Wily Mo Spoils Revealed
When the Red Sox traded Wily Mo Pena to the Washington Nationals for a PTBNL, many around these parts assumed that the Sox would get a rack of Fungo bats and an apprentice groundskeeper in return.
As it turns out, the PTBNL is a minor league first baseman named Chris Carter (be careful, there are actually 2 minor league first basemen with that name; Boston got the older, less promising one). Carter, a left-handed hitter who will be 25 in September, comes to the Sox in a 3-way swap between Boston, DC, and Arizona.
His numbers in the PCL this year: .324/.383/.521, 18 homers in 553 plate appearances. Impressive on the surface, but also consider that he is repeating the Pacific Coast League, and the PCL is a notorious hitter’s environment.
Still, there are some positives here. He has shown above-average plate discipline (68/50 K/BB ratio, 69/78 last season), he doesn’t have that hard L/R split we have come to expect from left-handed sluggers (.815 OPS against left-handed pitching), and he can potentially play some LF.
In essence, he could likely fill Eric Hinske’s role in 2008 at a fraction of the cost.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 am
Carter won’t be filling Hinske’s roll in ‘08 because by all accounts I’ve come across he is a terrible defender. He can’t play outfield at all, and by one account I read, has trouble with infield pop ups. If thats true, theres no way he becomes anything other than a lousy fielding version of Lyle Overbay or a DH, with the latter much more likely than the former. The first we might have room for next season, the second we don’t. I think this is a case of taking the best deal available regardless of the team’s situation personel-wise.