The Pittsburgh Pirates today traded first baseman Adam LaRoche to the Boston Red Sox for shortstop Argenis Diaz and right-handed pitcher Hunter Strickland. Will this trade have any significance?
To begin, LaRoche will be a free agent at the end of the season. He will be free to sign wherever he can make a deal, if he can make a deal. The Red Sox will also receive cash from the Pirates to help pay some of the remaining salary on LaRoche's contract. The Red Sox can certainly use him coming off the bench against right-handed pitching or as a replacement in the event Mike Lowell has difficulty with his hip. He has been in a slump of late, with a batting average of .247 and a total of 12 home runs. He has scored 46 runs and driven in 40. He has 2 stolen bases. In reality, LaRoche had little to no trade value and it showed in the players returned to the Pirates in the deal.
Argenis Diaz had been playing at AA Portland where he was hitting .253 with no home runs. He is 5'11" and only 155 pounds. Diaz is from Venezuela, the home of some wonderful big league shortstops (including Omar Vizquel.) Of concern is the fact that Diaz has already made 18 errors this season, a rather large amount for someone with a light bat. He has stolen 7 bases.
Hunter Strickland, a tall, lanky 6'6" right-handed pitcher had been assigned to Class A Greenville in the South Atlantic League. Most promising with Strickland is his 13 walks to 51 strikeouts. That's impressive, regardless the classification. At the time of the trade, Strickland had thrown 83.1 innings with a 3.35 earned run average. He had given up 11 home runs.
Since the beginning of June, Pittsburgh has been rebuilding the club with youth. They have traded Eric Hinske, Nyjer Morgan, lefty pitcher Sean Burnett and Nate McLouth. The return of players like Charlie Morton, Joel Hanrahan and Lastings Milledge could prove intriguing, but the jury will be out for a while regarding their moves. The Pirates trades will be better judged in time.
On the surface, one could say that at least the Pirates received some value for LaRoche before he walked away. The numbers on Strickland sound promising. Diaz comes from the school of professional shortstops and he may be better than his numbers indicate so far. Again, on the surface it doesn't appear that the players received by Pittsburgh will lead them to the promised land. It does show that the club is trying to put themselves in a position to shore up the farm system, improve their depth and hopefully strike gold for little cost.
The Red Sox got some insurance for Lowell, some money to pay the salary of LaRoche, and another bat off the bench. With LaRoche moving to the American League, he may be effective as a role player/pinch hitter from the left side of the plate. They really gave up very little for the insurance policy. Given the option of the oft- injured Nick Johnson, I would have rather had Johnson and taken my chances with his being prone to injuries.
Another option might have been the Diamondbacks Chad Tracy. He's a streaky hitter also injury prone.
It is being reported that the Cleveland Indians have floated the name Ryan Garko around to see if there are any takers. A club looking for a right handed hitting first baseman can consider Garko and possibly Aubrey Huff (although Baltimore might not want to lose him just yet) as the trade deadline nears. Matt LaPorta is getting playing time at first base at AAA Columbus in the Indians organization.
So this was not an earthshaking transaction, but one that added a piece to the Red Sox and some depth to the Pirates. Maybe LaRoche can help the Red Sox out of their hitting slump. Then again, maybe he'll be the .240 hitter he was in Pittsburgh. It really isn't very significant-yet!