With two swift moves, the Baltimore Orioles went from having one of the weakest infields in baseball to one of the best.
Earlier in the week, the Orioles acquired Mark Reynolds from the Arizona Diamondbacks to play third base. I didn’t get a chance to post on that trade, but I really liked it from the Orioles perspective.
I understand Reynolds hit only .198 in 2010, and everyone knows about his ability to strike out with the best of them. But he does a lot of other things well, such as hit HRs and play tremendous defense, which makes him more than worth the $12.5 million he’s guaranteed from the Orioles in the next two years.
The Orioles upgraded at third, so the next step was to upgrade at shortstop. Enter J.J. Hardy.
Hardy, along with utility infielder Brendan Harris, were traded from the Minnesota Twins to the Orioles on Thursday for relievers Brett Jacobson and Jim Hoey. Another good, good trade for GM Andy MacPhail and the Orioles.
Hardy became expendable because the Twins didn’t want to pay Hardy in arbitration. Hardy is probably due about $6 million as a third-year arbitration eligible player.
Is Hardy ever going to go back to his ’07 and ’08 seasons offensively when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers? Probably not. He averaged a .280/.333/.470 slash line with 25 HRs and 30 doubles in those two seasons.
Hardy offensively is more like the player we saw the last two seasons in Milwaukee and Minnesota. That is a player that will hit around .260 with 10 HRs, 15–20 doubles, and a .685 OPS. While those might not be the greatest offensive stats in the world, Hardy makes up the difference on defense.
Everyone talks about Troy Tulowitzki as the best defensive shortstop in baseball. While that may be true, Hardy isn’t too far behind. As a matter of fact, I would say Hardy is nipping at Tulowitzki’s heels.
Since 2007, no other SS in the game has a better UZR than Hardy. His 34.3 UZR over that time is better than the likes of Tulowitzki, Jimmy Rollins, and Alex Gonzalez. The man can flat-out pick it at short.
Now with Reynolds at third, Hardy at short, and Brian Roberts at second, all of a sudden the Orioles have the makings of one of the best infields in baseball. Who will play first base for the Orioles is still up in the air. Guys like Jake Fox, Luke Scott, and Brandon Snyder will compete for that spot. Regardless of who plays first, with Reynolds, Hardy, and Roberts in the infield, and if Matt Wieters and Adam Jones can come back in 2011, the Orioles should be much improved offensively in next season.
In exchange for Hardy, the Orioles traded two young relief pitchers.
Jacobson is a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher, who has a 3.09 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 8.3 K/9, and 3.0 BB/9 in 166 career minor league innings. His highest level of competition with the Orioles was High-A.
Hoey is a journeyman minor leaguer who last pitched in the Major Leagues in 2007. He compiled an 8.13 ERA over 34.1 innings. He soon will be 28 and seems to be a classic quadruple-A player. Over the last three seasons split between Double-A and Triple-A, Hoey has averaged 12.1 K’s/9.
You can follow the Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com