Too Many Outfielders Means Trade Imminent?

Saturday March 14, 2008

An article from Corey Brock on MLB.com and linked on MLBTradeRumors.com says that that the Padres signed oft injured and former top prospect Chris Snelling.

Snelling, 27, was signed out of high school by the Seattle Mariners and made his major league debut at the age of 20. Injuries have derailed his once much heralded career.

Brock says Snelling "broke his hand in 2000, his ankle in 2001 and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in 2002 and did it again in 2005. Snelling also broke his wrist and his thumb and has even lost two teeth. All told, he's had seven surgeries on his injured left knee."

After being traded by the Mariners to the Nationals for Ryan Langerhans in May 2007, Snelling bounced around to the A's, Rays and Phillies in the off season and had only 4 ML ab with the Phillies in 2008.

Now the question of the day.

With the Padres already having a glut of good players and prospects in the OF including Chase Headley, Jody Gerut and Brian Giles, who are locked in at their positions and Scott Hairston and Cliff Floyd locked in as the #4 and #5 OF at San Diego and Will Venable, Chad Huffman, Drew Macias, and Emil Brown already slated for AAA Portland, where does Snelling fit in this picture?

This is clearly conjecture as I have not talked to a member of the Padres organization about it, but this may be an indication that the Padres are in the process of working out a trade of Kouzmanoff or Hairston for pitching help before the season starts.

The Tampa Bay Rays are known to be shopping Jeff Niemann, 2004 1st round draft pick (#4 overall), who is the odd man out on a very talented pitching staff in Tampa.

With the additions of Heilman, Gregg and Samardzija to a deep staff, the Cubs do not have room to keep both Angel Guzman and Chad Gaudin, both of whom are out of options and can start or come out of the pen.

Neither of those teams stand in need of a ML 3B or outfielder, so while they have the arms the Padres need, the Padres don't have any ML players they stand in need of.

The Twins have a number of good young arms and Phillip Humber is out of options but the Twins recently signed Joe Crede so they don't have a need for either a 3B or an outfielder.

So if the Padres are trading away either Hairston or Kouzmanoff, where are they going?

The Detroit Tigers have Edwin Jackson (SP) and Bobby Seay (RP) that are out of options and they need a 3B with Inge penciled in as the starter there.

After trading to prospect Matt Joyce for Jackson, the Tigers would need to get a ML player in return to keep there from being a public outcry. Kouzmanoff is a good young power hitting 3B and would be a great fit for them.

Again, I think that the Padres have built up depth in the OF with signings like Brown and Snelling with the intention of trading Kouzmanoff and moving Headley to 3B.

I have had my say. Now what do you think.