Hernandez to the Reds

It is now official that the Orioles have completed the first trade of the winter meetings with the trade of Ramon Hernandez and cash to the Reds for 32 year old utility man Ryan Freel along with two prospects Brandon Waring and Justin Turner.

Freel can add to the O's depth because he can play all three outfield positions along with second and third base. Do not look for him to play shortstop though, because he has not played there at all in his major league career. It also opens up the possibility for the Brian Roberts to be traded because Freel can fill in as an adequate major league second baseman.

He could be another Luke Scott type player that has not started every day but once he gets a starting job he could perform very well. Given the chance he should be a legitimate stolen base threat that could steal 30+ bags a season, he stole 35 bases in three straight seasons from 04 to 06. If he gets a starting job and is healthy you could probably pencil him in hitting .270 with 30+ steals.

The two prospects the Orioles got in the deal were 22 year old Brandon Waring who in 119 games at class A Dayton hit .270 with 20 home runs and 71 RBI's and 24 year old Justin Turner who split games at Class A Sarasota and Double-AA Chattonooga could force his way up to the big leagues quickly at 2B.

This trade also ends Ramon Hernandez's stay as a Baltimore Oriole and I say good rittens. If you watched him play last year you know what I mean his defense is terrible and his hitting last year was sub par with a .257 average. This is probably another good Andy MacPhail trade just like the trades of Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard who just after less than one year post trade i have heard rumours of the possibility of those players being traded again.

Furthermore MacPhail said that more trades could happen very quickly in this qoute from Orioles.com:
"The phone could ring and something could happen right away,...We've had enough preliminary discussions at the [General Manager] Meetings and getting here where that could happen on a variety of different patterns. But there's nothing right now that I'm thinking, 'Gee, when you guys leave this room, we're this close to doing something.'"