The Diamondbacks bolstered their bullpen today with the acquisition of Heath Bell and they may not be done, tweets Jack Magruder of FOXSportsArizona.com. General Manager Kevin Towers is still on the lookout for a shortstop, third baseman, left-handed specialist, and a starting pitcher. Arizona still has an excess outfielder to work with as well and could dangle Justin Upton, Jason Kubel, or Gerardo Parra to upgrade elsewhere. Here's more on the surprising trade..
- In Chris Young, the D'Backs owed $10MM to an outfielder whom they felt was redundant, so they are instead redirecting the money to a reliever, tweets Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter) is surprised at how little the Diamondbacks netted in return for Young. Meanwhile, the A's can now use their new found outfield surplus and trade one, likely Coco Crisp, elsewhere, Rosenthal tweets.
- Trading Bell, who clashed with manager Ozzie Guillen this year, is one indication that the skipper may return in Miami next year, writes Scott Miller of CBSSports.com. It has been widely speculated that Guillen would be relieved after a tumultuous first year with the Marlins.
- The A's came away with the best player in the deal in Young, opines Jim Bowden of ESPN (via Twitter). Bowden adds that Miami had to move Bell and was fortunate to find a taker while Arizona got a solid defensive shortstop in Cliff Pennington.
- Pennington being moved out of the picture in Oakland bodes well for Stephen Drew's return, writes Jane Lee of MLB.com. The shortstop has a $10MM mutual option for 2013.
someone should have told the dbacks that just because a player is redundant it doesn’t lower their value.
No kidding. It was a forgone conclusion that Young was on his way out of Arizona. But the D-Backs could have done better.
I dont agree. With all of the OF options on the FA market, finding someone to commit 10M to CY AND give up prospects is asking a lot.
I don’t know. Considering his cost to the A’s and price, 8.5m in ’13 & 11m in ’14 with the 1.5m buyout… to me that is a millions times better the giving up your first round pick, like will happen if B.J. Upton signs with one of the 20 winningest teams. Not to mention your talking a 10m commitment versus what, 60M?
Taking on Heath Bell at 2/13m which I doubt he could have gotten were he a free agent looks pretty silly to me. Worth noting that over the past three years Young’s fwar (12) is higher then B.J. Upton (11.5) or Nick Swisher (11.8).
Personally I would have waited to deal Young until teams were looking at those others, he starts looking like a bargain for team keying in on free agents.
Except the Dbacks aren’t getting prospects OR salary relief. Instead of a thumping CF with exceptional defense that is prone to doing one of four things at the plate (K, BB, 2B, or HR) they are getting a retread in Bell and hoping beyond hope that he can return to form, despite having absolutely no need for him. CY, even at $10MM has value, a middle reliver at an AAV of $6.5MM does not.
Penington is a utility IFer at best for the D-Backs. He’s MIGHT be marginally better than Bloomquist, and even that is being generous. So basically, the D-Backs get a UtIF that they have no need of, and a bloated contract middle reliever that, quite honestly, if were not for contract, would probably be competeing for a slot on the 25-man roster. If the point was to save money, they aren’t. They are paying more. If the point was to get a SS or a prospect, they didn’t really get that either.
All the marquee OFer going into FA are going to get PAID. Why not wait until the dust settles and then make a pitch to move Young so a team (like the A’s or Rays) can get him at a “steal” but then the D-Backs can actually get value in return as well?
Have these guys actually watched CY play baseball?
I know right? I mean he’s a fine baseball player, who is truly clutch and is an excellent fielder. But he is still paid a lot for what he does, has low batting averages consistently, and has low obp. I actually was expecting less than what they ended up with (although they would have had more money to spend). I like Heath Bell, as he’s had immense success in the NL West and is a year removed from being regarded as one of the game’s best closers. And Pennington is a good fielder who is inconsistent with the bat (I would really like him to be a bench player, with the Dbacks finding a better shortstop, but I don’t think that will happen this year). Overall, not bad in my opinion.
The main thing is that he was due to make 10M. i dont know what people expected in return, especially given all of the free agent options.
Trade for another slap hitting IF that helps you get toasted by better AL offenses should you be even lucky enough to make the playoffs.
Could Oakland has the deepest OF in the majors? Is that fair to say?
yeah, they have the best OF by far in my opinion. Someone feel free to find one better and call my attention to them.
Are we talking the players or the actual outfield? I think every team in the Majors has better outfield grass than the Raid…I mean A’s stadium.
im talking about the players
Angels, Cards, Dodgers.
Nats are pretty close.
Baltimore. When healthy they are the best. Jones, Markakis, Reimold, Davis, and most likely Mclouth as well. Tough to beat.
I’d wager most would consider the O’s OF closer to the middle then near or at the top. Maybe if Markakis was hitting like he did 3 or 4 years ago it’d seem more potent.
Oakland can has OF?
why spend $10m on a starting outfielder when you can spend it on a reliever? #ktlogic
I think AZ is spending about 6.5 on Bell after money exchanged.
Per year so 13MM in total.
Beane does it again. I think if Young stays healthy, he’s going to have a very nice season for the A’s.
Really? The AL West has several pitchers with excellent breaking balls, and Young flails helplessly at even average breaking balls.
Over the past three years Young has struck out about 21% of the time. This after being up around 26% in years prior, which is B.J. Upton territory.
He crushes LHP, and draws walks at a rather impressive rate for a strike out batter. He is also a doubles hitting machine that plays exceptional defense. His strike out rate has also been dropping. He’s never going to be a .300 hitter, but he could rather easily elevate himself to a .250 hitter with 20-30 HR and 20-30 SB. That is plenty acceptable so long as he isn’t batting #3 in the lineup.