In one of the quieter moves at the deadline, the Orioles and Marlins exchanged pitchers. Baltimore picked up righthanded swingman Rick VandenHurk from Florida in exchange for lefty reliever Will Ohman.
Who got the better of this deal? Find out after the jump.
The Obvious
Will Ohman, soon to be 33, is a rather generic veteran lefty reliever. He throws two pitches–a fastball around 90 and a slider around 82–from a three-quarters arm slot, and uses the breaking ball about half the time. The slider is much better than the fastball, which is too straight.
Ohman’s good against lefties (3.62 career xFIP), but poor against righties (4.92), like most of his ilk.
He’ll strike guys out, particularly lefties, but Ohman struggles to get ahead in counts and walks far too many batters to be an elite reliever. He’s put a shockingly low 38% of his pitches in the zone this season and has walked 18 batters in 30 innings.
With all this in mind, Ohman isn’t a particularly exceptional reliever, although moving back to the NL should help him out.
VandenHurk, 25, comes with all sorts of problems. For one, he gets hit around quite a bit, with a 24.3% liner rate and 12.3% HR/FB rate in his career. He owns a career 27.8% groundball percentage, so naturally, he gives up a lot of homers and doubles because he leaves lots of pitches up and out over the plate.
The young righty also struggles with control; he’s walked 80 batters in 155 2/3 career MLB innings. And to top it all off, he has an extensive injury history, particularly with his elbow.
For all the drawbacks, he does have some promise–an 8.79 career K/9, which is impressive given that 32 of his 35 MLB outings have been starts. VandenHurk touches 94 mph as a starter and sits there in relief, touching 97. The big, slow curve he threw early in his career got hit around, so he adjusted and figured out an average slider. Between the curve and change, he has yet to find a reliable third pitch, but at least he has two.
The Not-So-Obvious
Ohman is on a one-year deal, while VandenHurk still has 4 1/2 years of team control left.
Acquiring a veteran lefty reliever for two months is the sort of thing a contender like the Giants does. Florida is seven out of first in the NL East, tied with the Mets, and well behind two teams in the Braves and Phillies who just significantly upgraded their rosters. Florida just traded away a starter in Jorge Cantu, as well. And now…they pick up Ohman? Why?
Taylor Tankersley, the incumbent lefty in the Florida bullpen, has posted ERAs over 8.00 the last two years (in small samples). Ohman is a nice upgrade on him, but giving up anyone of consequence for that sort of trivial short-term luxury? On this team?
And VandenHurk is someone of consequence. The guy’s found his way to the majors and stayed there for over a full season, which is more than you can say for a lot of the pieces flying around at the deadline. When you add his velocity, size, and good slider (which all goes under the “upside” umbrella), he’s not the sort of guy you throw away for just anybody. He’s certainly a non-essential player, but non-essential players help with depth. Depth isn’t the easiest thing to get; consider that the 2008 Yankees had so little they wasted 35 starts on Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson. And that’s the Yankees, who have the exact opposite budget scenario as the Marlins. If any team needs depth, it’s a Florida outfit with an owner that simply won’t spend money.
Will VandenHurk ever figure it out? Maybe, maybe not. The guy has been above replacement level in his career, though, so even if he never improves, he’s better than picking some random guy with a 4.00 Triple-A ERA and putting him in the bigs, which is what the Orioles are close to resorting to.
Conclusions
While this trade is extremely unlikely to have any sort of dramatic, lasting effects, the Marlins didn’t need Will Ohman any more than Baltimore did. Rick VandenHurk, due to his youth, upside, and contractual status, is more valuable to both the Orioles and Marlins than Will Ohman is. The Orioles got him in the trade, so they won the deal. If Florida were closer to contention, it would be a different story, but they aren’t, so it isn’t.