Tuesday saw a flurry of action for the Rockies, who were able to acquire Yorvit Torrealba from the Mariners for PTBNL, and also lefty reliever Ray King from the Cardinals for both of our primary trading chips, Larry Bigbie and Aaron Miles. In order to make room for Torrealba the Rox waived the other ex-Mariner catcher they picked up this offseason, Miguel Ojeda. In one final note, they also offered arbitration to Byung Hyun Kim, who at least according to Baseball America's list, doesn't bring any sort of compensation if he signs with another club, making it an interesting move on the Rockies part as it keeps the window to re-sign BK open until January eighth.
Acquiring Torrealba and King meanwhile, addresses two of the offseason's biggest needs, left handed relief help and catching. I've said before that Torrealba's underperformance at the plate in 2005 could make him a bargain and a good comeback player candidate, although then again it could just mean he's gone over the hill prematurely. How he gets out of the gate will be important to watch.
King, meanwhile is an intimidating presence on the mound who has pitched very well at Coors Field throughout his career and is young enough (32) to not have his best stuff behind him. He's set to make $2.5 million this year, and Viva El Birdos is saying the move could be a salary dump precursor to the Cards acquiring Javy Vazquez from the D-backs. In the next couple of days we should get the final word on Jose Mesa as well: since the Pirates didn't offer him arbitration, he's free to go.