Lilly-Theriot for DeWitt done (MORE UPDATES)
DENVER _ Various reports say it's a done deal between the Cubs and Dodgers: Lefty Ted Lilly and second baseman Ryan Theriot to L.A. for second baseman Blake DeWitt.
UPDATES: It's official now. The deal also includes minor league pitchers Brett Wallach and Kyle Smit. The Cubs send about $2.5 million to the Dodgers, which means they net about $2.5 million in savings.
MORE UPDATES; LILLY'S PARTING WORDS: We had a chance to talk with Ted outside the clubhouse a minute ago. Here's what he had to say: "Short of winning a World Series here, I couldn't have asked for a better experience in my career. I couldn't ask for a better place to play, teammates to play with, fans to play for, all the way from the coaching staff to the front office. I can't enough. The media, from my experience, was great."
GM JIM HENDRY'S INITIAL STATEMENT: “We felt once we moved Castro up to play short and the way it started to unfold as we drew out of the race, we felt that moving forward, acquiring somebody like DeWitt who we’ve always liked gives us something to get started on for next year. So that we felt was a good trade. Our scouts really liked both players. Wallach, the kid comes from tremendous stock. His father (Tim Wallach) was a tremendous character and a quality big-league player for a long time. Our following of Smit the last few years has shown a tremendous improvement. He put himself on a lot higher category on our prospect list with the Dodgers, even from where he was a year ago. We’re pleased with it. It’s a good baseball trade for both clubs. It will give the Dodgers some immediate help to try to catch their respective division leaders and wild-card leaders.”
HENDRY ON DeWITT: “We think he’s a real solid player. We certainly liked him for years way back when he first entered professional baseball. He’s tough kid. He’s 24 years old. His better days are way ahead of him. We have a good relationship with a lot of the coaches with the Dodgers. So I’ve known a lot about him through our relationship there, too. He’s got a chance to be a complete player. He going to get better. Greg Maddux spoke highly of him when Greg pitched for the Dodgers. He’s a guy we’ve always had an eye on and have asked about him in the past. We’re anxious to get him here and see him play at that position and see how it goes leading us into the off-season.”
DeWitt's line in 82 games: .270/.352/.371 with 15 doubles, 4 triples, 1 homer and 30 RBI.
Smit has no record at Class AA Chattanooga. At Class A Inland Empire, he was 5-3 with a 2.49 ERA in 34 games, all but 1 in relief. In 50.2 innings, he gave up 51 hits while walking 10 and striking out 46. Wallach pitched for Great Lakes in the Midwest League. He was 6-0 with a 3.72 ERA in 17 games, all starts. In 84.2 innings, he gave up 73 hits while walking 43 and striking out 92.
Heading to Coors Field now. We will update throughout the day.
I see that Hendry is still stuck in his "get a toolsy and versatile light hitting 2B" phase.
What a horrible GM.
And that is getting the short end of the stick on a trade. Why did we have to trade Lilly? Did someone stick a gun to Hendry head and say trade Lilly? What we got in return is about equivalent to a bucket of balls, 12 fungo bats and a box of sunflower seeds. If we let Lilly go via free agency weren't we going to get a compensation draft pick which turns out to be a top 100 player from this next years draft class?
Hendry created this payroll nightmare. And it sounds like Tom "Michael McCaskey" Ricketts is hellbent on retaining Hendry. It is blindingly obvious that Hendry is under instruction to slash payroll before next season. That means moving Ted Lilly. The kid Wallach seems like an intriguing enough prospect for me to hold of judgment. DeWitt is little more than a utility infielder type.
is a clear upgrade for the Cubs at 2nd base, and he is younger and cheaper than Theriot. They must value him for something because the 2 prospects don't seem to be equivalent to 2 high picks they would have received as compensation.
No, Keith Law doesn't think much of the prospects, but then I would bet he didn't think much of Chris Archer a year ago either, and now he is one of the better pitching prospects in all of baseball. So maybe he doesn't know everything, even though he thinks he does. Wilken and Hendry have a pretty good record in the scouting area.
.....Hendry and company didn't do their homework better about four years ago when they selected Josh Hamilton in the Rule 5 draft and then sold him to the Reds for cash. To think they could have had Hamilton in LF instead of Soriano the past three and a half seasons at about a sixth of the price and Hendry could have used the difference to make another "splash"........sorry, that one still stings a bit.
