As reality starts to nibble and we drop off the pace again, I feel it is the right time to pull the trigger on a trade I was always convinced I'd end up making this year. About the outgoing part of the transaction, at any rate; the incoming took plenty of thought plus a bunch of negotiation (loving that hard mode for trading, it is a winner) before we ended up settling on this swap:
We have committed to Bobby Tolan as our CF of the future and Matty was looking for upward of $200k p.a - way too much for what moving forward would be a fourth OF / injury replacement role. At the same time, our pitching is dire again and I really wanted to try get an affordable guy with plenty of talent into our staff. To wit, Denny was our second preference, and when we ran the deal including Bob Miller past the Phils and they only asked for Schwall to get it done, we bit.
Denny of course won the 1962 Johnson-Waddell and posted an excellent 4 WAR last season. He never played for us IRL, so he'll fill the vacant CC3 spot. He's signed on a fairly friendly deal thru 1971.
This will be Bob's second go-around for us after being a Bucco from 1960-65. He played for us IRL in 1971/2. His current contract runs thru 1968.
Ted Savage, who we claimed off waivers earlier in the season, comes up. When Bob Bailey returns from the IL in a month or so, the plan is to shift Helms to the everyday 2B role, send Maz to AAA and keep Freese up to be the backup corner IF until we sort out something better.
Patata also goes to Wilkes-Barre. Hey, it's not show friends, you know...
Oh, and this trade reunites two of the Alou brothers after we of course traded Moises there previously.