The Indians officially completed the Brandon Moss deal today, sending Double-A infielder Joe Wendle to the A’s for the left-handed slugger. You can see more about my thoughts on this here, or Ryan’s thoughts on it here before the trade became official.
I have to say though, the fact that Oakland took a fringe prospect like Wendle for a guy like Moss seems…weird. This move also seems less awful due to the fact that the Indians didn’t surrender much here. Does Billy Beane see something in Wendle that other teams are missing? Is he anxious to just clear roster space, and isn’t so concerned about the return he receives? Or are Moss’s medicals so much of a concern, that the best he’ll get is a decent, but not highly-touted minor league infielder?
When it comes down to it, the return Oakland got for Donaldson, and will get for Moss, seems odd. Not that it’s completely terrible…it’s just hard to imagine that some team wasn’t willing to offer a better package than the one they got from the Blue Jays for Donaldson, or a better prospect in return for Moss. Major league teams overpay all of the time – both on free agent deals and on trades. I’m just surprised someone wasn’t willing to offer more for cost-effective players like Donaldson and Moss.
The winter meetings are underway, so we’re likely to see some more moves across baseball. I’m still kind of “eeeehhhhh” on Brandon Moss, but I’m always willing to take a shot on a low-cost option. Since Moss didn’t command much in trade value, if this is a bust, it’s not like the Indians gave up several players of great value. We’ll just have to wait and see if Beane was able to off-load a lemon to the Tribe, or if the Indians were able to grab a pretty solid bargain.
Good move for the price. Still have problems on defense.
Where are they going to put this guy? Swisher, Murphy, and Santana are already in his positions. Throw in Raburn and it’s crowded. I am thinking we have other trades lined up?
Moss was an all-star in 2014 with three straight seasons of 20+ home runs. David Murphy is a nice piece and all, but he doesn’t factor into Moss’ place in this lineup.
Gotta think Murphy probably gets dealt now, right?
I would assume that’s part of their discussions moving forward. But its probably not absolutely necessary. If healthy, Moss can play vs both RHP and LHP, so Murphy just becomes the backup.
I don’t know how they fix the defense…that’s a huge concern though.
I would think there would have to be some additional moves to complement this…part of me wonders if they’d just release Raburn and eat the money? I originally thought a Moss deal would only take place *if* they got rid of someone else first. They could also hang onto everyone until spring training, and hope to find a trade partner then. They could prove Swisher is healthy, or hope that Raburn has another great spring. (Seriously, if there was a spring training HOF, Raburn would probably be in it.)
call up lindor, move ramirez to second. put kipnis in the OF.
there, defense kind of fixed…
Just no room in the OF right now because they’re not moving Brantley or (unfortunately) Bourn…and RF, 1B, DH are occupied by Moss/Swisher/Santana.
Lindor/Ramirez up the middle is great…move Kipnis to 3B. Anything is an improvement over Lonnie defensively and he was an OF before moving to 2B, so I would hope the arm would be ok for him over at the hot corner.