Taveras DFA’d…by Oakland
By
Amanda
Posted at 2:40 pm
The Reds have traded Willy Taveras and Adam Rosales to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for Aaron Miles and a PTBNL or cash.
Of Miles, Mark Sheldon says:
Miles, acquired by the A’s along with Jake Fox from the Cubs on Dec. 3, was also a disappointment in 2009 after he signed a two-year contract with Chicago, batting .185 in 74 games. The 33-year-old is due to make $2.7 million this season.
Over his seven big league seasons with the White Sox, Rockies, Cardinals and Cubs, Miles is a .282 career hitter with a .322 on-base percentage.
The Cincinnati Enquirer paints a brighter picture:
However, in his two previous seasons in St. Louis, he hit .317 (2008) and .290 (2007).
Olney reports the Reds will save $1.3 million on the deal, which will help offset some of the money they just committed in signing shortstop Orlando Cabrera.
“I’m happy to be reunited with Aaron, who played a key role in our World Series championship in St. Louis,” said Reds GM Walt Jocketty, who will be available to the media today at 3:00 p.m. “He’s a quality infielder, a quality person and will be an asset to our club.”
Jocketty’s quote explains a lot. Not that I’m super thrilled about Miles, but I *am* thinking about how nice it’ll be not to have Taveras to be so frustrated about all the time.
For their part, the A’s couldn’t DFA Taveras fast enough, according to ESPN.com:
In separate moves, the A’s agreed to a $750,000, one-year contract with outfielder Gabe Gross and claimed infielder Steve Tolleson off waivers from Minnesota. They designated Taveras for assignment, along with left-hander Dana Eveland, to create space on their 40-man roster.
What? Really? Jocketty not only manages to remove the Taveras albatross from around the club’s neck by packaging him with Rosales, who didn’t exactly set the world on fire last year, he actually gets two players in return?
Plus, by dumping the salaries of Taveras and Rosales, the payroll only goes up by a chump change amount after signing Cabrera?
All I can say is: Walt Jocketty – you rock, dude!
Miles’ 2009 season was as disappointing as Taveras’ was, but a lot of that was probably due to the injuries (first his shoulder and then his elbow). Miles can play several positions. He did have a few good years in St. Louis before crashing last year with the Cubs. He’s a switch-hitter whose career splits are respectable from both sides of the plate. He has playoff experience and a WS ring with the Cardinals in ’06. He runs the bases well. He will probably be a useful backup, which Taveras probably was not going to be.
The player to be named…well, I’ll go out on a limb and predict that Jocketty does better with this one than the Reds did in the Chris Denorfia deal.
Nice to have a real GM in the chair.
HMZ