Erik Bedard And Trade Value

More points have been brought up belittling the return that we would get from another team. Arguments by fans are being made that we should keep Erik Bedard and that we don’t need more “B” prospects.

That’s a stupid argument as any team needs more B level prospects. But it’s true the reality is we aren’t most likely going to get that huge “Justin Smoak” sized talent. We are, however, going to get some talent back. Bedard is one of the best arms available on the market and as such we’ll start seeing the clamor for trades by teams such as the Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals and Rockies (who recently just lost Jorge de la Rosa) just for starters.

Regardless of how many innings he’s going to be able to give another team (well … so long as it’s more than a total of 10) it’s not about how many playoff starts he’s going to make, his job is simply to contribute to getting the team to the playoffs. No team will have the expectations for him to be the “ace” of the staff unlike Cliff Lee. That’s why we won’t get a huge return for him.

But, he’s an above average pitcher and there will be a return that is equal to what we are giving up and farm system depth is much more important than 31 year old who’s had 4 arm surgeries and most likely won’t give you more than 150 innings a season.

He’s a solid and maybe even a great short term solution and I love having him around, but you need to trade him while there is demand and before his arm falls off. If he wants to come back in the off season on a reasonable contract that’s fine by me, I’d love him back but we as fans are always told this is a business. If that’s the case and we need to take care of the future of the organization and continue looking to 2013 as the year we win the division not 2011