July 26, 2008
Sox Bolster Offense, Acquire Furcal from Dodgers
Theo Epstein has a history of being busy at the trade deadline. In 2003, it was Jeff Suppan from the Pirates. In 2004, it was the infamous Nomar Garciaparra trade for Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera. And in 2007, it was Eric Gagne. With two World Series rings, Epstein has earned a reputation as strong General Manager. This year, with the Sox struggling to score runs and the Yankees creeping back into contention in the American League East, Epstein struck again.
In exchange for shortstop Rafael Furcal and catching prospect Carlos Santana, the Red Sox sent 18-year old minor league shortstop Oscar Tejada, right fielder Brandon Moss, 23-year old minor league catcher Jonathan Still, 19-year old minor league first baseman Bill Rowell and 32-year old third baseman Rob Mackowiak to the Dodgers.
"We picked up a dynamic player at a premium position," Esptein said during a hastily put together news conference this afternoon. "Rafael has played for some strong Atlanta and Los Angeles teams, including six that made the playoffs with the Braves. We feel like he fills a need for our team and should be trouble at the top of the lineup with Coco."
This season, Furcal has hit .297 in 96 games with the Dodgers to go along with 31 2Bs, 6 3Bs, 7 HRs, 49 RBIs, and 87 runs scored. Furcal has managed to get on base at a .343 clip.
A huge hole since the days of Garciaparra, shortstop has become Esptein's Moby Dick. Since 2003, the Sox have employed no less than nine shortstops: Garciaparra, Pokey Reese, Orlando Cabrera, Cesar Crespo, Edgar Renteria, Ramon Vazquez, Alex Gonzalez, Alex Cora, and Julio Lugo.
In getting Furcal, the Sox are hoping to add a spark to their sputtering offense. Boston has dropped to ninth in the AL in batting (.263) despite putting up a .340 OBP (2nd), .424 SLG (4th) and a .764 OBS (3rd).
"We are getting on base with the middle of our lineup, but, overall, the top half isn't getting on base enough to score runs. We felt that our lineup was out of whack. Because we put Youkilis up top with Crisp, the bottom half of our lineup wasn't what we envisioned. Now, we can slot Furcal in second and Youk back in the middle behind David [Ortiz] and Manny [Ramirez]."
The odd man out appears to be Julio Lugo, himself a former Los Angeles Dodger. Signed before the 2007 season to a four year, $36m contract, Lugo has been a disappointment for the Sox. In 243 games over the past year and a half, Lugo has batted just .235 in 893 ABs. In fact, of the 359 players who have at least 100 at bats this season, Lugo's .232 average ranks 294th. His -13.1 VORP is worst on the Red Sox, and the 2nd worst amongst MLB regulars, trailing only San Francisco's Mike Jacobs (-15.4)!
Of course, Epstein and manager Terry Francona now must decide how to find enough ABs to satisfy both Furcal and Lugo. It would seem obvious based upon their production that Furcal would get the majority of the playing time, especially considering that soon enough, the Sox are going to be faced with the decision of whether or not to resign the pending free agent.
In acquiring Furcal, the Sox had to surrender three of their top prospects.
The biggest loss for the Red Sox will be Brandon Moss (.246, 3 HRs, 16 RBIs, .712 OPS), who had seen his playing time increase over the past month. With Manny Ramirez (2009), Coco Crisp (2010) and J.D. Drew(2011) under the contract, Moss wasn't going to get a chance to crack the lineup, especially considering highly touted prospects Jacoby Ellsbury, Ryan Kalish, and Josh Reddick are not far behind in terms of development.
"We liked Brandon a lot, but it came down to what we needed more: a starting shortstop or a fourth outfielder."
In order to fill the void left by Moss's departure, the Sox signed former Dodger Andruw Jones to a one-year contract worth $1m. Jones, released by Los Angeles earlier in the day, had struggled in his first season with the Dodgers, hitting .204 in 201 at bats.
"It's a low risk, high reward situation with Andruw. If he can hit like he did in Atlanta, we won't miss Brandon, but if he doesn't, we'll cut our losses and try something else."
Not to be overlooked in adding Furcal, Epstein also addressed a key deficiency in the Sox system by acquiring Carlos Santana in the deal. Santana slots right in atop the Sox minor league depth chart at catcher, but is not currently expected to be ready for the majors until 2010, leaving the Sox without a catcher for next season if Epstein decides not to resign Jason Varitek. While giving up two minor league prospects in SS Oscar Tejada and 1B Bill Rowell, neither were ranked as the best at their position in the Red Sox system.