At the winter meetings that year, the Reds asked the Cubs to pick for them and to trade the pick. The Cubs said fine. They had no idea who the Reds wanted until somebody from the Reds came over and handed them a card with Hamilton's name on it seconds before the Cubs went to the podium. So it wasn't like the Cubs drafted Hamilton and said, "You know what, let's trade him."
Did the Reds know at the time that Hamilton was going to be available? I'm assuming they did or they wouldn't have reached that agreement with the Cubs. If they did, then the Cubs should have also known about Hamilton at that time. I guess what I'm getting at is that the Reds had done their homework and the Cubs hadn't, though the Reds wound up trading him a year later for Volquez.
The Cubs didn't have room for a 26 year old Rule 5 pick that was out of baseball for 3 of the previous 4 seasons due to drug addiction and suicidal thoughts and hadn't played above Single A in FIVE seasons.
ANY team in baseball could've had Hamilton if they wanted him. The Reds (a bad team that could afford to take a risk) were the only team that wanted him.
Sorry, but that just doesn't hold water. Any team could afford to take such a risk. If they decide the player isn't worth keeping on the big league roster for the entire season, they can just offer him back for half the price, and $25K in MLB money is like monopoly money to the average person. They could have elected to evalulate Hamilton in spring camp and offered him back before the season even began.
His background was murky, no doubt about that. But the Reds obviously did their homework and it panned out. He was a high ceiling player afterall, a #1 overall draft selection. You also have no idea whether or not there were any other teams that were interested in him. He was out there for the Cubs to select if they wanted to and if they hadn't made the prearranged agreement with the Reds. Hindsight is 20/20 but it was a missed opportunity for the Cubs.
I'm not going to fault anyone for not wanting a drug addicted suicidal 26 year old with 50 at bats in Single A over the previous 5 years.
Blake DeWitt is what he is. I look at him as decent enough insurance at 3rd base and 2nd base. Starter material? No.
He is an average but improving fielding 2B. His defense at 3B is excellent. No speed and no power. Very poor against LHP and power pitchers. He's guy we should PH for in late innings against a power reliever. No speed. He is gritty, however.
I just hope Hendry isn't planning on putting him at 3B and moving ARam to 1B next year. He is a good OBP player. Might be slotted at #2 when Castro heads to the leadoff spot.
Isn't it kind of early to state those things as facts? DeWitt only has 673 career AB's. If you are basing his adequacy versus LHP off his 45 AB's this year, he's only hitting .222 with a .271 OBP and .582 OPS. But if you base it off of the 89 AB's against LHP prior to this year, he's hit .281 with a .393 OBP and .842 OPS. So what do you believe? And he's only hit 12 homers in his 673 career AB's but Theriot has just 15 in 2254 AB's. I don't know, first round draft pick, hasn't turned 25 yet.....seems like a good risk compared to what we already knew they had in Theriot.
Wonder if the Cubs would have been better off keeping Lilly, offering arb and taking the draft pick. Theriot was going to be allowed to walk, so that's no big deal there. DeWitt isn't much of a defender at 2B, just someone to occupy the position. Man Fontenot must have done something to be buried in the doghouse.
Here's the worst part of the deal for me: Ted Lilly, a class act, consistent competitor and their best pitcher over 3 years, has to leave, and Zambrano has to come back, thanks to the heavy netting of fat, backloaded deals Hendry "engineered" 4 years ago. Ricketts has to look seriously at not only the GM spot in the near future but also team president. I'm wondering if they don't need a baseball guy like Gillick running the show instead of Crane Kenney, to keep Hendry on the financial straight-and-narrow.
DeWitt is a lousy player, no better then Aaron Miles, and Fontenot is even better.
Don't know about the young pitchers the Cubs received, but they are in the low minors,
so it maybe a long time if ever they make it. I was hoping the Yankees, Twins or Tigers would have gotten Lilly.
Don't understand getting rid of Theroit though. What do I know, I'm just a old Cub Fan.
