Reds Trade Freel to Orioles
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:35 pm
Warning: The word “fuck” appears in the following quip about three dozen times. If you’re offended by such language, well, that’s your own fault for coming to Red Hot Mama when the Reds trade Freel.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You’re telling me that Ryan “Adored by every woman in Cincy” Freel was traded, and his name didn’t even make it to the motherfucking headline on Reds.com?
But other than that, spot on trade, idiots. Dusty Baker never liked Freel, and if theres one thing we’ve fucking learned this year, it’s that Baker fucking knows best. And halleluja that they sent him off to get another fucking catcher. God knows that the Reds can’t do without sixteen fucking catchers at a time. Just can’t fill the fucking void after the Cardinals salvaged LaRue. Just can’t seem to bounce back after the fucking Bench years.
Not to worry, though. David fucking Weathers will be back next year to keep things interesting. Gary Majewski will be there to put butts in the fucking seats. I can’t wait to tune in to see fucking Alex Gonzalez be injured. It’ll be fucking compelling baseball.
Overall, though, I like the trade. I bet Hernandez is going to be a real fucking asset.
You’d probably like the details. Here’s the important parts of the story on Reds.com:
LAS VEGAS — The Reds on Tuesday completed a trade in which they acquired catcher Ramon Hernandez from the Orioles for utility player Ryan Freel and two prospects.
Baltimore will also receive Reds infield prospects Brandon Waring and Justin Turner. Cincinnati is believed to be receiving $1 million in cash from the Orioles in the deal.
Hernandez is slated to make $8 million in 2009, with a 2010 club option worth $8.5 million and a $1 million payment.
Freel is scheduled to make $4 million next season.
Dammit. This sucks.
I’ll miss Freel. Well said.
He was a warrior.
Hi, TNM,
Thanks; it’s nice to have you here. You know, I thought I was feeling better about this, and then someone brought it up at lunch today and I was all worked up again.
Though I may be able to communicate my disapproval (“I don’t see how it helps the team to spend $8m on a catcher at the expense of a fan favorite”) in a little more civilized fashion.
Wow. Don’t mince words, RHM, tell us what you [i]really[/i] think! 🙂
I suspect that the club’s thinking here was to upgrade the position (catcher), which was needed and which I think they’ve done.
I too will miss Ryan Freel. I admired his style of play and his work ethic.
However, Freel, fan favorite that he was, simply couldn’t stay on the field. The team paid him a total of $5,325,000 over the past two seasons to play in only 123 games.
Between erasing Freel’s salary from the payroll (he would have been due a base salary of $4 million in 2009) and the fact that the Orioles will pay part of Hernandez’ salary, the Reds upgraded a position that dearly needed upgrading.
I also think they did it in a way that makes more economic sense than signing a free agent catcher. They could have been stuck with a big contract for a Josh Bard or I-Rod. Or they could’ve gone cheap and wound up with a Michael Barrett/Brad Ausmus level player, guys who would be backup catchers on a good team and wouldn’t have been much of an improvement over Paul Bako.