Fox Sports’ insipid little rumormonger, Ken Rosenthal, reports that the Orioles and Reds have agreed on a deal that would send Baltimore catcher Ramon Hernandez to Cincinnati in exchange for utility man Ryan Freel and two minor leaguers, Brandon Waring and Justin Turner.
While Freel and his imaginary friend make for a decent enough player, the real highlight of this trade is the catching vacancy left by Hernandez’s departure, leaving the door open for the beginning of the Matt Wieters era.
Wieters is arguably the best position prospect in baseball, tearing up classes A and AA last season to the tune of .355/.454/.600 at the tender age of 22, in a league in which all of the other players combined for an OPS of .735. Additionally, all of this offense came while playing catcher, a position that routinely provides the least offense in baseball.
Wieters was selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2007 draft out of Georgia Tech, where he played in 169 consecutive games, batting .359 and serving as the team’s primary closer as well as catching.

This is an excellent development for the soon-to-be no-longer-moribund Baltimore Orioles.