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Grading The Deal: Renteria To Detroit

Authored by Christopher Reina - 29th October, 2007 - 5:30 pm

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The Tigers needed to improve their club in order to compete with the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees and immediately did so this offseason by trading for Edgar Renteria.

With Carlos Guillen moving to first base in 2008, Dave Dombroski's top offseason priority was to find a shortstop.

"We were able to address our biggest need, heading into the winter, with one of the best shortstops in the game," Dombrowski said on a conference call.

The price was high (righthanded pitcher Jair Jurrjens and outfielder Gorkys Hernandez), but with Renteria there will be considerable improvement at shortstop over Omar Infante and Ramon Santiago. He also will give them several more wins than a Jack Wilson, who they had targeted via trade in the past.

Renteria, 32, had a career high OPS in 2007 of .860, but he played in just 124 games due to a bad ankle. He is still relatively young and plays a good defensive shortstop.

In his one American League season, Renteria struggled from his normal output by hitting .276 with just 8 homeruns for Boston. But Renteria will fit in nicely with the Tigers’ smart and deep lineup. He will likely bat fifth given Placido Polanco’s position in the two-hole and offer protection for his 1997 Marlins' teammate Gary Sheffield.

Many of the Tigers' top players are signed through the 2009 season so the addition of Renteria (also signed through 2009) gives the franchise an excellent opportunity to win now, though they still need a left-handed bat and a middle of the rotation starter.

Grade for Tigers: B+

The Braves made this move in order to obtain a young starter who is almost MLB-ready starter and also to clear room for Yunel Escobar.

In 94 games, Escobar hit .326 with five homeruns and looks to be one of the best young shortstops in the game and could soon be in that amazing NL East class with Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins and Jose Reyes. He couldn’t spend any more time in the minors, so it was either time to trade him or Renteria and in dealing the veteran, they get a cheaper player with huge upside and a long career ahead of him while also getting two very good young players.

Jurrjens had a 4.70 ERA in his seven starts with the Tigers in 2007 but had a 3.20 ERA with a good K/BB ratio in AA ball.

Gorkys Hernandez is Detroit’s top positional prospect not named Cameron Maybin. He hit .293, while stealing 54 bases in A ball in 2007.

Grade for Braves: A

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