M’s Trade Rhodes to Marlins
The M’s have traded Arthur Rhodes to Florida for RHP Gaby Hernandez. This is about as good a haul for Rhodes as you could expect. Hernandez isn’t a prime prospect, but he’s got a decent arm and there’s some potential there. He was the Mets 3rd round pick in ’04, went to Florda in the Paul Lo Duca deal, and has split time between Triple-A Albuquerque and Double-A Carolina.
His ERA isn’t good, but that doesn’t matter – his walk, strikeout, and ground ball rates are all right where they’ve been his entire career. The ERA is inflated by a high BABIP, which is probably just a combination of park effects (Albuquerque is a great place to hit), bad defense, and luck.
He throws 90-93 with a four seam fastball and uses a cutter, has a curve and a change that are both average-ish, and okay command. He’s just 22, and there’s room for growth, but right now, he projects as a #5 starter or good reliever.
Nice pickup by Pelekoudas.
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Something for nothing, sounds good to me. 37 year old situational leftys provide nothing for the worst team in the league; a “live arm” is a good return.
Chalk this up as the first time I can remember seeing a reported Mariners trade a being THRILLED. Gaby Hernandez was #37 on John Sickels’ pre-season list of pitching prospects. Great return for Rhodes.
God, the M’s make a good trade, and I’m just…giddy.
Yeah, I like this move a lot … Hernandez is a lot better than the prospect I figured Seattle would get. Nice one.
A good return for Rhodes. It looks like Hernandez was sent down to AA earlier this month and is currently pitching there. But he’s a possible pitcher for us in the future – so well done.
In response to Derek’s now-deleted post for this I’d just submitted:
The lesson: post faster!
Horay for us! Can never have enough starting pitching prospects, even if they don’t project out as better than a 4th or 5th guy. And horay for Rhodes, who will probably enjoy a pennant run more than slogging out the rest of the M’s dreadful season.
Good luck out there Arthur Lee. I’ve got Aug 19-21 marked down on my calander.
Does that possibly mean RRS is coming back as there is now a roster spot?
Best of luck to Rhodes. I’ve actually enjoyed watching him this year and I hope he enjoys his time with the Marlins.
RRS just pitched last night – he’ll probably come up in time to make a start if they deal Washburn today. If they don’t, he’ll stay in Tacoma for a bit.
Dave, you’d originally advocated a Rhodes for Brad Nelson swap. Is Nelson a lesser or greater prospect than Gaby Hernandez?
This is better. I still like Brad Nelson, but Gaby Hernandez is a more valuable prospect.
I thought Nelson sounded like a good deal who fit the Mariners’ needs. If Hernandez is better, then this is a terrific deal. And it sounds like the Marlins get decent value back.
Nice job, Mr. Pelekoudas.
Nelson is still a guy the M’s should get, but he’s going to be available, because he’s out of options after this year, and the Brewers aren’t going to carry him just to back up Prince Fielder.
Nelson is a good fit, and the M’s should get him. But the team also needs upper level arms that can pitch, and Hernandez has more upside than Nelson does.
Good start to the day, hope Lee Pelekoudas can finish off with a big(good) trade of Wash or Ibanez.
As mkd said, Aug 19-21 should be interesting. I wonder if Little O and he are going to try to go after eachother again. Any chance people would chip in for some 5 carat studs for ALR?
On a serious note, the M’s signed a veteran for next to nothing, invited him to Spring Training, used him for half a season, and then turned him into a prospect. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. If only they had done with Silva what the Cards are doing with Lohse…
CMC_Stags? There’s a name I recognize. I graduated from Mudd in ’96. When were you in Claremont?
forget it, I’m not saying it YET
Seriously, wtf is Florida doing?
CMC from 97 to 01. CGU from 01 to 03ish.
Dave – any clue where Hernandez fits for the time being? Is he going to be going to West Tenn or Tacoma? If RRS comes back up to the M’s now that there is a place on the 25 open, does Gaby take his place in Tacoma as a starter?
