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The Heater Blog of the St. Petersburg Times reports that the Tampa Bay Rays have traded second baseman Akinori Iwamura to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's unknown at this time what the Rays have received back from Pittsburgh in exchange for Iwamura:
Still working on what they are going to get back, but the Pirates do have some young arms and some young catching. Will be interesting to see if the Rays are paying any money to upgrade the quality of the return - that's what they did in the Aubrey Huff deal, and that Ben Zobrist guy turned out okay. Expect an official announcement tonight, when it will be Wednesday morning in Japan and the Rays can talk to Aki.
As SB Nation's DRays Bay explained in detail back in September, dealing Iwamura is more about money than skill level. Iwamura was set to make $4.85 million from the Rays this season if they exercised an option and kept him.
Iwamura is also coming off knee surgery, which kept him out for the majority of the season.
Rays Receive Young Reliever Chavez For Iwamura
We know now what the Rays got in return for trading second baseman Akinori Iwamura: 26-year-old righthanded reliever Jesse Chavez. Chavez was 1-4 with a 4.01 ERA and 1.351 WHIP in 73 appearances for the Pirates in 2009. Slightly underwhelming? Perhaps. But given Iwamura’s $4.85 million option, the Rays needed to dump him somehow. Considering the circumstances, a young, league-average-ish reliever seems like a decent get.
Nov 03 6:28p by Eamonn Brennan - 0 comments