Orioles Make Moves

After being completely inactive at the non-waiver trade deadline, the Orioles made two transactions today, trading LHP John Parrish to the Mariners for minor league OF Sebastian Boucher. The team also allowed the Indians to claim UTI Chris Gomez off of waivers for the $20,000 waiver fee.

Not much could have been expected in a trade for Parrish, and that's exactly what the Birds got. Boucher is a 25-year-old former 7th rounder out of Bethune-Cookman. Although Boucher put up nice numbers at AAA Tacoma in a short trial this season, he spent most of the past two seasons in AA, failing to hold his own offensively at either San Antonio in 2006 or West Tennessee in 2007. He does draw his share of walks and can steal bases, but his .364 career minor league slugging means he's never likely to be a useful major leaguer. James Hoey was recalled from Norfolk to take Parrish's spot in the bullpen.

While I was certainly no fan of Parrish, it seems odd to trade him for a lesser minor leaguer. If the Front Office was set on getting Hoey back to the bigs - which I applaud them on - Shuey or perhaps Bell should have been the ones to go.

The Gomez move was a stranger. Gomez certainly is an expendable part, but he had at least shown competence with the bat during his three seasons with the Orioles as well as an ability to play all four infield positions if needed. It seems odd that the team would give him away for nothing, though presumably the team wants to keep both Brandon Fahey and Freddie Bynum on the 25 man roster after Bynum is activated from the disabled list.

Tike Redman was added to the 40 man roster and called up from Norfolk to take Gomez' roster spot. Redman is another guy who won't hit his way out of wet paper bag. He's now 30 and has a .278/.312/.378 line in 392 games with the Pirates. Jon Knott remains at Norfolk, and JR House is also there, not even on the 40 man roster. But the men in charge think that Tike Redman is more valuable than either of those guys.