Five Reasons The Reds Will Trade Griffey

As promised, I am out to play “Devil’s advocate” to one of my more recent articles, Five Reasons The Reds Won’t Trade Griffey.

The reasoning behind this article is that we are still three weeks away from the Trade Deadline and my contrary post to this one dropped just three days ago. If the Cincinnati Reds somehow swing a deal for Ken Griffey, Junior in just a few days, my prior post is completely futile. Secondly, it is only fair to put my bias of keeping Junior aside and look at this from an objective view and realize there are five good reasons on both sides of this argument. Be it as it may, here are the five reasons the Reds will trade Griffey, again, in no particular order:

• Age: Unfortunately for all of us, Ken Griffey, Junior just isn’t as young as he used to be and will turn 38-years-old this November. He claims to want to play another five years if possible, but with his already nagging injury issues its easy to assume that his athletic health will deteriorate, or at least not improve, in the coming years. Most would agree that it would be in Griffey’s best interest to head back to the American League so that he can be a designated hitter and prolong his career. It may be time to move him now as Griffey’s years are certainly numbered, which brings me to my next point…

• Playing For A Contender: The nice thing about Griffey, one of his traits that have people constantly calling him “classy,” is the fact that he never outwardly acts unhappy or tells the media that his team didn’t put enough talent around him to win. That being said, it is no doubt that he would like to play for a contender and even try to finally win that elusive World Series ring before time runs out, because, as I have said, he doesn’t have many years left in him. He may never come out and demand a trade but he may start talking about teams in contention that he would waive his ‘No Trade Clause’ for to go to and if, or when, that time comes, that may be a sign that he is ready to go.

• Buy Low, Sell High: Continuing with the age/injury/performance issue, Griffey’s stock may be as high as it has ever been while in a Cincinnati Reds uniform. Currently, Griffey is hitting .286 with 23-home runs and 59-RBIs with an on-base percentage of .390 and with those stats, the Reds may be able to get the most for him that they will ever be able to get for him for the rest of his time in Cincinnati. There are plenty of teams that could use that type of production going in to post-season play, especially in a designated hitter’s role in the American League, making now the time to move Junior.

• Fire Sale: Even though Griffey took roughly half of his market value to play for the Cincinnati Reds (something I’ll always be grateful for), his nearly $8.5-million dollar a year salary is right around 1/7th of the Cincinnati Reds’ entire pay roll of nearly $69-million dollars. With the possibility of a new, young manager coming in at the end of the year and the Reds in the process of wanting to rebuild and head in a new direction, $8.5-million dollars can get a “small-market team” a lot of young, cheap talent. A few of these prospects picked up with Junior’s contract may have a few good seasons before they’re up for a new contract (a la the Oakland Athletics and players like Jason Giambi, Barry Zito, Johnny Damon, etcetera). If the Reds are looking to be sellers around the trade deadline, dumping Griffey’s large salary (the third highest on the team behind, of all people, Eric f’ing Milton and Adam Dunn) may be one way to sign some young talent or make a moderate splash in the free agency market over the off-season.

• Retiring A Mariner: This one encompasses basically the above four reasons as during his return trip to Seattle last month, Griffey came home making no bones about the fact that he could, and would like to, retire a Seattle Mariner. As he gets older his retirement age creeps closer and as far as playing for a contender, Seattle is in a much, much better position going forward in the American League West at 49-36 and only 2.5-games behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for first place in that division. With the warm reception he received upon his return to Seattle, it is clear that the Mariners’ fans are as high on Griffey as they ever have been and Seattle may be a welcoming place for all parties involved for the Reds’ upper-management to unload his contract to.

And there you have it, despite my wants and desires, there is an objective look at five solid reasons why the Reds should, and will, trade Griffey before July 31st, 2007. It will be really interesting as to what will transpire through the month of July as we approach the Trade Deadline and it remains to be seen as to what will actually happen. My heart wants him to stay and if Junior hasn’t yet hit his 600th home run by the end of the month, but is inching closer, my gut says he will stay as well.