Dodgers Acquire George Sherrill

The Dodgers acquired George Sherrill earlier today from the Baltimore Orioles for prospects Josh Bell and Steve Johnson. Let's look at the trade.

Things started off interestingly enough. Rather, infuriatingly enough. Original reports said the trade sent Bell and Scott Elbert to the Orioles for Sherrill, which would have been... terrible. Frankly, a trade of Scott Elbert straight up for Sherrill would have been terrible.

But then reports updated to state that the Orioles would be acquiring Bell and Johnson for Sherrill, which led me to breathe a sigh of relief.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Josh Bell. He was turning out to be a pretty solid prospect, but I don't know for sure if I was sold on him. I guess we'll see in a few years how that turns out.

I hadn't heard much on Johnson. He's had his ups and downs in recent years, but recently did put up some nice numbers in AA Chattanooga. I think he was fairly low on even the Dodgers Pitching Prospects chart and I'm not sure if he ever had a place in his future with the big club.

As for Sherrill, I do like the pickup, especially if Hong-Chih Kuo is back and healthy, which so far, so good (1.2 IP in 2 games, 1 K). Sherrill has been excellent against lefties. That means if a situation comes up in the 6th or 7th and Torre feels he needs to use a lefty to get out of it, he now has two excellent options out of the pen. And he still has another bullet in the chamber for later in the game, should the need arise. Plus, Sherrill has been a closer in Baltimore, and should be able to step into that role for Jonathan Broxton should Broxton need some rest.

I guess what I'm saying is that I really like Sherrill's versatility. I think there's a number of situations he can be used in, and he should provide quality relief in those various situations.

Overall, I'm a little sad to see Bell go, but I'm still happy with the trade.