The San Diego Padres have traded LHP Wade LeBlanc to the Miami Marlins for catcher John Baker.
LeBlanc has posted a 4.54 ERA in 293.3 innings for the Padres, spread over the last four seasons. He’s basically been somewhere around replacement level in his time with the Padres.
Baker is a little more interesting. The catcher hasn’t played much since 2009 due to Tommy John surgery late in the 2010 season. A concern certainly has to be Baker’s ability to prevent base stealing, as he wasn’t particularly good at that (19%) before the surgery.
Still, his bat is very good. Offensively, he is right around league-average both by OPS+ (99) and wOBA (.333). He doesn’t have a lot of power and he strikes out enough, but when he puts the ball in play he does pretty good damage (.334 BABiP) and he possesses solid patience (11% walk rate).
For a catcher, that’s perfectly acceptable and he should be a solid backup for Nick Hundley. The Padres will have all three of Baker’s arbitration-eligible years until he becomes a free-agent in 2015.
The Padres have six potential starters Latos, Stauffer, Luebke, Bass, Richard and Moseley, the last two coming off surgery, though Richard’s was to his throwing shoulder. They’re letting go of Harang and just traded their AAA insurance in Leblanc.
Either they’re planning some trades, or they’re banking on one or two top prospects making the team out of Spring Training. I’m guessing it’s the AA promotion of one of Erlin, Weiland, Castro or Oramas for the #5 slot to allow both Bass and Moseley to fill out the bullpen if Bell doesn’t return. Otherwise, why trade Leblanc now?
Larry, as you mention, I’m sure they have some plans for some starting rotation depth.
I really wasn’t a big LeBlanc believer, though. There should be a number of guys both in the minor league system and/or on the waiver wire that can provide results similar to LeBlanc.