Hopefully this trade doesn't end up as cringy looking as this gif
In a somewhat surprising move, the Twin Cities River Monsters sent newly acquired Hadji Ufanisi to the Portland Lumberjacks in exchange for veteran slugger Wilson Alomar and cash considerations. Just like any trade, there are multiple layers to understanding how the sausage is made.
On The Field
While we don't expect Alomar to be the 5 WAR player that he had been in the past, he should still be a legitimate bat on a team starving for offense. Even if he is starting to decline, which stats seem to indicate, on a one year deal at age 30 it's unlikely that he will fall off of a cliff. He probably will stay in the 2-2.5 WAR range.
Ideally we wish he was a right fielder, which maybe he can kinda sort of be with some reps as he does have a 10 arm. The projected roster also features LF'ers Rory Linseman and Ted Benson. So left isn't really an option either. Alomar probably will see most of his reps at DH.
On the field, Twin Cities traded in a short side platoon corner outfielder for a much better hitting DH.
Off The Field
When dealing with salary dump trades, there are two ways to go about it. The first and more common is to buy a prospect. Where the rebuilding team uses it's extra cash to take on an albatross while netting a prospect. The other and less common is where a team pays most/all of said players salary so they can salvage some sort of value rather than just releasing them. That's what happened here and is important when understanding the true value here.
A year ago...Twin Cities was in shambles. About as bad of a position as a team can be. While the current regime has made some strides to better the franchise, it's still a work in progress. The teams budget is set at a mere $112 million, 6th lowest in the league. Budgets are much more then player payroll. It includes coaches, draftees, international signings and other misc expenses. Twin Cities is not capable of spending up to the $110 salary cap. Their payroll will more likely top out around $80 million So that extra $30 million in cap space is dead to them. Rather then leaving it empty, the River Monsters used it as a bargaining chip.
Of the $12 mil cap hit, $10 million was paid in cash by Portland. $1,440,000 was shaved with the subtraction of Hadji. So Twin Cities only added $640k. Alomar was essentially free and didn't hurt cap space because that cap space wasn't going to be used anyway. It also has absolutely no impact on how much Twin Cities will spend in other areas. Add in the fact that Alomar is extremely popular and a halfway decent player, the River Monster will actually make money off of Alomar.
Another point to make here is that it's conceivable that the River Monsters could use Alomar's popularity to sell season tickets, flip him, retain half of his salary and net a prospect to make it the best of both worlds. Trading Alomar while retaining half of his salary before the start of the season would mean that the River Monsters traded Hadji in exchange for $6 million cash and whatever prospects they get in the deal yet to be made. That prospect haul should be halfway decent as Alomar on a $6 mil one year contract could be desirable to a random playoff bound team when Aki Kondo goes headhunting on your LF in September.
Of course this is how it works out on paper. We'll just have to wait to see how it plays out.
