colby rasmus 2011

Sox Looking To Acquire Colby Rasmus?

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Dispatch reports the Sox and Cardinals are talking about a potentially exciting trade that would send centerfielder Colby Rasmus to Chicago in exchange for one or both of Edwin Jackson and Matt Thornton.

Acquiring Rasmus, Baseball America’s #3 prospect two years ago who turns 25 years old in two weeks and was recently though tot be untouchable, would be fantastic, despite a few reasons for concern.

After a great 2010 in which he hit .276/.361/.498 with 23 HRs, Rasmus has struggled for most of 2011 (.241/.327/.402 with 9 HRs so far), to the point where he has fallen behind John Jay on Tony LaRussa’s depth chart. In limited playing time, he is batting .133 in 45 July at bats. He has a poor working relationship with the Cardinals (specifically LaRussa), and allegedly asked to be traded as far back as last fall.

The Wizard at Sox Bronze Titan notes that Rasmus’s's’s strong 2010 season was well-aided by a large BABIP/xBABIP split, suggesting he was somewhat lucky. That split has narrowed this season: his BABIP has come back down to Earth and thus his slash line has suffered.

I haven’t seen enough of Rasmus in person to say anything definitively, but it seems like his defense isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Fangraphs has his UZR this season so far at a -6.8 (for reference, Alex Rios clocks in with an almost-as-bad-but-still-better -5.4). Half of one season is definitely too small of a sample size, but things don’t look much better in 2010: Rasmus posted an almost-identical -6.7 over the whole season. (Rios in ’10: +1.3).

Still, the potential for Rasmus to turn into a special player makes this a very worthwhile discussion for the Sox. As a bonus, this move could be interpreted as a win now trade and a trade for the future. In win now mode, Rasmus would come in and instantly take away at bats from Rios, and indirectly take away at bats from Adam Dunn. (Of course, that could be done with Viciedo/De Aza moves also). For the future, you have a young, inexpensive centerfielder with only two years of service time, freeing up a potential trade of Rios or Carlos Quentin.

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