Padres have acquired third baseman Joe Randa from the Reds for minor-league pitchers Travis Chick and Justin Germano. To make room for Randa, the struggling Sean Burroughs has been optioned to Triple-A Portland.
Randa has hit .286/.342/.429 over 10+ seasons. He is having a career year so far in 2005, hitting .289/.356/.491, with 13 homers. Randa’s high-water mark in homers is 16, in 1999 and again in 2003, both while with the Royals.
Chick, acquired last summer in the Ismael Valdez deal, has struggled this year at Double-A Mobile after being skipped over Elsinore to start the season. Germano was the Pads’ 13th round draft pick in 2000 and was pitching at Triple-A Portland this year. Chick and Germano were rated the Padres’ #4 and #7 prospect, respectively, by Baseball America prior to the season.
The Friars overpaid for a guy who becomes a free agent at the end of the year, but I suppose when you are in first place and sinking fast, you need to do something.
Meanwhile, the Padres supposedly are close to moving Phil Nevin to the Orioles for Sidney Ponson.
Update. Other reactions around the blogosphere:
- San Diego Spotlight. Rich likes the Randa deal.
- Friar Faithful. Lance talks about the Nevin deal. Richard chimes in on both moves.
- Crosley’s Ghost. Randa, from a Reds perspective.
- DePodesta For President. Self-proclaimed “Smart Fan” also is unintentionally funny.
- Camden Chat. Ponson is about as loved by O’s fans as Nevin is by Padres fans.
- PDX Beavers. Jonathan also thinks the Pads overpaid. Speaking of whom, I’ll be running an interview with Jonathan on Monday.
- Redleg Nation. Calls Randa a class act.
- Statistically Speaking. He doesn’t like this series of moves for the Pads. Then again, he hasn’t had to watch Nevin this year.
- Reds (and Blues)
- Baseball Musings. David Pinto doesn’t like the Nevin/Ponson deal for either team.
- Giants Cove
- Gaslamp Ball
Also @ Friar Faithful: http://sdpf.blogspot.com/2005/07/randa-deal.html
I just can’t see the sense of giving up two minor league pitchers for an aging, mediocre 3B rental, when we could put Nady there every day and see how he develops. I never thought it would be possible to be this disenchanted with a first place team. Odd.
FROM ESPN SCOUTING REPORT (actually pretty ironic)
2005 Outlook
With Burroughs sometimes hailed as the next George Brett, Padres fans have been wondering if they don’t instead have the next Joe Randa. In Burroughs’ defense, he has been beset the last two years by the kind of injuries that tend to adversely affect power numbers, so a healthy season in 2005 just may be the tonic everyone is looking for.
You know what else is ironic? If Burroughs could have hit like Randa, the Padres wouldn’t have had to make this deal.
I’m off to Elsinore. I’ll check back in tonight to see if there’s been any movement on the Nevin front. Here’s hoping he says yes…
I wonder if Bochy considered putting Nady at first, and moving Nevin back to third.
That’s a moot point now, of course.
You know it’s bad when you all are willing to take on Ponson in order to get rid of Nevin.
Yikes. More reason why I don’t want the Orioles to get this guy.
Well, chances of Phil accepting are remote given his daughter lives in SoCal and all. If he does accept the deal, the Ponson pitcher may be part of another deal, hopefully.
I like Sean and its tough to see him go down at this stage, but maybe the minors will have the same effect as it had on Jackson.
clearly, Towers feels it now, that the pads can get into the playoffs in a weak year for the NL West so he’s willing to overpay a bit Randa.
Mixed feelings about Nevin. For all my ragging on 9-mil, as I said earlier he isn’t a bad player. But this is also a salary move for towers, phils is due 10 million next year and is on the downside of his career. Overall, if Ponse can be moved for other players later in the week, I in favor of the trade.
Important to note as well that if Phil leaves, the club house opens up for a new leader to step up. Probably not Giles, but maybe Randa is a leader. This will be a good thing. Nevin, I feared, became quiet self absorbed through his hitting tribulations.
waiting for someone to break down the salary implications on these trades.
Finally, Nady will get his chance.
Nady only gets the chance if Phil accepts, a long shot at best. But we can hope…
Two additional thoughts:
1. I heard someone on radio (don’t remember who) suggest that Nevin’s agent might try to sell him on Baltimore as a better hitting environment where he can increase his value when he becomes a FA after 2006.
2. I wonder if the Padres will try to flip Ponson for something else if the deal goes through.
On baseball tonight, they reported that Bochy had dinner with Nevin(not unusual on the road) and supposedly told him that IF he vetos the deal that he will be backing up Nady. That management has decided that its Nady’s time to play full time.
How baseball tonight would be privy to this is beyond me. but that is what they said and insuinated.
Given Bochy’s choices, I like both trades. We have gotten nothing out of 3B. Nothing. I want to Sean to stay in the organization, but we need some production out of a power position. With Ramon and Greene’s production down, we cannot let the Burroughs/Blum/Jackson hold down 3B.
If Bochy was a better manager, I am not sure why we could not have tested Nady at 3B, and go for a Nevin/Sweeney platoon at 1B. Nevin used to crush LHP (OPS > 1.000) but this year he is way down.)
This all said, we have to also face the fact that we do need another starting pitcher. Eaton’s ligament thing sounds bad. Not getting better, shooting it with cortisone hoping it gets to point where he can stand the pain of pitching with it. That does not sound good. So we now have a #1 who’s off his game, and, if Ponson shows up, 3 #3′s (Williams/Lawrence/Ponson) and solid 4/5 (Stauffer).
Given Bochy will not platoon Nevin or put Nady at 3B, then these trades make sense. It seems odd that the GM has to work around the manager’s eccentricities, but maybe that’s how baseball works.