Saturday, January 28, 2012

Phillies trade Valdez for Horst

Not really a big deal, right?  I guess unless you have been one of those in love with Valdez saying he should play over Rollins and Polanco.  He's a backup infielder with a poor bat and very nice arm.  I think the main here isn't looking at this trade, but looking at what this trade means.

First, I'll take a short look at Horst.  His number have kind of been all over the place.  It seems like he struggles a little bit when he is moved up a level but then starts to figure it out.  Doesn't appear overpowering or a total control guy.  The important thing to note is that he is a left handed reliever.  May get a shot to be that 2nd left hander out of the pen after Bastardo.  He will have to battle D. Willis and J. Savery.  More than likely he spends some more time at AAA.

So onto what this trade means.  Prior to the Phils signing Rollins, the main thought was that Freddy Galvis may be the one to come up and have to fill the spot.  That really doesn't make sense, since he only had 121 at bats at the AAA level.  Now the Phils may go make a move to get a backup SS, like Edgar Renteria, but I wouldn't like this move.  I think this shows that they like M. Martinez enough to have him back up SS and 2B.  Now that they have Ty Wiggington, they have the guy that back up Polanco at 3B.  So really it makes Valdez expendable.  The hope is that Martinez gets over the Rule 5 draft playing in the big leagues and playing closer to his minor league numbers.

This does set Galvis to step right in as the backup SS for 2013.  They love his glove, his bat just needs to develop a little bit more, so there will be a lot of people watching Galvis this year in 2013.

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