Why The Braves Traded Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson
By Fred Owens
Yesterday the Braves began converting aging resources into future assets when they traded Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson to the Mets.
Why The Braves Traded
If you’ve been reading this site for a while the trade should not have been a surprise. Uribe and Johnson were veterans on one year deals for a team that never intended to make a serious challenge this season. Sure they were willing to accept lightning in a bottle and play it out if as had happened in the past the rest of the division collapses around them but John Hart and company were never going to commit resources on short term gains when the goal is 2017. If you have no idea what Hart’s plan was and is I recommend you jump back to this post and catch up.
Why Now?
The rationale for making the trade now – aside from the trade deadline approaching – is fairly simple and the timing a result of a confluence of events related to injuries.
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There were two contending teams in need of improving third base; the Mets and the Pirates who both lost their third baseman due to injury. Talks between the Braves and the Pirates never got off the ground because they had their eye on Aramis Ramirez. The Mets were eyeing him as well the had in fact told ken Rosenthal they weren’t interested in Uribe.
Had one #Mets exec tell me yesterday that they didn’t like Uribe. Had another tell me they didn’t want a 3B. But things can change quickly.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 24, 2015
The change in the Mets plans came as a direct result of the Ramirez trade that happened on the same day Rosenthal was told the Mets weren’t interested. Suddenly the list of available third basemen shrank to one player of note; Uribe.
The Mets were also faced with a problem in left field after Michael Cuddyer’s knee forced him onto the DL yesterday. They needed a bat and while everyone was focused on Justin Upton the Sandy Alderson was sticking to his plan not to pay a stupid price for a rental when he was focused on 2016. This isn’t to say he won’t make that trade if the price drops but after acquiring Kelly he doesn’t feel as if he has to do immediately.
The Angels were never a player in the third base stakes even though David Freese is out with a nondisplaced fracture of his finger. They promoted former Braves farm hand Kyle Kubitza to fill in for the two weeks Freese will miss and yesterday picked up Conner Gillaspie from the White Sox.