The Ramon Hernandez Trade: Waring and Turner Paying Dividends

On December 9th, 2008, the Orioles made a trade to clear Matt Wieters' path to the majors. The club sent veteran catcher Ramon Hernandez to the Cincinnati Reds for utility man Ryan Freel and minor leaguers Brandon Waring and Justin Turner (pictured). Even then, team president Andy MacPhail acknowledged the trade was more about clearing a spot for Wieters than getting two bright young prospects. "It had been our goal to make sure we could introduce Matt into the Major League scene somewhere over the course of the '09 season. Not necessarily to start right away, but we thought he could handle it eventually after a little time in Triple-A possibly under his belt," said MacPhail. "We knew that would create a situation where we were going to have to split some playing time with him and Ramon, and we knew Ramon wouldn't be happy about that." Last year, to the naked eye, Ramon had a decent year for Baltimore. In 133 games, he hit 15 homers, drove in 65 runs,...