Ned Colletti just may have saved his job!
In a 3-team deal, SI's Jon Heyman reports that the Dodgers have traded Andy Laroche and minor league pitcher Bryan Morris to the Pirates, Boston sends Manny Ramirez and $7 million to the Dodgers, and minor league pitchers outfielder Brandon Moss and reliever Craig Hansen to the Pirates.
I was too quick to post the Jason Bay to the Rays deal. Rookie mistake!!
This is a good deal by Neil Huntington getting 3 minor league pitchers plus a major league ready 3bman in Andy Laroche. Laroche has been jerked around by Dodgers management this year, and I'm sure he is happy to be leaving. He should be the Pirates starting 3bman as he is better than Jose Bautista and Luis Rivas. He will team with his brother Adam Laroche to man the corners in Pittsburgh.
Boston replaces Manny with the resurgent Jason Bay. Boston had their fill of Manny Ramirez and they got a nice bat in return, although they also gave up two pitching prospects and $7 million, but $7 million is pocket change for John Henry.
The Dodgers get the power bat they have been sorely lacking this year, and only gave up Andy Laroche and Bryan Morris?? Ned's a genius!!! This trade was a steal for LA, if this is all they are giving up.
What I want to know is who will be sitting in the even more crowded OF in LA? I imagine Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre will be relegated to part-time players and the OF will be Ramirez-Kemp-Ethier. LA now has a legitimate cleanup hitter.
Another question-who replaces Bay in the Pittsburgh outfield? Andrew McCutchen maybe?
More later.
UPDATE: On top of getting the premier cleanup hitter in baseball, and not having to pay his salary the rest of the year, LA will get two draft picks to boot when Manny declines arbitration. Listening to XM Radio on the way home tonight, Rob Dibble and Kevin Kennedy hinted that Manny's actions lately may have been orchestrated by his agent Scott Boras to allow him to become a free agent at the end of the season. Boras is also the agent for Mark Teixeira so we should be seeing alot of him come the GM/Winter meetings.
One other point which I made a day or two ago, Frank McCourt traded for Manny, and stole the headlines from the Angels after they traded for Tex.
Should Rafael Furcal come back in September, LA will have a very formidable lineup:
Furcal
Kemp
Martin
Ramirez
Kent
Loney
Blake
Ethier
This deal probably relegates Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre to the bench. Colleti did a wonderful job improving the Dodgers lineup which SHOULD result in a division title. Anything less, with this lineup, will be disappointing.
Here's what Keith Law had to say about Manny heading to the Dodgers:
The Dodgers get much better this season in exchange for a great young arm who is probably three years away and a third baseman on whom they appeared to place little or no value. You have to imagine this is seen as a huge win within the L.A. front office. The move makes the Dodgers slight favorites to win the NL West, assuming they put the right personnel on the field.
A few snippets on the players the Pirates got in the deal:
Andy LaRoche can -- and should -- be playing every day for a major league club right now. However, the Dodgers have seemed to view him as a shirt they received as a gift and didn't like but couldn't bear to part with, either. Now headed to a team without a capable third baseman, LaRoche should hit for average and post a great OBP.
The Craig Hansen I've seen endless times in Boston isn't a big league pitcher, but he's worth a shot.
Brandon Moss should slot in as the everyday left fielder in Pittsburgh, but he projects more as a quality fourth outfielder on a good team.
The one real upside player in the deal is Bryan Morris, who is in his first full year back from Tommy John surgery and already is pitching well in low-Class A ball. In a perfect world, he'd be a No. 2 or No. 3 starter, but if the arm problems recur, he might be a dominant late-game reliever.
And Bay to the Sox:
Bay will really improve the 2009 Red Sox. Boston was almost certain to decline Ramirez's $20 million option for 2009, which would have left the Red Sox with an offensive hole to fill for next year. Bay is under control for next year, so the hole is already filled, and he's signed for an amazingly cheap $7.5 million.