I like this deal. I think Hendrickson is an upgrade over Seo and I wouldn’t mind seeing him replace Odalis Perez in the rotation. The only knock on Hendrickson is, while he’s having a good year, it’s really his first good year. If he can get his walk rate under control, he should be a good addition though.
I’ve also been a big fan of Toby Hall, even though he never lived up to expectations. One nice thing is, he puts the ball in play and doesn’t strike out much. That could really come in handy in places like Colorado and Arizona when we get back to our regular schedule.
I will miss Navarro though. He was given a B rating by John Sickels in his 2005 prospect book and in 258 at bats, he has 31 walks and 39 strikeouts. He’s also a switch hitter, which is nice and at 22, he could still hit his stride. Navarro is quite a journeyman already. This will be the fourth team he’s at least been a part of. He got a cub of coffee with New York in 2004, then was traded to the Diamondbacks as part of the Randy Johnson deal. That same day, he was dealt to the Dodgers as part of the Shawn Green trade and now he’s on to Tampa.
So we got an upgrade (hopefully) in the rotation and a downgrade at catcher. I’ll take that.
