Trade Analysis: Indians Deal Victor Martinez to Boston Red Sox as Trade Deadline ends
Written By: Jacob | Category: Cleveland Indians | Comments: 31
It has been tough working on this article. It has been tough writing much about the Indians over the past week, and I sincerely believe that this will be a difficult year for the front office as they struggle with attendance numbers that will more likely than not go down even further in 2010. That said, it is time to recap what has just happened in the organization after yet another trade involving one of the most popular players on the team, and one of the most loved Cleveland players in the last decade.
Victor Martinez will go down in history as one of the best catchers ever to wear the Indians uniform, right up there with recently inducted Sandy Alomar. In 821 games for Cleveland, he batted .297 while averaging 20 home runs and 102 RBI per full-season. He will be very much missed by NE Ohio fans, but with this trade in hand it is important to look at how stacked the organization’s pitching depth stands. The Indians acquired a top Boston prospect but not the one many fans wanted, as Justin Masterson came to town instead of starter Clay Buchholz. While Masterson could eventually project as a starter, I want to recap all the pieces that the Indians have traded away thus far this season.
Between Mark DeRosa, Ryan Garko, Ben Francisco and Martinez, GM Mark Shapiro has traded away 33.7% of the team’s current plate appearances this year. Additionally, in trading away Rafael Betancourt, Cliff Lee he also traded away 20.0% of the team’s current innings pitched, showing how much of the team in pure numbers have been given away for prospects.
The prospects however, stack up an already impressive minor league system. In acquiring 11 new players including two Major Leaguers (Masterson and RHP Chris Perez) and just two position players (SS Jason Donald and C Lou Marson), Shapiro has shaped the Indians roster for 2010 and hopefully a playoff run in 2011. Say what you want to say about the management, the front office or your preconceived notions of the players we acquired, the least I can say is that on paper it looks incredible impressive to have acquired so many top 10 prospects from other teams. Time will tell if all of these trades come back to impact the team in a signifcant way such as the Barolo Colon trade to Montreal all those years ago and for now, here is a look at the newest three members of the Indians organization:
RHP Justin Masterson – 6′6″, 250-lbs, turned 24 on March 22nd
Second-round (#71 overall) in the 2006 June Draft
The center-piece of this trade unlikely the previously reported Buchholz, Masterson has been mostly a reliever and spot-starter for the Red Sox over the past two seasons. He certainly has big-upside as he was taken in the exact same round as current Akron Aero Steven Wright, but has now worked in 160.1 innings in the Major Leagues. It is expected that the Indians will continue to stretch him out as a middle reliever for the rest of this year, while he certainly may join the rotation in 2010 with a healthy Jake Westbrook, Fausto Carmona, Scott Lewis, and possibly some combination of Anthony Reyes, Carlos Carrasco, Jeremy Sowers, Aaron Laffey and Hector Rondon depending upon their health and performance in Triple-A. Sure that is a crowded area in the MLB rotation, but it never can be a bad thing to have too much pitching. Masterson will be a useful part of the Indians pitching staff for many, many years to come and has the attitude required of a do-it-all pitcher for any kind of team.
2008 with AA Portland: 1-3 with 4.23 ERA in 8 games (8 starts)
2008 with AAA Pawtucket: 1-0 with 2.89 ERA in 4 games (1 start)
2008 with Boston: 6-5 with 3.16 ERA in 36 games (9 starts)
2009 with Boston: 3-3 with 4.50 ERA in 31 games (6 starts)
Another big and physical right-hander just like current Aero Connor Graham, Masterson uses a three-fifths delivery to fool hitters with his hard-throwing stuff. A top prospect who has been over-shadowed by Buchholz and recent Red Sox signee Junichi Tazawa, he definitely does have elite stuff that is getting better. Last season he had a 3.16 ERA for Boston but just had a strikeout to walk ratio of 68-40 in 88.1 innings pitched. This year for the Sox the ERA is up, but it is really encouraging to see the 67 K’s against only 25 strikeouts in 72 innings. To think that the Indians got rooked beacuse of the swap between Buchholz and Masterson is a joke as this guy is for real. Being able to have him around for the next half dozen years will do wonders and along with some of the other hard-throwing young pitchers, he really will be something special.
