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"The Bean" is headed to Beantown. Jonathan Herrera (Ole Scrappy) was a favorite among many Rockies fans, players, general managers, and owners, but mostly for the intangibles he brings to the team. He has been traded to the Boston Red Sox for former Rockies farmhand Franklin Morales, according to multiple reports.
Roster Addition
Herrera does some things on the baseball field quite well (mostly defense), but the truth is that -- as a baseball player -- most teams have five Johnny Herreras running around somewhere in their farm system. Most of us loved the guy, but getting two pitchers for him seems like a no-brainer.
Morales will likely fill the role vacated by Josh Outman (traded to Cleveland for Drew Stubbs) as the resident LOOGY. He is out of options so the Rockies will either need to use him on the MLB club or flip him for something. I like the idea of having three lefties in the pen (especially since one of them is the closer/best arm in the pen); I wouldn't at all be against having Morales back in that limited role and carrying eight relievers into the regular season.
This moves comes as good news to Josh Rutledge, who will likely see most of Herrera's playing time unless the Rockies are still wheelin' and dealin'. (Seriously though ... Jeff Baker.)
Morales hasn't been anything special for the Red Sox or for the Rockies before that. However, he has managed to stay around for a while and -- all together now -- the splits, the splits, please tell us the splits!
In 2013 Morales saw right-handers bat .304 against him, .184 for lefties. Righties slugged .482 to lefties .184, and the wOBA against him came out to .402 against righties and only .215 against lefties.
I must admit that I had never heard of Chris Martin (a minor league pitcher that the Rockies also acquired in the deal) until about 10 minutes ago. His Fangraphs page shows some nice strikeout numbers in the minors thus far, but without anything to go off of besides raw numbers, I'll reserve any judgement on him until further notice.
Busy day for the Rox, but it's hard to feel like they've lost much in two highly replaceable players, and they may have set themselves up quite nicely to surprise some people in 2014.
