Krivsky’s Trade History
From MLBtraderumors.com:
- 2-12-06: Scott Hatteberg signed to a one-year, $750K deal.
- 2-13-06: Adam Dunn signed to two-year, $18.5MM extension.
- 3-20-06: Acquired Bronson Arroyo for Wily Mo Pena.
- 3-21-06: Acquired David Ross for Bobby Basham.
- 4-7-06: Acquired Brandon Phillips for Jeff Stevens.
That’s 4 pretty darn good moves there.
- 5-26-06: Traded Cody Ross to Marlins for a player to be named later.
- June ‘06: Selected Drew Stubbs eighth overall in draft.
I’m not sold on Stubbs, but he’s playing well in Sarasota this year and OF is not a strong suit in our system right now.
- 7-6-06: Acquired Eddie Guardado for Travis Chick.
Guardardo did nothing for the Reds, but Chick is in his second year of AA ball.
- 7-13-06: Acquired Gary Majewski, Bill Bray, Royce Clayton, Brendan Harris, and Daryl Thompson for Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez, and Ryan Wagner.
Unless Thompson becomes a major league starter, this was a horrible deal. It was compounded by letting Harris get away.
- 7-26-06: Signed Hatteberg to a one-year, $1.65MM extension.
Hatteberg has been a valuable player and worth every dime they’ve spent on him. (That doesn’t mean he should still be here.)
- 7-31-06: Acquired Rheal Cormier for Justin Germano.
Again, mistake was compounded by the deal he got from Krivsky.
- 7-31-06: Acquired Kyle Lohse for Zach Ward.
Ward’s pitching in AA, going through a normal progression. Lohse was either good or a batting tee, depending on the start.
- 8-7-06: Acquired Ryan Franklin for a player to be named later.
- 8-16-06: Acquired Scott Schoeneweis for a player to be named later.
Both were traded for young players. One is out of baseball, another is in his second year of SAL ball.
- 8-28-06: Signed Javier Valentin to a one-year, $1.325MM extension.
Good move.
- 9-25-06: Signed Juan Castro to a two-year, $2MM extension.
HORRIBLE move. You have to wonder what Krivsky was thinking.
- 11-20-06: Signed Alex Gonzalez to a three-year, $14MM contract.
Another bad move. Overpriced, and thus far, has not shown the glove he was signed for, when he’s played.
- 11-20-06: Signed Mike Stanton to a two-year, $5.5MM contract.
Another one that makes you wonder what he was thinking. He was 39 at the time. A two year deal to a 39 year old pitcher?
- 11-20-06: Traded Jason LaRue to the Royals for a player to be named later.
- 12-7-06: Acquired Josh Hamilton for cash.
- 12-7-06: Selected Jared Burton in Rule 5 draft.
All good moves…
- 12-12-06: Signed David Weathers to a two-year, $5MM contract.
I don’t remember, but I probably didn’t have a problem with this…mostly because the state of the Reds bullpen.
- 1-2-07: Traded Brendan Harris to Rays for cash.
Ugh…see above.
- 1-10-07: Acquired Jeff Keppinger for Russ Haltiwanger.
This was an incredible steal, probably second only to the Phillips deal.
- 2-6-07: Signed Aaron Harang to a four-year, $36.5MM extension.
- 2-8-07: Signed Bronson Arroyo to a two-year, $25MM extension.
At the time, I liked these deals and still love the Harang deal…but Arroyo may end up being the #4 starter making $12M a year. Of course, that’s hindsight.
- 4-16-07: Signed Ryan Freel to a two-year, $7MM extension.
Horrible deal. ‘Nuff said.
- 4-27-07: Traded Chris Denorfia to A’s for Marcus McBeth and another player.
Denorfia’s in Oakland, doing pretty well, as many predicted he would (I was not one of htem). McBeth is struggling at Louisville.
- 5-9-07: Released Rheal Cormier.
- June ‘07: Selected Devin Mesoraco 15th overall in draft.
