Badness confirmation
Toronto is eating $5M of Wells’ remaning $86M. The Angels just made a horrible trade. This is funny to me. Here’s Kevin Kaduk trying to rationalise it:
It’s not really fair to call Angels’ GM Tony Reagins a sucker for sending Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera back to the Blue Jays, because Wells (when he’s healthy, as he was in 2010) is a very good hitter. Not many can hit 31 homers and 44 doubles, as Wells did this past season.
Wells hit 15 homers and 37 doubles in 2009, and he was healthy to the tune of: he played one more game than he did in 2010. His OPS+ was 86. Good for an incredible 0.3 WAR — just over replacement level. Pretty much everybody can do that, Kevin; that’s what replacement level means. But the Angels will be paying him a very not-replacement-level-y $23 million for the privilege. Hell, even last year, when he was actually good, he was only worth 3.4 WAR — just about enough to make him worth the $15.7M he got paid last year. Not good enough for $23M.
Of course, then there’s this to consider:
Napoli, a first baseman/catcher who will make at least $5.3 million in 2011 depending on arbitration results, can be just as effective at the plate as Wells. His career adjusted OPS (on-base plus slugging) is 118; Wells’ is 108. Napoli is three years younger, too.
Oh. So why isn’t it fair to call Tony Reagins a sucker, then? This trade was awful. Reagins traded a superior player and like a fourth outfielder for a massively expensive guy who isn’t any good. That’s what I would call a sucker move. Especially since, if I’m reading you right here:
Wells also won three Gold Gloves in center, but his defense has been in decline (note his Total Zone rating and UZR/150 rating since 2006). He’ll probably be fine in left field in Anaheim.
the Angels plan to put Wells in left, which will pretty much explode any value he may have, most of which is derived from the fact that he puts up his crappy numbers in center.
So, yeah, not seeing how it’s unfair to call Tony Reagins a sucker. He just made the worst move I’ve seen made in a long time.
