|
Situation 1:
Royals trade Kyle Smith, Orlando Calixte, Will Smith and Jason Adam for 0.5 seasons of Chase Utley
Pros:
Utley is very good when healthy
Utley is a winner who has experienced the highest levels of success
Utley is the best bat/defense combo available
Relatively low prospect price paid
Cons:
Utley is old
Utley is injury prone
Utley walks after this year
Situation 2:
Royals trade Yordano Ventura and Orlando Calixte for 2.5 years of Howie Kendrick at $9 million and change/year.
Pros:
Kendrick is in his prime
Kendrick is controlled for 2 more years after 2013
Kendrick is above-average with both bat and glove at 2B
Kendrick offers some RH pop, which the team sorely misses
Cons:
Salary (contract is a bit high for KC)
Likely a .290/.330/.430 player, and salary restricts budget
Complementary, not leading, player
Higher prospect price paid
In a vacuum, I would rather have Kendrick through 2015, but his contract probably prohibits KC from chasing rotation reinforcements in FA (even mid-level guys would probably be available for that price range) or pursuing a second-tier OF to play RF. And in trading Ventura, you've traded your best internal option for a quick-impact, high-level starter.
The combo of lower cost/more flexibility from Utley is more appealing to me.
Utley now + Ventura and a FA SP (AJ Burnett?) or FA RF (Mike Morse? Jason Kubel?) is a little more appealing to me than just Kendrick by himself.
It helps more now, IMO, and allows them to fill critical holes more capably moving forward.
__________________
"You gotta love livin', cause dying is a pain in the ass."
---- Sinatra
|