Wildo7
Totally Full of It
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
- Messages
- 8,945
- Reaction score
- 88
http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7889
Red Sox trade Manny Ramirez, Craig Hansen, Brandon Moss, and pay Ramirez's remaining 2008 salary ($7 million) and receive Jason Bay.
I like this trade for the Sox even if you ignore everything but the baseball. They trade two months of Ramirez, his options, and two prospects who aren't in their system's top eight or so. They get back Bay, who they'll have under contract for next season at a cost of $9 million.
The more I thought about this deal, the more I focused in on the Ramirez-for-Bay aspect. Hansen is a failed #1 prospect who in a supposed revival year has 25 strikeouts and 23 walks in the majors. He was never going to get an extended opportunity with the Red Sox. Moss is a fourth outfielder on a good team or a starter on a bad one, someone who'll hit .270 and be average in every other aspect of the game. Xavier Nady with less power and a better glove. Losing those two guys doesn't impact the Sox at all, and the cash is a wash—they'd probably have had to spend $7 million above the cost of Bay to fill a lineup hole next season anyway.
No, the key thing here is one small fact that gets lost in the names and the cities and the reputations: the Red Sox may have landed the best player in the deal. Outside of a 2007 season in which he played through a bad knee injury—arguably akin to Jason Kendall playing through injuries while with the Pirates and ruining his career earlier this decade—Bay has been one of the most productive outfielders in baseball. Since 2003, he's been inferior to Ramirez, but not by nearly as much as you might expect.