Manny Being Traded

What a crazy, crazy day of Manny Ramirez rumors.

I'll skip to the big one, which was a three-team deal.

Boston got:

Jason Bay (from Pittsburgh)

Pittsburgh got:

Jeremy Hermida (from Florida)
OK prospects (from Florida and Boston)

Florida got:

Manny Ramirez (from Boston) + cash
lesser prospects (from Boston and/or Pittsburgh)

This seemed like a pretty bad deal for the Marlins, so I'm glad it didn't go down.

That didn't mean that the Pirates and the Red Sox gave up though. They worked right up until the deadline to get something done. It was still a three-team deal, but the third team changed.

Boston got:

(from PIT) Jason Bay, 29 year-old LF, hitting .282/.375/.519 this year. He has a team option at $7.5 MM for 2009.

Pittsburgh got:

(from BOS) Craig Hansen, 24 year-old RHRP, 5.58 ERA in 30 IP this year, with 25 K's, 23 BB's, and a 1.70 WHIP. He's making $0.7 MM through the end of this year. He doesn't have a full year of ML experience, so I don't know what happens to him.

Brandon Moss, 24 year-old OF, hitting .295/.337/.462 this year in limited time. He's in his first ML season.

(from LAD) Andy LaRoche , 24 year-old 3B, hitting .293/.452/.439 in Triple-A this year. He's still a rookie.

Bryan Morris, 21 year-old RHP, 3.20 ERA in 81.2 IP in A-Ball, with 72 K's, 31 BB's, and a 1.29 WHIP.

Los Angeles got:

(from BOS) Manny Ramirez, 36 year-old LF, hitting .299/.398/.529 this year. He's making $20 MM this year and has club options at $20 MM for the next two years.

The Red Sox came out pretty well, as they not only showed that no one player is more important than the team, but they picked up a player in Bay who (when including defense) is worth about as much as Manny to the team. Plus, they have control of him at a very cheap rate for 2009. Neither Hansen nor Moss is worth that much to a team like Boston, as they are just back-ups and filler.

The Dodgers finally set LaRoche free, uniting him with his big brother (Adam) in the Steel City. LA already had a pretty large set of outfielders, so Joe Torre will have to pick and choose from Manny, Matt Kemp, Andre Eithier, Andruw Jones, and Juan Pierre (sorry Matt and Andre, you're not "veterans"). I don't know if this will be enough to catch Arizona, but it does improve the team (probably) by around a win. On the plus side, Boston is picking up the rest of Manny's contract for 2008, and he has agreed to decline arbitration (so LA will get two draft-picks) and the team options were removed. Not great, but not bad.

Pittsburgh didn't get three top prospects, but six years of Andy LaRoche is probably going to be more valuable than 1 1/3 years of Bay. Hansen and (particularly) Morris are live arms, and Moss should be a serviceable (and cheap) outfielder. Also, it was interesting that it seemed for a time that a deal had been done to send Bay to Tampa in return for a couple of prospects. Nice job by Neal Huntington to play the two AL East contenders off of each other. Looks like things are turning around for the Pirates.