Hand, We're Off to the Races

Apparently it only takes 12 hours for the trade market to go from 'dormant' to 'the stock market frenzy at the end of Trading Places'.

After the Machado deal essentially opened up the floodgates on the trade deadline deals, we got the OTHER big ticket piece, Brad Hand, sealed up in a trade, this time to the most logical destination for a successful reliever in 2018: Cleveland.

Cleveland's bullpen has been extraordinarily bad this year. Like, 2017 Phillies bad. Their only successful reliever so far has been Oliver Perez, which means actual great players like Dan Otero, Cody Allen and Andrew Miller have been having down seasons, so they NEED good, new blood in there. So, getting Brad Hand and Adam Cimber, two guys who've been doing quite well for San Diego so far this year, is a great deal. Both will bolster the bullpen, and Hand may take over from Allen as closer if they get particularly fed up with him.

They did have to give up Francisco Mejia for him, and he's their big catching prospect, but seeing as Yan Gomes is having a career year, and they haven't really found a place to put him, it sort of works out. Mejia could eventually take over for Austin Hedges, who's an alright catcher but isn't exactly starting catcher material.

But yeah- sound trade all around. No real qualms here. Helps both teams. Ensures that the Padres are gonna be stacked in like 2 years. Bring on some more trades.