JT Snow has not been getting a lot of playing time recently. That’s partly due to the emergence of Kevin Youkilis as not only an offensive threat, but a dude pretty slick with the glove at first. Snow’s cause is hurt by Coco Crisp being out, because Youkilis is the club’s only other real option to lead off, and thus Snow does not play.
When Crisp returns, Snow and Youkilis will start rotating a bit more with Mike Lowell, which has been reported, but I wonder … why not trade JT Snow? This possibility has been broached by national columnists here and there recently, and I agree with these columnists, because it makes all sorts of sense. The reason I broach this possibility is because Hee Seop Choi has one option year remaining, and rather be sent to the minors, he’s currently with AAA Pawtucket on a rehab assignment. This means his option year is currently not being used, and he’s hitting .297/.435/.541 for Pawtucket while on this assignment.
Now, why not just send him to Triple-A and use that option year available to him?
Because the Red Sox don’t want to, I think. I think they want to save it. Option years can be “saved” – meaning that if we do not option Choi this year, we have the possibility of doing so next year should it benefit us. This means that when Choi’s rehab assignment ends, he needs to be activated somewhere.
JT Snow may be on his way out of Boston. To where? I can think of one club in need of a first-baseman plug, which is the Chicago Cubs who would use him as a starter through May and part of June, and then alternate with Derrek Lee as he returns to the lineup.
This would allow Choi to get onto the Red Sox and serve as a backup first baseman in basically the same role Snow serves in, except younger with an option year. In return for Snow, we could recieve a prospect, or possibly Jerome Williams.
Jerome Williams had a 2.45 ERA in three relief appearances and one start entering April 21, then had one bad start and was immediately demoted to AAA. Jerome deserves better than that, as evidenced by his career:
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Rotoworld.com suggests that Jerome may be better off with a fresh start elsewhere. Send him here, and he can replace Lenny DiNardo as our fifth starter, and pending on his progress, either stick once (if) David Wells returns, or when (if) Roger Clemens makes his grand return, or simply get demoted to Pawtucket because of the numbers crunch. Moving JT Snow for Jerome Williams and activating Hee Seop Choi makes all sorts of silly sense and would be another example of Theo coming up ahead on all of the moves he makes.
This is contingient on the deal actually happening of course, but I think it makes sense for both sides. Even if the Cubs don’t want to move Williams for Snow, Theo can still come out ahead by simply recieving a prospect for Snow.
This is in absolutely NO way a denouncement of Snow’s abilities. I’m a fan of JT Snow, just like I was a fan of John Olerud. He can produce, he has value, he’s signed cheap, and only for one year. This is only for baseball purposes, and it makes the most sense.
What do the readers think? Is it a fair proposal? Does it make sense for the Red Sox? You tell me.