LHP Nick Hagadone – 6′5″, 230-lbs, turned 23 on January 1st
First-round (#55 overall) in the 2007 June Draft
A hard-throwing left-hander coming off season-ending Tommy John surgery in 2008, Hagadone now would project in the pitching-stacked Indians system as a reliever with back-end potential. His fastball tops out at 98 mph and since he has never really been let loose in the minor leagues (59.1 IP in 23 starts), the Indians will probably be uber-cautious as always with his handling and arm delivery. Adding yet another first-round pitcher like Hagadone will do wonders for the minor league system over the next year and a half. Projecting him as a reliever means that he will arguably shoot up the system, finishing this year with Lake County and Kinston (if he is healthy enough to even pitch) and then going strong with Akron and Columbus in 2010. As a reliever he would be yet another hard-throwing lefty that can strike guys out at will.
2007 with NCAA Washington: 6-1 with 2.77 ERA in 25 games (2 starts)
2007 with ss-A Lowell: 0-1 with 1.85 ERA in 10 games (10 starts)
2008 with mid-A Greenville: 1-1 with 0.00 ERA in 3 games (3 starts)
2009 with mid-A Greenville: 0-2 with 2.52 ERA in 10 games (10 starts)
Hagadone has been praised by scouts for his incredible work ethic and was supposedly pitching just three months following Tommy John surgery. Of course the Red Sox slowed him down from there as he has yet to go more than 3.0 innings in his starts for Greenville this season and there is always the possibility that he could be shut down by the Indians for the rest of the season (along with Jason Knapp). Either way he will come back fresh in 2010 with a geared up path to the big league club as a reliever. Tony Sipp, Rafael Perez, and Zach Jackson are currently the only left-handed relievers on path for being in his way to the Indians, but Hagadone should breeze by everyone soon enough. A closer for Washington in college, he is touted as being an aggresive strong leader who also mixes in a plus slider and an improving changeup. His inclusion along with Bryan Price make me feel a lot more comfortable as just with the Phillies trade, it seems like the Indians went with a big grouping of solid arms instead of one supposed can’t-miss Major Leaguer.
RHP Bryan Price – 6′4″, 200-lbs, turns 23 on November 13th
First-round (#45 overall) in the 2008 June Draft
The final piece of the puzzle and yet another first-round pick added to the system, he is probably a lesser prospect than Hagadone, Barnes and Knapp, the three other Class A pitching prospects acquired by the Indians in the past two weeks. He is probably not that far away from the Major Leagues in terms of his decent delivery and tough fastball, but as of right now his numbers in the Carolina League seem quite disappointing. He will probably remain with the Class A Kinston Indians in the system this season, and his arrival could spark the long-impending promotion of LHP Eric Berger to the first-place Aeros (a minor detail, but one that makes me quite excited). Because of the number of quality young starting pitching, Price along with Connor Graham look better suited for possible work out of the bullpen down the road because of their tall, projectable frames with electric fastballs that could be deadly when used in spurts out of the pen.
2008 with NCAA Rice: 4-4 with 3.72 ERA in 30 games (1 start)
2008 with ss-A Lowell: 1-3 with 3.82 ERA in 12 games (9 starts)
2009 with mid-A Greenville: 3-2 with 2.45 ERA in 8 games (8 starts)
2009 with high-A Salem: 1-6 with 6.54 ERA in 11 games (11 starts)
Allowing 146 hits in your first 136.1 innings pitched in professional baseball is never a good thing. Striking out 140 and being only 22 years old makes up for that depressing stat, and thus it is way too early for fans to give up on this prospect. Price definitely has the potential to be another impact reliever in the Major Leagues, and although his development will probably be slowed down because of his sour numbers right now, he should be arriving in Akron by the All-Star Break next year as a reliever, and will be knocking on Cleveland’s door by Spring Training 2011 if all things go well with his transition back to the bullpen. Since Kinston has already lost their chances at contention this season, all the pressure will be off Price to immediately make a difference in high Class A, and a full off-season of work with the Indians training staff will do him some good. Don’t sleep on him, although his progression through the system will be a lot slower compared to Graham, Hagadone, Barnes and the other top guys just acquired.
Author: JacobRosen
Jacob Rosen is a weekend author for WFNY and the creator of The Sports Report e-mail newsletter. Jacob attends the University of Dayton where he serves as the chief sports staff writer for the Flyer News. You can follow him on Twitter @udjrosen or e-mail him at udjrosen(at)gmail(dot)com.Jacob Rosen has written 168 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
An “already impressive minor league system”.
“On paper it looks incredibly impressive”.
“Getting Masterson instead of Buchholz is not getting rooked”.
Are you on Shapetti’s payroll? Did you consult with Bob Dibiasi?
Spectacular right?
No Isis, he just has a different opinion than you. Let me guess, Dolan is cashing out. Go cheer for the red sox already and be done with it.
