The Boston Red Sox put together the final touches on a trade that had been in the works for over two years to acquire 1B Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez is an extremely talented hitter that should have no problem adjusting to the AL East due to his plate recognition and ability to work with a pitch rather than force it. He has been scouted as to have issues with inside fastballs, but this should be an adjustment he can make rather easily without having to cheat too much. He lets the ball travel very deep into the strike zone and seems to really see the ball, and rarely overswings. He is a rarely gifted lefty, in that he handles left handed pitching rather well. Despite playing in one of the most pitcher friendly parks in baseball, he has managed to put up both power and average numbers consistently since being dealt to San Diego from Texas. Gonzalez had his $6.5MM option picked up by San Diego previous to dealing him to Boston, and weather or not that contract will be erased by a new 7-year/$154MM deal is yet to be seen. As of the time of this writing, Gonzalez has not put the pen to paper on a new deal. Rumors are that him and the team have agreed to wait until after the first game of the season to avoid an extended luxury tax penalty. The rumor that the Red Sox ownership are trying to do this in order to spend more money on free agents this offseason is laughable. If they want somebody they will go get the player if they feel it is within reason and value, regardless if they save a couple million in luxury tax penalties.
Out the door to San Diego are three top flight talents from the Red Sox system. Kelly, Rizzo and Fuentes who have yet to see MLB action, thus their countdown to a raise has yet to begin. This was very important, and the difference between Fuentes and Ellsbury being the players swapped. Even if San Diego had coveted Ellsbury, he is about to hit his arbitration years and is expeted to get a hefty couple of raises. He is also represented by Scott Boras, and judging by how grossly overpaid Jayson Werth just got via free agency and an open market, you can guarantee that Ellsbury will be doing exactly the same about 3 or 4 years from now. There are may scouting reports available for all three of these players available, so I won't go into major detail about them. However, Kelly will substantially benefit from playing in Petco Park. That is something that I wrote about previous to Jason Stark's tweet that surfaced up today as Gonzalez was officially introduced. Seeing as how Kelly was made available recently to San Diego, I think that once he was able to be had that SD had to make the move. They received a significant offer from CHW, and I am assuming that Tyler Flowers was part of the deal, possibly Chris Sale also came up in discussions. Judging by the fact that AJ Pierzynski was resigned by CHW, I think that the ChiSox may be losing faith in Flowers as a big league backstop and SD most likely saw the same thing.
Later on this afternoon I learned that Mark Reynolds was traded to Baltimore for pitchers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolo. Hernandez is the most polished of the two, and had some success as a closer/setup man for Baltimore after being bumped out of the rotation. He has good movement on his fastball and mixes in a slider to keep hitters off balance. I have been hearing that ARZ will use him in a relief role, where his stuff tends to be more sharp and he is more effective when he is not going through the lineup three to four times a game. Mickolo is the guy with the bigger stuff, but less command and polish. He has had a tough time in the AL East, but what pitcher doesn't at some point? He will certainly have a better time getting by hitters in the weakest division in baseball, but watch out for the long ball.
Baltimore now gets the corner infielder with power that they lost when Aubrey Huff left to the champion San Francisco Giants. Between losing Huff and most likely Ty Wiggington, they looked to get some of those RBI's back with a gamble. I am not under the impression that this will work out however, and think Baltimore should have folded this hand and kept onto their live arms. Simply put: Reynolds will be overmatched in the AL East.
Hot stove is burning at the moment, rumor is that a possible Greinke deal could net KC a huge return. Rumor was that they asked for Kyle Drabek. Travis Snider and two prospects from Toronto in return for Greinke. That would be essentially Roy Halladay and Travis Snider for Greinke.. doesn't sound so good if you're a Jays fan when you put it that way.
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