Something Fish-y is Going on in Florida

Uggla will be taking his talents
away from South Beach.

In a matter of hours the Marlins have traded Cameron Maybin to the Padres for Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb; traded Dan Uggla to the Braves for Omar Infante and Mike Dunn; and signed catcher John Buck to a 3 year $18M after Ramon Hernandez had signed only a 1 year $3M deal.

To put that into perspective, the Marlins essentially traded their 2nd best everyday player and a center fielder with a career .306/.393/.478 line in the minors who as recently as 2009 was ranked #8 on Baseball America's Propsect list for 2 middle relievers, a throw-in pitcher, a utility infielder and signed a catcher with a career 89 OPS+ for 3 years $18M.

Not what I would call a good trade-off.

It's true that Uggla declined a 4 year $48M extension and that he would have left next year, but I can't imagine that Omar Infante and Mike Dunn is the best they could have pulled in a trade.  Last I checked, the Braves had a great farm system rich in pitching depth but the best pitcher the Marlins could receive in addition to Omar Infante is Mike Dunn, their 9th best pitching prospect according to Jon Sickels.

It's also true that Omar Infante will more or less fill Uggla's hole as they become fringe contenders until 2012 when they open their stadium and likely their wallets.  But you'd like to receive a player that could be on the next-great-Marlins-team rather than just a placement holder.

Three of the top relievers for the Marlins this year were Clay Hensley (signed as a free agent after being released), Brian Sanches (signed as a free agent after being released) and Jose Veras (signed to a minor league contract).   What I mean to say is that the Marlins know as well as anyone that relievers are the easiest commodity in baseball to find.  Which is another way of questioning why the Marlins would trade 2 starters (and ones at prime positions) for 3 middling relievers.

On the other side of things the Braves won't have to worry about Brooks Conrad letting balls go through his legs in the playoffs next year and  have given themselves some insurance in case Chipper Jones can't make a full comeback.

The Padres meanwhile have been a reliever factory for years now and will easily replace lost relievers Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica whether it's in-house or with some smart late offseason pickups.  Further, they nearly won the division with Tony Gwynn Jr. playing a lot of center field last year whose production at the plate shouldn't be too hard for Maybin to improve upon-- not when you bat .204/.304/.287.

Right now it sure looks like the Padres and Braves are winners because they hardly gave anything away.  It's also far too early to call the Marlins "losers" in this deal, but for a team that is usually so smart, these latest moves smell kind of fish-y.