Recap of trades (1)

With the dust settled and initial reactions tempered by Father Time, it’s a good opportunity to review the recent moves by Hendry.  I’ll give each deal a grade (sorry all you Evergreen College grads) and some brief analysis over the next couple of days.  Here was the first move before the deadline:

Scott Williamson to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Fabian Jimenez (LHP) and Joel Santo (RHP).

Grade: C

It’s always nice when a team can take a reclamation project and turn him into trade bait.  It’s even nicer when that bait lures something of value.  Scott Williamson looks to have been a rather unappetizing worm if this is all that was reeled in with him on the line. Fabian Enrique Jimenez-Angulo (sounds like a 19th century Paraguayan dictator) is the more interesting of the two live arms now wearing Cubbie blue.  He’s a big lefty from Colombia who won’t turn 20 until later this month.  He was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Padres in 2002.  Since then, he has practiced his pitching machine routine in the deep minors, getting shellacked to the tune of a 1.9 WHIP before this season.  He has been a little better this year (and his first start in Boise was decent), but that isn’t saying much.  At his age he has plenty of time to put things together, but, at this point, he doesn’t excite.

Santo appears to have been acquired for name value only.  Born in San Cristobal, DR, Santo was also signed as an undrafted free agent by the Friars in ‘02.  He was repeating a stint at Fort Wayne (lucky guy) in 2006 and, unfortunately, appeared to be regressing (his ‘05 K/BB numbers of 86/51 morphed into an unsightly 48/54).  At 22, Santo is pretty much non-prospect personified.  He’s now in Peoria, where he put up a workmanlike outing in his first chance with the Chiefs.

In conclusion, this was a pretty yawn-inducing move.  Williamson can still miss a lot of bats, but he has also been erratic since his return from injury.  In addition, with guys like Wuertz and Aardsma around, he was redundant.  However, the return on investment here was disappointing, especially considering the reputation Williamson still appears to have in the NL, and his health has been pretty encouraging over the past two seasons.  He obviously felt that he was being misused by Baker, so Hendry probably was looking to unload him no matter what.  I’m not sure what type of free agent Williamson will be this off-season, but I doubt Hendry would have offered him arbitration; otherwise, Hendry would certainly deserve a lower grade as even a possible Type C exchange would have netted a pick with far more value than Jimenez and Santo.