This isn't the sort of trade that's going to alter the balance of power or anything, but it does have some gawk-appeal:
The San Diego Padres acquired infielder Oscar Salazar from the Baltimore Orioles for right-handed pitcher Cla Meredith on Sunday.
The trade became more urgent for San Diego after utilityman Edgar Gonzalez was hit in the head with a pitch on Saturday night and remained hospitalized Sunday. San Diego is expected to place Gonzalez on the DL. The brother of All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Edgar was still complaining of dizziness, ringing in his ears and a partial loss of hearing a day after the frightening beaning.
Not to take a thing away from the Edgar Gonzalez situation -- beanings are serious business -- but I'm not sure what was so "urgent" about this deal. The Padres aren't going anywhere this year, and unless they've made the organizational decision to go to a zone defense, they have a second baseman somewhere in the system who can serve as a utilityman in Gonzalez's absence.
What they or any other team don't have a lot of, however, are 26 year-old groundball machines, as The Hardball Times' Evan Brunell puts it. No, Meredith ain't the second coming of Dan Quisenberry or anything, but he does represent something of value in the game of baseball. The kind of which can and should bring more than a journeyman infielder like Oscar Salazar around the trade deadline.
Can anyone give me one good reason why Kevin Towers couldn't fill Gonzalez's hole with an organizational soldier for a week while seeing if he couldn't drum up a little bit more for a decent reliever than Oscar Salazar? Can't anyone point to a team a little more desperate to obtain him than the 40-50 Baltimore Orioles? Maybe this is just a little thing, but when you're a team like the Padres, the little things add up.
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Cla was able to fool hitters during the first two years he was in San Diego.
But since has not been able to keep inherited runners from scoring and that was his job.
Just one of the old faces that needed a new home.
As an Oriole fan I am happy about this deal because it got rid of Oscar Salazar, who Dave Trembley was far too attached to. The fact that it brought back a decent-enough reliever is even better.
Andy MacPhail seems to be pretty good at trades, ya'll.
I think Kevin Towers used the excuse of Edgar’s injury as another opportunity to dump salary. Cla wasn’t making gobs of money but he was making enough to seal his fate. It’s just a rotten trade. This is the first time I’ve seen a team so desperate to replace a utility infielder. I’m positive it won’t be the last bad trade because John Moores has seemingly given an edict that this Padres team be worth less than a Rubio’s fish taco by season’s end.
To be fair, the actual value -- as opposed to the mere monetary value -- of a Rubio's fish taco is really really high if you live back east and only get to eat one once every year or two.
The trade gets even a little weirder if it's true that Salazar isn't a middle infielder, but a corner one, and really more of a first basemen at that. I hope they're not lining up 1st base depth so they can trade their one good player.
He's probably not a major-league caliber middle infielder (only 6 MLB games at 2B to his credit back in 2002). I'm sure he's fine as a middle infielder in the minors where's there really not that much of an emphasis on winning, but it's not like the Padres are putting an emphasis on winning either.
I actually gave free Padres tickets away for the first time ever last night, because I can't even justify the $10 parking cost to see this team play right now.