After a weekend filled with free agent acquisitions and a big trade, the winner at the end of the day is the World Series champion Giants. Even though the Giants lost World Series MVP Juan Uribe, they were able to steal Miguel Tejada away from their division rival Padres.
Tejada is a little old and I wish we had the Tejada of 10 years ago, but he’s still an effective shortstop that has a reliable bat. If it wasn’t good enough to steal your rival’s shortstops and leave them with a gap in the middle, things got even easier for the Giants as the weekend progressed.
The big-name trade was finalized this morning as the Padres dealt superstar Adrian Gonzalez for Casey Kelly, Raymond Fuentes, Anthony Rizzo and a player to be named later. While the Padres did get some young talent for Gonzalez, it was not nearly enough.
Kelly may be a good young right-handed starting pitcher, but in many baseball circles he is more regarded as as a second or third starter in a rotation.
Fuentes has high potential, but is still extremely raw. Rizzo is a young first baseman who is doing well in the minors, but there is no guarantee on how well he will perform when he is called upon.
While the Padres did receive some pieces, they have taken some steps back and no longer seem like a strong competitor for the NL West title.
The other big move this past weekend was Jayson Werth leaving Philadelphia to join the Nationals. While the Phillies are still uber-talented, they lost a big bat and defensive presence in Werth.
Werth was one of the only hitters on the Phillies’ roster that had success against Giants pitching in the NLCS. And his big seven-year, $126 million contract makes it almost impossible for the Phillies to replace him with Crawford.
Crawford has been expected to demand a bigger contract than Werth, and he may be now out of the Phillies’ price range.
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