It was officially announced today that the San FranciscoGiants and the Kansas City Royals had completed a deal to send Jonathan Sanchez (along with pitching prospect Ryan Verdugo) to Kansas City in exchange for Melky Cabrera.
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Melky had a breakout year in 2011, hitting .305 with 18 home runs (Do those numbers look familiar? 'Cause they should.), as well has amassing 200 hits over the course of the season.
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Jonathan Sanchez threw the first Giants no-hitter in 35 years ,along with catcher Eli Whiteside, on July 10, 2009. He only missed a perfect game due to an error by Juan Uribe. In 2010, he put together a nice season with an ERA of 3.07, the best for the Giants in the regular season. He also hit the 200 strikeout mark for the first time in his career with 205. And who can forget that he helped to clinch the NL West title that sent the Giants into the postseason to later win the World Series? But Sanchez had a down year in 2011, again struggling with his command. He had an ERA of 4.26 and 102 strikeouts, not even half as many as he had in 2011. He hit the disabled list twice in the season with bicep tendonitis and a sprained ankle. While he had a convincing 2010, he reverted back to his old ways in 2011, which led the Giants to trade him.
Melky Cabrera, at age 27, had a breakout year in 2011 with the Royals. As stated previously, he hit .305 with 18 homeruns (and if you haven't figured it out yet, those were Buster's 2010 stats.). He hit over .300 from both sides of the plate and was only one of five players in all of Major League Baseball this season to have over 200 hits. Cabrera only has one year left on his contract, which means that he won't be blocking the center field job from Gary Brown, which is a huge upside.
Only time will tell whether or not this was a good trade, but in my opinion, trading Sanchez while he still had some value left was a very good move. And getting a pretty decent player in return can't hurt, either.
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