It has barely been a week so far this off season and so far there have been four major trades. The first was Iwamura who was traded to Pirates. The trade wasn't so much as a surprise as Iwamura really didn't fit into the next step of plans for the Rays as they have some talent coming up and Iwamura wasn't working out. Iwamura though still has some promise in the majors so a trade made sense. The suprise though was that he went to the Pirates, who needed to assume a large chunk of his contract. While this omve is good for them, its questionable in terms of why would they take on this contract (especially with their history of not liking to spend money).
The next big move was Teahen (3B or OF) to the White Sox. The White Sox needed someone to play third base and all of the positions that Teahen plays are overcrowded in Kansas City. Onother OF type player was traded as the Marlins sent Hermida to the Red Sox this week. You can read my analysis of the trade over at Fan Huddle.
Finally, Hardy was traded to the Twins for Gomez. In terms for the Twins, this move will be great if Hardy can play like how he used to. Personally, for the Twins, I do not like this trade becuase I like Gomez as a player a lot more than Hardy. Gomez is still developing his bat skills but he is starting to show that he can be a good fast player. His play is starting to remind me a lot of Castillo in the sense that he can slap the ball all over the place and has the speed to make things happen on the base paths. His speed is also an asset in the OF. So I am a bit puzzled by this trade, but thats also because I am biased since I'm a Gomez fan.