Fontenot is 30 years old and the window to prove he's a full-time player is quickly closing while his price will likely increase
DeWitt will be league minimum the next couple of years
Any word on who is going to get a call up for the roster spot vacated by the trade?
It's been looking like Thomas Diamond may get called up to start in Lilly's spot.
The way things are going, they'll probably re-sign Howry. (Just kidding Jim. Really!!)
What about Jay Jackson, Bruce?
.....doesn't even sound like a baseball player. :>)
I doesn't look like the Cubs got back much in this trade, DeWitt looks like a reserve and the prospects the Cubs got back are not highly rated.
implied the Cubs got what they could and the cardinals did GREAT getting Westbrook. I get damned sick of these kinds of results
Any more trades expected before the deadline? Fontenot, Fukudome, Nady, Silva.....
Setting up shop here at Coors: I suspect a guy like Nady will go after the deadline. If they put him on waivers and he's claimed, they'll just let him go. Silva appears to be staying. Fukudome looks to be a wintertime bad-contract-for-bad-contract deal.
So the Cubs offered Zambrano straight up for Oliver Perez but don't want to take Castillo along with him? Those two combined make $125K more than Zambrano and they are only under contract for the rest of this year and 2011, so it sounds like a chance to trade Zambrano without eating much if any salary. All three should pass thru waivers. Does this one have any legs Bruce?
That was not in the works.
Reported on ESPN yesterday.... Hendry offered Z for Perez straight up. Mets wanted to include Castillo.
Their sources said yes.
Your sources said no.
Who has the more reliable sources?
Ron,
Just to take it further, I think what you're seeing these days with the Internet is the "NFL-i-zation" of news and rumor dissemination. In other words, agents or some team officials are leaking information, true or not, to various national writers and bypassing the beat writers. That's the norm in football now. That's fine. As it is, you've seen over the years that, in general, most of the more sensationalistic rumors and such do not come from the beat writers. They talk to team people every day and have a pretty good idea of what is going on. I've often asked about some of these reports only to have Cubs people tell me, "Oh yeah, when is the new player getting here?" There seem to be people in the game who think it's good to make big splashes in the media.
Mine are pretty good. The Cubs, it would seem would jump at the chance to get rid of Zambrano in such a deal. Sounds too good to be true.
Looking at the Dodgers Top Minor League Prospects List, these guys are way down the line. I can understand LA not wanting to give up Ely, but it sure seems that at the deadline, Hendry could have held out for higher-rated prospects. Looks like another giveaway. Dodger outfielders will be kept busy with Lilly pitching. Would have preferred Kelly Johnson over DeWitt for Theriot. Hopefully, just the first step in "Back Up The Truck". Who's next? Wish it could be D. Lee or Big Z!
Actually, Wallach is a good prospect. He's in low A so far away, but good stuff and having a good year. Smit is a reliever with good numbers in high A, recently promoted to AA, but I don't know anything about his stuff or profile. DeWitt is definitely a big yawn.
Each time we trade a starting pitcher at deadline, we get a mediocre middle infielder from the Dodgers? Hope the prospects have some value.
He was a first round draft pick and made it to the majors at age 22, and he's a lefty. His range factor is better than Theriot or the other rumored trade possibility Kelly Johnson. He turns 25 in a month so he appears to have some upside, and he's got a higher OBP and OPS than Theriot this year. I was sort of hoping it would be DeWitt and Sands so hopefully one or both of the pitching prospects will amount to something. It doesn't seem like much of a return for Lilly.
Look like DeWitt could fit in and hit in the two spot. Bruce do you know what kind of defensive play DeWitt is??
Wallach is a decent rhp prospect. I don't know anything about Smit.
Lilly had $4M left and Theriot had $900K left. MLBTR says the Cubs chipped in $2.5M in cash to get the deal through for DeWitt and 2 minor league pitchers.
I'll miss Ted. I won't miss Ryan.
Any idea on what the Cubs do with the savings that resulted from this deal? Will they reinvest the money in the international market or maybe sign more overslot kids from the recent draft? Or will it be used for 2011 or something else entirely?
Seems to be a decent deal, although I did like Lilly. Keith Law does not seem to be a big fan of the trade for the Cubs. Hendry seems to have a decent track record of finding value in the minors. Hopefully it works out, and hopefully Ted pitches well in LA.