My Thoughts on the Morrow Trade

WORTH NOTING: All of this is assuming that the trade, as it currently is being reported, is completely accurate. If there’s a missing piece that we don’t know about yet, my opinion on it is sure to change.

Well, it was bound to happen. There was absolutely no chance that Jack Zduriencik was going to be able to continue making nothing but outstanding moves. There just wasn’t. He’s a great general manager, but nobody’s perfect. As for why this trade happened, I really don’t know. It could be that we’ve just been grossly overestimating Brandon Morrow’s trade value all this time, and this was truly the best we could do. However, if that is the case, I would have preferred to just keep him.

I’m not surprised that they didn’t, though – this organization has made it clear that they aren’t all that fond of Morrow, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they got to the point where they just wanted to get whatever they could for him. Either way, I’m not a big fan of this trade.

That may be in part due to the fact that I was expecting us to get significantly more if we let go of Morrow, but it’s a confusing trade nonetheless. I just can’t figure out what the reasoning behind it was. League is a solid reliever, and acquiring him certainly does improve our bullpen, but Brandon Morrow is still young, and certainly still has the potential to be a reliable middle of the rotation arm. Granted, League is a lot closer to reaching his potential than Morrow is, but Morrow’s ceiling is significantly higher.

When it comes down to it, we basically weakened our starting rotation, and more importantly, our future starting rotation (assuming Morrow ever gets it together), to improve our bullpen. I’m not going to cry over a trade like this, but I’m still confused as to why we even made it.

As for Johermyn Chavez, the other piece of the deal, he’s not real good. He’s a lot like Wladimir Balentien, or Greg Halman. He’s young and has a ton of power, but he has a God-awful approach at the plate, and he’s still quite a ways away from making any impact in the big leagues. He’s also an outfield prospect – and doesn’t it seem like we have enough of those? There’s already a potential log-jam brewing out in left field. However, he does have potential – he just happens to be a long shot to realize it any time soon.

So what does this mean for the 2010 Mariners? Probably not all that much. I’m still skeptical that Morrow’s ever going to be able to turn it around – let alone this season. So, in all likelihood, it’s far from a crushing blow to our starting rotation. Our bullpen will be improved with League as a late-innings guy, and at this point I’d be shocked if we didn’t sign or trade for a #3 before the off season is over.

All in all, I’m not very happy with this deal. The more I think about it, though, the more I inch towards being indifferent. Should this change the way we see Jack Zduriencik? Absolutely not, he’s still awesome.