Craig Kimbrel Traded to the Red Sox For Manuel Margot/Javier Guerra/Logan Allen/Carlos Asuaje

Keeping this updated as players get revealed.

Bummed about my Margot stash.

Pete Abraham ‏@PeteAbe
Can confirim #RedSox have obtained Craig Kimbrel from the Padres, as [MENTION=11748]ken[/MENTION]_Rosenthal reported. Working on the rest of the deal. Stay tuned

Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale
The #Padres get Logan Allen and Margot and more from #Redsox

Yes! Excited to see him in a Red Sox uniform.

Love getting Kimbrel...hate losing Margot.

Just the beginning of the prospect exodus...I feel like I just need to close my eyes and not look again until opening day.

Heh. I learned about this from a curious eBay posting, so I came here to check. Wow. So much for getting anything more.

Ive always Kimbrel for his dumb stance getting the sign just little Paps and Doolittle but now I can really up the hate!

Crazy to see a Potential HOFer traded twice so close together...

Well, my margot stash just became a pile of cheaper cards,

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phillyfan0417 said:

Well, my margot stash just became a pile of cheaper cards,

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Ditto. Just listed this for offers, anyway.

Jaypers said:

Ditto. Just listed this for offers, anyway.

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I've got some Kimbrel FT if interested?

Asuaje looked like an outstanding talent when I saw him play this summer. He's extremely athletic with a very comfortable and confident presence at the plate. He should be an impact player.

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Does this open the door for the Padres to go out and get Chapman? They now have the chips to acquire him. It would be strange to trade Kimbrel, only to go after another closer, but how can the Reds say no to the cavalcade of prospects that San Diego has at their disposal? This offssason is going to be an exciting one on account of the combination of free agent and trade options available. Good times!

Great move for the Padres. Enjoy DD Red Sox fans.

As a Padres fan I like this move. Good haul of prospects and frees up some money.

Great trade for both!

I really like getting Kimbrel, but I figured it wouldn't take much more to get Tyson Ross as well...I think it's a slight overpay for just Kimbrel. I will say I hate trading away Logan Allen (Margot/Guerra doesn't bother me, that's trading from depth) because he showed some real good promise as a starter even though he is a handful of years away. (I'd rate him behind only Espinoza and Kopech in terms of potential) Essentially I would have liked to see -Allen and +Devers for Kimbrel and Ross. (And I think THAT would be an overpay, but Devers is quite a ways away)

Nonetheless our BP got a lot better! It will be good to have someone who can throw in the high 90's, as no one in our 2015 pen' came even close. I'd still like to see another BP arm or two...it was amazing how many games we lost from blowing a lead late in the game. If DD can make a deal for Chapman and sign a #1 pitcher, this team can be scary good next year.

gt2590 said:

Crazy to see a Potential HOFer traded twice so close together...

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Yeah true. Twice in under a year now. This solidifies Boston's bullpen but they still need starting pitching. Kimbrel is my favorite player even though he is no longer a Brave and I will root for him even though I don't like the Red Sox.

Jaypers said:

Ditto. Just listed this for offers, anyway.

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he's a pup and plays for the Padres now...chances are he'll be trade bait down the line to a more favorable team JP, but of course you know that. it's the waiting that hurts.

Pure baseball terms. Red Sox wanna win.

Thats a ton to give up for Kimbrel. Wow.

Good espn insider article here

Keith Law, ESPN Insider
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If you're a Boston Red Sox fan, this is exactly the trade you feared Dave Dombrowski would make when he joined the front office, trading away the jewels of the majors' best farm system for veterans who are or may be past their peak values. Craig Kimbrel has been one of the best relievers in baseball history, but this is a big overpay for 60 innings of his services a season when he already seems to be starting to decline.
In Kimbrel, the Red Sox do get a great Proven Closer™, an upgrade over Koji Uehara, himself proven but 41 years old and out after mid-August due to a wrist injury. Kimbrel just had the worst year of his career by ERA or FIP, worth 1.3-1.5 WAR, down from 2-plus in each of the previous four seasons. He still has the big fastball and knockout curve, but everything was just a little less effective in 2015, especially in terms of getting hitters to chase pitches out of the zone.

His contract is quite favorable, $24 million guaranteed for the next two years with an option at $13 million ($1 million buyout) for 2018, which will almost certainly be picked up if he's healthy. But even if that comes to pass, the Red Sox will be lucky to get even 6 WAR of value out of Kimbrel over those three seasons. You have to place a huge premium on the closer role -- high leverage, but not always the highest leverage situations -- to believe he's going to be worth close to what Boston gave up.

Boy, did they ever pay a steep price for him: two prospects among the top 50 in the game and two other prospects of significant value. Center fielder Manuel Margot is the best prospect heading back to San Diego, and he's exactly the player the Padres needed to get back in a trade this winter. The Padres didn't have a true center fielder in the system, and Margot is a plus defender there who should be able to handle the large territory in Petco Park. He's a disciplined hitter who rarely strikes out and has the swing to hit for at least average power when he fills out physically, although his home park won't help him in the home run column. He has outstanding instincts on both sides of the ball, and I imagine it killed the longtime Sox employees who've watched him develop the past few years to see him go.

Shortstop Javier Guerra isn't far behind Margot, less polished right now but with enormous upside; he's a plus defender at shortstop with plus raw power and a good chance to hit for average, too. Guerra has soft hands and very easy actions at short, a natural at the position who should be a legitimate asset in the majors with his glove. He has great bat speed that generates a lot of power, and his contact rate kept improving as the season went on -- 29 percent in the first half, 19 percent in the second -- after I saw him having some timing issues in mid-June at Lakewood. He could truly be a monster of a player; a good defensive shortstop who even hits .280 with 20-25 homers is a possible MVP, although Guerra has yet to reach high-A and is probably two years out from the majors.

Carlos Asuaje may jump right to the majors this year after a so-so season at Double-A Portland in 2015. He's a very high-contact hitter with a short, quick swing but a fair amount of movement with no real set position before he starts his swing. He's a solid-average to above-average defender at second, despite below-average running speed. His value will largely be tied to his ability to keep making this degree of contact in the majors, as he'll take the occasional walk but doesn't project to hit 10 homers a year.

Lefty Logan Allen is the sleeper in the deal, the Red Sox's eighth-round pick just five months ago, who throws 90-94 mph with two solid secondary offerings already and a good body and frame to stay as a starter. He walked one of 91 batters he faced in two short-season leagues this past summer after signing. He and right-hander Jacob Nix, the Padres' first pick in 2015, will make an outstanding tandem atop their low-A affiliate in April.

The Padres didn't have any need for a $12 million-a-year closer, although they'll probably pick someone up to handle the ninth inning. But they had several holes to fill in their system and just addressed several of them, getting a lot of upside in the deal but with two of the four players close to major league value. Margot alone could be more valuable than Kimbrel by 2017, and Asuaje should be a positive asset by then, too.

For Boston, even if you think it's fair value because you believe the ninth inning is some super-woo time that only the few and the proud can handle, the Red Sox just traded two of their most valuable minor league assets for a 60-inning reliever … which means they can't trade them for something else they need, like a high-end starter. It's not a great start for the new regime's first offseason.

jcmint said:

Thats a ton to give up for Kimbrel. Wow.

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I'd rather have the most dominant closer in the game, the best since Mariano (Kimbrel's stats are mind-boggling), than some top prospects who might turn out to be stars.
Sure it's a risk to loose those guys. But Kimbrel is a sure thing and one of the most valuable players in baseball.