Red Sox & Rockies Make a Minor League Deal

Red Sox GM Theo Epstein made a minor league deal yesterday when he acquired catcher Michael McKenry from the Colorado Rockies.  Heading the other way is reliever Daniel Turpin. 

The move to acquire McKenry is perhaps a little insurance for the Red Sox behind the plate, should the Jarrod Saltalamacchia experiment not pan out the way the Red Sox are hoping.  Jason Varitek is still in the mix and will serve as a back up to Saltalamacchia.

McKenry played in 6 major league games during the 2010 campaign with the Rockies and this spring in the Grapefruit League he went 3 for 12, with a double and one home run.  But perhaps it’s not the 26 year olds offensive statistics that jump off the page, but more his defensive numbers.  In his minor league career, the 2006 seventh round draft pick has thrown out over 36% of attempted steals.

In Turpin, the Red Sox are giving up a 24 year old reliever who has already been with three different organizations.  He was an 8th round draft pick by the Giants in 2007 before being traded to the Red Sox at the non-waiver trade deadline last summer for reliever Ramon Ramirez.  This past December when the Red Sox did not include him on the 40 man roster the Yankees claimed Turpin in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft (Mayo, http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110329&content_id=17189554&vkey=news_bos&c_id=bos#).

Not a bad asset to have should the catcher position falter this year for the Red Sox.  If things pan out with Saltalamacchia, then Mr. McKenry may be used as trade bait to help fill a hole in the line up down the road.

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