After a lull in dealing following the winter meetings, baseball's off-season briefly heated up this week as teams tried to fill their rosters before the start of spring training. Two major moves were made: a Red-Sox-Indians trade and the Padres' signing of Mike Piazza.
The first deal occurred over the weekend when the Indians sent outfielder Coco Crisp along with reliever Dave Riske and catcher Josh Bard to Boston in exchange for third-base prospect Andy Marte, reliever Guillermo Mota, catcher Kelly Shoppach, a player to be named later and cash.
Crisp will be a good offensive player for Boston and Baseball Prospectus actually projects that Crisp will outperform Johnny Damon this season. However, they gave up way too much in the deal.
There is no doubt that Marte was the centerpiece of the deal. Baseball America rated him as one of the top 10 prospects in baseball, and he is projected to be as good as Scott Rolen. When the Sox traded Edgar Renteria to Atlanta for Marte, it seemed like a great deal, especially when considering that the Red Sox have no long-term solution at third base (the Greek god of walks Kevin Youkilis is not the answer). Now he's gone.
When you consider Crisp is a below-average defensive centerfielder, a Crisp-for-Marte deal seems fair. However, the Indians knew the Sox were desperate, and they held the Boston brain trust hostage. The Sox had to throw in an above-average reliever (Mota), the heir apparent to Jason Varitek (Shoppach), another player and over $1 million in cash. Also, by acquiring Jason Michaels from the Phillies for reliever Arthur Rhodes, the Indians made it clear that they didn't need Crisp on their team anymore (he was actually their second best centerfielder).
On Wednesday, the San Diego Padres made a more baffling move, signing Mike Piazza to a one-year deal worth $2 million. As a Mets fan who has watched him play for much of the past decade, I can tell you that Piazza is washed up.
For many seasons, Piazza was one of the premier players in the league, even leading a decent team to the World Series in 2000. However, he has fallen off the past few seasons and he was terrible last year. While he still put up 19 home runs, his batting average was .251, 60 percentage points below his career average.
The Padres promised Piazza the opportunity to catch as much as he would like. This is an awful idea, as Piazza should never be allowed to catch again in his career. He's never had a good throwing arm, but it's gotten worse as he has gotten older. It's more painful to watch him move around behind the plate than ever.
It would have made sense for Piazza to go to the American League and catch on as a designated hitter, saving his body and probably helping his offensive numbers. Instead he will be playing in one of the few places tougher on power hitters than Shea Stadium: the spacious confines of PETCO Park. His numbers will be even worse than last year.
The most baffling thing about the Piazza signing is the fact that the Padres already have a catcher. In December, they shipped starting second baseman Mark Loretta to Boston for Doug Mirabelli.
While I thought it was a bad trade to begin with, the Piazza signing makes it even worse. Now it means San Diego traded a guy who made the All-Star team in 2004 (he was injured for most of 2005) for a backup catcher.
Both deals show a lack of foresight by the front offices in San Diego and Boston. While the Red Sox are knowingly trading away their future for present success, San Diego gave away an important player, only to make the trade worthless by bringing in a supposed marquee player.
In fact, the only good thing that I can say about the general managers that made these deals is that they're not Isiah Thomas.
