Friday night, the Tampa Bay Rays announced that the New York Mets would be sending first baseman Lucas Duda to Tampa Bay, and the Rays would send minor league pitcher Drew Smith. The trade adds “a pretty special bat” to the Rays lineup, according to Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash. Cash slotted Duda in the DH role for Friday’s game, where he went 1-for-3 with a home run and a strikeout, which is just about as Duda as it gets. The Rays fell to the New York Yankees anyway, setting back the Rays to three and a half games behind the Yankees in the AL East.
Tampa Bay Rays trade for Lucas Duda and maybe an Instagram account
Saturday’s Say Hey, Baseball is about Instagram and the inevitable Dodgers comeback win.
Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images
Even with the Mets steamrolling through pitchers at an alarming rate, Smith seems like a small price to pay for Duda’s bat. Smith is a right handed reliever who ranked as the Tigers’ 24th overall prospect in 2016 and has a 1.60 ERA, no earned runs in his last three starts and no more than one walk per appearance all season. But he only just recently made the move from high-A to A to AA. Granted, Duda’s defense should relegate him to the first base/DH-only role. But the best part of this deal is the social media.
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The Rays are bringing on the entirety of Duda’s salary, $2.5 million, but that isn’t enough to get Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson to part ways with the Instagram account he runs: The coveted “We Follow Lucas Duda.” Granderson is probably his former locker-mate’s biggest fan, or at least the only fan with enough access to post photos of the first baseman doing various daily activities. The Rays’ Twitter account is doing its best to get a deal done, though, and Granderson is willing to trade before the deadline, even though Evan Longoria has declined to take over the duties the account requires.
It’s good for the league to have players involved in social media like this. It’s fun for the fan that doesn’t even require a tone deaf rule change. Encouraging social media use can get dicey if your players are the ones with questionable Twitter favorites or controversial opinions. But the publicity and goodwill a well run Instagram account can generate is well worth the price. I mean, when is a video of a distraught Granderson being dragged across the floor as he grabs onto his teammate’s ankle not worth it?
- The Seattle Mariners have a long line of questionable trades in their past. Today, Grant Brisbee celebrates the 20th anniversary of one bad trade that set up a Boston Red Sox World Series team
- In the seventh inning of Friday night’s game against the Giants, Corey Seager sealed what would be the Dodgers’ 30th come-from-behind win of the season.
- MLB is finally expanding its international schedule. MLB teams will be playing in Mexico, England, and Asia in the coming years.
- The Trade Deadline Rumor Tracker is up to date, including Friday’s flurry of trades.
- If baseball players understand anything, it’s the importance of toilet paper, at least, according to the CBA.
- The Dodgers are very good. The Giants are very not. Friday night’s outcome was all but inevitable, no matter how much you cheered.
- The Nationals acquired Howie Kendrick out of left field (get it?), and as ever, Twitter had some things to say about it.
- Things got wild at Wrigley on this day in history 40 whole years ago.
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