J.J. Hardy Sent Down, Escobar Up

As the headline says, the Brewers called up SS prospect Alcides Escobar and sent J.J. Hardy to AAA. Escobar has a fine bat for a SS (.298/.353/.409 in AAA this year), he's fast (42 sb), and is supposed to be a plus defender. He seemingly has all the tools to one of the better SS in the league. J.J. Hardy is supposed to have the tools to be the same with his excellent defense and great power at Ss. However, J.J. Hardy has been struggling all year with a .229/.300/.367 line. His defense is still very good (10.4 UZR/150) for him to be a usable player even with that kind of bat, but clearly something isn't working right now. Maybe sending him to the minors will get his head right for next year, or maybe it'll increase his trade value for next year?

If the Brewers want Hardy to increase his value for a trade by producing in the minors over the final month, they are kind of taking a big risk. If Hardy continues to struggle in AAA that would only decrease his value in a trade further. Either way, Hardy is a player any team without a great SS should be looking to acquire next year. Even with his horrible batting line, his defense has been good enough this year to give him 1.5 WAR this year. In this worst case scenario he still gives you positive production at SS, and if his bat turns around he's one of the top SS in the league.

Before this season and before the Derek Jeter Renaissance with his bat and glove, I thought Hardy would be a guy the Yankees could maybe get for cheap from the Brewers. But with Jeter's improvements it's not realistic for the Yankees to make him a utility player with Hardy as the starting SS, so another team is going to have to trade for him. What teams could be interested in a SS for next year?

Red Sox: Easy choice here, they have any kind of prospect that would be needed to get Hardy. Hardy won't even demand that much, Michael Bowden for Hardy could even get it done. Theo Epstein is too smart to let Nick Green be the Sox starting SS next year, and he's too smart to let Hardy go to someone else for nothing.

I'm going to take a risk here and not even hedge my bets, I'll say J.J. Hardy gets traded to the Red Sox this offseason. It just makes too much sense on both sides not to get done. The Sox obviously hold their prospects highly, but trading for Hardy won't require them shelling out 3-4 guys like it would for Halladay, it should only require 1 or 2 neither being top top guys.