Wow. Or whoa. Whichever you prefer.
Source: Tommy Pham has been traded to the Rays.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2018
Wow. Or whoa.
So, Tommy Pham broke out as an MVP-caliber performer last year for the Cardinals, but did so amid a lot of discord with the organization’s higher ups, and at age 29. Now 30, Pham hasn’t come close to repeating his success of last year (he’s hitting just .248/.331/.399, with a 101 wRC+). He’s cost-controlled, hitting arbitration for the first time next year, so that was undoubtedly very attractive to the Rays.
As for the Cardinals, they’ve clearly (and rightly) announced themselves as sellers, as they’re picking up prospects in the deal:
#Rays trade Justin Williams, Genesis Cabrera and Roel Ramirez to #Cardinals for Pham and international slot money
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) July 31, 2018
That’s a deep cut right there, because I do not recognize those names – Williams is the Rays’ 14th ranked prospect at MLB.com, Cabrera is 25, and Ramirez is not ranked.
UPDATE: As I kinda wondered, part of this deal was about the Cardinals just dumping Pham, whom you may recall was not shy in his criticism of the organization earlier this year:
As Cras references here, the tension never really abated between Tommy and the front office. Recently he asked for an expensive piece of exercise equipment and became unhappy when the team didn’t provide it. Many small clashes, I’m told by source. TB has been on him a long time. https://t.co/L9FiZ49Rt7
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) July 31, 2018