ATS Consultants posted on October 31, 2011 14:43
The baseball off-season just started and Atlanta decided to make the first major trade well before the Winter Meetings in Dallas..
On Monday, the Braves traded Derek Lowe to Cleveland for a minor league pitcher, a low-risk move for the Indians to bolster their rotation.
Lowe was dealt for 23-year-old left-hander Chris Jones, who went 7-1 with 3.36 ERA in 43 games at Kinston (A) last season.
Lowe went 9-17 with a 5.05 ERA in 34 appearances for the Braves in 2011. The veteran right-hander has a career record of 166-146 with a 3.94 ERA in 15 seasons.
The Braves also picked up their club option on utility player and pinch-hitter Eric Hinske. The team did not release terms on their 2012 contract for Hinske.
Hinske, the AL rookie of the year with Toronto in 2002, has a .252 career batting average with 134 homers.
This could be a major addition for Cleveland, who now has a rotation of Lowe, Ubaldo Jimenez, Justin Masterson and Fausto Carmona. As part of the deal, the Indians will only have to pay Lowe $5 million of the $15 million he's scheduled to make in 2012.