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4.04.2004
Bradley to Los Angeles
Los Angeles Dodgers get: Milton Bradley. Cleveland Indians get: Franklin Gutierrez and a player to be named. Probably a good move for both teams. I like the potential of Gutierrez an awful lot; everything I've seen calls for him to be a hell of a player. Spring training stats mean very little (more for young players than veterans), but Gutierrez didn't overwhelm anyone offensively this March in 16 games and isn't likely to make a major league impact for at least another year. He'll open up at AA, and I guess from the Dodgers' perspective, that was far off enough to make him expendable in the right trade. In the weak NL West, it might make sense for the Dodgers to do what they can to maximize their chances right now, as it's certainly not out of the realm of possibilities that they could steal the division this year. The offense was already improved before the acquisition of Bradley, who will probably play center and hit somewhere in the top half of the order. If it were me, I think I'd lead him off (his .421 OBP last year would be welcome from the top spot), but he'll be an asset anywhere they want to put him. So while the Dodgers are giving up a real good looking prospect, they're getting back a solid major league contributor. Bradley has obviously had some clubhouse and legal problems (his spat with manager Eric Wedge forced this trade), but I guess Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta and manager Jim Tracy feel they can handle those in light of Bradley's on-field abilities. The Indians had to make a move (I don't know precisely how or why they came to that decision, but they'd decided that Bradley wasn't coming back), and looked at from that perspective, they did a nice job here bringing in a grade A prospect. My concern is that the team already pretty deep in young outfielders, and while Gutierrez probably jumps to the head of that group, he may not see the light of day at the major league level quite as soon as he would in Los Angeles. Not that this is a real problem, other than for those of us that want to see him play. The Indians have a pretty deep minor league system, and Gutierrez only adds to those riches. We'll have to see who the player to be named ends up being, but it looks like this could be a positive move for both parties. - |