The Dodgers acquired Scott Podsednik from the Royals for catcher Lucas May and right-handed pitcher Elisaul Pimentel, the Royals announced. ESPN.com's Jayson Stark, who first reported the deal on Twitter, notes that the Dodgers will pay the rest of Podsednik's salary.
Podsednik has a .309/.352/.400 line with 30 steals in 42 attempts. If those numbers look familiar, it’s because he batted .304/.353/.412 with 30 steals in 43 attempts a year ago. Podsednik has spent most of his time in left field this year, though he has played hundreds of games in center over the course of his ten-year MLB career.
The 34-year-old makes $1.65MM this year (about $620K remains). The Dodgers have a $2MM option for 2011, but Podsednik will probably be able to void it. He has 430 plate appearances and needs just 525 to neutralize the option.
Royals GM Dayton Moore said the club would likely have offered arbitration to Podsednik, a projected Type B free agent the season. The Royals remain open to signing the outfielder if he hits free agency this winter, but Moore wanted to acquire value for him now.
May, 25, is hitting .285/.344/.472 with 11 homers in the upper minors, mostly at Triple A. The Dodgers drafted him as a shortstop in the eighth round of the 2003 draft and current Royals scout Mitch Webster signed him. Moore says May is a "slam dunk MLB catcher" in some capacity, though he is still developing behind the plate.
Before the 2007 season, May became a full-time catcher. Baseball America said he was still an "inconsistent" receiver before this season, when they ranked May 17th among Dodgers prospects. BA noted his ability to square up fastballs and his struggles with off-speed and breaking pitches.
Pimentel, who was honored as the Topps Midwest League Player of the Month for June, has a 3.49 ERA in 16 starts this year. The 22-year-old Dominican native has, to borrow Moore's words, "eye-popping" minor league numbers: 9.7 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 with that tidy 3.49 ERA.
This afternoon, the Dodgers were pursuing Podsednik and other outfielders, including Ryan Raburn. GM Ned Colletti wanted outfield depth, since Manny Ramirez and Reed Johnson are on the DL. Now, Colletti tells Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times that his focus has turned to pitching (Twitter link).
YES! This is awesome! Now the Royals will continue to add to their incredible best minor league system in Baseball. Thank you Dayton!
Let’s see how it translates to the big leagues. With the pool of talent in the minors, the Royals could see a period of domination soon.
I’m telling you man, I’m sure you are aware of this as well as I am, but they have “scary” minor league talent who are putting up crazy numbers. Lamb, Duffy, Moose, Hosmer, Giavotella, Cuthbert, Myers, Colon, D-Rob, Monty, Dwyer, and now Pimentel.
Yeah Pimentel is really good but have you seen the catcher they got in Lucas May? The guy can hit! .352 with 11 HRs I’m looking to see how that translate in the majors. He has proven he can hit but can he play defense?
Yeah Pimentel is really good but have you seen the catcher they got in Lucas May? The guy can hit! .352 with 11 HRs I’m looking to see how that translate in the majors. He has proven he can hit but can he play defense?
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A FJM story waiting to write itself.
Dodgers continue to add pieces year in and year out only to fall to the NL East team of your choice.
Yes the Dodgers add Juan Pierre… I mean Scott Podsednik… I mean wait… did they get rid of Juan Pierre? Are they the same person?
the only thing is podsednik has a little more power and is cheaper than pierre.
nice you beat me to the punch line.
except Pierre costs 5x as much.
Right, JP wasn’t a bad player, just an overpaid one. But Podsednick is a little better.
Yeah but this is also for next season. Scotty Pods has an option that I bet gets picked up.
I’m saying Trayvon Robinson and Tim Sexton go to the Royals.
Wrong. Not even close.
Why are the Dodgers still trying?
This guy’s looking for someone to ride the troll-er-coaster with.
5 GB, toughest schedule remaining, Manny’s out. What chance do they have?
Look at the wild card… Jesus, quit trolling.
last time i checked idiot theres something called a wild card thank u
last time i checked idiot theres something called a wild card thank u
A good one. They aren’t locks for the post season, but they have August and September to work with. The Dodgers have a nice team even without Manny and it just got a little bit better with Pods who can hit for a nice average and can run. If the Dodgers can get hot they can make some things happen.
