Trade Review: Montezumas and Donkey

Montezumas receives:

RP Rafael Soriano WAS

18^th rounder

19^th rounder

Donkey Receives:

RP Neil Ramirez CHC

14^th rounder

16^th rounder

Nine rounds for Koji or seven rounds for Soriano? I definitely wanted Koji more, but was fine to settle here. Every year, it seems like I reach the transaction limit due in large part to chasing closer news. Barring injury, this prevents me from having to do that, with Perkins, Soriano, and KRod representing a formidable threesome, while Joe Smith could ultimately make this a transcendent bullpen. Seven rounds is high but not terribly and the impact, when split into two picks, is minimal given the guys I tend to target in these rounds. Soriano has been as good as ever, though the Ks are down quite a bit. I’m in it for the saves anyway.

For Chris Shannon, amazingly, this was his third pitcher trade and he’s accumulated 34 rounds of upgrade without taking a massive hit in any of the categories outside saves. I cover this more in the Uehera review, but Chris was smart to strike while the iron was hot. The pitchers are performing well, while there is high demand and no one selling. I always say, the team that gives up first always has the best opportunity to improve. An important part of maximizing the value of 2014 assets is selling is replacing those assets with pieces that can be sold again. If things continue and Chris ultimately doesn’t look like a playoff team, I bet he can sell Simon for five or six rounds as well, maybe Ramirez too.

That said, picks are only opportunities. Without good players for those slots, they’re worthless. Thus, I don’t have a problem giving up a bit for next year for a clearly valuable piece for this year.