Bronson Arroyo traded
After an offseason full of rumors, most of which had him coming to Seattle, and then a contract extension that reportedly came with a handshake agreement that he wouldn’t be traded, Bronsono Arroyo was traded to the Cincinatti Reds for Wily Mo Pena today.
After being so successful with flyball pitcher Eric Milton last year, the Reds apparently are going back to the well, acquiring another flyball pitcher who needs his defense to keep him in the ballgame. And, when you have the worst outfield defense in baseball, that’s generally a bad idea.
I’m still thrilled that the M’s didn’t swap Jeremy Reed for Arroyo, but in the end, it looks like that was a wise non-trade for the Red Sox, as well. Wily Mo is lousy with the glove, but the kid’s got serious, serious power, and he’s clearly more valuable to the Red Sox than Jeremy Reed would have been.
And apparently the Red Sox turned down Arroyo+Pedroia for Jim Edmonds.
Between Arroyo, Milton and Griffey Jr., I bet the Reds give up at least 20 “triples” to straightaway center this year.
Where is Pena gonna go? The DH spot is clogged with Ortiz; the outfield has Ramirez, Crisp, Nixon; they just signed Juan Gon, so he’s going to be fighting for that RF spot. Is there a super-secret trade for Manny Ramirez going down?
nah…..Milton cant keep that many in the ballpark….
This is a sad day for a Mariners fan stuck in Cincy…. I’ve often fantasized about Wily Mo DHing in an M’s uniform.
I’ve tried hard to root for the Reds during my stay here but they make it virtually impossible. It would be difficult to intentionally construct a worse roster overall or a weaker rotation for Great American Ballpark.
how much will Pena get to play on that team?
This is kind of a weird move. I wonder if there’s something we don’t know. Pena is going to be traded? Lowell’s bat looks slower than mine? Trot’s back is about to give out? There’s something going on. His K/BB, K/AB, and BB/PA numbers are UGLY. In my estimation he’s got a very good chance of never improving much and a small chance of being one of the best hitters in baseball. I would think he is now considered the long-term replacement for Nixon when his contract expires at the end of this year. All in all, I’m not sure they’d ever get more for Bronson Arroyo…unless of course those Reed rumors were true!
I’ve heard that they are looking for Nixon and Wily Mo to platoon. At this point in his career, Nixon is a part-time guy who could sub at each OF position a lot.
I’ve also iamagine that they could move one or the other to first base.
Fantastic move for the Sox. The maximize right field’s output and also acquire a player with severe and prodigious power, all while only giving up an overrated pitcher without much upside and with big dollars due to him in the role of middle reliever. This also clears up the ascension for Lester and Papelbon, two very cheap pitchers with relatively bright futures.
I guess this also means there’s now no chance to get Dunn for love or money.
Nixon is chronically injured and Pena will start in RF against lefties. While Ortiz has DH locked up, he’s 30 and doesn’t exactly have the body type that screams out “long career”. Pena is only 24 and can be their DH of the future.
Great deal for the Sox.
Platooning with Trot, spelling the others OF’s, and maybe even DHG’ing some with Papi at 1B or resting will get WMP plenty of AB’s, and that’s not even considering injuries. This guy is only 24 and can’t elect to be a FA until 2008.
Wow, how the same people continue to filch teams of very valuable commodities in the same ways right out in front of everyone’s noses is flumbertasticating. I just don’t understand how those three or four dudes just go shopping for incredible upside talent with peanuts in their pockets and come home with gold. Can we take a moment to seriously be frustrated by this? I mean, we’re schlubs and we see this. Why can’t our friends in the $1000 suits?
Uh, wow. That Reds team…yikes. Milton, Arroyo, small ballpark AND an immobile OF?
Oh yeah, and there isn’t much love for their prospects, either.
http://www.minorleagueball.com/story/2006/2/23/151843/917
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5418188
That team could be pretty bad next year.
This could be a VERY bad year in Cincy………
The kicker; with the newly freed up roster spot, the Reds are going to move Adam Dunn back to LF and start Scott Hatteberg at first base.
When given a chance to improve their OF defense by removing Pena from the equation, they choose to keep it just as awful for the sake of getting Scott Hatteberg’s bat in the line-up.
Holy cow.
So, the net change for Cincy is they replace Wily Mo’s bat with Hatteberg’s bat?
Do they even have a plan?
Well, they get Arroyo too.
Right, of course. The addition of a pitch-to-contact, flyball pitcher makes it all worthwhile.
It must suck to be Arroyo (stunned was the word used to report his reaction in ST camp). So much for giving for team the “hometown” discount on his recent contract for a handshake agreement not to be traded. Should have listened to his agent.
Predictably there are plenty of people in Boston whining over the loss of Arroyo…this town will never quit. I’m all for the guy with 2 true outcomes (walks? what walks?) but I sincerely hope the front office didn’t make any promises to Arroyo. You don’t want to lose the trust of your entire clubhouse.
This is a hell of a time (and hell of a way) for the Reds to suddenly get “Moneyball” religion.
Just to play devil’s advocate for a minute though….. how would you like to be coco crisp …. look to the left and ya see manram…look to the right and see wily mo…. good lord, he’d better eat light before those games! 🙂
Im flabbergasted that the Reds essentially had since the trade deadline of last year and this is the best they could do. Bowden is foaming at the mouth for Pena (he’s put in over 1000 hours trying to pry Pena away from Cincy, the Reds couldve easily got what the Rangers did for Soriano and probably more….
