Britton for Wright and $4M

[neveradoubt]

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

Excellent deal for Baltimore.

[Ovechkin]

I humbly disagree. Mazzone obviously prefers Wright as a semi-reclamation project to Britton's potential. That's on Mazz. He needs to put his stamp on the staff as a whole and be held accountable. The cost of either is not a factor, again imho.

I could care less if we help the Yanks or make them younger - we worry about ourselves first and fill the holes we need filled. You roll the dice and let the chips fall where they may - at least we are trying and I am excited to watch the strategy unfold.

Exactly. Make this a 90 win team and then worry about the MFY's and the Sawx. Who cares if Britton helps them? What does this trade lead to for us is the only thing that matters. If we sign no one else to the rotation then this move sucks. If it leads to other deals for the rotation and trading young arms for offense then it was a good start.

[33rdst]

Ok, so essentially we were able to get a #3-5 starter that we were looking for, for $3mil. It cost us Britton. We probably saved 3-5 mil because it would have cost us 6-8 mil to sign one of the free agent pitchers of the same ilk. I then ask you this.... What kind and how many relievers can we get for that 3-5 million that we saved? Would that or those relievers be better collectively then Britton? I think it is a good deal for the O's. Britton hadn't established that he would be Chris Ray or Bj Ryan yet, nor do I think he ever will be.

You make a good point.

[Sports Guy]

If this leads to bigger, better things, it is an ok move.

If it leads to nothing else, it is a terrible move.

I am surprised we trading with the Yanks.

[Hank Scorpio]

If this leads to bigger, better things, it is an ok move.

If it leads to nothing else, it is a terrible move.

While this sounds very non-commital (esp coming from SG), this is exactly right. This sets up any number of possibilities to trade for big time bat, especially since the Sun article states that this won't preclude the team from signing another starter in free agency.

[66-70-83-??]

If this leads to bigger, better things, it is an ok move.

If it leads to nothing else, it is a terrible move.

Yes, because we would be wasting/clogging up a precious SP slot with a very inconsistent, injury-prone 31 yr old.

We should be aiming to fill our starting rotation with only two types: 1) no-doubt about it vets (Schmidt ?) or 2) developing young pitchers who are potential studs (Bedard,Cabrera, Loewen for ex).

[Mark Carver]

If this leads to bigger, better things, it is an ok move.

If it leads to nothing else, it is a terrible move.

I am surprised we trading with the Yanks.

Angelos must be out of the country or Duquette didn't get that particular memo from him...

[Sports Guy]

Yes, because we would be wasting/clogging up a precious SP slot with a very inconsistent, injury-prone 31 yr old.

We should be aiming to fill our starting rotation with only two types: 1) no-doubt about it vets (Schmidt ?) or 2) developing young pitchers who are potential studs (Bedard,Cabrera, Loewen for ex).

Plus we have Rodrigo who could do a similar job.

Now, if we trade Rlo for a better reliever than Britton, that makes it a better trade.

[Sports Guy]

Jaret Wright on the FA market this year. Be honest. What does he get maximum?

2/10.................

[bgfield]

I humbly disagree. Mazzone obviously prefers Wright as a semi-reclamation project to Britton's potential. That's on Mazz. He needs to put his stamp on the staff as a whole and be held accountable. The cost of either is not a factor, again imho.

I could care less if we help the Yanks or make them younger - we worry about ourselves first and fill the holes we need filled. You roll the dice and let the chips fall where they may - at least we are trying and I am excited to watch the strategy unfold.

I admit, I'm excited too. While I do not like this trade at all, it's the risky kind of trade that we should be taking (though I think we should have found a risky trade that looked to benefit us more than this will).

And you say you don't care about the Yankees getting better, but remember we have to play them 19 times next year. We NEED them to get worse, and this trade will help them more than it will help us (though I'd love to be wrong and watch Britton turn out to be a bust).

[bird watcher]

Jaret Wright on the FA market this year. Be honest. What does he get maximum?

We will never know! We will have to guess based on what the others get. Who do you think is a good comp?

[Sports Guy]

I admit, I'm excited too. While I do not like this trade at all, it's the risky kind of trade that we should be taking (though I think we should have found a risky trade that looked to benefit us more than this will).

And you say you don't care about the Yankees getting, but remember we have to play them 19 times next year. We NEED them to get worse, and this trade will help them more than it will help us (though I'd love to be wrong and watch Britton turn out to be a bust).

All this did was give the Yanks another young power arm in the pen and it takes a player off of their team that was insignificant to them.

[Hank Scorpio]

Plus we have Rodrigo who could do a similar job.

Now, if we trade Rlo for a better reliever than Britton, that makes it a better trade.

Right... not sure why people are damning this deal already, but it could end up being a prudent move.

I know Britton did a good job for us last year. He came in and threw strikes, which proved exceedingly difficult for the rest of the bullpen, but his fastball was straight as an arrow and not necessarily overpowering.

Maybe it's just because of his crap attitude or the fact that I saw him give up 94 home runs last year, but I'd prefer Wright over Lopez assuming we can get something reasonable for him.

[tennOsfan]

I really don't know what to make of this deal.

Wright and Rodrigo have very similar production numbers, except for two things: Wright gets touched with homers a lot less, and Rodrigo is a better bet to stay healthy. The money we pay out to Wright could be made up if we shed ourselves of Rodrigo. Thus the real trade could be five years of Britton for one year of Wright plus whatever we get for RLo.

I just don't know how this will shake out -- I'm not crazy about dealing a young reliever who has put up solid numbers the last couple of years. For now, I'll put my trust in Mazzone that he knows what he can get out of Wright.

At least we're targeting people and doing something early for a change, instead of waiting around for leftovers.

[Camden_yardbird]

I think this trade epitomizes the idea that you would rather have SP over RP. Though I don't quite get this one like most people.