Taking a Look at The Mariners-Pirates Trade

As you should know by now, the Mariners pulled off a semi-blockbuster trade today. Seattle sent Jeff Clement, Ronny Cedeno, and three minor league pitchers to the Pirates for shortstop Jack Wilson and starting pitcher Ian Snell. Now, I did not get the feeling from this trade that it was aimed towards making a run this season. At this point, it wouldn’t be smart to make a trade that would only benefit us for the next two months. No, what I took from this trade, was that it was aimed at making this team better for the next two months, and more importantly, for 2010. First, let’s look at what we gave up. Jeff Clement no longer had a place in this organization. He’s still a good hitter with some pop, but he can no longer consistently play the only position we would need him to play—catcher. He doesn’t have the knees for it, and because of that became very expendable. I have to think Ronny Cedeno was only included in this deal as a very temporary fix for the...