Yesterday afternoon immediately after, or during Youkilis’s
at bat in the 7th up to you to decide, the Red Sox wrapped up a 3
game set with the visiting Atlanta Braves the inevitable happened and Kevin Youkilis
was dealt. To whom he was dealt however was somewhat a surprise considering
most people had him linked to the SF Giants, AZ DBacks, Cincinnati Reds, or
Cleveland Indians but in the last few days the dark horse White Sox emerged
victorious. In the deal the Red Sox agreed to ship Youkilis and $5.6 million of
his remaining $8 million salary for the rest of the year to the White Sox for
super utilityman Brent Lillibridge and minor league RHP Zach Stewart. When you
break down the deal, in my eyes, comes out as a win-win for both the White Sox
and the Red Sox.
Looking at the deal from the White Sox perspective first
they were able to land a proven middle of the lineup hitter on the relative
cheap. Youkilis has struggled in Boston the past years ever since the Sox asked
him to move across the diamond to his natural position of 3B to accommodate 1B
Adrian Gonzalez. Prior to 2011 Youkilis, who started his career as a 3B but
moved across the diamond to first to accommodate Mike Lowell, had become a
2-time AL All Star and Gold Glove winner at 1B. During his first 4 years at
first base Youkilis managed to play in at least 136 games every season. In his
final year at first he got hurt and racked up only 102 and last year after
moving to third base the injury bug struck him again and he missed 42 games.
This year he once again was struck by injuries and played in only 42 of a
possible 72 games. Everything I just described to you coupled with the
emergence of 3B of the future Will Middlebrooks is exactly why the Red Sox felt
they could move Youkilis before a become a free agent at the end of the year
(he has a $13 million club option that he’s known wasn’t going to get picked up
from day 1).
The White Sox are getting a versatile, disciplined hitter
who, if healthy, can provide them with the stability they’ve been lacking at
third base. Youk is a career .287 hitter who hit over .300 for 3 consecutive
years from 2008-2010. He can also play a pretty good third base and an above
average first base whenever the White Sox want to give Paul Konerko a breather.
Youkilis’s power numbers have dipped slightly in the past couple of years after
peaking during his peak stretch between 2008-2010 but he’s shown recently that
he still has the ability to hit the baseball a long way. The White Sox have
been playing with a black hole over at third base since Brent Morel went down
earlier in the year yet they managed to grab back 1st place in the
AL Central with a 1-0 walk off win on Sunday night. Kenny Williams showed his
fearless side once again by going after the piece he knew his team needed to
win this year while also not sacrificing his youth movement. Youkilis is an
instant upgrade for the White Sox and as long as he can stay healthy he
provides them with the kind of bat that might just allow them to stave off the
Indians and the super talented Tigers.
From the Red Sox perspective the move was more about
addition by subtraction then anything else. The return on Youkilis is halfway
decent considering he’s been injury plagued the last few years and appears to
be on the downslope of his career but it’s nowhere near the relief they get in
now being able to plug Middlebrooks into third base for the foreseeable future
without any sign of a controversy. Bobby V had been forced into playing musical
chairs between Youkilis, Gonzalez, and Middlebrooks ever since Youk’s return
from the disabled list but finally that’s over and he can now write in Gonzalez
at 1B and Middlebrooks at 3B, barring injuries, for the duration. This deal
also helps down the road when outfielders Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury
come back and their won’t be a free spot in RF for Gonzalez to shuffle out to
whenever Bobby V is trying to get all his bats in the lineup.
Middlebrooks has proven that he can hit big league by making
the necessary adjustments after setting the world on fire in his first few
games then getting figured out by the pitchers. It’s a cat and mouse game and I
wasn’t fully buying into the Middlebrooks is ready hype until I saw him make
the next move in the game of chess and in the past week or so he’s made that
move.
The trade of Youk will also most likely help ease tensions
in the clubhouse since it was a well-known fact, or well assumed, that Youk is
the one who sold Beckett and the other drunkards down the river last year after
the team’s epic September collapse. I don’t like that it appears the Red Sox
have chosen to stick with Beckett and his antics because he’s a more
irreplaceable piece than Youkilis but he it’s a business and there was a
replacement waiting for Youkilis while there isn’t someone readily available to
fill Beckett’s golf spikes. Hopefully without Youkilis around Beckett, Lester,
and Buchholz (after he gets off the DL) will loosen up a little bit and pitch
more like the guys we saw in 2010 not the jabronis who ran out there every 5th
day in 2011.
For tangible pieces the Red Sox got something in the form of
Zach Stewart. Brent Lillibridge is a nice little defensive bench piece but
he’ll never be more than that based on his .215 lifetime average and .175 he’s
hitting this year. He can play anywhere on the diamond outside of pitcher and
catcher and he gives Bobby V some defensive flexibility down the stretch in
tight ball games. The real prize however is Zach Stewart and the potential he possesses
to possibly become a good middle of the rotation big league starter. After
being drafted in the 3rd round out of Texas Tech in 2008, Stewart
has shown he’s a valuable piece being traded twice already, once for Scott
Rolen and once for Edwin Jackson (I prefer to look at him being traded three
times now as an indictment to his talent level not that teams think he sucks).
In both of those deals Stewart was the centerpiece due to his repertoire of
pitches and ability to command all of them in the strike zone. In this move I
think the Red Sox get a kid who has a good chance of being a big league starter
and worst case he’s a nice bullpen piece after doing that for the first part of
his minor league career and during the few games he’s been in up at the major
league level. A look at his minor league numbers shows a guy with good control but
is a little too hittable right now. He’s only 25 however and I like his odds to
straighten that out a little bit and become more of a painter on the edges of
the black and effectively be able to get big league hitters out. During his
brief big league career he has managed to pitch 97 innings and only give up 22
BBs compared to 61 K’s so the potentials their the key for the Red Sox is
tapping into that potential.
All in all I’m sad to see the talent level Youkilis brings
to the table go but I think it was a move the Red Sox needed to make in order
to get a glimpse at their third baseman of the future today. I don’t think
Stewart helps the Red Sox this year but either next year or possible the year
after I think you’re looking at a nice piece in the middle of the BoSox
rotation. Good luck to Youkilis and we’ll see how he’s looking in the White Sox
digs when he returns to the Fens in mid-July.
Geoff Jablonski
Great to know he was a great person.
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