Athletics Acquire Ike Davis
The Oakland Athletics have traded international signing money to the Pittsburgh Pirates for former Met Ike Davis.
Ironically, in a related move, the A’s DFA’d former Met Andrew Brown to make room on the 40-man roster for Davis.
In other news, the Athletics also signed former Kansas City Royal Billy Butler. Considering that Butler is a righthanded-hitting DH / first baseman who tends to hit better against lefthanded pitchers, maybe Davis will have an opportunity to platoon a bit in Oakland.
Other transactions over the past week or so:
Mets killer Adam LaRoche has signed with the Chicago White Sox. This is great news for Mets fans on many fronts. First, he’s out of the NL, and the Mets won’t be playing the ChiSox in 2015. Second, he’s left the Nationals, who presumably will move Ryan Zimmerman across the diamond to first base, making their lineup righty-heavy. Third, the Miami Marlins did not get LaRoche — there had been rumors he was one of their top targets this winter.
The White Sox also signed LOOGY Zach Duke, so scratch him off the Mets’ wish list.
Josh Willingham has retired. I imagine his decision was based primarily on the Mets’ signing of Michael Cuddyer, which all but removed any chance of “The Hammer” finishing his career in Flushing.
The Diamondbacks picked up Jeremy Hellickson from the Rays in return for two minor league prospects who played in low-A last year, outfielder Justin Williams and shortstop Andrew Velazquez. Interesting move for both clubs.
Catcher Russell Martin signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. Good move by the Jays, good news for Mets fans, as it’s always helpful to see a solid NL player move to the Adulterated League. Toronto also traded Adam Lind to the Brewers, but that was almost a month ago.
Anticipating the exit of Martin, the Pirates made a trade for Yankees backup catcher Francisco Cervelli. “Francisco” — that’s fun to say! Interesting that Cervelli joins another former backup Yankees catcher, Chris Stewart, on the Bucs’ roster. The Buccos also signed A.J. Burnett to a one-year deal — a move that immediately strengthens the Phillies’ rotation by subtraction.
The Braves released Jonny Venters and Ramiro Pena. The Venters release is mildly intriguing, considering the lefty’s history as a shutdown reliever from 2010-2012. However, Venters underwent a THIRD Tommy John surgery this past August, and won’t be ready to pitch in MLB again until late 2015 at the earliest. Imagine if MLB employed scientists, instead of former bullpen catchers, to monitor pitchers’ rehab? We might never see pitchers suffering re-tears while recovering from surgery. I know, silly talk. It’s much more important that MLB coaches and management concern themselves more with important factors, such as innings limits, when it comes to coming back from TJ surgery. But I digress …
Defensive-minded backstop Jose Molina has been DFA’d by the Tampa Bay Rays. Molina posted the lowest slugging percentage of a MLBer with at least 200 ABs since 1968 — also known as “The Year of the Pitcher.” He can frame a strike, though.
The Detroit Tigers traded minor league second baseman Devon Travis to the Toronto Blue Jays for Anthony Gose. Remember Gose? He was a Jays prospect that was briefly rumored to be obtained by the Mets in the R.A. Dickey deal. Gose has a great glove but not yet been able to put it together with the bat. Meanwhile, Travis is a diminutive (5’9″) infielder who carries a big stick — he posted a .936 OPS with 16 HRs in A-ball in 2013, and followed that up with a 10-HR, .817 OPS in AA last year. There’s a decent chance that Travis breaks north with the Jays next April.
The Tigers also re-signed Victor Martinez, so forget about him joining the Mets.
The Dodgers acquired righty Joel Peralta and lefty Adam Liberatore from the Rays in exchange for right-handers Jose Dominguez and Greg Harris. They also picked up right-hander Juan Nicasio from the Rockies in exchange for a PTBNL or cash considerations. I guess LA’s goal is to throw as much pitchers on the wall as they can, and see what sticks in the bullpen.
As of this writing, we’re still waiting to hear what happens with Pablo Sandoval. Otherwise, I think I’ve hit most of the more notable transactions. Feel free to post your comments on these moves, and/or add any trades or signings of import that I’ve missed.
Too bad about Duke, I figured he’d be a cheap alternative to Miller. Although, really, the White Sox didn’t get him that cheaply. I’d be fine bringing Eveland back — while not super impressive, he consistently didn’t beat himself.
The Martin contract strikes me as an overpay for a guy coming off a career year. He’s a good player, but it’s hard for me to imagine him making a huge difference for that team, unless Navarro was a truly horrific pitcher-handler.
