Teahen for 2: White Sox trade Fields, Getz to Royals?

This didn’t take long, if this Daily News report is correct.

While the Yankees and Phillies continued to wage their World Series battle Wednesday night, the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals were making a trade.
The Daily News learned the White Sox have agreed to send second baseman Chris Getz and third baseman Josh Fields to the Royals for Mark Teahen, who is expected to replace Jermaine Dye as Chicago’s right fielder.

Five immediate reactions, and then it’s off to work.
No. 1: Teahan better not be an immediate solution.  He’s a left-handed bat, but not a particularly good one (.271/.325/.408), and can play three positions, but none that make his bat particularly tolerable.
No. 2: His most similar batter? Herb Perry!  Maybe there’s a flash-in-the-pan waiting to happen.
No. 3: Teahan has never pitched, so he shouldn’t be in the bullpen under any circumstances.
No. 4: Seeing Getz go is a little bit of a surprise, considering how much Ozzie Guillen raved about him. I guess I’m not used to the Sox sabotaging trade value for a player who endured a disappointing season.
No. 5: I wonder if the Royals see Fields and Getz as solutions, because both just add to their problems.

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knoxfire30

Well in my offseason thread I pointed out how hard it was to find a good left hand hitting corner outfielder that was available. I passed over Teahan cause I dont think he is what I would consider good. Probably someone I consider very average. Sox didnt give up too much but thats a lot of meh out their in right field now so hopefully they have bigger plans for DH.

knoxfire30

My first question is does this make Teahan the everyday right fielder
2nd question does this make Nix the everyday 2nd basemen
3rd question, if you assume 1 and 2, who leads off?
If you assume nix is now your utility player, figgins or polanco has to be the answer at 2nd to get someone at the top of the order right????
Im confused

marshlands

I would imagine this makes Teahen the everyday RF, though he’s been known to play all over the diamond. If the Sox aren’t into Nix being the everyday 2B would they consider shifting the infield over? That’d make me happy. But if they play Teahen at 3B, that’ll be some bullshit.
Basically, I’m glad the Sox acquired the closest thing to Herbert Perry still in baseball.

knoxfire30

Teahan 3rd, Beckham ss, Ramirez 2nd, Nix utility and then they still have an OF and DH spot to get a leadoff hitter and power guy….

paul

Teahen is garbage at 3rd. He was acquired bc he is a positionally flexible left handed bat, is an avg outfielder, and hits lhp well. He will probably start a lot of games in right. Nix will likely stay a super sub.
Moving Getz creates more flexibility in FA acquisiton. Figgins, polanco, Hudson, Beltre could all be options ad you can shuffle Beckham and alexei around to ss & 2nd, if necessary. I consider polanco or Hudson most feasible targets in terms of expected pay and years.
I don’t exacly like the salary for Teahen, especially when payroll is supposed to be tight. Perhaps they are willing to extend payroll at least to 100 and maybe 110 mil.

bigfun

Maybe they could platoon him with Nix by shifting Ramirez and Beckham back and forth between 3B/SS/2B. Regardless, seems like a completely pointless move… Teahen doesn’t help them win now or in the future. They didn’t give up much, but Getz has at least a bit of upside, so the Royals pretty clearly got the better end of the deal.

cushinglee

I totally agree with this. Teahen and Kotsay are the type of guys a playoff team adds to help it’s bench. They are not the type of players who would be everyday starters–unless your team is not that good.

Chris Pummer

I’d have rather they dealt for David DeJesus. Unless Teahen is going to play 3B, I don’t really see how this is an upgrade.
In fairness to Teahan, though, the Royals have really jerked him around. But he still hasn’t flashed much at the plate the last two years, and the power stroke from the second half of 2006 look like an aberration.

stopdrop8

I really don’t think he’ll start in right. There are so many options we could have signed as free agents for the same price without giving up anything. But signing him just to be a sub doesn’t make sense because kotsay and nix can play all of his positions. My guess is Kenny is going to go after polanco or Hudson

bigfun

Maybe Kotsay isn’t coming back? No reason to have Teahen and Kotsay on the same team.
The Sox just traded away a guy making the minimum to get a guy who will probably make $4 million next year, but adds nothing to the team. Excellent.

roman7

Kotsay just signed for $1.5M.
I think we can see Teahan at 3B with GB moving to 2B. Otherwise we are looking at Teahan playing one of the corner OF spots and KW will look to use Jenks as leverage to find a power bat and/or leadoff hitter.

striker

What position is Teahen’s UZR highest at?

bigfun

-2 in RF and -8 at 3B. Fan’s scouting report ranks him a bit better as a 3B, putting him right in the middle of the pack: http://tangotiger.net/scout/index6.php?prim_fld_cd=5

magus711

The bench…

bigfun

-8 at 3B and -2 in RF. Fans Scouting Report likes him a bit more. http://tangotiger.net/scout/index6.php?prim_fld_cd=5

marshlands

Teahen, by all accounts, is a poor fielding 3B. He’s also bad in the outfield, but not AS bad as he is at 3B.

