Mildly Interesting Trade

The Orioles traded jack-of-all-trades backup infielder Oscar Salazar to the Padres for relief pitcher Cla Meredith.  It’s one of those small-time trades I often find kind of interesting.

Salazar is already 31 years old and has only played in 59 major league games so far in his career, so it’s unlikely he’ll ever be a star.  At the same time, he hits awfully well for a guy who can play all four infield positions and the corner outfield positions.  Right now, he clearly should be a bench player for some major league team, given his versatility and his ability to hit and pinch hit (he’s 9 for 22 as a pinch hitter the last two years for the O’s).  Looks like the Padres will give him that shot.

The Orioles apparently didn’t have roster space for Salazar and he is reportedly out of minor league options, so trading him to the Padres for more than a warm body was a real break for the O’s.

The pitcher the O’s got, Cla Meredith, has pitched worse every year since he took the NL by storm in 2006.  His ERAs since then have gone from 1.07 to 3.50, 4.10 last year and 4.17 so far this year.

That’s not a good trend, and it looks even worse when you look at his ratios and remember that in San Diego, he pitched in one of the best pitchers’ parks in baseball.

However, Meredith is only 26 this year, and the O’s, as always, are desperate for pitching.  If Meredith is not successful right away, he’s apparently still got one minor league option left, so the O’s can send him down to work his problems out, rather than just dumping him right away.

On balance, I think this is a good move for the O’s, since Meredith has had major league success in the past, and the O’s had no room for Salazar anyway.