I wonder who the 2 minor league players are?
Can’t imagine they’re anyone too interesting.
So far, no Dodgers minor leaguers have been pulled from their respective games. So not sure yet.
Hopefully Prentice Redman and Charlie Haeger.
Dodgers acquire Scott Podsednik’s wife’s husband, Scott Podsednik
That’s what had us so excited about originally signing him in the first place!
Someone had to say it.
Lucas May and Elisaul Pimentel. (Phew!)
Scott is a nice player. More like a Great pinch runner and a decent fielder. Hes a lefty and that’s on the upside, but he will make NO difference for LA. Let’s face it, the dodgers have the hardest schedule in the league for the second half. I’m sorry dodgers fans, but your not gonna be in the playoffs this year unless you get Oswalt and it looks like you don’t have the stuff to trade for him unless your giving up Kemp or Loney. Your 3rd in the division, and u should be 4th, and you probably will be by the end of the year. With Colorado with hot streaks at the end of the year for the past 3 years, with San Diego looking pretty solid for this year, and with Posey doing great for San Fran, I doubt they can sneak into 3rd place.
Most of those games on our “Hard schedule” are against division opponents. Why don’t you look at our record against our division…
A Phillies fan, of course you’re going to look at this from a completely unobjective point of view…
Why don’t you worry about your own team. You guys aren’t exactly torching your division.
He is not all that great on the field, he has been getting on base quite alot over the past two years though.
Troll!
Jeff Passan JeffPassan
#Dodgers acquire OF Scott Podsednik from #Royals for Triple-A C Lucas May and Class A RHP Elisaul Pimentel
C Lucas May and P Elisaul Pimentel
Royals just ripped us off.
Lucas May is a passed ball machine and their are many other arms in the Dodgers organization better than Pimentel.
Knowing we have trader Ned as GM, I think this was not a bad deal.
I think Manny is probably going to be out for a while, but the Dodgers just haven’t said it.
Think May won’t stick at C? Looks like he’s been putting up impressive hitting numbers for a catcher the last couple years, but obviously he loses value if he can’t stay there
Would be great to trade Manny to the AL so he could DH for them while getting relief pitching in return
Elisaul Pimentel, one of the two acquired from the Dodgers, is downright nasty and will be a tremendous Major League Pitcher. Has 9.8 k/9 in 90.1 IP. a 3.49 ERA for the Loons. Really like this guy and he will probably go to High-A Wilmington.
Hate to break this to you, but the Dodgers have a bunch of guys in the minors that have filthy stuff.
Pimentel is a decent prospect, but far from one of the Dodgers best.
Never said he was the best bro. Of course I’d love to have Withrow, Aaron Miller, Eovaldi, or even Lindblom or Webster. But we’ll take Pimentel.
Actually, you want Kenley Jansen. He’s downright dominant.
He is also putting those numbers up as a 23 year old in low A ball.
Even if he is a 50 year old rookie, it’s all about upside my friend.
He turned 22 2 weeks ago…
i was just age aint nothing but a number.
He’s about the age that college pitchers sign. Many are sent to Low A. I’m guessing Dayton Moore wanted him because he feels he can climb the ladder quickly.
Really, that was a good return on Scotty Pods. They took a chance onhimlast offseason. He didn’t seem likely to to repeat his 2009 comeback. Chicago rescued him from retirement. It’s a nice story.
He’s about the age that college pitchers sign. Many are sent to Low A. I’m guessing Dayton Moore wanted him because he feels he can climb the ladder quickly.
Really, that was a good return on Scotty Pods. They took a chance onhimlast offseason. He didn’t seem likely to to repeat his 2009 comeback. Chicago rescued him from retirement. It’s a nice story.
What are the general scouting reports on those two guys? Good? average? bad?
Pimentel has tremendous upside, unlike May.
Guys with “tremendous” upside make the top-5 top prospects list of an average farm system. As a Dodgers fan, Pimentel is nowhere near the top 15, much less top 5.
By that logic, since Carlos Santana was on nobody’s prospect lists going into 2008, it was okay to trade him. Yet, by the end of the season he vaulted ahead of the guy CC Sabathia was traded for.
