The San Diego Padres acquired RHP Sean Gallagher as the PTBNL in the Scott Hairston trade last summer (that also netted Ryan Webb and Craig Italiano). Now the Padres have traded Gallagher to the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash considerations, after designating him for assignment last week to make room for Tim Stauffer.
Gallagher’s solid minor league track record has not yet translated to the Major League level, as he has put up a career 5.08 FIP in 173 innings. In an organization filled with pitching, apparently there just was not room to retain Gallagher. It might be a decent move for Pittsburgh, as Gallagher has a solid enough repertoire and is under control through 2013.
Someone please tell me why we did package Gallagher with Bell and get Austin Hearns or get an innings eater starting pitcher. The Pitching is starting to show signs of cooling off a little and are only going to make the playoffs with our pitching.
Gallagher had almost no value. We might have netted $40,000 for him and felt lucky to get it.
Why would the Indians want a closer like Bell, who will earn about 8M next year and then be a free agent? He’s useless to them this year and they’re in no condition to pay an expensive reliever for 2011. Teams that want Bell are not generally going to be in a position to move good major leaguers in return. It’s not likely that they’ll trade Bell, but if they do, it would probably be for prospects who would then be flipped to another team for a major leaguer.
Strengthening the pitching is a good idea. There’s Stauffer and several trade options. Not much of interest in AAA, but San Antonio has Luebke and Kluber, Castro if they wanted to roll the dice.