You can sit at the bar and cry into your Great Lakes, or accept that Victor and Cliff are gone and take stock of what we got. And, at first glance, it seems like we’ve got a couple big, strong, hard-throwing kids, one or two of whom (hopefully) will be big, big parts of this club for years to come.
We all hate the financial realities of our club and owner, but at a certain point you need to accept it and look at things with the eyes of a grown-up. It took a super-choke to derail 2007, which had been the acme of Shapiro’s first trading frenzy (Bartolo, et al.). Here’s hoping his vision works out for the best in a few years and Wedge doesn’t mess it up.
so what flavor is the kool aid these days?
“A second baseman, soft tossing lefty, and an A-ball centerfielder. Shapetti is horrible.”
/Isis circa July 2002
Victor went 5-6 with 4 RBI in his Red Sox debut batting third in front of Youkilis and after Pedroia… you think Vic will hit in that lineup? Sheesh.
Though they pull a lot of big free agents, the Sox actually have a good farm system.
Now whether or not we can successfully develop these young guys, we’ll see. But They should pan out. We saw last night what Masterson can do.
Vic actually debuted with the Sox on Saturday going 1-5 with an RBI. I guess 6-11 is a pretty decent start.
What up Han Solo? Hope we don’t trade you to The Empire for a few wookies and a star destroyer. That would be saddening.
Projected out that is a .545 BA with 405 RBI’s for a full season. But I hear this Masterson kid has a rocket arm.
I am worth at least that plus two Ewok tribal leaders
Hey we took 2 of 3 from the Tigers woo hoo! But if anyone is thinking of this team contending before 2012, please stop drinking the kool aid.
Jub Jub.
if it makes anyone feel any better, clay bucholz got lit up today (7 earned runs in 4 innings).
It would take everything going right, but it could happen in 2011.
Lineup: You figure Sizemore, Peralta, Cabrera, and Valbuena should all be there and fairly solid. If Choo isn’t pressed into military service, and doesn’t have a huge regression, he looks to be a solid piece. So that, right there, gives you a starting 8 (minus pitcher, numbered below by position) of:
2
3
4 – Valbuena
5 – Peralta
6 – Cabrera
7
8 – Sizemore
9 – Choo
So, you basically only have three holes to fill. By 2011, Santana is most likely your every day catcher, and he resembles Martinez at this point in Victor’s early years. At first, you have a ton of possibilities, so assuming that at least one of Beau Mills/Jordan Brown/Matt LaPorta pans out, they could be your first baseman. That leaves one outfield spot and OF depth to be filled by someone of the Brantley/Weglarz/Crowe/LaPorta/Brown ilk, not to mention the potential for a guy like Wes Hodges at third to provide some relief and flexibility, and that’s a serviceable major league lineup:
2 – Santana
3 – LaPorta/Brown/Mills
4 – Valbuena
5 – Peralta/Hodges
6 – Cabrera
7 – Brantley/Weglarz/LaPorta/Crowe
8 – Sizemore
9 – Choo
Rotation:
This is where it gets a bit dicey, and honestly when projecting it’s impossible to say “barring injury” for all of these guys, as with pitchers you always have to account for that. Westbrook is probably gone in 2011 one way or another. Carmona… well, who knows? Aaron Laffey and David Huff–barring major setbacks–should still be around. I suspect Sowers will have worn out his welcome. But, let’s assume the Carmona, Laffey, and Huff are in the rotation in some form.
Hector Rondon should be there. He’s been solid in AAA, and he’s still just a kid. It looks like Masterson is going to be stretched out as a starter, too. You have guys like Scott Lewis and Anthony Reyes who will be in the discussion.
So, that’s really only one spot to be filled by a pipeline of: Masterson, Lewis, Reyes, Carlos Carrasco, Chuck Lofgren, Ryan Edell, Jeanmar Gomez, Connor Graham, and on and on.
That’s not a mid-90s Braves rotation, but it’s not a bad prospect for 2011. And those are just the guys AA and above right now.
Bullpen:
This is where it gets tricky to project. One year you can get a 2007 Betancourt and Perez, and the next you can get a 2008 Betancourt and 2009 Perez. But, while Isis may not agree, the influx of arms that can compete for bullpen spots is certainly helpful. Granted, Adam Miller’s Finger is a cautionary tale as well.
Kerry Wood will be traded. But, the 2011 bullpen will be made up of a mix of guys like: Chris Perez, Tony Sipp, Frank Herrmann, Rafael Perez, Greg Aquino, Jess Todd, Nick Hagadone, Bryan Price, Steven Wright, and on and on.
