Red Sox get Joel Hanrahan for Jerry Sands and 3 other prospects

[Villain]

Red Sox Acquire Joel Hanrahan From Pirates
By Zach Links [December 22 at 4:03pm CST]
4:03pm: As it stands, the deal will be a six-player swap with four players going to Pittsburgh and two headed to Boston, according to Heyman (via Twitter).

3:34pm: The Red Sox and Pirates have agreed to a deal that will send Joel Hanrahan to Boston, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Jerry Sands and Stolmy Pimentel will go to Pittsburgh in the swap and there will be more players involved in the deal. There will be two more players headed to the Bucs in the deal, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).

Hanrahan, 31, pitched to a 2.72 ERA with 10.1 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 in 59 2/3 innings for Pittsburgh last season. He earned $4.1MM and projects to earn $6.9MM through arbitration next year. Hanrahan is scheduled to become a free agent after 2013.

Despite having a reputation as a strong closer, some rival evaluators have been concerned about his recent proclivity for walks. Hanrahan's walk rate climbed from 2.1 BB/9 in 2011 to 5.4 BB/9 in 2012.

Sands came to the Red Sox in their blockbuster trade with the Dodgers as one of the players to be named later. The 25-year-old outfielder/first baseman owns a Triple-A batting line of .288/.362/.552 with 55 home runs in 940 plate appearances across the past two years. Sands also has 70 big league games to his credit, most of which came in 2011.

Read more at http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/#t9UKdrXgVMbvx77B.99

Seems like a lot for Hanrahan.

[NAHSTE]

Trading for relievers again? Cherington, you're doing it wrong.

[Villain]

Fat, expensive, and overrated gets you 4 prospects. When I first heard Sands+1 for Hanrahan, I thought that sounded pretty even. I really don't think this needed to be a six player trade.

[MVPete]

[Goober]

Hanrahan sucks. Walks the ballpark and homerun prone. I wonder how many blown saves he'll have against the Yankees this year? Trading for a closer is always a bad idea. But trading for one as terrible and overpaid (6.9m projected salary at MLBTR) as Hanrahan takes a really stupid GM. What do you know, Ben Cherington and Kevin Towers have both done it this offseason. So Red Sox fans, has the camels back been broken yet?

[Goober]

Jon Heyman @JonHeymanCBS

#redsox are being lauded for hanrahan deal. but $7M savings for #pirates goes toward liriano. so pitt sees it as 5 for 2

Is Ben Cherington a Boras client too? This deal sucks for the Red Sox.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Is Ben Cherington a Boras client too? This deal sucks for the Red Sox.

cool your jets fella, sounds to me like he's putting over the Pirates here

[Goober]

cool your jets fella, sounds to me like he's putting over the Pirates here

Please point me in the direction of the people "lauding" the Red Sox for this trade.

[Warner2BruceTD]

I wonder if Hanrahan was a middle reliever with the same numbers, without the saves, if the vitriol towards Boston would be the same.

Just because lots of saves isnt necessarily good, doesn't mean lots of saves is bad.

I think LOL SAVES has gotten old. We get it, it's an overrated stat. Most people knew this 20 years ago, and almost everybody knows it now.

I don't love Hanrahan, but he's the best player in the trade. And this coming from somebody who still likes Melancon, who surprisingly pitched pretty decent after his terrible start.

Also, nobody thinks the 9th inning matters until you can't find somebody to do it. I think we've come full circle, and closers are now so overrated, they're underrated.

[Goober]

I wonder if Hanrahan was a middle reliever with the same numbers, without the saves, if the vitriol towards Boston would be the same.

Just because lots of saves isnt necessarily good, doesn't mean lots of saves is bad.

I think LOL SAVES has gotten old. We get it, it's an overrated stat. Most people knew this 20 years ago, and almost everybody knows it now.

I don't love Hanrahan, but he's the best player in the trade. And this coming from somebody who still likes Melancon, who surprisingly pitched pretty decent after his terrible start.

Also, nobody thinks the 9th inning matters until you can't find somebody to do it. I think we've come full circle, and closers are now so overrated, they're underrated.

It isn't a bad pickup because Hanrahan has lots of saves; it is a bad pickup because Hanrahan will be vastly overpaid as a result of those save totals.

[Guest]

Also, nobody thinks the 9th inning matters until you can't find somebody to do it. I think we've come full circle, and closers are now so overrated, they're underrated.

Just like the "it" factor, it's hard to quantify how the "closers mindset" works, and you are right, for a team that struggled to finish out the ninth inning, they might be willing to overpay for it.

[Villain]

cool your jets fella, sounds to me like he's putting over the Pirates here

When I first heard it was Hanrahan and Sands+1 (later learned Ivan De Jesus Jr.), I thought it was a good deal for both teams. They both got what they were in need for.

If I knew the other 3 players in the trade better, I'd have a better grasp of how even it was for both teams.


Ivan De Jesus Jr. is useless by the way.

[DaaBoTownSox]

Supposedly, Pirates people are sticking up for Hanrahan and his atrocious walk rate from last year. They claim most of the reason was his lack of save situations.

[Glenbino]

5 walks per nine last year doesn't inspire a lot of hope from me for Hanrahan.. not to mention they just brought in Bailey last season.

Cherrington appears to be a mess.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

[Goober]

Supposedly, Pirates people are sticking up for Hanrahan and his atrocious walk rate from last year. They claim most of the reason was his lack of save situations.

You don't actually believe that though, do you?