Most Useless Trade Ever

According to the Chicago Tribune the Cubs just traded speedy, but offensively useless OF Joey Gathright for Ryan Freel. According to Paul Sullivan, the Orioles plan to eat a large chunk of the contract cost of Freel.

I know Freel is a "utility" player (like DeRosa), but (unlike DeRosa), he's really bad at everything he does these days. He's hasn't positively contributed anything to his team - - with either his bat or his glove -- since 2006.

Why make this move, I wonder? Both Gathright and Freel are on pace for -1.0+ WAR seasons.

2 comments:

The 'Bright' One said...

I love ryan freel!

He's a mini reed johnson and far superior to anything gathwright could do. Plus he's super versatile given that he has spent a lot of time in the outfield and infield.

David "MVP" Eckstein said...

I'll give you that he has better all around defense than DeRosa did. His collective fielding runs, 2006 aside, have never been more than league average (his 2002 season was +0.5 wins above average). He's actually quite terrible at 2B/CF