Obviously Pimentel’s ridiculous performance at low-A, with arguably better peripherals than Allen Webster, was going to get him much more attention. I bet he will be on top 30/20 lists now.I realize he’s not Carlos Santana or anything close, but he does have upside as a #2-#3 or if his 3rd/4th offerings don’t flesh out, then a good reliever.
This deal has a Blake for Carlos Santana feel to it.
It may have a feel of getting another Soria is more like it.
But the Dodgers have a LOT of minor league pitchers in their system who are also very good prospects.
Guys like Ethan Martin, Chris Withrow, Garrett Gould, Aaron Miller, Nate Eovaldi, Josh Lindblom, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Brett Wallach, John Ely, Jon Link.
In other words, the Dodgers didn’t give up a top-tier pitcher to get Podsednik.
Nope, it really doesn’t. Neither of these guys has anywhere close to the upside of a Carlos Santana, who was included to offset salary. Apples and oranges.
No, it really doesn’t. Neither of the guys the Dodgers gave up have near the upside Santana did/does.
wow…..these are 2 good players…..the royals won this trade
Dodgers are hard to figure out. They traded a scott podsednik player in the offseason(pierre) only to re-acquire one. just doesn’t add up.
They traded Pierre to free up money…
It adds up when you got two outfielders on the DL
Seriously? How does this relate at all to the Pierre deal, which was a pure salary dump?
i think its a major win for the royals. get rid of pods. try gordon again (take 4?)…. now, how do we get rid of guillen and farnsworth? bannister + davies + lerew + chen for cash would be nice too 😀
Really, “major” win? A major win would have been Aaron Miller and Jerry Sands. This is a ho-hum deal.
It’s Scott Podsednik. The fact that they got anything decent for him is a major win.
Here comes the 34 year old Ted Lilly!
Are the Dodgers the most trolled team around? Or a close second to the Yankees?
I’m a Dodgers fan if that was towards me, I can see people interpreting it as trolling/sarcasm, but i’m actually excited about the idea of Lilly joining the Dodgers. Hence the exclamation!!
This might actually be a win for the Dodgers…
Gave up a guy that is at best a MLB backup C and a guy a little old for A ball that is a reliever with little upside and got a decent bench piece/fill in. Not a big fan of Pods but he has some value.
I think Podsednik really improves the Dodgers. Not a bad lineup.
LF – Podsednik
SS – Furcal
CF – Kemp
RF – Ethier
1b – Loney
C – Martin
3b – Blake
2b – DeWitt
It’d be Furcal then Podsednik.
Yah Furcal is too good in leadoff role to be moved from there. I see Pods batting 2nd. When Manny comes back, if Pods subs for Ethier, he may bat lower in the order. Either way, it sure looks better than “Anderson-LF” or even “Carroll-LF” (playing out of position).
Podsednik’s been batting leadoff two nights in a row. Furcal has a liiiitle bit more power than Scotty, which means he’d be more likely to drive in Pods than the other way around.
Call me crazy but…is this one of those trades that could work out for both sides?
Loving the irony here. Juan Pierre and Pods have traded places from where they were a year ago. Just that the Sox are paying JP more money instead of re-signing a fan favorite, and had to give up two top prospects (two of the only good pitching prospects left) just to get him.
This is possibly a good trade for both sides, believe it or not. May is a terrible defensive catcher who just hasn’t improved enough there to be a good fit for the Dodgers going forward, but has a good enough bat, maybe, where he could be a DH for Royals. Pimentel has a couple of good pitches but is a little old for his level. This is part of the Royals plan to keep acquiring guys named Pimentel from LA until one of them works out. 😉
Pods will help the Dodgers because Manny needs to not play every day even when he comes back, Johnson is out for god knows how long, and Garrett Anderson is terrible. They desperately needed some OF depth right now and he’s a good guy to have around. Two C+ prospects for him seems about right.
Hey man, Glad you guys are all asking how I’ve been. Good to be missed! Anyway, hope you’ve been good. I think he has a chance to be a very good pitcher…Even if he is a 25/26 year old rookie. But Burlington, Wilmington, NW Ark, and Omaha have a “recent” track record of good coached and management. We’ll see what happens.
I’ve been keeping your “first post in every thread” seat warm while you were gone
Thank you sir. I owe you one!