Pardon My French: Appraising the Jarrod Washburn Trade

It finally happened. A major league team was finally willing to cough up some decent players for Jarrod Washburn. Unbelievable huh? You're going to have to pardon my french on this one folks. 

On Friday, the Seattle Mariners made one of the wisest decisions (to date) that they have made this season, and finally rid themselves of the man known, until recently, as Washedup. 

The Detroit Tigers, to quote "The Godfather," made Jack Zduriencek an "offer he couldn't refuse," by offering Jack Z., Luke French, and Mauricio Robles.

I'm sure every die-hard fan of the M's (and that's about all that is left out there after seven years of mediocrity, to put it mildly) have heard about this, so I'm here to give a little bit of perspective on what we got when we traded Washburn, arguably the most consistent Seattle pitcher this season. 

The main acquisition for Seattle was Luke French. French is 6'4", weighs 230 lbs, and has a fastball that can sometimes touch 93. Sometimes. Rarely. Not the typical scouting report for a guy of his size. French is basically Washburn 2.0, only a decade younger, and about 8.5 million dollars (per year) cheaper. And the Mariners control him for the next six years. 

He won't wow you with his stuff, but what he does have is consistently good control, and an ability to make bats miss. He throws up in the zone a lot, using his height to his advantage, making batters swing at bad pitches because they appear to be dropping a lot more than they actually do. He relies heavily on his breaking ball, which he is able to consistently throw for strikes. 

French is an extreme fly ball pitcher, the type that probably wouldn't do well in say, Arlington or Wrigley. It's a good thing the M's call SafeCo Field home, and another good thing that they have the best outfield defense (according to UZR) in baseball today. He will benefit in the extreme from having a lot of room in left field to work with, and he's unusually good at getting right handed batters out, especially for a lefty. 

French should fare rather well in SafeCo for the next six or so years. 

The second piece, the "throw-in" if you will, was diminutive right hander Mauricio Robles. Robles stands all of 5'10" and weighs 160 lbs. What makes him stand out, however you look at it, is his fastball and his tendency to strike everyone out. 

His fastball touches 95 mph, but usually hovers between 92-94. He lacks excellent command, but is still somewhat decent in that regard. His changeup isn't a weapon by any means, and his curveball is lacking, but he's young (20) and has all the room in the world for improvement. 

Seattle will control him for six years after he makes it to the big leagues. With recent history in mind, the M's will probably have him on an accelerated learning curve, trying to get him to the big leagues about the same time that they get several of their other hard throwing youngsters to The Show. 

With patience and a little work, Robles may turn out to be the steal of this trade. Not bad considering he was a throw in by a club that consistently overvalues size in their pitchers to their own detriment. Just because a guy is 5'10" doesn't mean that he can't become a good pitcher. 

All-in-all I love this trade for the Mariners. They get a cheap replacement pitcher (French) who is basically a younger, cheaper version of the pitcher they rented out for two months, and they get a kid who has been under-appreciated because of his small stature who could turn into something special. Not bad for a days work. Not bad for Jarrod Washedup.