Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Corey Hart for John Maine Swap? (Update on the Randy Wolf Talks)

WOLF UPDATE: 12/08 3:30PM

Randy Wolf has been offered a three yeal deal reportedly worth $31 million from the Brewers. The Mets are still in the mix, but are reluctant to offer a third year. My guess is Wolf will probably sign rather soon with the Brewers. He'd be crazy to turn down that deal, unless the Mets are willing to match it and it seems right now they are not going to do that.

Late night reports from Indianapolis have surfaced on a possible trade that would send Corey Hart to the New York Mets in exchange for SP John Maine.

This is a tough trade to analyze considering no one really knows how healthy John Maine is. Maine is coming off back to back injury plagued seasons. After the 2008 season, doctors remarked the bone spur removed from his shoulder was "one of the largest they had ever seen." He was placed on the DL again in 2009 with shoulder fatigue and made just 15 starts.

When Maine is healthy, he can be a very solid pitcher. By all accounts he was not healthy for the past two season, but his production prior to that was phenomenal. So, the question is what pitcher would the Brewers be getting in return. Maine could easily regain his dominant form, but could also just as easily complete failed and spend most of his time on the DL.

Corey Hart has had some very disappointing seasons since his amazing 2007 campaign. He has seen the production with his bat and glove fall pretty drastically. Last season, Hart posted a .260/.335/.418 line last season, which was actually better than 2008 where he was named to the all-star team. He saw his OBP improve to .335, which is still below average for a corner outfielder. Couple that with a declining slugging percentage and one could see why the Brewers might want to move Hart, but I'm not so sure.

Corey Hart is just two seasons removed from an incredible 2007 where he nearly produced a .900 OPS. I still think he is a very valuable part to this team and trading him for a question mark doesn't make a lot of sense. If Maine was healthy, this would be a different story, but it seems like an unnecessary risk. Why trade for Maine when you could just sign a short term deal with someone like John Smoltz? Trading Hart would only create another hole in the outfield. I'm not saying that the Brewers shouldn't field offers on Hart, but trading him for the sake of trading him makes no sense.

WOLF UPDATE

The deal is near completion. An announcement will likely come tomorrow. The figures on the three year deal have not been released, but Tom Haudricourt believes the deal is for 3yrs/$25-27 million. Not bad all things considered.

Stay posted, if Monday is any indication this is going to be a very busy week for the Milwaukee Brewers.

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