Trade Rumors

The most prominent rumor involving the Tribe (mentioned in Buster Olney's blog today at ESPN.com) is a deal with Kansas City for Octavio Dotel who, if you haven't been paying attention to the Royals lately (and you should, as they're a fun team to watch), has been lights out as their closer. However, they have a young guy on the team they feel can be just as good, so they can move Dotel (who's a free agent after this year).

From what I've read, the Royals have asked for either Ben Francisco or Franklin Gutierrez.

It's becoming more and more clear that we're going to have to stick with Jake and possibly Lee as well, so improving our bullpen would mean a lot if we can only count on four or five innings from our #5 starter.

Is it worth it to trade a young guy like Francisco or Gutierrez? Maybe.

We still have Shin-Soo Choo in Buffalo, who has not only been great every time he's come up to the Majors, but was also supposed to get the call when Delucci was hurt, but happened to be on the 15 day DL at the time.

We also have a guy named Jonathan Van Every in Buffalo who currently leads the team in nearly every offensive category even though he spent half the year in Akron.

For that matter, we still have Brad Snyder down in AAA.

So who do we deal, Ben or Franklin? Ben's numbers are roughly half of what Franklin's are which makes sense, as he's played in a little less than half as many games. But does that give Franklin the edge because he has more experience? Or do you give Ben the edge because he has more potential power?

It's a tough call, but either way I think I'd make that deal. I think we're in too close of a race to hold on to all of our chips for the future.

Besides, picture this: Borowski, Dotel, Betancourt, Perez, Lewis, Fultz, and Mastny or Stanford. I'd be pretty happy with that bullpen going forward.

I guess we'll see in the next few days.