It’s official.
Dan Uggla‘s somewhat rocky tenure in South Beach is over, and he’s on his way to Atlanta to join what should be a star-studded cast of Braves for the 2011 season.
The Braves surrendered infielder Omar Infante and reliever Mike Dunn to get Uggla.
Uggla is currently in the midst of one of the most impressive runs ever for a second baseman, at least in terms of power. He has hit at least 31 home runs in each of the past four seasons. He also has driven in at least 88 runs in each of his five big-league seasons.
He doesn’t offer much in the way of high average (set a career high at .287 this season) and he certainly strikes out more than a few times (760 in five seasons), but considering he offers more power than any other second baseman in the league (no offense, Chase Utley), you know the Braves won’t complain.
This trade is all fine and dandy for the Braves, but you kind of get the feeling the Marlins got screwed, and that they were just looking to dump Uggla.
However, I find it hard to believe that the most they could get for him was Infante, a 28-year-old utility player who has only played in 100 games in one season three times, and Dunn, a 25-year-old rookie reliever with 29 games of experience under his belt. He’s only pitched 23 innings!
As an Orioles fan, I was kind of hoping Andy MacPhail would jump in on the Uggla sweepstakes, but I feared the Marlins would want too much. Had I known that he could be had for a unproven reliever and a Julio Lugo-type, I would have called MacPhail and the Marlins and scheduled the meet myself.
I don’t think there’s anyway in heck that you can argue that the Marlins came out on top in this one, even if Uggla is a free agent at the end of next season.
Convince me I’m wrong.
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