Jones: With Aaron Hill Trade, Dave Dombrowski Shows He's Not Asleep At The Wheel
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Red Sox made a minor trade on Thursday night, acquiring infielder Aaron Hill for two minor league players.
Adam Jones was on the air after the trade transpired, and he said overall, it's a solid move with no downside.
"[People say] they still need to address their pitching -- yeah, fine, but this was a need," Jones said. "Upgrading the bench and getting a right-handed bat was a need."
Rich Keefe chimed in: "That also doesn't mean they're not going to get pitching."
Jones pointed back to the Craig Kimbrel trade, a deal which he felt had the Red Sox giving up too much for a closer. Without Manuel Margot in the system, the Red Sox have one fewer chip to trade for a starting pitcher at the deadline this year. But this trade doesn't have the same ramifications.
"You gave up Aaron Wilkerson, who is 27 years old and just got to Triple-A," Jones said. "Something tells me he's not much of a prospect. I know the numbers are good but something tells me he's not much of a prospect. On top of that they gave up Wendell Rijo, who's 20 but is hitting something like .200 in Double-A. They gave up nothing. So I'm just happy Dombrowski did something. He addressed a need -- not the biggest need, but he has time to do it. I'm just happy that he showed the team, 'Hey, I'm not asleep at the wheel here and I'm not waiting for you guys to play well or work your way up the standings to react.' I'm just happy Dombrowski did something."
Beyond the potential impact of Hill, Jones found promise in the fact that the Red Sox were never rumored or reported to be linked to the player whatsoever before the trade took place.
"This I like -- is Dave Dombrowski going to operate in the stealth?" Jones asked. "It's promising on the pitching front, because we keep hearing Rich Hill, Drew Pomeranz, Julio Teheran, we've heard those names a million times. And maybe this is an indication that Dave Dombrowski makes stealthy moves that come out of nowhere. They were never linked to Aaron Hill; next thing you know, they have him. So maybe he runs a tight ship. Nobody reported this. ... It was kept tight-lipped enough that no one around baseball knew about it. The Red Sox informed everyone in baseball with their press release.
"That's promising for Dombrowski. You don't like the names they're being linked to? OK, maybe we don't know everything. And I'll take that as a promising step."