From the Mariners.com trade story by Jim Street:
Seattle’s starting depth in the Minor Leagues is so sparse that left-handed swing man Ryan Rowland-Smith was sent to Triple-A Tacoma to become a starter and hard-throwing right-hander Brandon Morrow could be taking that same path at some point in the next couple of weeks.
Getting a veteran lefty arm for their bullpen that they’ve needed all year…?
He belongs in Tacoma, and I’d imagine that’s where he’ll go.
Pretty good come back for a guy that was a ressurection project as a non-roster invitee.
See, we need more of this, and less giving away.
Now that’s good GM-ship. (though it may be where veteran-icity aligns with actual skill set show this year…..)
I love Jon Heyman’s note about the trade, stating that maybe now the M’s will trade Washburn:
Does Heyman not get that these are two businesses and the Yankees have not “generously’ decided to do anything. They have applied whatever they use for analysis and decided that Jarrod Washburn is worth $14 Million and a minor prospect. They are not sitting there thinking “hey let’s throw Seattle a bone – Nintendo could use the money more than us”
Sheesh
Veteran Grit-ometer, which I believe in their case is a Scott Brosius bobblehead with a lock of Paul O’Neill’s hair tied around its neck. Please, if there is a God, let them take Washburn away! Seriously, watching him get rocked in Yankee Stadium and booed off the mound will make this whole season more palatable to me. If we can get any non-Kei Igawa human being with a pulse in return, that is gravy, but that should not be a sticking point here!
I don’t even want to think about having to watch Washburn pitch the rest of THIS season, let alone next…
AAARRRRRRRRGGH….
Will someone explain to me how Rich Aurilia is worth Boof Bonser? I know Bonser isn’t stellar, but Aurilia is done and has been for quite some time.
Yeah but did you see old Wash rounding third and heading for home to score
the winning runthe other night? Surely his value on the basepath makes him worth a good prospect plus picking up the rest of his contract. The fact we’re even thinking about trading him is the “generous” part. He’s like a 9-tool player with doubleplus good speed!Dave –
Can you give us a sense of who Hernandez is most similar to (in terms of upside/ability) among current/former M’s prospects? Do you consider him to be a better prospect than Tillman/Butler who went in the Jones trade?
Stuff wise, he’s a poor man’s Gil Meche. Similar repertoires, but everything’s a notch below what Meche threw.
He’s a better prospect than Butler was, worse than Tillman.
I still follow Hernandez. I hated the Paul Lo Duca deal, but Mets fans say, “Well, none of those players ever amounted to anything.” (Mets fans have very short attention spans.)
Albuquerque is more than just a great place to hit. It is the #1 offensive environment in all of North American professional baseball. I once saw Russell Branyan hit a moonshot to the opposite field that cleared the (quite tall) scoreboard by at least ten feet. And that was the 5th home run in the last 7 batters.
Count me in as thrilled with landing Gaby Hernandez for Rhodes. Nice return by Lee.
Gaby will likely end up in Tacoma, if for no other reason than the Rainiers rotation is still rather thin due to multiple SP injuries (Rohrbaugh, Dorman, Jakubauskas). Even with Feierabend’s return to Tacoma and the RRS-as-starter project, the Rainiers are still running guys like Joe Woerman (who struggles not to walk guys and at this point probably belongs in the pen) and reliever Scott Shoemaker out there every five days. There’s definitely room in the rotation for Gaby, whether or not Washburn gets dealt and RRS gets called up.
But even then, Gaby’s spent most of the last couple years stonewalled in AA, and his AAA cup of coffee this season was in the launchpad of Albuquerque, so it wasn’t really a fair shot at a promotion. He certainly warrants a look in AAA for the rest of this season.
The trade I want to see is Beltre to the Twins for a deal involving Anthony Swarzak. Swarzak seems to be a great fit in the Seattle organization.
