the playoffs.

[BigRed]

Not to mention a nice exchange in salary for the small market D-Rays:

Hall: 2.25 Mil
Hendrickson: 1.95 Mil

Seo: 350K
Navarro: 332K

and they have control of Navarro for the next 6 years, just a great trade for the D-Rays all around.