knoxfire30

I thought I saw his UZR at -2 for right field, which isnt great but compared to Dyes -17 its a big help.

striker

What Kenny acquired was a versatile LH bat. The guy can play like 5 positions. That means we can put Teahen at 2B and try and sign a RF. Or put Teahen in RF and try and sign a 2B. KW doesn’t have to focus just on a certain position. I love the leverage this gives him for making his next move.
Teahen is no star but I bet he’ll perform better with a change of scenery and a chance to win.
Interesting that KW picked up another underachieving 1st rounder.

striker

I always wanted Fields to excel (check out my ’09 predictions http://www.fan-exchange.com/mlb/teamhittingpredictions.asp?userid=53&franchid=CHW) but his time was up.
I can only assume that they are looking at Teahen at 2B, which would be an upgrade at defense and pop over Getz.

bigfun

How is that a defensive upgrade? He’s a -8 3B and he’s played three games of 2B in his career. He’s really only played a significant amount of RF and 3B.

striker

It would only be an upgrade if they shifted players around, but I’m just shooting in the dark.

stopdrop8

Maybe beck is going to move to second, there are a number of interesting free 3b free agents. Beltre? Crede?!?! Another thing this does is provides injury insurance at a
number of postions. He can fill 5 different positions if guys go down. Maybe not with great defense, but he can fill them.

striker

Agree entirely. Before Teahen, who would backup Beckham if he went down?

bigfun

Where is this 5 positions thing coming from? He plays 3B and RF, and he’s below-average at both positions. He could probably play 1B or LF but he’s not any better at those positions and he’s redundant with Kotsay.
I miss DeWayne Wise and his $400,000 salary.

knoxfire30

1. Dont joke about dwayne wise ever again
2. He has played lf, cf, rf, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st but yea he is probably only useful in a corner outfield or 3rd base spot.

willardmarshall

michael lewis had a piece in the 2005 ny times magazine with a lot about teahen:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/magazine/24BASEBALL.html?pagewanted=all&position

sophist

1. Sign Figgins, either to play 3B (move Becks to 2B) or 2B
if not, 2. sign Polanco or Hudson or another at 2B
if not, 3. Teahan at 3B, Beckham at 2B, with hopes of someone like Morel emerging at 3B eventually.
If there’s not an IF spot for Teahan, he goes into rotation of RF/LF. I think you’ll see something like 4 or 5 guys getting shared time at LF/RF/DH. Part of that deal is it makes it easy to work Flowers or Viciedo in, if they’re reading, but gives you options if they’re not.

dlamb

The only way this trade makes sense is if this is a “diamond in the rough” trade like with Quentin. Paying around 4.5-5 million for him to play multiple positions is too much as he doesn’t show great defensive skills at any of his positions and his offense has never taken off since his career year in I believe 2006.
This will only be worth it if KW thinks a change in scenery from the basement of the AL central will allow him to flourish. Don’t have much confidence that Walker can do anything productive to make Teahen have a career year. KW must have been giving a decent increase in payroll as now I think there is now a need to fill a hole at 2nd or 3rd if they shift Beckham and Ramirez (small chance), or still in the outfield. If they try Teahen at second, they have just gotten rid of a minimum salary average player with room to grow in Getz, and replaced him with a guy who costs millions more and has not shown much improvement in his offense to warrant that salary.

blah

I’ll say this much, I was never too enthralled with Getz/ Nix platoon to begin with and Fields really had no future with the Sox anyway, so if this is true, I’d have to say it is a good move only if;
1.) He is not counted on to play right everyday and will be used in a bench role to complement Nix/Kotsay.
2.) This doesn’t take money away from acquiring quality players for holes in LF, DH or 2nd.
3.) It means Alejandro De Aza (a.k.a. Wise Jr.) can waste roster space in triple A.
I don’t like to pretend I know more than KW, because odds are I don’t, but he really can’t rely on a moneyball player who forgot how to walk and can’t hit homeruns.

roman7

We very well could be looking at a situation where the club wants to solidify Beckham into the 2B position, thus Getz became expendable. I just don’t see Ozzie playing Beckham over Alexei at SS.
This move allows Beckham to move to 2B and Teahen to play 3B (no worse then Fields). If KW targets a 3B through FA or trade then Teahen moves to the corner OF slot but at $M-$5M/year he is not going to become a sub.

timmeh

Neither the Tribune nor the Kansas City Star have confirmed the story.
Headline from KC Star: Reports of Royals trading Teahen to the White Sox appear to be premature
Headline from Trib: Questions surround White Sox’s acquisition of Teahen
(The White Sox have yet to confirm a New York Daily News report that stated they would receive versatile left-handed hitter Mark Teahen from Kansas City in exchange for second baseman Chris Getz and infielder Josh Fields.)
The Suntimes posted merely states “a source has learned.” Is that source the NY Daily News?
Scott Merkin of MLB.com hasn’t written anything about the trade.
Dick Kaegal of MLB.com wrote neither team would confirm the reports of the trade.
Until, there is an “official word” and not just “a source” I’m going to remain skeptical.