Transaction of the Day: 12/6/14 - 12/12/14

This past weekend, as was the weekend before, was a player movement dead space, with the only notable transaction being the deal that catcher Adam Moore (who played nine games for the Padres last year) signed to play in the Cleveland Indians' minor league system. It's always possible that more deals from that time period will make their way to MLB.com's official transaction page between now and the foreseeable future - remember the screen shot from last week's post that showed just one transaction that weekend? Well, there's been a retcon of sorts. Nothing too exciting went down, but the point is that even in today's info-centric society, you can't trust everyone to always update their sources in real time.

But the good news is that the Winter Meetings happened this past week, and the moves made therein have officially and unofficially set the pace for the entire offseason. Let's take a look at them now:

Monday 12/8/14
- Oakland Athletics trade 1B/OF Brandon Moss to Cleveland Indians for 2B Joe Wendle

The fire sale in Oakland continues as a very versatile and very talented offensive force follows the best third baseman in the game out the door for a somewhat meager return. A lot was made of Moss's power outage in the second half of last year, but he has since had surgery to repair the problem, and he'll certainly offer more with the bat than Cleveland's other former Athletic first baseman/outfielder Nick Swisher. With Michael Brantley and Michael Bourn entrenched in 2/3 of the outfield and Carlos Santana showing that he's not in fact a third baseman, I could see Moss taking the brunt of the Tribe's time in right field with Swisher, David Murphy, and Ryan Raburn duking it out for DH at bats. (Assuming of course that Indians GM Chris Antonetti doesn't make another trade or free agent signing.)

When the Indians first came up in connection with Moss, as an A's fan I was hoping that the slightly more exciting middle infield prospect Jose Ramirez might be involved. The switch hitting Dominican shortstop (who made the big leagues in 2013 and exceeded his rookie limits last year) is two years younger than Wendle and ranked three spots better in MLB.com's pre-2014 rankings of Indians prospects (8 to 11). But Oakland needs someone to play second base and the left-handed hitting Delaware native shows somewhat more promise than Eric Sogard, if not nearly the same level of personality. And rumor has it the A's have another deal in the works to acquire a shortstop...

Honorable mention today includes the Diamondbacks signing Yasmany Tomas to a six-year deal that could become a four-year deal if the Cuban slugger chooses to opt out after the 2018 season. It's a big move to be sure, given the recent success of such Cuban stars as Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, and Yoenis Cespedes, but we in the transaction-obsessed world knew it had been completed since late November and I didn't feel right giving a spot in this illustrious feature to a piece of relatively old news.

Tuesday 12/9/14
- Oakland Athletics trade SP Jeff Samardzija and P Michael Ynoa to Chicago White Sox for 3B Marcus Semien, SP Chris Bassitt, C Josh Phegley, and IF Rangel Ravelo

Did I mention a fire sale? This move I understand more than the trades of Moss and Donaldson since the Shark has only one year left of his team control tank before he leaves for the open seas of free agency, where his prey will change from opposing batters to General Managers and team owners. And seeing as Oakland's return in this deal includes a promising catcher, I wouldn't be surprised if All-Star Derek Norris or concussion victim John Jaso are the next to fall victim to Billy Beane's trade-itis. We'll talk more about the White Sox in the next transaction, but it's difficult to evaluate what the A's are doing since they're clearly far from done tinkering with their roster. I understand dealing from a position of strength - namely power hitting and rotation depth - but now that both those strengths have become weaknesses, I don't see a clear direction. But that's why I write about baseball on the internet and Billy Beane and David Forst craft actual MLB rosters with real human beings.


Wednesday 12/10/14
- Chicago White Sox sign RP David Robertson

Continuing their strong push towards relevance, the White Sox have added a proven closer to replace the unexciting and unreliable committee that rose from the ashes of last offseason's trade of Addison Reed to the Diamondbacks. Chicago has now made a meaningful acquisition to supplement their starting pitching, relief pitching, and starting lineup, with Adam LaRoche replacing the now retired DH platoon of Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko. And we also shouldn't forget the waiver claim of Rob Brantly, a former starting catcher for Miami who will either light a fire under Tyler Flowers or threaten to eat into his playing time. I don't know if this club has added enough pieces to a mediocre core to compete with the rest of its division, but you have to give them props for trying.


