The Indians have announced that they’ve traded utilityman Zach Walters and outfielder James Ramsey to the Dodgers for cash considerations. In corresponding moves, the Dodgers have announced that they’ve moved Andre Ethier (broken leg) and Josh Ravin (broken arm) to the 60-day DL.
Walters has seen bits of big-league action in the past three seasons with the Nationals and Indians, batting .182/.233/.394 while playing various infield positions and the corner outfield. He was in the midst of a strong Triple-A season upon being traded from Washington to Cleveland for Asdrubal Cabrera in 2014 and looked like he might be somewhat of an unconventional power-hitting prospect as an older player who could man several positions, but he hasn’t shown much offensively since the deal. The Indians designated him for assignment last week.
In a separate move, the Indians also designated Ramsey last week, just months after adding him to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. The 26-year-old hit .243/.327/.382 while playing all three outfield positions for Triple-A Columbus last season. Ramsey is a former first-round draft pick and has the distinction of being traded for a big-leaguer (Justin Masterson, in 2014), but he’s never played in the big leagues.
Interesting philosophy: pick up other’s discards on the cheap and hope they morph into something. Better yet, let’s construct a whole roster that way.
Guess the Dodgers shouldn’t have let Hazelbaker go.
This is a puzzling move for the Dodgers. They already have many players in the outfield and at utility at EVERY level……..is this stockpiling for another move?
Hard to imagine this being more than a depth for the sake of it move. If the players had much trade value they would not have been let go for cash.
Interesting take, Senior. I wonder if they make moves like this to flip guys later in the season. For a team like this, a little bit of money doesn’t seem to make a difference, so maybe that’s it..
All they gave up is cash and they have more money then God so why not? Not really a downside for them lol
It’s not really puzzling. SVS has run into back pain. Thompson is up. CC and Ethier are on the DL. Whatever depth they had is gone at the moment. No big moves are even close. Just two guys that can be brought up for a week or two if they need to and not worry about DFAing after.
The biggest note about this trade is how poorly Cleveland did when trading their two veterans in 2014. Of course not every prospect is going to successfully work out, but this is really bad considering how relatively in demand Masterson and Cabrera were in 2014. Cleveland has a pretty poor history of trading vets for prospects. They got really lucky with Brantley considering he was a PTBNL and Carrasco seems to have finally lived up to his promise, but overall they are still mediocre when it comes to the last stage of prospect development.
Bingo!
The most overrated organization in MLB.
It’s extremely hit or miss. They got Asdrubal for Eduardo Perez when he was 40, and got Choo for Ben Broussard. Also got Yan Gomes and Mike Avilas for Esmil Rogers. Carrasco and Brantley were smaller parts in bigger deals. Jason Knapp getting hurt caused Carrasco to become the center piece of the Cliff Lee deal. They also got Kluber in a 3way deal sending out Jake Westbrook. I’m not saying they hit on all there deals but sending out Lee/CC (knowing they couldn’t keep them long term), Westbrook, Perez, Broussard, and Rogers for Carrasco, Brantley, Kluber, Choo, Asdrubal, Gomes. I think they’d do it every time. No team hits on all there trades but the tribe has a special amount of hate on these boards that doesn’t seem warranted. They do what they can with what the owner will allow them to spend
The Indians have been rebuilding since 2002, and have made the playoffs twice. This years team has question marks at 4 or 5 positions. As for “hate”, I have read very little of that here. What I stated was my opinion and it comes from having to read that they are pennant and world series contenders each of the past 3 or so years (between computerized projections and fawning national writers), which I don’t see at all, and it has not materialized. I feel the Red Sox are overrated as well, but the Red Sox in the same time period have made good trades, have a number of extremely good young players on their roster, and with Dave Dombrowski now running baseball operations I think some of the excess left behind by people no longer with the organization is going to work itself out.
Samuell, Dude. I will respectfully call you an idiot. You don’t watch tribe baseball, From your comments, sounds you don’t watch baseball at all. So how bout hushing? Some of things you say is just plain ignorance. Who said they were perennial contenders? Yeah, I know you tuned into the ESPN highlights and seen the Sports Illustrated report picking them as world series winners last year. First, I am a tribe fan. I have not missed a game in over 7 years. I agree whoever wrote the SI article should have been fired. They weren’t going win the world series last year.. Also, don’t be all over Dave Dombrowsi as some great mind It’s easy to look good in DET when you have an owner where money is no object.. It does seem odd he went from one high payroll team to another? Is it to cover up his lack of FO talent? Boston is in no better shape than Cleveland. Their rotation is god awful behind price. They got Kimbrel (which is great) but how many save opportunities will he get because BOS will not have many opportunities for him to save. You need to get some cliff notes on the game of baseball and learn.
Justin Masterson in demand in 2014? The guy was absolutely terrible. I think he made all of like 3 starts in St. Louis before they gave up on him.
They should have traded Masterson and Carbara a year or two before they did, when those two players would have brought them some quality prospects back as they were not real contenders at that point anyway. But the problem is what was noted above, when they trade a vet for multiple prospects, most of the prospects don’t work out, and it takes 2-4 years for the ones that do to produce. Their record in drafting has also been substandard, leading credence to the observation that they don’t seem to be able to evaluate young players very well.
This past off-season they supposedly offered Carasco to the Giants for Joe Panik and Brendon Belt. Now why would the Giants do that? Trade half of an infield that will be there for at least 5-7 years for a 30 year-old pitcher that can wake up with a sore arm one morning? They misread the market as well as young players.
You are very bitter towards the Tribe for some reason and it seems to have clouded your judgement
No they shouldn’t have traded them earlier, because masterson and Cabrera were keys players in getting them to the playoffs a couple of years ago. You can’t expect teams to have a 100% success rate in trades, it’s just not realistic.
Are you in the FO? You don’t know what they offered to the Giants. It was all speculation. That deal doesn’t add up to me. Also, quit saying Panik and Belt is now great cornerstone pieces (who knows how good they will be this year or beyond) for a pitcher who “might” get a sore arm. That is like saying you “might” read up on baseball and not embarrass. yourself speaking. .It is okay to hate another team. Heck, I hate the cubs and white sox.. I can’t stand anything about either team (except Sale who I repsect now for speaking up to the FO over Laroche) but it does not cloud my judgement on talent. You need a baseball reality check boy.
I said relatively in demand, which he was. Not that he was the top of the market, but he was a guy that a contender put in their rotation for the pennant run. What happens after the trade is irrelevant to his trade value at the deadline.
Need some bullpen help!!
Don’t talk like a crazy person. This team is great, on paper.