My point in writing this is not to say that the Tribe WILL CONTEND in 2011. My point is to say that it’s POSSIBLE. Shapiro–for all of his faults (real or perceived) and due to his budget–has a thin margin for error. What he’s done with these trades is take guys who WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN HERE IN 2011 and replaced them with a flood of guys to compete with those we do already have in an effort to bring the team back to competitiveness.
Will it happen? Hard to say. It’s impossible to project the financial issues that will most likely still be in play 18 months from now. But, I would say that–given the hand he was dealt–Shapiro has done the best he could. I lay this at the feet of the Dolans.
i sure hope all of this “potential” pans out…..i’m not ready to drink the Shapiro kool-aid just yet…but i’m not ready to fire him either…
DP, shouldn’t have that just been a column?
I love prospects. Does anyone remember Roberto Alomar for Alex Escobar in 2002? I think Shapiro is doing well for a low payroll team. Wedge needs to be fired for choking 3 to 1 vs the Sox in 2007. We had boston and blew it. It seems the Indians are content rebuilding. Constantly rebuilding. I’m bummed about John McDonald and Brandon Phillips getting away.Fyi they are all stars much better than Peralta and Asdrubal C. What did we get for Coco Crisp? PS prosects are merely prospects not established hitters. Where’s Pronk? Signs a big deal and disapears
Yep…so much for a “future” post
I am not a complete fan of everything that went down the past weeks with the re-build. But one pragmatic thing I’ve thought, is these past 18 mos since the Mitchell Report, it seems there are tons of guys whom you cant are impacted by all that. Part of me says at least you know what you get with the younger guys… I know some are still juicing (no HGH test, yet) but it’s odd.
Just another reason by MLB is AFU.
If you think the minor league system is packed now, wait until we trade Sizemore!
is victor gonna start hitting the PEDs now that hes in BOS?
Bobby, who says he wasn’t hitting the PEDs already?
[...] the original post: Trade Analysis: Indians Deal Victor Martinez to Boston Red Sox as Trade Deadline ends Tags: beanie-wells-signed, cleveland-indians, denny, indians, major, masterson, scott, tribe, [...]
So you are saying we traded our best player for a middle reliever, a kid who JUST had Tommy John surgery, and a kid who’s getting shelled in A-Ball. Fan freakin’ tastic. This keeps getting better and better…
@25, I hate to say it, but think how bad do we need middle relief help. Especially with this starting staff.
I’m getting good at having people believe I’m on Shapiro’s payroll…I thoroughly enjoy the argument that throwing money into the organization will magically fix everything (like gilbert)…once people stop their love affairs with players, theyll realize that this actually is not as bad as everyone thinks…if these kids solidify our rotation and bullpen for the next 4 years, people will still look back at vic and lee and remember their good years here…but its still just a game…and theyre just players…
So DK,
What should we do while we’re waiting for these players to develop?
As many editors as this site has, you’d think one of them could do some copy editing. I’ve never seen so many mistakes in one article before. Seriously guys, if you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about, you’ve got some work to do.
After fifty years in this town I can finally see that this town is too small to support three major league teams – and it keeps getting worse. There just isn’t enough money or business savvy to build three great franchises here. The entertainment dollar, sports dollar, is simply spread too thin to achieve such a lofty goal of building three champions.
The Nineties for the Tribe was a great decade. But there was no Browns team to sap away the sports dollar. This decade saw the attendance for the Indians explode: More money and very smart ownership brought us some very good talent. But now, we are back to the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. This rendition of the Indians is a poor team, it’s poor in ownership, poor in management and poor in cash. The Yankees and their bucket of gold have changed the financial landscape in the American League and in all of MLB for decades to come.
Having said that, the one thing we could look forward to when going to an Indians Game was watching a favorite player or two play. For me, watching Victor develop and play for Cleveland was one of the reasons I’d go to a game. One of the others was watching the smile on Ryan Garko’s face as rounded first trying to leg out a double; this guy loves the game for the game’s sake. So when we couldn’t have a winner we COULD have players we loved to watch. But with a bipolar-like thought process and a far-too-tight budget guiding all action by this ownership, this has been stolen from us too.
I rue the day the Browns returned, I miss the Jacobs, and I have finally fallen out of love with baseball in this town. I’ve lived here all of my life and watching the town and its sports team’s die is finally so real that I think it is time to officially mourn.
The Cavs are great, but how long will this team’s ownership keep giving CPR to a corpse? Things around here must change or he too will grow weary and take his money and run – and who could blame him.
Wade
While Victor martinez is a great get for BOSOX fans, Indian Fans, you’re going to love Justin Materson! He’s tougher than Clay buckholtz and can pitch in any role, start, middle relief or close. Believe me, this kid is the real deal. Enjoy!