Britton for Wright and $4M

[wildcard]

There are two surprises in this trade.

1) The O's with the weakest bullpen in basball gives up their 2nd best reliever. That is a little hard to understand.

2) The Yankee send $4M with Wright. $4M is a lot of money in this transaction. That has to be why the O's are giving up Britton. The Yankee bought Britton. This will give the O's a little more money to spend on acquisitions.

I can't say I think this is a good trade. Getting a guy that has the potential to pitch 140 innings at 4.50 is a upgrade for the team. The money helps. Trading Britton hurts. It sets up the trade of RLo.

Its a wash if Wright stays healthy. Its a bad trade if he doesn't.

Personally, I would have let Wright go FA and kept Britton. I think the O's opened a hole in the bullpen that didn't need to be opened and that they gave up 5 years of Britton for cash. Not the best of starts to the off-season.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ports-baseball

[GlennGulliver]

There are two surprises in this trade.

1) The O's with the weakest bullpen in basball gives up their 2nd best reliever. That is a little hard to understand.

2) The Yankee send $4M with Wright. $4M is a lot of money in this transaction. That has to be why the O's are giving up Britton. The Yankee bought Britton. This will give the O's a little more money to spend on acquisitions.

I can't say I think this is a good trade. Getting a guy that has the potential to pitch 140 innings at 4.50 is a upgrade for the team. The money helps. Trading Britton hurts. It sets up the trade of RLo.

Its a wash if Wright stays healthy. Its a bad trade if he doesn't.

Personally, I would have let Wright go FA and kept Britton.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ports-baseball

Agree with this post - but the 4 million goes to offset Wright's 7 million option - so we're essentially paying him 3 million for 2007, which is reasonable for a guy who may or may not pan out. But it's not as if we've made 4 million on the deal that we can then use elsewhere.

[Intrepid1]

Not a bad deal at all. I'm just glad it was Britton and not Hoey.

[Nuclear Dish]

I don't like this deal. Wright isn't going to give us anything more than we already have, and he might take away from innings from the young guns. If we are going to be successful, it's going to be because Bedard, Cabrera, Loewen, and Penn get their acts together consistently and at once, the way it worked out for the Tigers with Bonderman, Robertson, Verlander, Zumaya, and Ledezma.

So all this accomplishes, as far as I'm concerned, is it removes RLo from the picture unless he's willing to pitch out of the bullpen. And it takes Britton, who I always liked and who I think can still be a decent setup guy, and gives him to our biggest competition.

Yuck.

[jiminnj]

My reaction to this is that this was a Leo Mazzone driven trade. He must feel that he can return Wright to his 2004 form. Also the part in the article about his fastball being good over the last half last year and his shoulder being sound, adds to the thought that the Os have to be thinking he will put up better numbers than his 4.45 era of last year.

I don't like that he didn't go 7 innings in any of this starts last year. When he starts, it will mean lots of work for the pen those night.

This means that there is little chance that Rodrigo will be in the starting 5 next year even without any other moves. If he isn't traded, Rodrigo's in the pen.

This gives us starting pitching depth at not a great cost. A small positive move. This does put more pressure on making good bull pen moves.

[Why Not?]

Cool, the warehouse got something done!

Not a blockbuster, but it seems like a positive all around to me. Established guy with an expiring contract for a minor fee. Gives us some flexibility in trying to trade for a bat.

[Jules]

Agreed. This trade was about depth and flexibility. Whether Benson, Lopez (please!), or one of the young guys go we now have a solid #4. For 4M this is a bargain, in baseballs inflated market.

The Orioles were not very secrective last year in their displeasure with Britton's fitness and lack of a good #2 pitch. It sounded like he got by alot on the league not knowing him.

[bobmc]

Agreed. This trade was about depth and flexibility. Whether Benson, Lopez (please!), or one of the young guys go we now have a solid #4. For 4M this is a bargain, in baseballs inflated market.

The Orioles were not very secrective last year in their displeasure with Britton's fitness and lack of a good #2 pitch. It sounded like he got by alot on the league not knowing him.

What he said - I like the fact that Duq's moving and that they have a strategy, IMHO. Move RLo for another piece. A healthy Wright for a few years provides transition to the real young guns coming along. Britton, while impressive at times, was lit up also. Agree that Hoey is the one to keep, unless Tex comes along in the package.

[Boca Bird]

If you subtract Britton's salary, we're getting Wright for approx 2.6 million, or roughly one-third of what we're paying Benson. (Wright makes 7 million of which the yankees are paying 4 million - Brittons 350k)

I'll say it; Wright (barring injury) Wright will post a better era, k, and whip than Benson this year. I'd like to see what we do with the bullpen before I make a prediction about wins.

[wildcard]

Interesting that posters do not think that the O's could have signed Wright as a FA and kept Britton.

[Jules]

I think he would have cost much more in this market. The O's were proactive in this move (wow!) and it was a good one.

[B-more]

Interesting that posters do not think that the O's could have signed Wright as a FA and kept Britton.

Signing Wright as a free agent would have cost more money per year as a free agent and may have cost more than a one year contract.

[wildcard]

I think he would have cost much more in this market. The O's were proactive in this move (wow!) and it was a good one.

Its hard to say at this point whether this saves money.

Wright would have cost more then $3M/yr but now they have to replace Britton. That will cost. Time will tell.

They also gave up 5 years of control over Britton. There is a cost involved with that also.

[AgentOrange]

This sets us up for a trade for a bat. Or at least I think it does.

I like this move by the FO. IF Wright does well this year, we can talk extension. IF not, we only lost Britton. No big deal.

[GlennGulliver]

I totally disagree with this and think it was a good deal, but for a dissenting opinion:

A terrible move for an organization that still has to be considered one of the worst run in baseball. Britton, whom the Orioles were never especially fond of in part because of his conditioninign issues, had a 3.35 ERA in 53 2/3 innings as a rookie and he's under control for six more years. Wright, on the other hand, is under control by the Yankees for one more day. After that, he'd become a free agent, at which point the Orioles very likely could have signed him for right around the $3 million they're set to spend. Oh yeah, and he's not any good at all. Forget salaries and service time: we'd take Britton over him for 2007 alone.