UPDATE: Well, that progressed from rumor to trade in a hurry. Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com
reports that the Angels have traded center fielder
Peter Bourjos and outfield prospect Randal Grichuk to the Cardinals for third baseman
David Freese and reliever
Fernando Salas.
Obviously the Angels are betting that Freese will bounce back following a down 2013 and the Cardinals were willing to let him go because they have prospect
Kolten Wong ready to take over at second base with
Matt Carpenter shifting to third base. Meanwhile, the arrival of Bourjos presumably means
Jon Jay will be on the way out of St. Louis at some point.
Freese hit .262 with nine homers and a .721 OPS in 138 games this year, which is 60 points of OPS below his career mark. Salas will likely slide into a middle relief role for the Angels after posting a 3.42 ERA and 186/69 K/BB ratio in 192 innings for the Cardinals.
Bourjos is a career .251 hitter with a .704 OPS, which is about 50 points below Jay’s lifetime mark, but the gap between them defensively is huge. Grichuk was the Angels’ first-round pick in 2009 and has shown good power with questionable strike-zone judgment while advancing to Double-A.