Reunions in Oakland
Six months later, the Matt Holliday trade isn’t looking too bad for the Rockies, who travel to Oakland for a weekend series and a matchup against Holliday and his current team.
For the Rockies, Huston Street has regained his stature as a quality closer, a critical development for the Rockies considering the uncertainty of their bullpen. Taylor Buchholz is out for the season after elbow surgery, and Manuel Corpas is now sidelined with a bone chip in his elbow.
Carlos Gonzalez has shown plenty of potential for the future in the outfield. Lefty Greg Smith has been slowed by a tired left arm, but he has two options remaining and less than two years big-league service time so the Rockies have reason to feel they will get long-term impact from him.
The A’s, meanwhile, haven’t found the ability to contend that general manager Billy Beane envisioned when he acquired Holliday and also brought back Jason Giambi.
What do you think of the situation?
It will be interesting to see what kind of package Billy Beane is able to get back for Holliday at the deadline. From that transaction, we will truly be able to evaluate the trade.
Another factor to this trade is Huston Street and his looming free agency, which will probably be too high for the Rockies in the long term.
I love Car Go’s abililty, and hope he figures out big league hitting soon working with Baylor. He truly has AAAA hitting ability at this juncture in his career, but his fielding is something to feel great about.
And as you mentioned, I hope their patient approach with Greg Smith pays off.
As a side note, part of me thinks the Rockies offer to Holliday might not seem that bad in his eyes now. But time will tell, and Boras is relentless with his clients.
I think the deal looks now like it did then: a pretty good deal for a wonderful player we couldn’t afford. I agree Huston Street is one key to the long term view of this deal. Unless CarGo turns into something magical, and if we lose Street, the deal was the best of a bad Boras situation.
It will be interesting to see what kind of package Billy Beane is able to get back for Holliday at the deadline. From that transaction, we will truly be able to evaluate the trade.
Oh, I dunno. It’s hard to fault the Rockies for something they couldn’t know (i.e., the future). Most people seem to think they received a pretty good haul for Holliday considering the assumption (that still seems very solid) that he was determined to test the FA market rather than sign a long-term deal.
If they have a healthy Street next season, then presumably they at least offer him arb and get a couple picks out of him. So for 1 yr of Holliday, they’d end up saving $9 million (Holliday – Street in ‘09), having an effective closer, obtaining a high-ceiling OF prospect, and rotation depth.
Even if Street has an injured 2010 and they don’t get compensation draft picks out of him, they save the dough, trade a yr of Holliday (but from a position of relative strength) for a yr of a strong closer (relative team weakness), and instead of the picks, get CarGon and Smith (who are cheaper than the signing bonuses, and pretty much as good as one would expect out of two compensation picks).
Rory, Street is not a pending free agent. I believe he has another year before free agency so that means the Rockies can bring him back next year.
Also the other point is, the salary saved on Holliday over Street provided the $5 million to add Marquis, which I guess is another consideration.
Tracy,
My mistake – but wouldn’t he be arbitration eligible after this season? I just don’t see the Rockies comfortable with paying a closer 6-7 million a year.
Rory,
Street is already eligible for arbitration.
Haha. Didn’t even spell my name right.
So far it does look like a decent deal, mostly because Street has been solid and Holliday hasn’t put up the numbers they’d hoped for. And assuming that 4 year/76 million offer we gave Holliday was for real (hey, it’s easy to offer big money when you know the other guy won’t accept it), it’ll be interesting to see if Matty can eve equal that in this offseason. I’m guessing no, and that he’ll have to take 2 years/28 million or some such thing and then try to cash in really big again in 2012. Such is the nature of a recession Mr Boras…
Agbayani – I understood the contract offer from the Rockies to Matt was $85 million for 4 years; and with incentives, could have earned him $107 million. Your post is the first time I heard of $76 million for 4 years.
Your last comment is very cogent though – welcome to a recession.
