Trade Tracker: Deadline deals and analysis
Yahoo! Sports national baseball writer Jeff Passan breaks down all the trades completed before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Notable deals dating back to the All-Star break are also included.
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ANALYSIS: March of the Injured, Take 2: After Rich Harden's(notes) medical records nauseated their doctor so badly a trade for him was canceled, the Red Sox went back for another pitcher with a dubious history. Bedard can be great, even if he wasn't in his spotlight start earlier in the week, and if he's healthy Boston might've found itself a capable fill-in if Clay Buchholz's(notes) back injury holds him up longer. Bedard's lack of experience and easy temper don't portend well for the pressure cooker of Boston, though let's be honest: If he can pitch, they'll love him there, and he'll love Boston right back.
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ANALYSIS: The first part of a three-way deal that landed the Red Sox the well-regarded Robinson, whom they flipped to Seattle for Erik Bedard.
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ANALYSIS: The Pirates get incrementally better, which, for a team that is playing as much for 2012, '13 and beyond as this season, is the appropriate sort of measure. Ludwick will appreciate escaping the dungeon of Petco Park, though his career year of 2008 seems more like a decade ago. Pittsburgh beat out Cleveland, which is supposed to happen only in football.
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ANALYSIS: With Koji Uehara(notes), Adams and Neftali Feliz(notes) patrolling the final three innings, the Rangers have turned their starters into six-inning pitchers – and themselves into a team on par with Boston and New York in the American League. Adams is the best setup man in baseball and cost a heavy price in Erlin and Wieland, two polished pitching prospects who should thrive at Petco Park. The Rangers' system is plenty deep in arms, though, and Adams' presence could allow the Rangers to move Feliz to the rotation next season.
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ANALYSIS: For all of Kevin Towers' prowess in building bullpens, he's been aggressive in seeking a relief arm and settled on Zielger – at a hefty price. Allen, still just 25, takes walks, hits for power and should slot in nicely at first base for the A's. Ziegler's versatility should help the Diamondbacks, though he and Jason Marquis(notes) aren't exactly the sorts of pieces to vault Arizona past San Francisco.
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ANALYSIS: Though one scout who saw him recently compared Furcal to the Crypt Keeper of "Tales From the Crypt," he still might be an upgrade over Daniel Descalso(notes) or Ryan Theriot(notes) at shortstop. Furcal has been better of late with the bat. His defense isn't near the Gold Glove level at which Furcal played for years, the toll of injuries still apparent. St. Louis is trying to win the NL Central. It's just doing so in a suspect way.
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ANALYSIS: The Great Astros Purge of '11 continues with Atlanta's thieving Bourn for Schafer and three prospects. None of the four project as anything more than mediocre big-league regulars. Bourn, in the meantime, is among the game's three best defensive center fielders and is primed to lead the league in steals for the third consecutive season. He should hit free agency at 30 after next season and smash Juan Pierre's(notes) record for undersized-speedster contract. In the meantime, he's a perfect fit atop an Atlanta lineup that remains vulnerable to left-handers.
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ANALYSIS: Pittsburgh management said it would do everything it could to stay competitive in the NL Central, which means the Pirates better have a busy Sunday, because even if Lee is hitting .261/.306/.533 in July, it's not nearly enough.
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ANALYSIS: Another crack at the Giants' middle-infield woes comes in the form of Cabrera, the veteran in the middle of so many playoff runs. Do not confuse him, however, with being the impetus behind any. He is as much a bandwagoner as he is a second baseman and shortstop.
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ANALYSIS: The mother of 2011 deadline deals gave onlookers one of the oddest scenes imaginable: Ubaldo Jimenez, on the cusp of being traded to Cleveland, laboring through one awful inning of work only to walk off the field and hug his teammates goodbye forever. It was a weird ending to an weird year for the right-hander, who for the first two months of 2010 looked like the best pitcher on the planet and ever since has vacillated between superman and everyman. The bounty for Jimenez was large: Pomeranz, a big left-hander who destroyed Class A hitting and has looked almost as good in Double-A, is the prize, though White isn't chopped liver. He put up a 3.60 ERA in three starts for the Indians before a finger injury that has kept him out since May. McBride is older but playing well at Double-A and Gardner is a groundball machine who could start or turn into a bullpen piece.
