Vizcaino, flotsam for Maholm, Reed Johnson

UPDATE: It’s Vizcaino and Jaye Chapman. If Vizcanio — who has yet to pitch 100 innings in a season — had not undergone two Tommy John surgeries been so injury-prone, this would be a bad trade. It could still end up being regrettable, but I think the Braves, with the easiest remaining schedule in baseball, just made the playoffs.

UPDATE: According to Bowman, Delgado, Teheran, Gilmartin and Zeke Spruill are not involved in the deal. If true, FW has just engineered a steal.

Few pitchers in baseball are hotter than Maholm, who has six consecutive starts of at least six innings allowing one or no runs. The 30-year-old southpaw, 5-0 with a 1.00 ERA in his last 7 outings, has a $6.5 million team option for 2013 and is having his best season.

Reed Johnson is a perfect fit, a career .313 batter vs. lefties with a .838 OPS.

Great trade, as long as they didn’t give up Delgado. It would be too high a price, but, considering Maholm’s affordable option and Johnson’s right-handed bat, I’d prefer that package to Ryan Dempster straight up.

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21 thoughts on “Vizcaino, flotsam for Maholm, Reed Johnson

  1. Bowman’s Twitter feed says whoever it was, it WAS NOT Delgado, Spruill, Minor, Teheran or Gilmartin.

  2. Absolutely. The Van Poppels should have him over for a picnic next weekend.

    He’s definitely never getting a Christmas card from Theo Epstein.

    I had idly thought a few days ago that since the Cubs were in sell mode that maybe Paul would be available. I’ve always liked him and I am really pretty jacked up over this.

  3. Jaye Chapman is one of the guys? The Braves filled two gaping holes in their roster and Jaye Chapman is one of the guys they gave up? Frank Wren is a fuckin’ pirate ninja wizard.

  4. Chapman and Arodys Vizcaino, according to multiple sources.

    Sad to see AV go but he’s had two TJs and he’s not going to throw a pitch anywhere until well into next year, so I’m still on board.

  5. I still think AV will be a quality big league pitcher but this appears to be more than a rental so I’m 100% on board with this one. Moholm can be picked up for next year without breaking the bank and Reed Johnson is a much better 4th outfielder and pinch hitter than Diaz. Whenever Prado needs to play infield, we’ll be ok out there.

  6. Yeah, I hate losing Vizcaino as well, but I can’t think of anybody who’s come back from that surgery twice.

  7. It looks like I was mistaken and AV’s only had the one TJ. He previously had the partial tear and they went wth a shutdown and rest rather than surgery. Sorry for the mistake.

    Doesn’t really change much of anything, at least for me.

  8. I like this deal a lot as well; rotation gets a boost from a quality starter and we get a good outfielder/right-handed batter as well.

    When was the last time Maholm pitched? I’m wondering if Medlen will still get the start tonight…

  9. Maholm pitched Sunday, so Medlen will go tonight. I like the deal a lot. You have to give up something.

  10. For some reason, I was thinking Vizcaino had had some shoulder issues before developing the elbow problems, but I guess I misremembered. Still, the Cubs traded two major-leaguers for a minor-league guy who’s on the DL and won’t be able to pitch until next year. The Cubs can hardly claim they didn’t know about his elbow, but given trade-deadline pressures, they pretty much had to accept the Braves’ representations of his recovery prospects. Seems like a strange way of doing business to me.

  11. Good deal. Heard a Chicago guy on 790 this morning saying that these were the two best guys in that clubhouse.

  12. I’d seen the rumors about Chapman before I went to bed last night, but now I find that the Cubs wanted Vizcaino? Sure, he still has potential but he had injury problems in 2010 prior to his Tommy John this year. This is a big risk for the Cubs but it’s apparent that Epstein is doing a fire sale and, having lost leverage in the Dempster matter, can’t play hardball in many transactions.

  13. Who could have guessed that we’d have Ben Sheets and Paul Maholm in our rotation this year? Wow.

  14. MLB Network last night was congratulating Theo for unloading salary in order to rebuild his way. I get the feeling unloading salary was as important as the return.

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