I think Ike probably has one more adjustment left in his quest to become a reliable MLB hitter. Initially, he had the power, but a lot of Ks. Then in AAA in 2013, he altered his swing, and ever since then his BB and K rates have been drastically improved, but he’s lost his pop. So: can he create a hybrid of both swings, where he can still read the pitch and make contact, but when he makes contact, it goes? Odds and history would tell you no. But at 28, I don’t think his time’s completely up.
Andrew Brown, on the other hand — his time is completely up. A 30-year-old RH power hitter who doesn’t crush lefties or do anything else above-average is never going to be more than an injury call-up. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in Vegas again, but I’d hope not to see him in the majors for more than a few games.
Willingham had a weird career, going from undervalued to toast in a short span. After 2010, the Nats traded him for not much — I would have loved to acquire him then. After a solid 2011, the Twins signed him for 3/$21M, which looked like a steal when he had a career year at age 33 in 2012. .260/.366/.524 with 35 HRs and 110 RBIs at Target Field in the post-‘roids era? Whoa. Then in 2013 he was suddenly terrible, in 2014 he played part-time, and now he’s gone. I will always remember his short arms and ability to hit pitches off the plate inside.
Even when he was hitting 25-30 HRs, I never bought into the Ike Davis fascination. I always saw a guy with a slo-pitch softball swing who hit off his front foot and somehow got lucky to run into mistakes often enough to reach double-digits in homers. Then his luck ran out. Maybe with limited exposure and facing RHPs exclusively, Davis can be a valuable asset. We’ll see.
Agreed on Brown.
Willingham had a run of seven consecutive seasons of .800+ OPS, with the majority over .830 — that’s pretty damn good. As you point out, he dropped drastically at age 34, which, to me, in post-PEDs era, is not at all surprising, since the early 30s is the when many men start losing their natural testosterone … er, I mean, bat speed. Ask Robin Ventura. Or ask someone like Steve Finley, Rafael Palmeiro, Brady Anderson, or Barry Bonds, who learned how to reverse the process.
I think your description of Ike perfectly sums up his 2012. Those 32 bombs seemed a little lucky, and that’s when the Mets should have sold high on him. In 2010-2011, I thought he seemed a little better than that, though. Not much to go on at this point, it’s true…
Yeah, 7 straight good offensive seasons — seems like Willingham should have gotten more love. Maybe his defense was really that bad? I dunno. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked at a guy declining at age 34; it just seemed a bit abrupt, and I don’t want to think about Wright and Granderson suddenly becoming completely useless in the next year or two.
I’m looking around at past players who excelled well into their 30s, and it’s pretty hard to find guys who were more than a fraction of their old selves after 35. It mostly seems to be steroid-era guys and all-time greats like Ruth, Williams, Musial, Aaron and Mays. I’m happy to have a cleaner game, but it seems sad (and also a bit unlikely) to me that we don’t have ANY all-time greats among us. Pujols looked like one, and then his age 29 to age 33 seasons were a straight line downhill. Cabrera looked like he was peaking at 30 and then his body began falling apart. Is Hanley even going to make it to the end of his new contract? Is Cuddyer?
Martin is getting way too much money and with his contract being backloaded he should be in the Bronx in 2 years as a necessary add on to the Reyes deal (paingul as that may sound). I have to wonder how the Jays can give that kind of cash to an aging catcher. Yes, he is Canadian but home town bonus should apply not a 40% uplift.
As for the bat speed Testosterone link my thoughts of course went to Cuddyer. But he won a batting title in his early 30’s so let’s hope he is the exception. Ditto for Mr Wright.
As for Davis’ defense, I also was never in agreement with the SNY booth and the Mets blogosphere that he was some kind of future Gold Glover. He was an average to maybe above-average defender, mainly because of his rifle arm. A few dives into the stands for foul balls and everyone lost their mind in their assessment of his skills. Yes, he could scoop balls in the dirt, but so can most average MLB first basemen — it’s not an unusual skill. His range has always been so-so. His arm, plus. Gold Glove? Meh. I didn’t see him on the same level as a Mark Teixeira, Joey Votto, Albert Pujols, Adrian Gonzalez (in their primes). Davis, even as a rookie, simply didn’t have the quick feet.
I had really bad heat stroke once, and even though doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me afterward, I wasn’t myself on the field for the next 6+ months. No quickness, no explosiveness.
Not saying that Valley Fever was and is the only thing stopping Ike from being a star! It just wouldn’t surprise if it’s had an impact.