A couple of days ago, Matt Sullivan took a look at the cosmic tumblers that had to click into place for the Red Sox to deal Adrian Gonzalez. A lot of things had to fall in place, and then more things had to fall in place on top of those.
Trade Rumors: Carlos Lee On The Block
Here's another one for the list: Carlos Lee. Just before the July 31 non-waivers trade deadline, the Dodgers thought they had a deal in place for El Caballo, who would have been the right-handed part of a first-base platoon, but he enforced his no-trade protection to block the deal. What if Lee went to the Dodgers and got on a hot streak? Heck, a medium-hot streak? Would the Dodgers have struggled in August? Would they still have contemplated a trade for Adrian Gonzalez?
Eh. Probably. But the human brain is a funny contraption. If Lee were going well, the Dodgers’ owners might have subconsciously factored that into their risk/reward calculus when evaluating the trade proposal.
Alright. It’s a stretch. Plus, it’s a heckuva way to bury the lede: The Miami Marlins’ Carlos Lee has passed through waivers, and is officially on the trading block.
Lee was a bizarre acquisition by the Marlins, who were 39-42 and nine games out in the NL East when they acquired him. Since then, Lee has hit .264/.359/.354 in 178 at-bats, which is about what a team should expect from Carlos Lee at this point. For that privilege, the Marlins gave up their former first-round pick from 2007, Matt Dominguez, and Rob Rasmussen, who was their second-round pick in 2010.
There are certainly still teams who could use Lee off the bench, especially with the expanded rosters. He’s been awful against left-handed pitching this year, but that’s likely a sample-size goblin. The problem is that Lee can still block trades to 14 teams, and he’s not shy about exercising those rights. In addition to the Dodgers, Lee also blocked a move to the Yankees.
Still, he’s been traded once this season. And the odds are decent that he’ll be traded again in the next two days.
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