Doc,
The genius part WASN'T in getting Guti, as that (IMO) was an obvious trade to make. You get a tremendous defender (who had already shown that) at CF who has a a 100 (OPS) range bat for a closer....and closers are tremendously overvalued unless they are named Rivera and play for the Yankees. GM who wouldn't make that move is suspect.
The A+ part was getting Vargas thrown in. Vargas had basically thrown 127 lousy MLB innings and one AAA season of 125 innings that was marginally impressive. Z either saw something very interesting and valuable here or he flat out got lucky. Either way....it was the real smart part of the trade.
The other guys are a bit more gravy, but getting vargas in this deal was superb....whether it was dumb luck or not.
And! Franklin Gutierrez was hardly an obvious move. At the time of the trade, Dr. Detecto wasn't even 100% clear that Gutierrez was a fulltime player, from a hitting standpoint. Jack thought he was, and Jack was right.
Other GM's would not have picked Gutierrez out of a police lineup -- not so as to give away a super-closer for him. Jack did.
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And! Putz&Co-for-Gutierrez would have been a HOF move on every level, if the M's had gotten nothing but Gutierrez.
They also got Jason Vargas, a pitcher I would have (and did) tell you was a AAAA pitcher.
Jason Vargas gave the 2010 Mariners 190 innings' worth of 3.78 ERA baseball -- worth $10.9 million on the FA market! As it stands right now, Vargas looks like a perfectly viable #3-4 starter in the big leagues, going forward.
As pure gravy, Zduriencik scouted a free #3 starter into the deal. Now we are talking historically-great trades.
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As pure gravy, Zduriencik also landed Endy Chavez. Not my kind of player, but! the fact is that he was a Moneyball value defender who played a big (run-prevention) part in the M's surprise 2009 season.
Chavez not only added production on the field, but IMHO was a part of the chemistry turnaround. A lot of ballclubs gain self-respect by learning to play defense. This worked for the 2009 M's.
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Zduriencik also landed Aaron Heilman, at the time a fine reliever, who later was shed in one of Capt Jack's worst trades. But the point is, Capt Jack got a 1-quart bowl of gravy with Gutierrez.
The other guys the M's got turned out to be spaghetti-against-the-wall, which is fine.
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THE OVERALL GRADE HERE goes beyond A-to-F scale. Zduriencik delivered a thunderous kick to baseball's man region -- and immediately put himself on the marquee as one of baseball's heavyweights in the GM seat.
It's one thing to talk about a good chess move. It's one thing to talk about a perfect chess move. It's a different thing to talk about a grandmaster's chess move -- one that sets up other good moves, one that has vision, one that builds up the position in an agile manner so that future good moves are also possible.
Gutierrez-for-Putz was grandmaster's trade, one that began to re-shape a franchise, one that other GM's might not have made even had they seen it. And it occurred right out of the gate, the first trade of Zduriencik's career.
I'd like to see a listing of "Best First Trades By GM's." I wonder if Zduriencik's would head the list.
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Next deal: another virtuoso stroke, this the one for David Aardsma, Jan. 2009
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