Thursday 12/11/14
- Los Angeles Dodgers trade 2B Dee Gordon, SP Dan Haren, and SS Miguel Rojas to Miami Marlins for SP Andrew Heaney, RP Chris Hatcher, CF Enrique Hernandez, and C Austin Barnes
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim trade 2B Howie Kendrick to Los Angeles Dodgers for SP Andrew Heaney

December 11, 2014 is a day that will go down in transactional history as one of the most hectic exchanges of the whole 2015 offseason. In addition to the two-part blockbuster trade mentioned above, the 2014/2015 Rule 5 Draft took place, with more than 13 players involved. Not only that, but last Thursday also saw the Detroit Tigers acquire two All-Stars: Yoenis Cespedes to play LF and Alfredo Simon to start the games that would've been started by Rick Porcello, who went to Boston in the first deal. (The Reds got Eugenio Suarez, who is less of a shortstop of the future type than Jose Iglesias sans shin splints.) And not to ignore the free agency side of things, the Red Sox also brought in some help for Porcello in the form of Justin Masterson, a product of the Boston farm system and buy-low candidate who could bounce back in a big way.

But the deal above between the Dodgers and the Marlins and the Angels says so much about what a transaction can be. Breaking this down as if it were a straight three way trade, we'd see the Dodgers and Marlins getting pieces from each other, then the Dodgers getting something else from the Angels in exchange for something from the Marlins. So right away it seems like there is a piece missing: something going from the Angels to the Marlins. So we'll have to break down the deal further, and in real time. Two of those pieces were productive starting second basemen (Howie Kendrick and Dee Gordon), another was a top 30 prospect heading into 2014 (left handed pitcher Andrew Heaney), and one was a veteran starter who only wanted to pitch in southern California (Dan Haren). So one could reasonably believe that if Miami would rather have traded for Kendrick than Gordon, they could have done so, seeing as they possessed the only trade chip it would have required to obtain him... until they flipped the prospect to the Dodgers. Could it be that they liked that Gordon was available for two more years? But then why did they just acquire two pitchers that will be eligible for free agency after 2015 (not just Haren, but their other Thursday trade target Mat Latos will go into arbitration the final time this year)? Or was the Heaney for Kendrick deal not on the table when it was Kendrick going to Miami? Or did the new Dodgers tricksy front office just pull a fast one? It's an important reminder that you have to consider not just the personnel and financial elements to a trade, but also the timing in which it takes place.


Friday 12/12/14
- Arizona Diamondbacks trade SP Wade Miley to Boston Red Sox for SP Rubby De La Rosa, SP Allen Webster, and IF Raymel Flores

We finish out the week with yet another addition to Boston's 2015 rotation, only this one was acquired with young pitching depth rather than young outfield depth. Wade "Miley being" Miley completes a five-man group with Clay Buchholz the only one on the team to start last year. (Porcello, Masterson, and the midseason acquisition from the Cardinals Joe Kelly are the other three.) That's not to say that the above rotation will be the final product of the offseason; James Shields and Max Scherzer are still out there, and even without their most recently traded left fielder, GM Ben Cherrington still has such veterans to deal as Shane Victorino, Allen Craig, and Daniel Nava, not to mention young phenoms like Rusney Castillo, Mookie Betts, and (still) Jackie Bradley Jr.

Also this day, a couple of free agent pitchers from the so called second tier signed today: Francisco Liriano went back to the Pirates and Jason Hammel went back to the Cubs, by way of a half season with Oakland. Which brings us to Hammel's trade mate in Oakland, Jon Lester. You may not see his name in this post, because the deal has yet to be officially recognized by MLB (.com at least), but Lester agreeing to sign with the Cubs was the domino that will allow the remainder of this year's most exciting transactional action to happen. Look for the announcement and my commentary in next week's recap!