Analyze This: Kansas City trades for Mike Jacobs
GM Dayton Moore made the first trade of this offseason this week, acquiring first baseman Mike Jacobs from the Marlins for left-handed reliever Leo Nunez… but why?
Moore is already taking a lot of criticism for this move, in giving up a solid reliever for a strikeout machine who doesn’t get on base. I know that that Royals are in desperate need of power, but is Jacobs really that much better than a Ryan Shealy at this point? Despite his HR potential, Jacobs’ wOBA is actually very close to that of Ross Gload. He had an unusually high HR/FB% this season, and I have Jacobs down for a .263 BA, .344 OBP with 23 HR and 81 RBI in 2009.
Rich Lederer plays devil’s advocate in this column; he makes some nice points about Jacobs’ splits, but I’m still not convinced that he’ll be a real asset to Kansas City. It could very well be the plan to platoon Jacobs with Billy Butler, and that could be decent. But the Royals seemed flush with 1B/DH types already, with Shealy, Butler and Kila Ka’aihue in the fold, making this move seem unnecessary. It’s not like the Kansas City bullpen is just overflowing with talent, either.
I wonder whether an Eric Hinske, Kevin Millar or Richie Sexson (who are all free agents) wouldn’t have made just as much sense.
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FYI, over the same number of projected PA, I have Ryan Shealy at .254/.328 with 17 HR and 86 RBI. And for more comparison:
Hinske: .252/.352 with 13 HR and 44 RBI (limited PA)
Millar: .298/.361 with 17 HR and 76 RBI
Sexson: .239/.359 with 21 HR and 77 RBI
[...] minor leaguers Jake Smolinski and P.J. Dean. The Marlins continue their cost-cutting moves, having already dealt Mike Jacobs this offseason. Their plan is to also trade away closer Kevin Gregg to lower their team [...]