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Cardinals Trade Jose Martinez to Rays for Matt Liberatore


ramssuperbowl99

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11 hours ago, CWood21 said:

So @ramssuperbowl99 and @hrubes20, this is a clear win for the Cardinals right?  Jose Martinez is a DH-only type given his struggles on the defensive side of the ball.  He's probably a ~2.5-3 WAR player as a full-time DH.  I'm not nearly as high on Arozarena as some are, but he's the more talented of the two OF the Cardinals dealt.  The difference between the 38th and 66th picks last year was ~950k, so with overages you're looking at just under an extra $1M to spend.

I think this is probably as close to a win-win trade as you see in the MLB among 2 teams that are competitive. From an overall value standpoint, it seems pretty even all in all. Maybe you say one of the teams wins by a few million in surplus value if you like a guy, but to me evaluating this trade is more about fit.  

Martinez doesn't fit the Cardinals, but he's really valuable to the Rays. Obviously he's a great offensive player, but the fact that he's a good enough OF to at least nominally play the OF means they have tons of flexibility. He's the primary DH, but they can also rotate days off for other guys and have him replace Meadows/Renfroe. This is also a huge help to them with Brendan McKay. It looks like he's primarily a LHP, but if they want to Ohtani him on certain days and let him DH, it's an option now that wouldn't exist had they gotten a DH only player. There's a ton of wins beyond just the WAR at a position they stunk at last season.

On the Cardinals end, I think the win is pretty obvious. You trade a guy who was valuable to a small group of teams for a guy who is valuable to every team, and like you said, the premium to acquire that more flexible piece was pretty low.

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2 hours ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

I think this is probably as close to a win-win trade as you see in the MLB among 2 teams that are competitive. From an overall value standpoint, it seems pretty even all in all. Maybe you say one of the teams wins by a few million in surplus value if you like a guy, but to me evaluating this trade is more about fit.  

Martinez doesn't fit the Cardinals, but he's really valuable to the Rays. Obviously he's a great offensive player, but the fact that he's a good enough OF to at least nominally play the OF means they have tons of flexibility. He's the primary DH, but they can also rotate days off for other guys and have him replace Meadows/Renfroe. This is also a huge help to them with Brendan McKay. It looks like he's primarily a LHP, but if they want to Ohtani him on certain days and let him DH, it's an option now that wouldn't exist had they gotten a DH only player. There's a ton of wins beyond just the WAR at a position they stunk at last season.

On the Cardinals end, I think the win is pretty obvious. You trade a guy who was valuable to a small group of teams for a guy who is valuable to every team, and like you said, the premium to acquire that more flexible piece was pretty low.

This is exactly my take as well.  It makes all the sense in the world for both teams, IMO.  Both teams dealt from a position of depth/lack of need for a position of need.  

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