A big ol’ trade

by
December 11, 2008

This is way too complicated for 5:45 AM:

A blockbuster, 12-player, three-team swap Wednesday night landed the Mariners seven players, including strong-armed, fleet-footed center fielder Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians, but it cost Seattle right-handed closer J.J. Putz, who was traded to the Mets . . .

. . . Besides Gutierrez, the Mariners received from the Mets: right-handed pitchers Aaron Heilman and Maikel Cleto, left-handed-hitting first baseman Mike Carp, left-handed pitcher Jason Vargas and outfielders Endy Chavez and Ezequiel Carrera. Seattle sent right-handed pitcher Sean Green and outfielder Jeremy Reed to the Mets and infielder Luis Valbuena to the Indians, who also received pitcher Joe Smith from the Mets.

It will be interesting to see how Putz takes to pitching in the eighth instead of the ninth. Maybe not as interesting as it would have been last year — Putz struggled mightily in 2008 and thus can’t exactly throw any “I’m a big bad closer” stuff around — but interesting all the same.


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MooseinOhio
15 years ago

Putz has one year left on his contract so he spends the year as the setup guy and hopefully for him performs well and then this time next year markets himself as a proven closer and get a three year deal from a team in need.  It gets him out of Seattle where even as a closer he will go somewhat unnoticed so I don’t think he loses much at all.

What surprises me is Cleveland only getting an average reliever and an unproven infielder for Francisco Gutierrez – I thought he had more value than that.

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Jason @ IIATMS
15 years ago

A great move for the Muts, but I agree with Moose, the Indians giving up Gutierrez to get Joe Smith struck me as odd.

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pete
15 years ago

Apparently the Mariners think it’s 2002 (go look up Heilman and Gutierrez’s numbers then if you need a reminder). Hard to believe they’d give up Putz for such a mediocre return, unless some of the smaller names in this deal are diamonds in the rough.

As an Indians fan, I can’t say I’m thrilled. Gutierrez is what he is, but he has real value. With his peripherals and the league switch, Smith is a collapse candidate if I’ve ever seen one, and Valbuena doesn’t look especially impressive. Hopefully Shapiro knows what he’s doing…

I’m kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop—seems like we finally had one of the corner outfield spots filled, after like 3 years where both were total black holes (Jason Michaels, Trot Nixon, David Dellucci). Now we open it up again? Please tell me there’s a plan beyond just crossing our fingers and hoping that two of Choo, Francisco, and LaPorta can fill them.

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Chipmaker
15 years ago

How was Chico Esquela not included in this one?

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mkd
15 years ago

To answer Pete, trading Putz for Gutierrez immediately improves the Ms otherwise totally sucky defense. I love JJ, but a great (if declining) closer is way down on the list of things a team needs to compete in the long term. Near the top of the list? A Totally Awesome Outfield. And Gutierrez is a totally awesome outfielder. Washburn and Silva should be sending Z a fruit basket this morning.

The super, double-plus good bonus for Ms fans is that our new fangled GM seems to recognize the value of defense and cheap talent- something that was sorely lacking in the previous administration. Intelligent design seems to have come to Seattle’s FO and I couldn’t be happier. 

However: Oh Noes! Who will Putz out da lites?

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pete
15 years ago

It makes sense for them to deal Putz, this just seems like a pretty light return.

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