Searching for a warm body to play second base while Chase Utley recuperates from a broken hand, the Phillies completed a trade late today for Tadahito Iguchi from the Chicago White Sox. This is an interesting trade on several levels:
- Iguchi will be a free agent at the end of the year, so the Phillies have absolutely no obligation to him after the season is over.
- To obtain Iguchi, the Phillies gave up next to nothing in Michael Dubee, a 22-year old relief pitcher at Low-A Lakewood (and coincidentally, the son of Phils' pitching coach Rich Dubee). You and I have as many major-league wins as this guy will ever have.
- The conventional wisdom is that Iguchi is having and off year, and he is, but this is due almost entirely to one bad month. His OPS+ by month:
So with the exception of one putrid month in May, Iguchi has been a slightly better than league average bat.Month April May June July Tad Iguchi 103 53 117 101 - Wacky Conspiracy Theory: Getting Iguchi for such a low price from the White Sox may be general manager Kenny Williams way of apologizing for sending damaged goods to the Phillies over the winter in the form of Freddy Garcia. Don't misunderstand, I'm not suggesting Williams knew Garcia's shoulder looked like charred bacon, but he may feel bad about the way it turned out.
Iguchi won't make Phillies fans forget about Chase Utley any time soon, but, being able to replace him for a month or more with what will likely be a league average bat at the price of next to nothing is a good deal for the Phillies.
