41.12 My Trade History in Review: Fernando Cruz

[crobillard]

So I'm not much for trade reviews to be honest. There's a lot of things in the moment that makes sense to the teams acquiring or moving on from the players involved, so I'm not sure how constructive they are when they are put in the context of a win-lose scenario. I'm hope that's not what I will end up doing here. Mostly I am just trying to see if I still have a positive outlook on the deals I made since taking over Edmonton in 2036. The last time I was in the league was 2025, so there was a quite a lot of time in between and looking back at those deals I don't have a favorable perception over the deals I made in Halifax. Since I am a PP-whore though, I am going against what I don't like for content.

What you can expect from this series, dear reader, is that I wont be assigning a winner and loser on these trades. The more pertinent question is more introspective, whether I should have done them with the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge of how the players are doing now.

Our first trade with Edmonton that we'll be reviewing is a deal that happened immediately after the 2036 offseason concluded. The deal was with Brooklyn and I just took over Edmonton around the beginning of the 2036 season I believe.

Edmonton gets:
Fernando Cruz
Francisco Ruiz

Brooklyn gets:
Pjotr Eland
Juan Rodriguez
Larry Good
Ivan Meerkerk
Po-sin Shi

In 2036, Edmonton had a hard time producing runs and limiting them. The team was outscored 712-846. Mitch Dalrymple led the team in runs crossing the plate 99 times that season, but the team seemingly was lacking a true cleanup hitter. With the 19 year old Steven Collins III nearly ready for the big leagues, the 2037 Jackrabbits wanted to secure a big bat that could bring more players around the bases more often. It was also clear the team needed some assistance in the rotation to support the powerful 24 year old lefty Bobby Lynch. He just had his first season back from his horrendous UCL injury and while effective, he didn't quite look the same.

With that knowledge, we sought out Brooklyn and acquired power hitter Fernando Cruz and SP Francisco Ruiz. I love Cruz at the time because of his strong ability to draw walks as well as hit homeruns. His last season with Brooklyn had a .296/.385/.539 batting line with 38 homeruns and a 3.7 WAR. Since then he hasn't been as good in Edmonton's gigantic park. Cruz has 1402 at bats in Brooklyn with a .309/.390/.566 batting line and a 9.7 WAR while in Edmonton he's had 1783 at bats with a .275/.352/.489 batting line for 5.8 WAR. So, he's struggled some. It's not like he's super old either. He's only 32 as of right now.

The issue with this trade was with Ruiz. I liked the trade at the time because I thought Ruiz was going to perform well. That experiment did not go very well at all. He was lights out in Brooklyn especially in his last year with a 14-11 record in 39 starts with a 3.19 FIP. In fact, through his entire time in Brooklyn 735.1 innings he collected a 3.55 FIP. Since he left Brooklyn he pitched in 69 terrible BBA innings he had a 5.22 FIP in Edmonton and a 7.42 FIP in Madison. He is now in UMEBA with the Beirut Cedars. I hate him.

I gave up a lot here, but my favorite player among them all is Po-sin Shi. REALLLYYYY was hesitant to deal him in his trade, but I moved forward with it since I thought I was getting a really good SP and finally a decent power hitter. At the time of this writing Shi is currently lighting it up in California to the tune of .956 OPS in 77 at bats. He's been solid outside of the small sample size with a .259/.359/.399 batting line through is career. Juan Rodriguez is the next one on this list who has had some success in the bigs. He's still in Brooklyn in their rotation and he was successful last season with a 14-11 record in 192.2 innings with a 4.34 ERA. He's allowed 211 hits and struck out 164 batters. He's been pretty solid for Brooklyn and seems to continue to do so. Good, Meerkerk and Eland have been in Brooklyn's bullpen and Good and Meerkerk have seen very good success there. They have had ERAs around 3 or under for the most time in the majors.

In the end, I think this was a bad deal for me. Cruz hasn't been nearly as effective as I thought he would be. I think that is mostly because of the park I am in. I failed to realize how impactful it was and now my bullpen is hanging on by a thread as we saw in the playoffs last season when Huerta went down with an injury. Not only that, but I could have Shi as my starting centerfielder or as a really good backup. Not to mention the depth Rodriguez would provide me with. These things will definitely happen while trading. I can't be too upset as Cruz helped us get a Landis in his first year in Edmonton, but seeing that Ruiz didn't work out certainly dampens my view on this deal by quite a lot.

[jleddy]

I share your hatred of Francisco "Runaway Train" Ruiz.

[crobillard]

I share your hatred of Francisco "Runaway Train" Ruiz.

I don't understand him. Maybe he only likes New York.

[jleddy]

His ratings lumped terribly on what looks like literally the same day he was sent to Edmonton, seeing his movement drop from 7 to 5 (briefly rebounded to 6 for a few seasons) but that 5 control nosedived into a 2 and his walk rate promptly skyrocketed. Insane.

[usnspecialist]

I have always liked Fernando Cruz but it is tough to pay that salary to a full time DH

[crobillard]

I have always liked Fernando Cruz but it is tough to pay that salary to a full time DH

Yeah, looking back I wouldn't do this deal. I have the money. I don't know if I would pay it to anyone else I've had. Maybe Dalrymple? Probably Lynch.