The Red Sox acquired JeremyHermida from the Marlins for two pitchers:
The hot stove season has begun for the Sox, who today acquired outfielder Jeremy Hermida from the Florida Marlins in exchange for left-handed pitchers Hunter Jones and Jose Alvarez.
Hermida, 25, hit .259 with 13 home runs and 47 RBI over 129 games with the Marlins last season and set a career high with 56 walks. The left-handed hitter, who appeared in 81 games in right field and 51 in left, made just one error in 205 total chances for a .995 fielding percentage, sixth among qualifying National League outfielders.
I like Jose Alvarez. He’s only 20 and doesn’t walk many batters. If he can up his strikeouts a bit, he should be an effective pitcher.
Hermedia does a good job of getting on base, although he hasn’t shown much power. Still, if one of the Red Sox main outfielders gets hurt, they’re not putting an out machine in as a substitute.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:14 pm | Trades | Permalink | 3 Comments
Comments
Leave a Reply
November 6th, 2009 @ 12:53 am
Hermida’s home/road splits seem to indicate that he has significant upside potential in a different home park. Plus, he’s young enough that further improvement is likely. He may well be the starting left fielder for the Red Sox in 2010. Or, possibly, one half of a platoon.
I don’t think that’s Plan A for the Sox. But if J. Bay and Holliday sign elsewhere, Hermida is an awfully good fallback position. And he didn’t cost the Sox any of their top prospects. It’s a solid start to the offseason.
November 6th, 2009 @ 7:55 am
I think jvwalt is right, Hermida is not plan A but improves the Sox’ bargaining position. They won’t be forced to overpay for one of the two big OF free agents now.
It’s also quite possible that Theo plans to pull a Cashman ’08 — keep the payroll flexible by passing on the biggest free agents, accept the fact that the coming season probably won’t be a great one, and prepare to make a bigger splash in the superior free agent market next year.
November 6th, 2009 @ 8:31 am
@James: I thought the Red Sox should have done that after 2004. They brought the city the championship, and they could have held back and reloaded. They ended up doing a good job trying to win and rebuild at the same time, but I thought they had a chance to create a dynasty there.