MLB Dirt

The San Diego Padres acquired reliever Huston Street from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for a player to be named later. In addition, the Rockies are paying $500K of the $7.5M owed to Street next season and will pay the $500K buyout of the $9M option on Street’s contract if San Diego declines it.

The Padres essentially get Street for $7M and only one year. Now, I am not a fan of paying relievers high money but on a one-year deal I think an exception can be made, especially in this instance.

Coors Field was not kind to Street but it’s not really kind to anyone. Street’s careerERA in Coors is 4.11 in 96.1 innings but that is in large part due to his fly ball tendencies as he has allowed 10 homeruns there. But, over his three seasons in Colorado he has a 3.03 FIP and 3.06 xFIP at Coors. His ERA is inflated due to the rate at which fly balls turn into homeruns at Coors.

In a small sample size, Street has not allowed a single earned run in 11.1 innings at Petco. Petco is the polar opposite of Coors when it comes to fly balls turning into homeruns and that is huge for Street, who is a fly ball pitcher who has seen his GB% drop three straight years to a career low 34.9% last year.

Street will bring his fly ball tendencies to the best park he can pitch in and will have one of the best defensive center fielders in Cameron Maybin behind him. On top of that, Street has maintained nearly a strikeout per inning each year in his career and his BB/9 was the lowest of his career last year at a remarkably low 1.39 and only had eight unintentional walks in 58.1 innings.

Street replaces Heath Bell who has not had a BB/9 below 3.0 in five seasons, had a career worst 7.32 K/9 last season, and has seen his GB% drop three years straight. Yet, Bell netted a three year $27M contract with the Miami Marlins at the age of 34.

Street should find easy success in San Diego. He is pitching for a new contract and will hit the open market at the age of 29, assuming his option is declined, and is in the best possible park for the one weakness he has as a reliever.

The Padres not only get a solid reliever for high-leverage situations that could perform better than Bell but they get a potential trade chip that could bring back a similar top-10 prospect like Mike Adams did last year.

There is no reason to not like this trade for the Padres.

-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and you can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert. Be sure to follow MLBdirt at @MLBdirt

Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis Tagged: | Cameron Maybin, Colorado Rockies, Heath Bell, Huston Street, Miami Marlins, Mike Adams, San Diego Padres, Trades