Only time will tell on this, but it’s not promising thus far. Your #1 pick shouldn’t start the following season in Extended ST. At his age, Bruce and Bailey were in Dayton.
- 10-31-07: Exercised ‘08 options on Hatteberg, Dunn, and Valentin.
- 11-28-07: Signed Francisco Cordero to a four-year, $46MM contract.
Didn’t like the deal, still don’t. It’s too much $$ for a closer and if this team is going young, go young.
- 12-21-07: Acquired Edinson Volquez and Danny Herrera for Josh Hamilton.
I was surprised Hamilton wouldn’t bring more, but Volquez has been everything advertised thus far.
- 1-23-08: Signed Jeremy Affeldt to a one-year, $3MM contract.
- 2-15-08: Signed Brandon Phillips to a four-year, $27MM extension.
I think that’s a bit much for Phillips, but that’s probably a minority opinion. The Affeld signing is a good one for a bad bullpen.
- 2-21-08: Signed Josh Fogg to a one-year, $1MM contract.
- 3-3-08: Signed Corey Patterson to a one-year, $3MM contract.
Why? Why? Why?
- 4-8-08: Released Mike Stanton.
And Juan Castro…
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I can live with most of the moves to acquire players. Sometimes you roll the dice. The contracts and contract extensions are what was weak.
Stanton, Castro, Freel, Hatteberg (this year)Cormier,have just tied the teams hands for roster flexibility.
When you go to your boss and tell him we are going to give away 3 million on Stanton and a million on Castro and get nothing in return, you are going to get fired.
Everyone rips the Kearns/Lopez/Wagner deal. Not a good deal but it is not like the three we gave up are doing much. Just which of those three would be playing for the Reds tonight if they were still around? Maybe Bray and Thompson will still workout.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
So really, at worst you could say he had mixed results. He may have been over-generous with the pocket book at times, but I think he left the team in better condition talent-wise than when he started.
I don’t think we let anything special go in Krivsky, and Jocketty certainly has the credibility and the track record, but I think Castellini’s impetuousness in the matter is a little disconcerting. I know we were picked as a possible sleeper and all, but being 3 games under .500 in April is not the end of the world. Firing your GM with 88% of the season left is probably not a smart move, I don’t care how many contracts you’ve had to eat. I guess I’m just hoping we’re not witnessing the rise of Steinbenner-esque regime in Cincinnati.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I read up on the Jason Larue deal after viewing this article, and it turns out the “player to be named later” in that deal was replaced with $1. And yes, you read that correctly.
Reference here:
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/royals_complete_jason_larue_deal_by_giving_reds_1/
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
The track record suggests that Krivsky is a good judge of talent and a poor judge of handing out contracts to fill out the role positions on the club. Knowing to give contracts to Dunn, Phillips, Harang and Arroyo is common sense…but filling out the bench and bullpen is his weakspot. He seems better suited to work behind the scenes evaluating talent and scouting…
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I have to LMAO at Bill’s comment about The Trade. Letting Harris go? So have the Nats, so have the Devil Rays, so have the Reds. Would the Reds have paid Lopez and Kearns $9.5 mil this year, and be on the hook with Kearns for another $8 mil in 2009 with a $10 mil option?
Even if Thompson or Bray are the only useful parts of that deal, the money the Reds saved from Lopez and Kearns entering their arb years was worth the price of their meager talent.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Looks like the record of an average GM. Not great, not terrible. It does not look like the record of a GM who deserved to be fired, in my opinion.
(That said, I have no problem with Krivsky being gone. I’m just very surprised about it.)
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:05 pm
No. 5 - just wow. There’s so much wrong it’s hard to know where to start. But I’ll try. Neither then Nats nor the Rays “let Harris go.” They traded him for decent talent. And Harris, for his part, performed when given the opportunity (286/343/434 last year as a starting middle IF in a tough division; 297/352/406 so far this year). Something the Reds said they’d do but never did. Seriously, you don’t think Harris would’ve been a better use of a roster spot than Conine last year?
