Nady and Marte traded to the Yankees
According to a lot of sources (BP, Heyman, Rosenthal), The Pirates have traded Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte to the Yanks for Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, George Kontos and Phil Coke.
This is not a good trade for the Pirates, and I’m extremely disappointed. Ever since Neal Huntington took over for the Pirates, I’ve been very optimistic about the direction the team was going. He seemed very logical, and had a well thought out long-term plan. This trade is a definite step forward.
Nady is not a great player. He’s a good one, and has value, but this season is remarkably fluky; a .367 BABIP is not even close to sustainable. That being said, it’s likely that his season has inflated his season and somebody might overpay.
Marte is an excellent reliever who can be expected to put up an ERA in the mid-3s, and combined with Rivera and Edwar Ramirez should make a very formidable late-game trio. Marte is the real gem of this deal.
In return for these two valuable players, the Pirates got… not a whole lot. Jose Tabata is supposedly the centerpiece, but this deal signifies that the Yankees have given up on his ceiling, and for good reason. Four years into his professional career, his only real offensive tool is an ability to make contact. He has only an average walk rate, and in 1180 career ABs he has only 16 HR, with no sign of improvement. He’s never even put up an .800 OPS. He’s athletic and does make good contact, so he could be a major league 4th OF or even a mediocre starter, but the dreams of him being a five-tool superstud are long gone.
Ross Ohlendorf has been rather terrible in the majors this year. In 40 innings, Ohlendorf has 36 K, 19 BB and 7 HR allowed, leading to a 6.53 ERA. Yikes. Ohlendorf has never been able to strike out a lot of batters, and he gives up a lot of HR. His only redeeming quality is that he doesn’t walk very many batters, but at 25 there’s just not enough potential for much of anything. He might be able to find some success in the NL. Just don’t expect much.
Phil Coke has actually been putting up a somewhat decent season in AA. 109 K, 38 BB and 7 HR to 468 batters are all decent ratios. However, I don’t tend to put much weight towards breakout seasons by a 25-year-old pitcher in AA. He’s a lefty, so he at least has a slightly better chance to be a major leaguer in some capacity.
I think that the single best indicator of a low ceiling for a pitcher is when he gives up too many HR, especially at lower levels. Last year, George Kontos allowed 15 HR in 94 innings, while this year he’s given up an only marginally better 11 in 107.1 IP. His K and BB ratios are okay, but not good enough to suggest that Kontos will be anything interesting.
That’s it. For two very valuable players, the Pirates received four players, none of whom I can project to be more than average, and quite possibly none of them will even reach that level. Great trade for the Yankees, at least.
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Well, the trade is no longer the same, it’s Jeff Karstens and Dan McCutchen instead of Coke and Kontos. These guys are okay, much better than Coke and Kontos. Still not the highest ceiling, but the Pirates have serious pitching depth issues, so it’s not the worst.
This makes the trade better. Not equal return, IMO, but not nearly as bad as it was before. I think the Indians probably got more for Casey Blake than the Pirates got in this trade.