Does Mark Teahen Have Trade Value?

(Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

It is definitely trade rumor season—I even did my own little part by speculating that the Ryan Freel acquisition was a precursor to more moves by the Royals. Now, Bob Dutton at the Kansas City Star believes that move makes the Royals buyers, not sellers, but I still stand by my sentiment that there are moves yet to come.

While there has been talk swirling around Brian Bannister and even Gil Meche as of late, the primary rumor name on the offensive side of the ball has been Mark Teahen. 

I have no idea if Kansas City is seriously shopping him or not, but he is an interesting discussion topic, given that three players with similar, but certainly not identical, skill sets have already been dealt. That gives us some idea of what the trade market actually might be—at least at this point in time.

Let’s break down the three deals:

Mark DeRosa to the Cardinals

At 34, Mark DeRosa is seven years older than Teahen and came into 2009 with 893 major league games and 2,650 at-bats under his belt.  He sported a career line of .279/.348/.422 playing second, third and the outfield, and was right on target prior to his trade this season (.270/.342/.457).  

DeRosa did not get regular playing time until 2006 and had three remarkably similar seasons:

2006: .296/.357/.456

2007: .293/.371/.420

2008: .285/.376/.481

Having hit a career-high 21 home runs in 2008 (along with 30 doubles), DeRosa is on his way to matching or surpassing that number with 13 homers already in 2009.

In return for DeRosa, the Indians received 23-year-old reliever Chris Perez and a player to be named later.  In Perez, you have a strikeout pitcher who saved seven games for the Cards in 2008 and struck out 42 hitters in 41.2 innings of major league work.  

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