First, my own unsolicited take on this trade.
The news that took eighteen hours or so to emerge was not tremendously good for the Royals. Sending the White Sox $2 million dollars changes the complexion of this trade significantly. Don't get me wrong, it's still a minor deal in the grand scheme of things, but the real benefit to the deal is now much more murkier. The financial savings is murkier, and now, for this trade to work out, either Josh Fields or Chris Getz has to contribute to the Royals during their pre-arb years. Yesterday, there were two clear benefits to the move, now there is only one.
I understand that many of you were frustrated with Teahen's stagnation, but he was basically a generic player. He wasn't great, but he also wasn't part of the problem. (His defensive numbers have been pretty bad the last two seasons, but I consider that more a function of his playing all over the diamond and sample size issues. Which may be too generous.) I understand Dayton's desire to move him, but I also understand Kenny Williams's desire to have him. And in reality, the Royals and White Sox split the difference money-wise, a fitting gesture for such a "meh" trade that neither side really seems too fired up about.
I'm not really sure how to feel about this trade. Fields' career with the Pale Hose was over, so I'm happy he gets to see a new organization. I don't like that Getz is gone. Teahen has been worth .4 WAR combined over the past two seasons and has seen his walk rate drop each year since 2007. If he can get back to drawing walks like he did in 2006 and 2007, he can be valuable again. -South Side Sox
So now, the stakes, though still small, are raised for Fields and Getz. The Royals could have just let Teahen walk after all, so in effect, they bought the rights to Getz and Fields for two million. Neither player is actually that young, but both are still green in service time years, which does matter. There's a school of thought that suggests these are the best types of guys to have, mid-to-late twenties guys who are still cheap, while there's another school of thought that might argue that this is yet another non-rebuilding move from Moore. Personally, I know myself well enough to admit that if the Royals had gotten back some as-yet-unknown barely legal rookie ball prospect, I'd probably have been more excited.
In this case, we'll just have to... wait for it... trust the process, trust the scouting. Apparently Getz is the key to the deal for the Royals, with Fields being just another low OBP slugger with no glove (also another Born Again) who may or may not be a part of anything. I don't know. The curious thing is that at the very least the Getz trade should set in motion either a reconfiguration of the infield or another trade, or two. We'll just have to wait and see.
Pointlessly premature verdict: Cash to Chicago pushes this from a slightly interesting quasi-prospect grab to a mostly innocuous head-scratcher, for now.
A massive roundup of links about the trade and other matters after the jump:
- Royals trade Teahen for Fields and Getz, improve a little | Upon Further Review
- Mark Teahen for Chris Getz and Josh Fields Reaction | Kings of Kauffman | A Kansas City Royals Blog
- Royally Speaking: More on the trade with a little help from a friend
- Royalscentricity: Initial Reaction To The Rumored Mark Teahen Trade To The White Sox
- Big Donkeys: Disdain for deliverables
- La Russter's Millions - Viva El Birdos (includes Teahen talk)
- More on a rumored trade - SweetSpot by Rob Neyer - ESPN
- BREAKING - Royals Trade Mark Teahen
- Fire Dayton Moore: Possible trade: Royals trade Mark Teahen to the White Sox for Chris Getz, Josh Fields
- RosenBlog: Sox make a deal (maybe), Yanks make history, Cubs make the usual bad news
- Questions surround White Sox's acquisition of Teahen - Chicago Breaking Sports
- Kenny Williams Wastes No Time - South Side Sox
- Teahen To The White Sox | FanGraphs Baseball
Other Royals:
- Nick Sloan's Official Web Site: Dear David Glass
- Top 20 Kansas City Royals Prospects for 2010 - Minor League Ball
- Left of The Foul Pole - 20 Things About Clint Robinson
- Continuing the Save Soria Campaign | Kings of Kauffman | A Kansas City Royals Blog
- Should Johnny Damon be put in the Royals' Hall of Fame? Answer below (hint: it's "yes") | Upon Further Review
- Royally Speaking: Greinke and the CYA
Baseball:
- Twins trade Carlos Gomez for JJ Hardy - Twinkie Town
- Trade Analysis: Huh?mida - Over the Monster
- More on the Pirates Front Office | FanGraphs Baseball
- What the Cardinals can take from the Yankees, besides the luxury tax - Viva El Birdos
- Regression's A Powerful Force - Lookout Landing
- When A Good Deal Stops Being One | U.S.S. Mariner
- On the Field, the Yankees Are The Team of the Decade. Off It? The Red Sox. - Royals Review
- Mets decline J.J. Putz's option - MLB Daily Dish
- The Super Yankees Theory | FanGraphs Baseball
- I'm happy for... - Pinstripe Alley
- Best & Worst In Hidden Value, 2009 - Lookout Landing
- Kneejerk Reactions: Game 6 - SweetSpot by Rob Neyer - ESPN
- Long May You Run, Melvin Mora - Camden Chat
- Ruining the World Series, Just Like A-Rod and Boras: Rays Trade Iwamura - Driveline Mechanics
Grab Bag:
- Transaction Report: Me - Driveline Mechanics
- Take me back to Constantinople, by Edward Luttwak | Foreign Policy
- NBA Talking Points: Dwight Howard Did WHAT? - SB Nation
- Heresy Corner: Review: When the Lights Went Out
- FT.com | Gideon Rachman's Blog | How bad was 1970s Britain?
- Trouble brewing in Columbus - From The Rink
- A history of baseball and chewing tobacco. - By Brian Palmer - Slate Magazine
- Fack Youk: Lessons In Advanced Hindsight, With Mike Lupica
- Remembering Claude Lévi-Strauss, Academic Giant | The Atlantic Wire
- Claude Lévi-Strauss obituary | Science | The Guardian
- 30 years of sexy ladies: The women of 1982 (Pt. 1) | Guyism