The Orioles Are....Buying? Acquire Jeremy Hellickson From Philly For Hyun- SOo Kim
What the hell is this? The Orioles are 48-54, 7 back in the East, and 6.5 back in the Wild Card race and have had three straight losing months, something they haven’t done since 2011. There are 5 teams ahead of the O’s for the second wildcard spot and they are out here making trades for starters who will be rentals. Jeremy Hellickson is headed to Baltimore for outfielder Hyun Soo- Kim, Double A pitcher, Garrett Cleaving, and of course, International Signing Bonus money. I’ll try and keep this clean. FUCK this trade. Jeremy Hellickson doesn’t exactly get my juices flowing. He’s not exactly CC Sabathia going to Milwaukee in 2008. I get Kim wasn’t getting any time off the bench, but trading him for a 2 month rental with an ERA of 4.7? Come on man. And also, why did it take money, a minor leaguer, and a major leaguer for a rental? Does Dan Duquette know how to negotiate deals?
Jon Heyman and some others began throwing out tweets saying things were heating up between the Phils and O’s towards the end of the Orioles 8-2 loss in Texas last night. Hellickson was also scratched from his start tonight, but the reason for that said to be because of a “wet field”, now we know the real reason.
Hellickson was 6-5 with a 4.73 ERA and 1.255 WHIP in 20 starts this season. He’ll be a rental for this season, and go someplace else in the offseason. Hellickson won the 2011 Rookie Of The Year while a member of the Rays, but hasn’t been able to find that same success. Its not very often you trade for a guy with a 4.73 ERA and it becomes the second best in the rotation, but that is what happens when you have rotation ERA of 5.99. Hellickson does know the AL East, and has had some decent success pitching against the division, but like I said, you’re crazy if you think this gives the rotation a real shot of life. This trade is Dan Duquette trying to save face and make a move for a veteran. Wayyyyy too little, too late.
The only good thing about this trade, is MAYBE this forces Ubaldo Jimenez out of the rotation…..6 guys for 5 spots. Let’s get that bum out of here. Or it could be to take some pressure off Dylan Bundy who has just lost it after his pretty good first few months.
Garrett Cleaving has not been good in Bowie as a reliever. You see the stats above, not good. I’m fine with getting rid of a 23 year old with an ERA over 6, and not one of the top pitching prospects the O’s have (I throw “pitching prospects” around lightly) for a guy who will be a 2 month rental. Chances are he’ll go to Philly and become a dominant reliever, because Orioles guys have a history of flourishing after they leave.
Hyun-Soo Kim got the shaft in Baltimore, that is clear as day. He came to the Birds as a good player from Korea, and was basically going to be sent down before 2016 Opening Day because he had a crappy spring. His contract said he could refuse that option, so he did. It was clear from there that he was not well liked by guys in the warehouse. What did he do? He showed up to Baltimore, hit .302 with 6 homers, including a game winner late in the season over the Blue Jays that was arguably the biggest hit for the O’s last year. He had an OBP of .382 as well. O’s don’t have those guys who can get on, and when they got him, they treated him like shit. This season he was buried on the bench due to the emergence of Trey Mancini and Seth Smith, but like I said before, it was clear Kim wasn’t liked by the bigger guys.
He was hitting .232 with an OBP of .305 this season with 1 homer and 10 driven in. Kim had only 18 at-bats this month, but can be used as a lefty off the bench to pinch hit in the NL, and isn’t the worst fielder in the world, so expect to see him in left for Philly. It sucks that he was treated like dirt here, because I think he was actually a pretty good player. I’m sure his cheap contract has something to do with it, but it’s still a bit of a head scratcher.
Plus he has this kickass theme song. Rest easy sweet prince.
There were also reports that the Orioles were working on deals for Brad Brach and Zach Britton, but there is no way they can trade for a veteran starter, and then trade their 2 best bullpen pieces, right? That would literally make 0 sense, would be so mind bottling. Guess we will sit back and see how Dan can screw this up and put the O’s in an even deeper hole than they are now.