Soriano traded to Rays
December 10th, 2009 | by joelucia |I’m getting flashbacks right now. Rafael Soriano has been traded to the Rays for reliever Jesse Chavez, also known as the guy the Rays got for dumping Akinori Iwamura’s salary off on Pittsburgh. Joe is not pleased.
Now, who in the heck is Jesse Chavez? A little background. He’s a 26 year old who made his major league debut in 2008 with the Pirates, and hasn’t been very effective at the major league level. He wasn’t a total epic failure last season, pitching in 47 1/3 innings and posting a FIP of 4.85. At least its lower than 5.00. Chavez struck out 6.28 per 9, and walked 2.94 per 9. He also allowed a ghastly 1.47 homers per 9.
I’m really pissed off about this. This trade was nothing but a salary dump for the Braves. Unless Frank Wren has something huge planned with the $8 million he’s saving by not having to pay Soriano (the Rays are picking up the tab for him), this trade is a huge loss. Its not like the Millwood trade from a few years ago, when the Braves picked up Johnny Estrada to fill a hole behind the plate. The Braves get absolutely nothing that immediately helps the team, aside from a guy who could be the 25th man on the roster. Absolutely lovely.
And in more horrible news, the Braves lost a player during the Rule 5 draft today: pitcher Edgar Osuna (BH #21). This is a huge loss for the Braves, and a huge get for the (wait for it wait for it…) Royals. I really hope things get turned around this afternoon and the team picks up a major free agent, because this day has not started off well.
Tags: Jesse Chavez
By Mike Kerns on Dec 10, 2009
You pretty much summed up my feelings exactly. This and Lowe getting traded to free up salary better have a huge payoff in Free Agency.
I can’t handle another season of losing games 1-0 that Javy Vazquez and Jair Jurrjens pitch out of their minds in.
NEED OFFENSE!
By Michael C on Dec 10, 2009
The Braves moved away from wanting a strong package for Sori rather quickly and pretty much took the first offer that came along that included $8MIL….being postive: I beleive they moved quick to save the money to use for a FA. If they weren’t lookin got grab a FA, they would have waited for a better package deal. just a thought
By joelucia on Dec 10, 2009
I’m agreeing with both of you. If theres a signing in the next couple of days that actually can make an impact and make the team better, I’ll be feeling a lot better about this deal than I do right now.
By BuddyW on Dec 10, 2009
The facts are that the Braves front office did not manage the arbirtation isssues very well prove out in the Soriano situation.
It started with trading Francoeur ,received Church who was released,signed to quickly 2 relievers one who is old (maybe has one year left) 1 who had had arm problems and is also at the end of their career,received a no-one Chavez for a well established reliever Soriano.In summary Wren has not justified to me that he is a very efficient GM since he has done nothing to trade the club’s excess starting pitching for some offense.He is probably working behind the scenes and has someting in the works;however my gut feelings say that Atlanta will be second fiddle to all the other clubs and will only be able to sign a second/third level offensive player.I also feel like Atlanta has lost their ranking with being a 1st class organization that certian players and free agents want to make Atlanta their home.Does the new GM Wren not have as much influence,class and working relationships with the other Major League GM’s. My feeling is yes. What are others thoughts ?
By joelucia on Dec 10, 2009
I don’t think the Francoeur situation was really his fault…Wren had no way of knowing that he wouldn’t bounce back at least a little bit. Because he was so bad the last year and a half, there was no way the team was going to get some sort of stud player for him, so he had to jump on the first offer that came about, which was Church. Church didn’t really produce all that much either, and with the team wanting to upgrade a corner OF position this season, he was the logical one to go. I think it was stupid to try not to get SOMETHING for him though, and I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to Kelly Johnson.
As for the starting pitching situation, no top tier starter is off the market yet. Once teams start to lose out on all the major targets, I think Wren will find it easier to trade Lowe. If Randy Wolf can get nearly $10M a year, Lowe for $15 doesn’t look that horrible.