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Manny Delt to Dodgers in 3 way trade, Red Sox get Bay

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Manny Ramirez was traded to the Dodgers in a three-team deadline-beating blockbuster Thursday, sending the disgruntled future Hall-of-Famer out of Boston right as the pennant race starts to heat up.

The Red Sox will receive Pirates outfielder Jason Bay in the deal, while Pittsburgh gets third baseman Andy LaRoche and Class-A right-hander Bryan Morris from the Dodgers and outfielder Brandon Moss and reliever Craig Hansen from the Red Sox.

The Red Sox will pay all of the approximately $7 million remaining on Ramirez’s contract.

Ramirez should provide a major boost to the Dodgers’ offense, but his arrival will add to the crowd in the Dodgers’ outfield, which already includes Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones.

Moss, Hansen and LaRoche all have played in the majors. Morris, 21, was the Dodgers’ first-round pick in 2006.

The deal could significantly tilt the balance of power toward the Dodgers in the hotly contested NL West race. The Dodgers began the day one game behind the Diamondbacks, whose only pre-deadline addition was reliever Jon Rauch.

For the Red Sox, meanwhile, the addition of Bay amounts to a coup, considering their need to replace Ramirez’s offense. Bay, who turns 30 on Sept. 20, is six years younger than Ramirez, and his .894 on-base/slugging percentage is nearly as high as Ramirez’s .927 mark this season.

The Red Sox also will retain Bay through next season at an affordable salary of $7.5 million. After that, Bay becomes eligible for free agency.

Ramirez will be a free agent at the end of this season. He waived his no-trade clause in exchange for the elimination of the two $20 million club options in his contract.

The Red Sox were fiercely determined to trade Ramirez, whose behavior on and off the field had become a significant distraction in recent weeks. After a proposed three-way trade involving the Marlins collapsed on Thursday, the Dodgers quickly emerged as the leading suitor for Ramirez.

Ramirez paved his way out of town, perhaps intentionally, by a recent series of actions unprecedented even in his checkered history.

Ultimately, the Red Sox decided that wasn’t worth the power Ramirez brought to the lineup — a .299 batting average with a team-high 20 homers and 68 RBIs this season. For his career in Boston, he was fifth in team history with 274 homers, sixth with 868 RBIs and ninth with a .312 average.

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Yankees Make Deal for Pirates’ Nady and Marte

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

The Yankees agreed to a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates that would give New York left-handed pitcher Damaso Marte and right fielder Xavier Nady in a deal first reported on Friday evening by ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney.

The Pirates will receive four minor leaguers including right-handed pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, right-handed pitcher George Kontos, left-handed pitcher Phil Coke and right fielder Jose Tabata in return. The trade is tentative pending physicals.

The Yankees, with Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada on the disabled list and possibly lost for the year, needed another right-handed bat for their lefty loaded lineup.

Their all-righty bullpen has a 1.67 ERA over its last 23 games, and adding Marte gives them one of the top lefty specialists in baseball.

The Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and New York Mets all were thought to be interested in Nady, who was batting .330 with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs. Marte is 4-0 with a 3.47 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings, and also was attracting interest from several teams.

Ohlendorf was 1-1 with a 6.53 ERA in 25 games with the Yankees this season. He was demoted on June 27, and had a 1-1 record with a 4.03 ERA in five starts with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Tabata, Kontos and Coke all were with Double-A Trenton. Tabata was batting .248 with three homers and 36 RBIs entering play Friday, and Coke was 9-4 with a 2.60 ERA in 20 games, 19 starts. Kontos was 3-9 with a 3.77 ERA in 20 starts.

High-ranking Yankees officials gathered for meetings at their spring training complex Thursday. After a three-hour meeting, co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner confirmed one of the topics was indicted home run king Barry Bonds. Steinbrenner wouldn’t say if the Yankees are interested in Bonds, but it appears highly unlikely the team will pursue him after acquiring Nady.

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Nady and Marte Rumors

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Outfielder Xavier Nady and reliever Damaso Marte continue to draw the most interest and, for that reason, they remain most likely to go. But neither will be given away. Two prospects will be sought for each. Nady’s prime suitors remain the Tampa Bay Rays — who might be the favorite because of their wealth of prospects — and the New York Mets, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves. Marte’s suitors are a dozen deep. — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Pirates shopping Nady and LaRoche?

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

Next month is when contending teams will get serious about adding talent for the stretch run. If the right deals are there – and give Pirates GM NEal Huntington credit for not unloading players from a position of weakness last winter – then the Pirates must listen hard on offers for Xavier Nady, Jason Bay, John Grabow, Damaso Marte, Adam LaRoche and any other reasonably productive veteran player. If Huntington isn’t enamored with what he hears, he can wait until winter and hope for something better. But in the cases of Nady and Bay, that would be risky. Both are 29 and headed toward unrestricted free agency after the 2009 season and might never be as marketable as they are now, in the midst of such productive seasons. The Pirates should hope LaRoche starts to hit and thus becomes an attractive commodity (they should be thankful contract talks fell apart during the offseason, too). — Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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Morris let go as Pirates shuffle rotation

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Matt Morris, the veteran right-hander added by the Pittsburgh Pirates late last season to stabilize a young rotation, was released Sunday after failing to pitch past the second inning in his latest start.

