Transactions, Transactions, Transactions...Well, Only Two Really
Wave goodbye to Chris Stewart. KW traded him to his favorite trading partner (the Texas Rangers) for minor leaguer John Lujan. Lujan fits the recent mold of pitchers that Kenny has acquired; great arm, suspect control/mechanics. Lujan can reach upwards of 97 mph with his fastball. Odds are the Sox were looking at him earlier for the B-Mac trade, so he may be a guy that the Sox' Organization likes. He pitched in high-A ball, so don't look for him to reach the bigs anytime soon.
I will admit Stewart was a good defensive backstop, but outside of that he didn't really bring much to the table. With the addition of Toby Hall (thank God), Stewart didn't really have a place on the team. He would have been shuffled off to the minors and eventually would have run out of options. It's a good move by Kenny to flip an unecessary player for someone who could eventually make an impact.
In the minors, that leaves Gustavo Molina as the emergency catcher if AJ or Toby go down. Molina is pretty good with the glove, and he can't be much worse with the bat than Stewart, so for the third catcher spot, it isn't much of a downgrade.
One thing of note is that the trade of Stewart opens up a spot on the 40-man roster. Does that mean a trade is forthcoming? I don't know; only Kenny does, but hopefully that means some outfield help is on the way.
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The Sox also signed Joe Crede to a very frugal, one-year, $4.94 million contract. By signing Crede, the Sox avoided arbitration and seem to have saved a decent chunk of change. I figured Crede would get around $6 million or so, considering Boras was looking to get him $8 million.
Odds are Crede will be gone after next season or the year after, but avoiding the arbitration process is a plus if the Sox do have any intention on re-signing Crede long term. It's best not to drag your future players through the mud.
So rest assured Chicago, you man-crush is back for another season...I hope.
I will admit Stewart was a good defensive backstop, but outside of that he didn't really bring much to the table. With the addition of Toby Hall (thank God), Stewart didn't really have a place on the team. He would have been shuffled off to the minors and eventually would have run out of options. It's a good move by Kenny to flip an unecessary player for someone who could eventually make an impact.
In the minors, that leaves Gustavo Molina as the emergency catcher if AJ or Toby go down. Molina is pretty good with the glove, and he can't be much worse with the bat than Stewart, so for the third catcher spot, it isn't much of a downgrade.
One thing of note is that the trade of Stewart opens up a spot on the 40-man roster. Does that mean a trade is forthcoming? I don't know; only Kenny does, but hopefully that means some outfield help is on the way.
----------------------------------------------------
The Sox also signed Joe Crede to a very frugal, one-year, $4.94 million contract. By signing Crede, the Sox avoided arbitration and seem to have saved a decent chunk of change. I figured Crede would get around $6 million or so, considering Boras was looking to get him $8 million.
Odds are Crede will be gone after next season or the year after, but avoiding the arbitration process is a plus if the Sox do have any intention on re-signing Crede long term. It's best not to drag your future players through the mud.
So rest assured Chicago, you man-crush is back for another season...I hope.
posted by Jeeves at 12:44 AM
2 Comments:
The mancrush is back! I'm so happy.
I'm amazed that the pre-arb contracts aren't higher. With the recent $$$ increase in FA salaries, I figured that arbitration rulings will be much higher, and thus pre-arb deals.
Good value signing for the Sox. Crede's still at the age where Kenny can sign him up to a six year deal and still receive some quality baseball for his money.
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