[BelgianBomber]

06/28/2013

Things got pretty busy on the trade front today. The Dodgers and Tigers were the first teams to announce a deal. The Tigers (37-41, 4th place) traded starting pitcher A.J. Griffin to the Dodgers (34-44, 4th place) in exchange for 19-year-old minor league center fielder Nick Williams and 22-year-old minor league right fielder Michael Crouse. In 16 starts this season Griffin is 6-9 with a 4.45 ERA. He will become the #4 starter in the Dodgers’ rotation. Elias likes Griffin and sees him as a suitable middle-of-the-rotation starter. This is a very good deal for the Dodgers, as both players they gave up are just borderline prospects.

The news of the first trade of the day hadn’t even reached the entire league, when the Cleveland Indians (29-50, 5th place) announced they had traded for 25-year-old left fielder Ben Revere. In exchange for Revere and $515,500 in cash, the San Francisco Giants (33-45, 5th) receive 18-year-old minor league center fielder William Abreu and 19-year-old minor league starting pitcher Chase DeJong. Revere is batting .313 this season in 77 games. He has 23 RBIs and 36 runs scored. This is another questionable trade in my opinion. Revere isn’t a star, but he is a useful MLB player. Both Abreu and DeJong have a lot to prove and Elias sees them as borderline talents at best.

A third trade went down, as the Kansas City Royals (37-41,3rd place) and the Chicago White Sox (41-38, 2nd place) confirmed they made a swap. The White Sox received 34-year-old starting pitcher Jason Marquis and $1,520,000 in cash in exchange for 23-year-old minor league right fielder Brandon Miller and 20-year-old minor league right fielder Jose Osuna. Marquis had been pitching at the AAA-level, posting a 7-2 record to go with a 2.94 ERA. He will give the Sox some depth for their rotation. It’s a good deal for the Royals, as they receive 2 prospects in exchange for a veteran player who didn’t fit in their plans.

And this brings us to the biggest and boldest trade of the day, as the Baltimore Orioles (32-48, 5th) traded 20-year-old starting pitcher Jose Fernandez to the Las Vegas Aces. Yes, that’s right, your Aces couldn’t stay behind and added a potential front-line starter. In exchange for Fernandez, the Orioles will receive a substantial package. Going to Baltimore in the trade are 20-year-old minor league shortstop Trevor Story, 25-year-old starting pitcher Joe Kelly, 18-year-old minor league 1st baseman Dominic Smith and our 2014 2nd round draft pick. Including the 2nd round pick in the deal allowed us to obtain 20-year-old minor league catcher Austin Hedges. He will give us some much needed depth at the catcher position.

This is a blockbuster deal for sure and one that should help both our teams out. Baltimore gets a couple of nice pieces for the future, while we add a young starter who should be ready to contribute straight away and is a huge upgrade to Joe Kelly. Fernandez will report to AAA to make a couple of starts and when we feel he is ready to be brought up, he’ll become part of our rotation. In the meantime we will call up Luke Hochevar to man then umber 5 slot.