What do you think of that deal Dave? Or am I way off? haha
Come on, M’s. You have two hours to get rid of The Bus. Do it already!
Is it possible we can call the Dodgers up and ask for Andy LaRoche for Betancourt? That would be awesome.
Nice trade. I hadn’t been expecting anything from Rhodes this year so this is almost like getting a free prospect.
Any word on G. Hernandez’s clubhouse chemistry? Grit?
Swarzak’s already been suspended for drug use once in his minor league career, and the shine has come off quite a bit. Trading Beltre for Swarzak would be horrible.
Dave –
Are you expecting any other moves by the M’s?
How likely do you think it is that they move Washburn? Ibanez? Beltre? Betancourt?
I wasn’t thinking straight up. But I have followed his career since ’04, and this guy has it.
If by it you mean a drug problem, then okay.
Hope he’s not thinking a repeat of Josh Hamilton…
He got suspended for Mary Jane once. He came out and admitted it, apologized to the fans, and organization, and said it would never happen again. He tried it once, and got cought.. end of story.
My only concern with the “dump Washburn” campaign is if the front office repeats history and signs some overpaid clone to a new 5 year deal this offseason to replace him.
So let me ask you this.. Just because someone used once, you are willing to pass on a projected #2 or #3 starter with great stuff, and awesome command?
Is there a less qualified guy than Steve Phillips reporting on what smart moves for teams would be? He was an absolutely horrible GM, and now he’s on TV claiming to understand what it takes to run a front office well.
On another side note, the Red Sox are pursuing JJ Putz. How about Jed Lowrie? Good replacement for Yuni. (I think, haven’t seen him play, but I hear he is a pretty darn good SS)
MarinerDan said:
The very latest from Jason Stark’s Trade Deadline Blog is that the Blue Jays are inquiring about Raul.
They could use him; their hitting has generally been awful. Their team hitting is ranked 23rd out of the 30 MLB teams.
The M’s would probably be asking for Lind/Snider or something, assuming the rumor is true.
JP Arencibia!
Lowrie would be tempting, to be sure… From what I’ve read about him, he’s virtually a Pedroia clone, but with a touch less power and a touch more speed. Good glove, and a sparkplug of a player. Wouldn’t mind having him here… but I wouldn’t trade J.J. for him. Not straight up, anyhow. Gimme a pitcher in the deal, too, and we’ll talk.
Raul to the Jays would be interesting. Not a bad park for him (~.900 OPS there the last three years), and he seems to be a decent fit all-around. Wonder what we’d get back for him?
My God. “Center field is an easier position to play than right field.” Steve Phillips somehow got me to write yet another post about him.
I just love the (longshot?) idea of a rotation that includes “Gaby and Felix, Los Hernandez Bros” There’s a bobblehead promotion to turn up for! (They might even overshadow Seattle’s more famous Los Bros Hernandez….hey, maybe they could do a limited edition comic for the M’s. There’s a promotional item that could really appreciate in value.)
Jed Lowrie will be the type of player you write in at SS for ten years and bat 2nd. Superstar? No. Move a runner up? Steal a base? Lay a bunt? Make every play and be a team leader? Yep. If the Ms somehow got Lowrie I would be both shocked and pleased.
Lowrie sounds intriguing, but without Fields signed, I’d be very afraid that Morrow would be forever stuck in the Closer role.
56- Maybe we could try and get Hansen as well. The Red Sox expressed a little interest in Washburn. So we could throw Wash in there too, and get Hansen.
What – no they didn’t. Stop making stuff up.
http://minors.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/07/yo_gaby_gaby.html
I find the Jarrod Washburn discussions interesting. I also think that it’s a no-win situation for Pelekoudas. If he doesn’t trade Washburn, most will be all over him for not making a move. If he does trade Washburn, the criticism will be that he didn’t get enough.