There’s a recession, but as I keep saying, there’s a number of big money teams that will be looking for corner OF/DH types: Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Mets. Their interest should seed Holliday’s market nicely. The Phillies gave Ibanez $31 million/3 and Ibanez is 98 years old.
Obviously having Holliday would be nuch better than having an injured starter, a hitter batting below .200 who has been given up on by two other organizations, and a closer who has been inconsistent the past couple seasons. Imagine where this team would be with Holliday and Fuentes.
Could the Rockies have signed Holliday? We will never know. They made him a below market offer. But with Boras, even a market offer would probably had been rejected since Boras likes to take all hus guys to free agency.
So if we accept that Holliday had to be traded, then we can look at if it was a good trade. He could have been traded at the trading deadline last season but we dont know the offers made so we cant compare what the Rockies got to any offers at that time. Early in the offseason, the Cardinals made an offer with Ryan Ludwick the centerpiece. Or the Rockies could have traded him later in the offseason, or waited until the trading deadline this season or just got draft picks for him.
It is too early to judge this deal because we dont know if Gonzalez will ever live up to all the hype and become a good hitter, we dont know if Smith will be able to help this team out. Street started out poorly this season but has been great since then but can he keep it up? And if he can, will the Rockies be able to afford to resign him? He is a free agent after next season. If they cant sign him, they will probably try to trade him this offseason or by the deadline next season. Whether the Rockies get Street for one season or for far more than that will be an important factor in judging the trade.
So there is way too much unknown information both in the past and in the future to really judge if this was the right decision.
Well said Chris. I have always been a Holliday fan and still have an inkling of hope that he would/could return. I think in my mind while many have said the ship has sailed, he may give a below market two year deal to the Rockies to try to regenerate his numbers and get into an economic climate that is more favorable to him. My crazy idea is to have the Rockies trade back for Holliday this weekend for Atkins and Spilly or with a minor league arm?
But back to reality, I don’t see the Rockies paying a big raise to Spilly next year because isnt he going to be arb eligible as a veteran even though he has the intangible clubhouse leader factor along with Fogg this year. Perhaps Cargo is just going to be a work in progress for a couple of years and the Rockies will have to deal with him. Seems to have all the talent in the world, but has yet to put it together at the mlb level.
As has been said earlier this trade is a work in progress and is too soon to tell based on the lack of work from Smith and whether Cargo pans out.
At least the team has made things interesting the past three weeks and we are talking about trades and how the team is doing and not complaining about our lot in life. Here’s hoping they keep it up.
Imagine where this team would be with Holliday and Fuentes.
Street’s been good, so it’s hard to see Fuentes improving things. As good as Smith has been, sure Holliday would have outhit him. OTOH, I don’t see where the Rockies come up with the extra 17-18 million.
I listened to an interview that Matt H gave and he was saying that he wished he could give stability to his family now that he is on the trading block, hmmmmm, you would have thought 18 mill over 4 years would have been pretty stable and he would not have had to move at all.
Think the Rockies did well and filled a coule of needs.
This trade should go down as the best deal that the Rockies have ever made.
1. Got much needed depth and security in the back end of the bullpen
2. Added a top in prospect, that is a 5 tool player that you have to remember is only 23 years old. He has the intangibles and with his swing and speed he will hit for average. Remember at 23 Holliday was not even in the bigs yet. I expect CarGo to continue to improve and break out next season. He could solidify the Rockies outfield for many years.
3. This deal improved the team immediately, as Tracy said it also allowed for the signing of Marquis. When you look at the team with Holliday and then mith the additions from the trade including Marquis I think it is fairly obious that the Rockies are a much better team this year, because of the trade.
4. Greg Smith is a sleeper in this deal that could be a good back end starter/ long reliever for the Rockies next year if he remains healthy.
The Rockies got all of this for a 1 year rental of Holliday. Good move all the way around.
I agree the Holliday move was good, however I was sad to see him go.
Here’s to hoping we get the good side of Jorge tonight, you know, the one where he strikes out 12 and works 7 innings.
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