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by Dave Herd

This one was out of the blue. Though oft-rumored in the past, few saw Ken Griffey, Jr. actually being traded out of the Queen City this year, much less to the Chicago White Sox. Many will wonder why he wasn’t dealt to the Yankees (got the cash), or Red Sox (lost Manny) or even the Devil Rays (opportunity and competition to beat). But here we are with two months left in a great baseball season, and the Kid, the hometown favorite down on the river, is heading to the south side of Chicago to play ball with Jim Thome, Carlos Quentin, Jermaine Dye, Bad Bad Leroy Brown and anyone else who still plays for what is arguably America’s most unnoticed and underappreciated big city franchise. Most fans are unaware that White Sox GM Kenny Williams made a serious run at Griffey in 2005 and has been angling for him since.  It’s a fantastic opportunity for Griffey, and I say that as a fan of the man and of the Cincinnati Reds. Junior will get a chance at a ring playing for a first place club that appears to be playoff bound at this stage. A serious question remains as to whether the trade is good for the Reds, and I’m not so sure on that end of it.
 
The Reds may have gotten the proverbial bag of balls here, and an expensive one at that. Cincinnati will be on the hook for a remaining $4 million more this year for Griffey, and  another $4 million in a buyout for next year. How that frees up significant money to resign untraded Adam Dunn is beyond me, but then again I’m not smart enough to be a free agent guy. I apparently don’t have the cranial capacity to be a scout either, because I’m not knocked over by either Danny Richar or Nick Massett, the players obtained by Cincinnati in the trade. Both have squandered their early opportunities in the big leagues so far, and I’m not sure where they fit into the Reds’ vision, if there is one. Richar is a second baseman, a position held down by Brandon Phillips right now, who could move to short except that fan favorite and well-performing Jeff Keppinger is healthy and back playing there. Richar is 25 and was in AAA for Chicago, but got 187 big league AB’s last year. He hit only .237 with a paltry .288 OBA and one steal, though he somehow managed to score 30 runs. Massett (26) has been pitching in relief for the White Sox but sports cringeworthy MLB career ERA and WHIP’s of 5.63 and 1.78 respectively over almost 100 innings, not to mention that he has walked 49 compared to only 57 K’s in the bigs. Not the dominating, control man we’ve been seeking, I’m afraid . . .
 
Nonetheless, I’ll give a hearty thankful goodbye to Junior. He gave us hope and excitement at times, and a feel that the Reds were actually trying to be a big league club. In his last game for the Reds he hit a massive no-brainer bomb off the Astros that spoke volumes for the talent he’s still got. His production gets criticized, but my review of the stat tables shows 15 HR, 53 RBI and a .355 OBA in 359 AB’s this year, which very roughly would translate into about a 23 HR and 90 RBI season for a 38 year old guy who everyone thinks is always hurt and past his prime. In 2007 he hit 30 HR, 93 RBI and a .372 OBA. So what’s the problem? The White Sox just got themselves an historic hitter who may help propel them to the series again, and they got the Reds to basically pay for it. I’ll be rooting for the Kid this October.

Tags: cincinnati reds, ken griffey