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ANALYSIS: The Rangers snagged perhaps the most underrated arm on the market in Uehara, a command-and-control right-hander who exemplifies those attributes so well he gets strikeouts on top of them. His 62-to-8 K-to-BB ratio in 47 1/3 innings is the best in the major leagues, and to get him for this year and next it cost Texas a bust-with-upside in Davis (who's slugging .824 at Triple-A) and Hunter (who found himself the rotation's odd man out after going 13-4 and starting a World Series game last year).
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ANALYSIS: The Diamondbacks upgrade their rotation marginally with the veteran Marquis, whose past performances in the second half haven't made him a desirable commodity for stretch runs. If this is Arizona's lone rejoinder to San Francisco acquiring Carlos Beltran(notes), it won't be enough.
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ANALYSIS: Less than a day after he complained about his utility role in Kansas City, Aviles goes to Boston to be ... a utilityman. Navarro should be KC's utility guy, and Volz is a Class A reliever who turns 24 in December.
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ANALYSIS: The Rickie Weeks(notes) injury forced the Brewers to find depth, and Hairston, a Swiss Army knife, can help at any number of positions, including second base.
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ANALYSIS: With the prices for Ubaldo Jimenez(notes) and Hiroki Kuroda(notes) prohibitive, Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski struck on the market's underside by acquiring Fister, who some scouts think is more a product of Seattle's strong defense and big stadium. The 6-foot-8 right-hander is all about command and control, his fastball rarely cracking 90 mph. However the Tigers work out their rotation – keeping top prospect Jacob Turner(notes), who makes his major league debut Saturday, for Brad Penny(notes), or just going with Justin Verlander(notes), Max Scherzer(notes), Rick Porcello(notes), Fister and Penny – their pitching has gotten better. Your move, Cleveland.
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ANALYSIS: Nobody maneuvers about a trade market like Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr., and he struck again with the acquisition of Hunter Pence(notes). He bought high, no question: Pence's .370 average on balls in play is bound to regress, and it cost Philadelphia its top two prospects, hard-throwing right-hander Jarred Cosart and slugging first baseman Jonathan Singleton. No matter. Philadelphia's farm system under Marti Wolever churns out young talent, and not only does Pence give the Phillies a much-needed right-handed presence in a lefty-dominated lineup, he's sticking around through 2013, another cornerstone for a team replete with them.
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ANALYSIS: The whopper of the summer and a win-win. In Beltran, the Giants get the middle-of-the-lineup thumper they so desperately need with Buster Posey(notes) out for the season, and the Mets send them $4 million for the privilege. That, of course, bought New York a better prospect in Wheeler, the 6-foot-3 right-hander who two years ago was the No. 6 pick in the draft. He's hard-throwing, projectable, toolsy – everything the new Mets regime wants in its farm system.
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ANALYSIS: After injuries sent Grady Sizemore(notes) and Shin-Soo Choo(notes) to the DL, the Indians needed outfield depth. Fukudome gives it to them, with a nice OBP to boost.
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ANALYSIS: For the Cardinals, a win-now move that only makes them marginally better. For the Blue Jays, another stroke of excellence from their young GM Alex Anthopoulos. Jackson is the key for the Cardinals, who send Kyle McClellan(notes) back to the bullpen, which Dotel and Rzepczynski also fortify. Rasmus is really the only return for the Blue Jays, and a fine one he is: a 24-year-old, five-tool center fielder, only a handful of whom come around every generation. If he plays to that talent, this is the early candidate for Trade of the Decade.
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ANALYSIS: Chicago needed to dump payroll with Teahen, a utilityman signed to a starter's contract, and Jackson. Frasor solidifies their bullpen and comes with a draft pick if he signs elsewhere in free agency, and Stewart's command is starter-level, one more toward the back end of a rotation.
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ANALYSIS: Warm body while Weeks hits the DL with a twisted ankle until September.
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ANALYSIS: Warm body while Brian McCan hits the DL with a strained oblique until September.
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ANALYSIS: Rivera will play some outfield, some first base and neither particularly well.
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ANALYSIS: Nationals acquire Mohawk expert to play Obi-Wan for Bryce Harper's(notes) Luke.
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ANALYSIS: San Francisco's middle-infield mess gets another guy who refuses to take walks.
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ANALYSIS: The Mets get rid of a big headache in K-Rod, whose exorbitant contract and off-the-field behavior necessitated a salary dump. He's trying to rebuild his value in a Brewers bullpen that needed his help.
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