The Orioles have officially acquired Brewers outfielder Gerardo Parra, as first reported by Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun (via Twitter). Prospect Zach Davies will go to Milwaukee in return.
Milwaukee drew fairly wide interest in Parra, though other teams with reported interest (such as the Angels) had already opted to move for other pieces. The club had been hoping to add two prospects in exchange for Parra, but ultimately decide to take one more highly regarded prospect from Baltimore, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets.
It’s been a career-year thus far for the 28-year-old, who owns a .328/.369/.517 slash over 351 plate appearances. He’s added nine home runs and nine steals as well. While Parra has graded surprisingly poorly in the outfield, he has a sterling reputation in that regard and has generally received above-average ratings from metrics.
If teams believed that level of production was sustainable, of course, Parra would have drawn much more interest. But his track record suggests he’s more of a league-average bat, and he has benefited quite a bit from a .372 BABIP.
Regardless, Parra looks like a quality rental piece for a contender — he’ll be a free agent after the season — and Baltimore will be the one to take the plunge. Though the O’s already have left-handed-hitting platoon outfielders in Travis Snider and David Lough, but both have been underwhelming.
Baltimore had to part with its eighth-rated prospect, per Baseball America’s mid-season ranking (subscription link), to get the deal done. He’s not an overpowering pitcher, but gets by on finesse and is near to the big leagues, per BA’s Josh Leventhal. Davies has posted excellent results this year at Triple-A, racking up 101 1/3 innings of 2.84 ERA pitching with 7.2 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9.
Nathan Bishop of Lookout Landing suggested just this scenario could be in the works on Twitter yesterday. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweeted that the deal was close. Roch Kubatko reported this morning that it was in the works.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Talk about selling high on Parra
Brewers wanted higher as of last night. Wanted two prospects. But still a good deal for both sides. The guy has been on fire at the plate
He’s a potential back of the rotation starter and stuck behind Bundy and Harvey (when healthy) in the race to the Orioles rotation. Yes, he’s ranked the Orioles #3-6 prospect depending on the site, but he’s not on any top 100 lists.
I’d say at best Davies is a back end starter, but it’s more likely he’ll end up in the pen.
Surprised Parra commanded Davies considering he is a rental.
Its important to remember that while he is a top organizational prospect, in any other organization hes not near the top.
Except maybe the Brewers organization. We have one of, if not, the worst org in baseball.
Great deal Brewers! Nice rotation depth. Good luck Parra.
Should jump right into the rotation next year. Jungmann, Nelson, Peralta, Davies, now just need one more young guy so we can give Garza his walking papers.
Its not as easy as just giving Garza his walking papers. getting 12.5 mil per year the next two years. maybe he can pitch better
Well ok, I don’t really expect them to outright cut him, but no reason to keep him around in the rotation. Maybe you start him out there just to see if he pitches better and you can draw up some interest in him, but at some point they need to move him out to long relief and let the kids pitch. I know that’s a big salary to move to the bullpen, but I hate that argument. You can pay him 12.5 to suck at starting or 12.5 to contribute from the pen and give one of the young guys a shot.
well the money they saved on carlos gomez and now parra can be used to eat some of the garza deal in the winter. 7 mil or so saved. probably need to eat another 5 mil to make a trade palatable.
Plus the 11 mil coming off the books on Lohse. They are probably going to have to go out and sign a 3B, but I don’t see them spending big there or anywhere else, so there should be plenty of money to pay down some of that contract. Still need to find someone to give you something worthwhile in return though.
One of the best things about Parra is his flexibility in an outfield rotation. He can play any of the positions, has a very strong arm, and his performance isn’t dependent on his role. He’s been a strong contributor off the bench and playing full time. The more chances he gets, the more he contributes. Very positive addition for any team.
Vance Worley for Snider?
Yeah, maybe. (Snider)
However, this trade(Parra) is not going to accomplish much.
Sad Ryan Braun wants to know how he can juice interest in his services so he can join the Crew’s outfield exodus.
Cheap shot.
I think it is a very good trade for the crew. O’s fans aren’t as high on him because of his velocity and small frame. Saw him in the AFL, you should have 6 years of control of a back of the rotation ground ball inducing machine.
They pretty much traded Fiers yesterday and got an 8 year younger version of him back today. I’ll take it.
Except for the fact that Davies is a ground ball pitcher and Fiers is a fly ball pitcher. In a more hitter friendly Miller Park, the ground ball pitchers will win out.
Fiers was viewed as a ground ball pitcher as he was moving up through the minors though too. Their scouting reports read almost the same, control guys, not a lot of velocity, but know how to miss bats and force guys into weak contact. The difference is pro hitters are more likely to put that weak contact in the air somewhere than just rolling over on it.