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Ken, no. Conine and Harris are not the same players and would not have had the same roles. Conine was pretty solid. Where would Harris have played? He’s not very good defensively–slow feet, bricks for hands, Todd Walker without the bat.
I have no idea why so much man love for a journeyman like Harris.
Which raises another point: What about the two kids the Reds got from the Mets for Conine, Jose Castro and Sean Henry. Either of them doing anything?
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
No. 8 - yes, Harris could’ve easily filled Conine’s role and it should be obvious that he would’ve played it much better. Both are RHBs. Harris, playing in a tougher hitters’ park and in a tougher division/league, hit for better average and power while walking more. And I don’t think it’s a leap of faith to assume that he was a better baserunner than the 41 year-old. Defensively, Conine was an average 1B and an emergency OF. Harris could do that plus play the other IF positions, albeit not well enough that I’d want him to start every day. Refusing to compare Harris and Conine because they ostensibly would “not have had the same roles” is not only wrong but indicative of a narrow-minded view of roster construction.
All of this is a smaller point in the context of a much more damaging transaction. But to excuse this part of the trade by simply dismissing Harris as a journeyman that other teams have let go (and mocking others’ views in the process) is wrong and warranted a response, imo.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:33 am
That’s your opinion, and obviously other GMs don’t agree with you either, and I think they know more about the player. He’s Brendan Harris, not Alex Rodriguez.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:26 am
That’s a solid roster in just the acquisitions. Krivsky definitely has an eye for picking up talent. However, while I don’t disagree on taking a flyer on Cormier, Stanton, or Castro, we should have done it cheaply. Castro actually wasn’t a bad move at a mil a year - Gonzo’s getting hurt and Keppinger’s emergence made him expendable, not a bad move by Krivsky. There used to be a time when all SS were good or above fielders who hit .240 with no power, and a backup SS is like a backup C, D with no O. As for the Nationals trade, I’m about to write off Majewski…however, Bray is going to be a rock in the middle corps, and Thompson looks solid, even if only as trade bait. Kearns was lazy, getting up to 260 lbs, and Lopez was a malcontent in the D’Angelo Jimenez mold who no one missed - he was traded when his value couldn’t be higher. The savings in contract, Bray, and the loss of bad attitudes made it a good trade, regardless of anyone else’s results (though we have more upside with Thompson and Majewski v. 2-pitch Wagner).
April 24th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Who’s still trying to defend The Trade as a positive move? That’s laughable. Two everyday players in 2006 were not worth two bullpen guys who are STILL pitching in AAA two years later.
Where would they have played on this team? What a strawman argument. If you have two players that can play one position, you decide who you want to keep, who you want to move, then you get value for the one you move. Just because you have two players for one position, that doesn’t mean you just give the other away for nothing. Remember when the Reds had two potential starting SS’s in 1987? I’m glad they didn’t just give Kurt Stillwell away for nothing and call it a wash because he didn’t end up doing much after he was traded to KC.
April 24th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Strawman or no, reality is reality and $9.5 mil for Kearns and Lopez in 2008 says NOT having those two do-nothings is a positive.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Kearns and Lopez both suck. I didn’t really care at the time what Krivsky got in return and I don’t care now. My only regret is having to watch both of them own Reds pitching ever since. But that’s every former Red, it seems.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:29 am
You make the assumption that not trading them to Washington would mean that they wouldn’t have been traded at all or that Krivsky would have signed them to the same deal as Bowden did.
That’s where all the logic in your “reality” is fundamentally flawed.
John, You really thought at the 2006 all-star break that the team would be better off with out Kearns/Lopez, regardless of if they got back anything in return? That is the first comment I’ve seen where someone claims to have not cared back in 2006 if they would have been given away for nothing. The only thing I recall reading from folks negatively, was that Lopez didn’t have the range/glove to play shortstop.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Greg: it wasn’t his glove I was concerned about, it was those in the first base dugout who were potential victims of his throws.