Cleveland Indians Trade Russell Branyan Back to the Seattle Mariners

I often called Seattle Mariners’ GM Jack Zduriencik the “Teflon Don” this offseason. No matter what move or lack of move he made, it was given some positive spin. It was like he could do no wrong.

Only Vince McMahon had more people in his “Kiss my ass club” than Zduriencik did this offseason. But now that Teflon is starting to wear off. The Mariners are in last place in the AL West, they are one of the worst teams in MLB, and now Zduriencik has made one confusing trade.

On Saturday night, the Mariners traded prospects Ezequiel Carrera and Juan Diaz to the Cleveland Indians for 1B/DH Russell Branyan. Really?

So let me understand this. The Mariners season is over and they go out and acquire a 35-year-old first baseman, who is not a difference maker for a couple of prospects? That makes absolutely no sense.

Here is an evaluation of the prospects the Mariners gave up by U.S.S. Mariner, the leading Mariner blog on the web.

“Carrera led the Southern League in BA and OBP last year, but some scouts questioned whether he’d ever be more than a fourth OF in the majors. A brilliant spring capped by a homer off of Felix in an intra-squad game led many to believe that the scouts were wrong. However, from April on, Carrera’s played like a dictionary definition of a fourth OF—a poor man’s Endy Chavez—and picked up a few injuries on the way. He’d been on the Rainiers’ seven-day DL, but it obviously wasn’t serious enough to delay this move.

Juan Diaz was a moderately promising SS in a system without many middle infield ’spects. Until this year, when Nick Franklin made him 100% expendable. Diaz hit the Cal League last year with the reputation of a glove-first guy, but put up a .346 despite never coming close to .300 previously. He wasn’t able to force his way to AA this year (a guy named Triunfel mans SS for West Tennessee), and he’s regressed a bit at High Desert thanks to his BABIP coming back to earth.”

While neither player looks to be the second coming of Ken Griffey Jr. or Alex Rodriguez, you don’t trade fringe prospects who obviously have some value for a guy who won’t make one iota of a difference in 2010.

I understand the Mariners need for power, but this wasn’t the way to go about it.

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