The latest seismic rumbling probably hit the baseball landscape early Thursday morning -- probably before all the champagne-soaked Yankees reached their homes -- with more rumors that Mark Teahen is about to be traded, and by the end of the day the hints became something more tangible than that.
Jeremy Hermida, a former No. 1 pick whose offensive talents have long been valued by scouts, was dumped by the
Florida Marlins to the
Boston Red Sox for a couple of second-line pitchers, for the simple reason that the Marlins couldn't afford to wait for the 25-year-old outfielder to blossom. Hermida is set to make $4 million and the Marlins, with a payroll of about $35 million, must have production for their pay; the Red Sox can afford to wait. Hermida told a friend Thursday evening he is really excited to go to Boston and to see the ways GM Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona want him to help the Red Sox. The Red Sox hope he can reach his potential,
as Michael Silverman writes. This is a value trade, Epstein said,
as Peter Abraham writes.
The Marlins had high hopes for Hermida,
writes Clark Spencer.
There will be more deals like this: the small-market and mid-market teams either dumping young players for second-rate packages or simply cutting them altogether, with the big-market teams stepping in to collect the best of them, like peonies.
To see more of Buster's thoughts on economic parity, where J.J. Hardy could end up, what he's hearing about Roy Halladay in 2010, other news from the free-agency market, and a smattering of Yankees and Phillies-related links, you must be an ESPN Insider.
Buster Olney
