Pagan traded to the Mets

[Guest]

Barton would have been a nice Rule 5 pick as a platoon partner for Pie. :(

[craig]

40-man was not a factor with Pagan. Was at 39, now down to 38. If/when any Roberts-scale trade occurs, it would further reduce.

 

So the trade was presumably made simply because LouHendry didn't project no-options Pagan to make the team and wanted to get a little something for him now rather than waive him for nothing later.

[Rob]

40-man was not a factor with Pagan. Was at 39, now down to 38. If/when any Roberts-scale trade occurs, it would further reduce.

 

So the trade was presumably made simply because LouHendry didn't project no-options Pagan to make the team and wanted to get a little something for him now rather than waive him for nothing later.

 

I could have sworn Pagan had another year of options... perhaps even two, considering all the injuries affecting his service time.

[ddwyer]

IIRC the reason we got Pagan from the Mets was due to Pagan being out of options and he was not going to make the Mets roster.

[frostwyrm]

Still bugs me that Pie(the centerfielder of the future) spent a significant chunk of 2007 sitting on the bench watching Pagan(the 5th outfielder of the future).

[CubColtPacer]

Still bugs me that Pie(the centerfielder of the future) spent a significant chunk of 2007 sitting on the bench watching Pagan(the 5th outfielder of the future).

 

Pagan started over Pie around 4-5 days when both were on the team. That's hardly a significant chunk.

 

Even if Pie had been the starter, Pagan would still have gotten exactly the time he did. Pagan was brought onto the team for a very specific role, to play CF against left-handers. He would have done that if Jones or Pie was the starter.

[Wrigley Rat]

40-man was not a factor with Pagan. Was at 39, now down to 38. If/when any Roberts-scale trade occurs, it would further reduce.

 

So the trade was presumably made simply because LouHendry didn't project no-options Pagan to make the team and wanted to get a little something for him now rather than waive him for nothing later.

 

I could have sworn Pagan had another year of options... perhaps even two, considering all the injuries affecting his service time.

Pagan had one option left according to Arizona Phil (sorry no link). The Mets gave him up because they needed to clear a 40-man roster spot for Japanese RHP Yusaku Iriki.

 

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:x6weg9PSfFEJ:www.sportsline.com/mcc/messages/message/5642023+%22Cubs+acquired+Angel+Pagan%22+from+Mets&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&ie=UTF-8

(Near the bottom of the page)

[badnews]

How good is it to get rid of Angel Pagan if Jim Hendry is just going to trade for a guy just as crappy? What is he doing apparently talking to the Orioles about Jay Payton? Angel Pagan is probably a better CF at this point than Payton. Pagan slugged pretty well against lefties last year, to make his OPS against lefties about as good as Payton's.

 

Jay Payton makes $5 million in 2008. Are you kidding me? Why is everyone so gung-ho about trading Marquis and Dempster and clearing salary? Clearing salary for what? Jay Payton? Puts a nice spin on the Jacque Jones trade - we had to pay the Tigers to take him and got nothing in return, meanwhile words are wasted on Jay Payton. That makes sense to me. This is why I don't applaud money-saving moves yet. If this money is being saved for guys like Jay Payton, to heck with these moves.

[craig]

Pagan had one option left according to Arizona Phil (sorry no link). ...http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:x6weg9PSfFEJ:www.sportsline.com/mcc/messages/message/5642023+%22Cubs+acquired+Angel+Pagan%22+from+Mets&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&ie=UTF-8

(Near the bottom of the page)

 

Thanks for the correction, Wrigley. That's very interesting. I'd thought he'd used two with New York, and his 3rd last year when we farmed him in spring.

 

As AzPhil notes, it's evident that this was apparently simply a baseball trade. No 40-man pressure, no out-of-options pressure. Interesting.

 

AZ Phil's notes about Torres as a potential interchangeable and perhaps preferable Pagan replacement is interesting. He's older and has less power than Pagan. Like Pagan, he's a switch. I don't know how to get minor-league career splits. But for this season, he hit LHP better than RHP. That's perhaps a preferable profile to Pagan's, who as badnews notes has more power hitting right-handed but, but who carries a very very low OBP versus RHP.

 

Anyway, thanks again for correcting my false assumption that Pagan was out of options. In a sense that makes the trade more interesting and the players returned more interesting. If pagan had option left, then there was no pressure to trade him, so the deal was talent based rather than just better-than-nothing based. So probably the Cub scouts see something in Myers that makes them think he has a chance, even if not a great one, to turn into something.