Here’s a roundup of links on the Rays’ recent acquisition of Corey Dickerson and minor league third baseman Kevin Padlo from the Rockies for Jake McGee and pitching prospect German Marquez.
- Dickerson adds to what’s becoming a large collection of candidates to play outfield, first base and DH for the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. That group includes Dickerson, Kevin Kiermaier, Desmond Jennings, Steven Souza, Brandon Guyer, James Loney, Steve Pearce and Logan Morrison. Of those, Dickerson, Pearce and Morrison are new additions, and Jennings essentially will be a new addition as well, having missed most of the 2015 season due to a knee injury. “It’s hard to predict how it’s going to actually turn out, but having this group gives us a lot of confidence that we’re going to score the runs that we need to this year,” says Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman.
- Rockies GM Jeff Bridich says that, in addition to adding a potential closer in McGee, they’ve improved their defense and baserunning by replacing Dickerson with Gerardo Parra, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes. Of course, they’ll be losing Dickerson and his career .299/.345/.534 line, a good one even in Colorado. “Offensively, I’m not sure how it improves our outfield,” Bridich says. “Corey is a very talented offensive player. The things he always needed to work on at the major-league level were his outfield defense and his baserunning. And I think those two places are two places of strength for Gerardo.”
- Dickerson for McGee is a “weird trade” from the Rockies’ perspective, FanGraphs’ Dave Cameron writes. The Rockies are giving up four years of control of a talented young hitter in exchange for two years of a reliever, and they could have moved Dickerson to first base, where they have a vacancy. And adding a short-term relief acquisition makes little sense for a team that doesn’t seem poised to contend, Cameron argues. For the Rays, Dickerson wasn’t exactly a necessity, but they added talent in the deal and can figure out what to do with their OF/1B/DH surplus later.