Yikes! What a terrible trade.

In case you haven't heard the O's traded prospect Denny Bautista for reliever Jason Grimsley and then gave Grimsley a one-year contract extension. A propect for a journeyman reliever. Never sounds good. If you keep reading you'll see it doesn't look good either.

Grimsley, 36, is 3-3 with a 3.38 ERA, an 18/15 K/BB ratio and a 1.46 WHIP in 32 appearances for the Royals this season. His high WHIP indicates that his ERA is coming up and will probably end up closer to his career ERA of 4.76. Grimsley has never been a great control pitcher (he'll fit right in). His best year was 2001 when he had a 61/28 K/BB and a 1.23 WHIP. Since then (and before then) he's been nowhere near those numbers. He had a 58/36 K/BB and 1.65 WHIP in 2003 and a 59/37 K/BB and 1.42 WHIP in 2002. Chances are he'll be around those numbers again this year and in a mop-up role next year.

Bautista aged a couple of years in the offseason putting a damper on his prospect status. The O's gave him a shot this season for 2 games (despite his not being ready) and he was promptly shelled. Hopefully that performance did not influence this decision. It seems that even if Bautista doesn't end up as a major league starter he could have a career as a reliever. I'd have rather taken my chances on that happening and looked into signing Curtis Leskanic rather than trading for Grimsley.