Quote:
Originally Posted by One Red Seat
It's going to cost them to deal Lugo, IMO. Not cost the quality of the team, mind you, but money. If they are sending money out with the SS, and then paying money to an arbitration salary level player in Khalil Greene, then the calculus of the SS position becomes quite costly. I don't see them doing that when it looks like the more than adequate replacement is sitting in AAA and ready for this level.
Greene made $2.25M last year per BB-Ref. Lowrie makes the minimum. And, I'd bet dollars to donuts he would put up a higher WARP1 than Greene this year.
EDIT: JHB posted while I was typing. I concur, there's no need for a SS in return.
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All good points.
The biggest reason I keep supporting Lugo + Crisp for Greene is that the positive value of Crisp, both talent and contract considered, more than offsets the negative value of Lugo, again considering the contract. The net is roughly equal to the value of Greene in an average year...and neither his 2007 nor his 2008 thus far has been average for Greene looking at his whole career. He's roughly a .275/.328/.505, 27 HR, 94 RBI hitter on the road over the course of his career. PETCO kills him; Fenway would be ideally suited to his home run swing. Likewise, Coco and Lugo would probably flourish in PETCO. But it's not just that all three players seem better-suited to being in the other team's ballpark, nor that the trade exactly fills San Diego's and Boston's needs, nor that it moves three disaffected and currently unpopular players. It's that the value of talent less salary obligations looks about equal on each side.
There are very few other trades I see as likely where Boston wouldn't eat Lugo's salary.
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BTW, Greene is in the first year of a two-year, $11 million contract. Lugo's contract has three years and $27 million left, plus an avoidable 2011 option. Crisp has two years at $10.5 million plus an $8 million club option for 2010 ($500,000 buyout). The Padres would accept an additional $25 million-odd in salary liability over three years in making the deal, but they'd acquire the shortstop and center fielder from the 2007 World Champions. The Padres appear to have the revenue stream to make this deal were they to choose to do so, and with Greene's stats at their nadir, the fans might applaud their team for making this move.