Morris fell to 0-4 with a 9.67 ERA after giving up six runs, three earned, and six hits in 1 2-3 innings during an 8-4 loss to the Phillies on Saturday night. The decision to cut him will cost the Pirates more than $10 million, besides what they already have paid him this season. Morris is making $10,037,283, or about one-fifth of the Pirates‘ payroll, and has a $1 million buyout for 2009.

Morris is 121-92 with a 3.98 ERA in 11 seasons, mostly with the Cardinals. He was a career-best 22-8 with a 3.16 ERA in 2001 and averaged nearly 16 wins per season with St. Louis from 2001-05.

In less than three months with the Pirates, including the final two months of last season, Morris was 3-8 in 16 starts with a 7.04 ERA.

Left-hander Phil Dumatrait (0-1, 3.92 ERA), picked up from the Reds on waivers after last season, will move into the rotation Thursday at Washington. Dumatrait relieved Morris on Saturday night and allowed one earned run in four innings. To replace Morris on the 25-man roster, right-hander John Van Benschoten was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis and will go into the bullpen at least temporarily.

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Freddy Sanchez gets 2-year, $11M deal

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

For a player who needed nearly five seasons to get out of the minors, Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Freddy Sanchez’s career is accelerating at a relatively late stage. In only two years, Sanchez has gone from being a utility infielder to an NL batting champion and a two-time All-Star. He was rewarded Tuesday with an $11 million, two-year contract that includes a 2010 option that could make the deal worth $18.4 million. The contract allowed the 2006 NL batting champion to avoid an arbitration hearing. Sanchez, who made $2.75 million last season, sought $4.9 million and the team offered $4.1 million.

The 30-year-old Sanchez didn’t become an everyday player until a month into the 2006 season but went on to win the batting title with a .344 average. It was the highest average by a Pirates regular since Roberto Clemente hit .345 in 1969. Sanchez also drove in 85 runs despite hitting only six homers.

Sanchez is the first Pirates infielder to hit .300 in consecutive seasons since third baseman Bill Madlock in 1982-83, based on a minimum of 450 plate appearances. Sanchez was a third baseman in 2006.

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Giants deal Morris, big contract to Pirates

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired pitcher Matt Morris from San Francisco on Tuesday, an uncommon deal for a high-priced player by an out-of-contention team at the trading deadline.
Pittsburgh sent rookie outfielder Rajai Davis and a player to be named to the Giants, who began shedding salary as they look to rebuild one of the majors’ oldest teams.

The right-handed Morris, who will be 33 on Aug. 9, was a 22-game winner for St. Louis in 2002 who is 7-7 with a 4.35 ERA this season. He was rocked for 13 hits and six earned runs in seven innings in his last start, an 8-5 loss to Florida on Sunday. He is 0-4 in his last eight starts since June 11.

Morris is 118-84 with a 3.83 ERA in a career that began in 1997 with St. Louis. He also won 17 games in 2002 and 15 games in 2004. He joined the Giants after signing a $27 million, three-year deal in December 2005.

The 26-year-old Davis, a 38th-round draft pick in 2001, is hitting .271 with no homers and two RBIs in 24 games. He was a spare outfielder with Pittsburgh who didn’t figure to play much in the future.

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Atlanta sends slugging first baseman LaRoche to Pittsburgh for reliever Mike Gonzalez

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

After more than two months of discussions, it appears the Braves and Pirates have finally agreed to a trade that will bring left-handed reliever Mike Gonzalez to Atlanta in exchange for first baseman Adam LaRoche. A source familiar with the negotiations confirmed this agreement and indicated that the deal will be officially completed once both players pass their physicals. It’s believed the Braves and Pirates will both include a Minor League player in the trade.

After converting all 24 of his save opportunities and posting a 2.17 ERA in 54 innings in 2006, Gonzalez missed all of September with a sore left shoulder. He has been examined by doctors twice this offseason and has received a clean bill of health on both occasions. With Gonzalez, the Braves have further proven their commitment to improving a bullpen that struggled last year. They re-signed closer Bob Wickman in September and acquired highly regarded right-hander Rafael Soriano from the Mariners in December.

LaRoche, 27, would fulfill the Pirates’ need for a left-handed slugger to hit in the middle of the order between the team’s two top right-handed hitters, Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay.

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Rangers get Kip Wells from Pirates

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Wells has appeared in just seven games this season after undergoing surgery in March to repair a blocked artery in his pitching arm.

He picked up his first win in almost 10 months Friday, throwing seven innings of shutout baseball against the Giants, allowing just five hits and three walks.

Despite the surgery — and his 1-5 record with a 6.69 ERA — Wells had been targeted by several teams as the deadline approached. Both the Red Sox and the Mets had reportedly expressed an interest.

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Mets add Perez & Hernandez from Pirates

Monday, July 31st, 2006

The Mets acquired left-hander Oliver Perez and reliever Roberto Hernandez from the Pirates in exchange for outfielder Xavier Nady.

The need to bolster the staff intensified when the Mets lost right-handed setup man Duaner Sanchez for the season to a separated pitching shoulder.

Perez was 2-10 with a 6.63 ERA in 15 starts before being sent down to Triple-A in June. In 2004, he was 12-10 with a 2.99 ERA but hasn’t been the same since.

Nady has a career-high 14 home runs this season since coming over to the Mets from the Padres in an offseason trade.

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