On any given night here’s the infield for the Reds,,,, Hatteberg at first, Womack at second and Aurilia at third. Then look at Dunn in left and Griffey in center. Run Milton to the mound and this could easily be a team that would struggle to beat KC in a best of seven.
The talking heads here in Cincy are giddy over this trade….get this….. the party line is that the Reds improved both their defense and rotation while positively diversifying their offense by replacing Pena’s strikeouts with Hatteberg’s at bats. Not only that but the Reds get a proven champion in Arroyo because he has world series experience!
Truthfully, Arroyo is an upgrade for the Red’s rotation and he will help them especially on the road. But this trade is a D- because the Reds FO pulled it off in a knee jerk reaction to a woeful few days of spring training. They traded a young potential star (albeit one best suited to be a DH) for an arm that will soon be 30 with little upside and whose style is poorly suited for their park. Arroyo is basically a cheap stop gap. They should’ve done better. What the Reds needed was a 22 year old arm who they could control for the next 6-7 years and who would potentially blossom about the time they actually had a chance to at least be .500.
What the Reds got was a quick fix that fit their budget at the expense of their future.
This is just the kind of trade that helps a lousy team remain lousy for years to come.
The talking heads here in Cincy are giddy over this trade….get this….. the party line is that the Reds improved both their defense and rotation while positively diversifying their offense by replacing Pena’s strikeouts with Hatteberg’s at bats. Not only that but the Reds get a proven champion in Arroyo because he has world series experience!
My head asplode.
Any chance that Cincy needs a gritty 2B?
I always thought that Seattle should’ve gotten Arroyo and he would’ve been a good fit in our rotation, just not for Jeremy Reed.
Although if Rafael Chaves is the miracle worker that Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro are advertising him to be, I may have to edit that statement a little.
As for eponymous coward’s statement of “my head asplode.” Is there any chance you got that of an internet cartoon? Because I believe I heard that on homestarrunner.com once.
Correct- “your head asplode” was in one of Strong Bad’s emails.
His K/BB, K/AB, and BB/PA numbers are UGLY. In my estimation he’s got a very good chance of never improving much and a small chance of being one of the best hitters in baseball.
God, I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t like Wily Mo Pena.
His best season in the minors was at high A ball in 2001 at the age of 20. Struck out 177 times and posted a pathetic .327 OBP. In 2004, he struck out 108 times in 110 games and had a worse OBP of .316. Last year his SLG% didn’t get to .500 and had only an OBP of .304.
His power is undeniable. 27 of his hits were XBH in 2004 (42.5% of his hits), 36 of his 79 in 2005 (45.5%). So right now Wily Mo is Corey Patterson nestled into the two best ballparks to hit in. Should be fine for the Red Sox, but that doesn’t mean I have to like his horrific strikeout rates.
Someone explain to me how Wladamir Balentien is less thought of then Wily Mo Pena.
Sometimes, some prospects just don’t pan out.
It’s one thing to have talent, but it’s another thing to put it together and actually make yourself into a Major League player like Edgar Martinez and many others have.
Willy Mo Pena as much talent as he has, may just be like our buddy Matt Thornton in the sense that he can’t put it together in the Major League level. And when that happens for so many years, then it is just time to move on. It’s that simple.
If you are a Major League general manager, your job every year is to try to get your team closer to a World Championship while putting a good enough product on the field to put fans in the seats.
And you just can’t stand around waiting 5 years for players like Willie Mo Pena to develop. At some point you just have say that it is time to move on, and that’s what is happening here.
I think it should defenitely be noted how the Reds new ownership is really being active in changing the look of the front office and some of the on-field personell (like Willie Mo) as they attempt to re-create this team into their own image, it should be interesting to see if that translates into the Reds being big (or at least more active) free agent players next winter. Because the new owners have said that they do want to win a World Series.
I figured Wily Mo was part of their build for the future. Gotta imagine Griffey won’t play for that much longer, they had to build around Pena, Dunn, Kearns, Freel, Lopez, and Encarnacion.
I stand mistaken, but the Reds ownership can make a lot of people stand mistaken.
How much is that Cincinatti rotation making now? I feel one could get more pleasure out of flushing some of that money down the toilet, flying to Australia, and proceed to flush the remainder of it and watching it swirl down in an opposite direction.
WMP already has alot of value to a major league team. 51 career homeruns after his age 23 season? Is it really far-fetched to assume there is no improvement? He has been younger or the same age as the NL rookie of the year each of his 4 years. We’re not talking about a journeyman here. PECOTA absolutely loves the guy. For someone like Bronson Arroyo, who’s value is that he’s consistently mediocre, you’ve gotta make this move 10 times out of 10.
I’m a Red Sox fan and my only reservation of any sort about this deal is that Arroyo was, apparently, a hell of a nice guy and wanted to stick around with the Sox.
But we’ve probably seen Arroyo’s ceiling. Pena’s got tremendous power and if I weren’t so computer ignorant I’d supply a link of a story from a Dayton Ohio paper that should make any Sox fan very optimistic about him. (there were links to it at Sons of Sam Horn). Pena explicitly acknowledges that he hasn’t been as disciplined as he should be and that he should be taking a lot more pitches.
Pena actually was more patient in Winter League games, with 13 walks in 80 at bats and seemed under control in WBC games, too. I guess the hope from a Sox fan perspective is that he’ll try and live up to the nice words and heed the counsel of Big Papi and Manny and get his pitch.