Rays/Rockies Trade

[hootfish]

The Rockies and Rays have agree to the following deal.

Rays receive: P  Huston Street 7.5M
                     P  Ubaldo Jiminez 4.2M
                     P  Jason Hammel 4.75M

Rockies receive: OF  Sam Fuld pre-arby
                         RP  Adam Russell (ATL) pre-arby
                         P    Nick Barnese top 20 prospect Rays
                         P    Casey Crosby #3 prospect Tigers

[PlayerX3D]

The Rays agree to this trade.

We understand that Ubaldo has been underperforming and Street is an extreme injury risk.  The total salaries for the players that we are taking on may actually surpass their aggregate value, but the deal makes sense from my perspective for a few reasons.  First, I believe that bidding on players in the last round may be out of control when owners with extra cash start making short term bids.  Second, I prefer to keep my RP's on short-term contracts because of the volatility at the position.

We are losing a great prospect in Crosby, a good prospect in Barnese, a 4OF, and a borderline RP.  However, for this season we will have one more #3 caliber SP, a bonafide closer (when healthy), and also Hammel.  Ubaldo's output could vary wildly depending on his velocity this year, Street could be a mid-range closer, and Hammel should probably quit baseball and take up indoor archery or synchronized swimming.

In short, we are taking on $16M in salary and giving up some long-term talent in order to prepare our organization to win this year.  Colorado frees up some cap for their new signings and builds their minor league system.

Thanks to the Rockies for a great trade discussion.

[hootfish]

I agree on the trade discussion part. It was a pleasure dealing with the Rays.

The above discussion of the risk is partially the reason I made this deal. In particular Huston Street.  One of my considerations in the negotiations was that Jiminez could be very valuable at the trade deadline. That being said he could also lose most of his value if things do not go right. So ultimately I decided to get something for the future - right now. I was happy to get two guys who should fill roster spots this season....Fuld/Russell. I really like prospect Casey Crosby's potential. Barnese was added later in the discussion and he was the wild card for me. I believe he has a really big window in terms of potential. It was also nice/needed to free up the 16M in cap space.

[Lindner]

 

Tampa is really looking to take a shot this year.  Good trade.

[BrewCrew]

 

[ldsjayhawk]

 

[Lindner]

The Trade Committee's ruling:
3 Approves
0 Vetoes

It has been over 72 hours since this trade has been under the review process.
This trade has been officially approved by the committee.

[kenny]

Transaction 471-472