Frankly, I see no reason for Pelekoudas to be in a hurry to move Washburn. First, today’s deadline is an artificial one as far as Washburn is concerned, as I doubt anyone will try to claim him on waivers, and if they do, the M’s can decide then whether to let him be claimed or not, effectively doing the same thing as if they traded him the Yankees. The other alternative is to try to work something out with the team that put in a claim.
Second, since Washburn is not a free agent after the year, there isn’t much to be lost by exploring trading him during the off-season. While the Washburn contract hasn’t proven to be a good one, it’s not like #4 or #5 starters are without value. Every off-season, teams seem to fall over themselves to sign the next mediocre free agent starter to a long-term, multi-ten-million dollar contract. Compared to the likely free agents, Washburn might be an attractive trade option to a team trying to fill out their rotation without having to commit $50 million.
Finally, Washburn’s recent “improvement” may be temporary, but I find it interesting that it coincides with the M’s team defense improving over the past month or so. The team DEF has jumped recently, and the improvement looks like it is largely the result of moving Ichiro to RF and putting the Reed/Bloomquist platoon in CF. Whatever the offensive results, the outfield defense is improved. As the starter with the highest ratio of fly ball outs to ground ball outs, Washburn would likely benefit the most among our rotation. So, maybe the improvement is more sustainable than we think if the M’s can continue to realize that the defense they put behind the pitchers is important.
No one will criticize Pelekoudas for “not getting enough” if he trades Washburn for nothing in a pure contract dump. We’ll throw a parade in his honor even if the Yankees were to offer nothing more than a warm bottle of spit.
I heard they did a couple nights ago on espn.
I, for one, would not criticize him for not getting enough. If we got rid of Washburn and his contract but got no players in return, I’d count it as a success.
Two things – If Pelekoudas can manage to get Travis Snider back to Everett (well, I’d settle for 1st and Royal Brougham), that would be tremendous.
Secondly – The Reds are reportedly interested in Nelson Cruz. What do the M’s have of interest that would pull him in?
That doesn’t make it true. The Red Sox have so many starting pitchers that they’re converting guys like Justin Masterson into relievers for the rest of the year to use them all.
Good job Lee, you have now pulled off the same number of good trades/free agent signings as your predecessor.
52- Whoa! The way J.J’s been pitching, I would start doing backflips if we somehow mananged to swap him for Jed Lowrie.
Toronto would need Lind, though. If their goal is to improve their offense, Lind is part of the solution. The guy they want to replace is Wilkerson (why they don’t just play Stairs everyday I have no idea).
Forgive me, but I’ll need to see a link from now on when you want to report a trade, buddy.
OK, Dave, you won’t criticize Pelekoudas, but a lot of the media and fans would. But don’t you agree that keeping Washburn past today doesn’t necessarily mean that Pelekoudas is making a mistake?
You can’t believe 95% of what ESPN puts out as “rumors” for baseball this time of year, especially from Olney of late…
Most obvious sign that it wasn’t true? ESPN was the only one reporting that, except for a few outlets saying “ESPN is reporting that…”
Apparantly Junior has agreed on a trade to the White Sox for two prospects.
If LP has the opportunity to dump Washburn’s contract right now and isn’t doing it, then yes, he is making a mistake.
Forgive me, but I’ll need you to check the Times, PI, TNT, ESPN, SI, MLB.com, or Yahoo, buddy.
Good point.. my bad.
Rays won the Bay sweepstakes
Wow, they really mean it this time around, huh?
Plus, we need to clear room in the starting rotation for the triumphant emergence of Brandon Morrow as heralded by official Mariners press lackey Jim Street!
If you’re the one doing to posting, it’s up to you to provide a link.
My point was that there’s easily a dozen or more easily accessible sources that have been reporting it all day. If he’s checking here, he’s probably been to at least one of those, too.
Cdowley is right, they aren’t f***ing around anymore. I like it.
Wait… What time is the line? I thought it was tonight… now it sounds like its at 1.
80 –
It’s been at 1 all along… just like it has been for years…