Per MLBTR, Buster Olney was on the Mut & Merloni radio show in Boston, and spoke during the interview about the Joel Hanrahan trade. Olney mentioned that the Red Sox, along with “many teams”, were aware that there were health issues with Hanrahan. Olney said that’s why the Pirates didn’t get much of a return.
I think the return they got was a good one. I thought that at the time, and that’s especially true now that Hanrahan is out for the year, Mark Melancon looks like a dominant late inning reliever, and Stolmy Pimentel has been on fire this year. I figured they could have gotten more for Hanrahan, but only if they would have traded him a year earlier. I guess what Olney is saying is that the value could have been higher this year, without the injury issues.
There’s not much that can be done about the injury news, and I don’t think the Pirates are regretting the trade right now. When you think about it from the other side, the fact that the Red Sox even gave up Melancon — who looked great last year in the second half — for Hanrahan — who they knew had health problems — is pretty astounding.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, this is just another lesson that you need to deal relievers at peak value. While the return for Hanrahan has been good, there’s a good chance it would have been much better if it came when he had more years of control, and didn’t have health problems.