Just fyi, but Lookout Landing had this trade last night. It’s on their twitter, and Heyman credited them.
Oh, whoops, guess I should read the ENTIRE article.
Good trade for both sides. Orioles get a rental that can provide some hitting power, which they need, at the corner outfielder position. They move a strong AAA pitcher, but they’ve got more of those than other teams. Challenge for the Orioles continues to be lack of depth in the farm system and too many AAA+ guys who aren’t ready for MLB.
Interesting that you’re hearing nothing about Davis or Wieters in the trade market. While I don’t think Chris Davis will be worth the $17 million qualifying offer, he might get a better deal in FA and the Orioles can start picking up draft picks.
This is a decent move for both teams. Not a blockbuster but could shore up two positions on two teams that help both. Just glad the O’s didn’t a rental for a prospect from a division rival again.
I am excited to see that the Brewers acquired another young arm. Sad to see Parra go because he is so versatile. Yes, his defense was down this year but he has been being moved all over the outfield all season and hasn’t been at just one position. This is a good deal for both sides. Good luck to Parra.
Just a stupid move. You’d think we might have learned our lesson about giving away young arms for rentals given what Arrieta and Rodriguez have done.
Dan Duquette is NOT a very good GM. Hey, Angelos, why couldn’t you be smart and allow ole Danny Boy go to Toronto in the offseason? Duquette has let Arrieta, Hammel, Eduardo Rodriguez, & now Zach Davies go. He trades for Parra today. Really Dan? Really? You traded Davies for Parra? Nobody is going to confuse Davies for Max Scherzer, but why trade a back end of a rotation guy that you have under team control for years to come in order to get 2 months of Parra? Horrible trade! If Dan was willing to give up Davies, just go get Seth Smith during offseason. Smith is even under team control through 2017.
maybe he’s just weakening them so Toronto will have it easier playing them when hes their president next year
Why are the Orioles trading young pitching when pitching is their weakness? Agree with TD272 in his response.
Happy with this deal as an Orioles fan. Zach Davies is about the same level as Mike Wright.
Davies isn’t anywhere near the same level as Eduardo Rodriguez. Davies will probably end up as a bullpen piece. I don’t think this move is going to seriously negatively impact the Orioles farm system. And position player depth is much more of a weakness than pitching depth for the O’s.
Let’s presume you’re correct and Davies ends up being a RHP out of the bullpen – something like Matusz. I STILL wouldn’t trade that for 2 months of Parra for a team that is chasing other teams for just a chance to play in a ONE game playoff. Then, if you accomplish those feats, then you have to go beat teams that are much better on paper than the O’s in a series, not once, not twice, but three times. LMAO! And, that’s the assumption Davies becomes a BP piece, which is WRONG anyway. LMAO! Is “orangeoctober” Dan Duquette’s username?
dude how do you know we wont re-sign parra. the only reason why davies was our third best prospect is because we have no one on the farm. yeah duquette did screw up a couple times but come on man do you really want to see snider and the rest of the goon squad out there in the outfield. i hate that rosy cheek idiot.
Truffer410, first of all, when you’re trading with another team, the idea that a team may or may not resign a player (Parra) next season has NOTHING to do with what you give up in a trade. I do NOT care what ranked prospect Davies is with ANY organization. The point is that he projects to be a back end of the rotation guy and he’s currently having success in the Minors. You don’t trade SIX years of team control of a player like that for 2 months of a player like Parra, ESPECIALLY considering the O’s best case scenario is playing in a one game playoff to make it to the real playoffs. I agree with you that Snider is horrible as is Parmalee (oh yeah that’s right these are Duquette’s signings). But, that doesn’t mean I want the GM to further his embarrassment by continuing to make horrible decisions.
well said sir. yeah the 6 years for two months is kind of crazy to think about. Lets all just hope parra continues to play well and hope davies is a bust. I hate angelos man. Duquette could have done a better job this last offseason as well but we are desperate for a corner guy and we got a pretty good one today.
dont really see why all my fellow o’s fans are complaining. i can’t stand seeing these idiots like snider out there playing man. we want to win now . plus the kid is 150 pounds and 6 feet tall. plus we still have wilson and wright. get a grip.
The reason I’m complaining is Parra is not a difference-maker in any way. He was up to this year a solid 4th OF. He’s had a really nice year but getting 2 months of him is not going to help this team all that much – and we just gave up ANOTHER at least serviceable arm that could be controlled. Seems like the O’s felt like they had to do something to keep up but this was a waste.