Alfonso Soriano has been dealt to the Washington Nationals for Brad Wilkerson, Termel Sledge, & minor league pitcher Armando Galarraga. Brad Wilkerson is a good acquisition. Don’t know much about Termel Sledge, other than he has tested positive for steroids. Galarraga (no idea if he’s related to Andreas) was initially reported as a PTBNL, but now appears to be part of the main trade.
Links:
Stats
| G | AB | H | R | BA | OBP | 2B | HR | RBI | SB | SO | BB | |
| Soriano | 156 | 637 | 171 | 102 | .268 | .309 | 43 | 30 | 104 | 30 | 125 | 33 |
| Wilkerson | 148 | 565 | 140 | 76 | .248 | .351 | 42 | 11 | 57 | 8 | 147 | 84 |
| Sledge | 20 | 37 | 9 | 7 | .243 | .348 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 7 |
Sledge’s stats are inconsequential – 20 games played. Wilkerson has nowhere near the power that Soriano does, but is a good outfielder, and should handle our last couple of year maliase (Jordan, Hidalgo) in RF nicely. He’s listed on the Nats site as a CF, though – I thought he played RF. If he is a CF, do we keep Matthews and put him in right? That still solves our RF problem, I think. I’m not sure how Sledge will fit into this, unless he sits in AAA as insurance against Nix not being able to come back from his surgeries. I am surprised we didn’t get a pitcher like Luis Ayala. Sledge apparently has spent most of 2005 hurt, but had decent numbers in 2004 (his rookie year).
Wilkerson has an OK OBP, but that’s probably because of all the walks he has. Still, it’s someting where he’s better than Soriano. Hopefully Wilkerson won’t have that 0-2 slider down and away swinging strike 3 problerm Soriano & Juan Gone had.
Update: DMN site says that the pitcher in question is supposed to be Armando Galarraga (link). His 2005 minor league stats are 6-8, 3.80 in 27GS for A & AA. Still, he’s not a major league ready pitcher. He’ll be 24 in January. Probably will play in Frisco.
Money Stuff:
Terrmel Sledge
1 year (2005)
* re-signed 2/05
* 1 year/$0.3M (2004) 2/04
* drafted 1999 (8-245), $7,500 signing bonus
* ML service: 1.000
Brad Wilkerson
1 year/$3.05M (2005)
* avoided arbitration 1/05
* 1 year/$0.375M (2004), renewed 3/04
* 1 year/$0.315M (2003)
* 1 year/$0.206M (2002) 3/02
* ML service: 3.081
Alfonso Soriano
1 year/$7.5M (2005)
* avoided arbitration 1/05
* 1 year/$5.4M (2004), avoided arbitration 1/04
* 1 year/$0.8M (2003) 3/03
* 5 years/$3.15M (1998-2002)
* signed as a free agent 3/98
* “retired” 3/98 after 2 years with Hiroshima in order to play in U.S.
* agent: Diego Bentz, SFX (formerly Don Nomura)
* ML service: 4.079
Wilkerson appears to be a salary arbitration player, as he made $3 Mil in 05, he’ll make what 4-5 million this year? Given the 10 that Soriano is likely to get, that gives us about 5-6 million in savings, hopefully to be used for pitching. We’ll see how it shakes out as we go forward.
Also wanted to take a moment and plug Cot’s Baseball Contracts site (link). It’s a great source for contractual information on players.