Thursday, December 10, 2009

ONLY ONE LOWELL LEFT IN MASSACHUSETTS


The Red Sox traded Mike Lowell to the Texas Rangers for minor league catcher Max Ramirez. The Sox will also send about $9 million of the $12M Lowell is due to be paid.

Who is Max Ramirez? In 76 Pacific Coast League (AAA) games last year, he hit .234 and 5 homeruns. He has a chance to be the AAA PawSox catcher. Emphasis on the word "chance." He is a throw-in. The Rangers are basically taking $3 million off the Red Sox' balance sheets.



This deal only makes sense if the Red Sox acquire a corner infielder. Saving $3 million in exchange for replacing Lowell with Varitek (the domino line would go Youkilis replacing Lowell at 3rd, then V-Mart replacing Youk at 1st, then Varitek replacing V-Mart at catcher), is simply a bad idea.

The trade needs approval from multiple people. Because of the money involved, The Commisioner needs to approve it. The Rangers are also giving the oft-injured Lowell a physical.

Adrian Beltre is the popular rumor to replace Lowell, and Jesus Christ I hope that remains nothing more than a rumor. Beltre hit .265 last year with a pitiful .304 OBP. He belted a whopping 8 homeruns in 111 games. No thank you.



Miguel Cabrera is another rumored deal, and I think the most likely at this point.

Still, it's strange to make a deal that depends on a POSSIBLE future deal in order to make it work.

Sources:
MLB
Baseball Cube
Baseball-Reference.com

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