| Christopher Reina. 9th November, 2009 - 10:16 pm
 J.J. Hardy was bracing for a trade due to the emergence of fellow shortstop Alcides Escobar, but it happened a little quicker than expected and he won't have to go too far with his move to the Minnesota Twins.
Carlos Gomez, who has more of a National League style of running and defense game, goes to the Milwaukee Brewers in return.
With Phil Humber and Kevin Mulvey both out of the Twins' organization, they have now traded Johan Santana for J.J. Hardy and Deolis Guerra, who unquestionably struggled in the minors this past season and is now looking like a legitimate long-shot to ever be a contributing pitcher. The offerings from the Yankees and Red Sox that may or may not have included some package of Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera or Jon Lester/Clay Buchholz look exponentially more attractive at this point than what the Twins netted from the Mets and now Milwaukee.
But it is unfair to factor that trade into this one, which is actually a wise maneuver for both sides, typical of what we've come to routinely expect from these two franchises.
The Brewers are able to save several million in using Escobar instead of Hardy, while netting a high upside center fielder that is at the very least a late inning replacement as a pinch runner and good defensive player. Gomez absolutely must become better in the OBP department because there aren't too many Jimmy Rollins out there who can get away with batting leadoff with a sub-.300 mark in that area. His strikeout/walk ratio is dreadful, though he did walk with much greater frequency in 2009. Gomez had an OPS of .777 in 36 Triple-A games in 2007, but it was always overly ambitious for the Twins to expect him to instantly become an everyday player for them in 2008. The Brewers will give him an opportunity to replace Mike Cameron.
Hardy was an All-Star in 2007 due to an exceptional first few months that year and he was involved in trade rumors involving several highly talented young pitchers, but as those deals never materialized, his stock dipped to the point where he was dealt for a team's fourth outfielder in a one-for-one without any prospects included.
Hardy had an OPS of .821 in 2008, but it dipped to .659 and he didn't exactly look much better when he was sent down to Triple-A.
Defensively, Hardy has been consistently one of the finer shortstops in the National League, something the Twins value highly.
The Twins have a very obvious logjam in the outfield, with Delmon Young, Michael Cuddyer (until Justin Morneau got hurt), Denard Span, Jason Kubel and Gomez all vying for at bats.
Shortstop has been either a routinely underachieving position for the Twins, though Orlando Cabrera gave them some life there, but he is aging and will be difficult for them to re-sign through their inability to offer arbitration.
Grade for Twins: A-
I believe the Brewers did fairly well in getting Gomez back in return, but I felt compelled to dock them for not pulling the trigger on a Hardy deal last winter when they could have received significantly more for him. Sometimes the deals you don't make become the bad ones.
Escobar is a nice prospect, but his ceiling offensively is as a .775 OPS bottom of the lineup player and giving up on Hardy so freely must give Milwaukee improved pitching through that savings.
Grade for Brewers: C+ |
