Revisiting the December 2011 Mark Melancon Trade

This is the first in a series looking back at the trades made by Jeff Luhnow since he became the General Manager of the Astros in December 2011.

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On December 14, 2011, brand new General Manager Jeff Luhnow traded RHP Mark Melancon to the Red Sox in exchange for SS Jed Lowrie and RHP Kyle Weiland.

Melancon spent one season for the Red Sox in 2012, putting up a 6.20 ERA, a 1.267 WHIP and a negative WAR of -0.5 in 45 appearances over 41 innings at the major league level. In the minors that season, Melancon had a 0.83 ERA and a 0.831 WHIP in 21 appearances over 21.2 innings.

Melancon was then traded by the Red Sox to the Pirates in December 2012. He flourished with the Pirates in 2013 (1.39 ERA and 0.958 WHIP in 72 appearances; 2.1 WAR; All-Star appearance) and in 2014 (1.90 ERA and 0.873 WHIP in 72 appearances; 2.0 WAR).

Jed Lowrie played in 97 games for the Astros in 2012, hitting .244/.331/.438 with 18 doubles, 16 home runs, 42 RBI, 43 walks and 65 strikeouts. He had a 2.2 WAR (2.4 oWar and 0.2 dWar). Lowrie was then traded to Oakland, along with RHP Fernando Rodriguez, for 1B Chris Carter, RHP Brad Peacock and C Max Stassi. (I'll look at this trade in-depth in due course.)

Kyle Weiland, on the other hand, only pitched in 3 games for Houston at the major league level before heading to the DL. In 17.2 innings, he had a 6.62 ERA, a 1.755 WHIP and a negative WAR of -0.2. Weiland did not make another official appearance until the summer of 2014, pitching in 14 minor league games between June and August. Weiland recently retired.

Although it would have been nice to have had the 2013 and 2014 version of Mark Melancon in the Houston bullpen to offset some of the struggles from those two years, and despite the disappointment of never having a completely healthy Weiland, there is really no way to see this trade as anything but a win for Luhnow after considering Lowrie's 2012 contributions and the return received after trading him.

Happy Birthday - 3/28

Happy Birthday to ~

SS Marcos Almonte (19)
Almonte played his first professional season in 2014 for the Dominican Summer League Astros. In 67 games, he hit .233/.359/.353 with 13 doubles, one triple and one home run. He is from the Dominican Republic.

No future Astros with birthdays today, but two former Astros celebrate ~

1B Glenn Davis (54)
Davis, a first round draft pick (fifth overall) for Houston in 1981, played for the Astros from 1984 to 1990, hitting .262/.337/.483 with 150 doubles, 10 triples and 166 home runs over 830 games. Davis was a two-time All-Star and also won the Silver Slugger Award before being traded to the Orioles in January of 1991 for Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling and  Steve Finley. After a disappointing tenure with the Orioles, he ended up back in the minor leagues and eventually played for two seasons in Japan. According to Baseball-Reference:

He returned in 1996 [to Japan] and became the 10th player in Nippon Pro Baseball history to hit a sayonara (walk-off) grand slam home run to win a game; he was the first gaijin to accomplish that.

Ironically, he never hit a grand slam in the MLB.

[Side note: Last year, I was taken to task by one of my readers for my use of the word "ironically" in the above. According to Merriam-Webster, one of the definitions of "irony" is as follows.

incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result

 I stand behind my use of the word.]

RHP Mark Melancon (30)
Drafted by the Yankees in the ninth round in 2006, Melancon came to Houston along with Jimmy Paredes in the Lance Berkman trade in July 2010. Melancon pitched in 91 games for Houston in 2010 and 2011, going 10-4 with a 2.85 ERA, a 1.211 WHIP and 20 saves. Melancon was traded to Boston in December 2011 for Jed Lowrie and Kyle Weiland and was subsequently traded to Pittsburgh in December 2012 where he has played for the last two seasons.

Happy Birthday - 3/28

No future Astros with birthdays today, but two former Astros celebrate ~

1B Glenn Davis (53)
Davis, a first round draft pick (fifth overall) for Houston in 1981, played for the Astros from 1984 to 1990, hitting .262/.337/.483 with 150 doubles, 10 triples and 166 home runs over 830 games. Davis was a two-time All-Star and also won the Silver Slugger Award before being traded to the Orioles in January of 1991 for Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling and  Steve Finley. After a disappointing tenure with the Orioles, he ended up back in the minor leagues and eventually played for two seasons in Japan. According to Baseball-Reference:

He returned in 1996 [to Japan] and became the 10th player in Nippon Pro Baseball history to hit a sayonara (walk-off) grand slam home run to win a game; he was the first gaijin to accomplish that.

Ironically, he never hit a grand slam in the MLB.

RHP Mark Melancon (29)
Drafted by the Yankees in the ninth round in 2006, Melancon came to Houston along with Jimmy Paredes in the Lance Berkman trade in July 2010. Melancon pitched in 91 games for Houston in 2010 and 2011, going 10-4 with a 2.85 ERA, a 1.211 WHIP and 20 saves. Melancon was traded to Boston in December 2011 for Jed Lowrie and Kyle Weiland and was subsequently traded to Pittsburgh in December 2012.

Happy Birthday - 3/28

No future Astros, only former Astros with birthdays today ~

1B Glenn Davis (52)
Davis, a first round draft pick (fifth overall) for Houston in 1981, played for the Astros from 1984 to 1990, hitting .262/.337/.483 with 150 doubles, 10 triples and 166 home runs over 830 games. Davis was a two-time All-Star and also won the Silver Slugger Award before being traded to the Orioles in January of 1991 for Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling and  Steve Finley. After a disappointing tenure with the Orioles, he ended up back in the minor leagues and eventually played for two seasons in Japan. According to Baseball-Reference:

He returned in 1996 [to Japan] and became the 10th player in Nippon Pro Baseball history to hit a sayonara (walk-off) grand slam home run to win a game; he was the first gaijin to accomplish that.

Ironically, he never hit a grand slam in the MLB.

RHP Mark Melancon (28)
Drafted by the Yankees in the ninth round in 2006, Melancon came to Houston along with Jimmy Paredes in the Lance Berkman trade in July 2010. Melancon pitched in 91 games for Houston in 2010 and 2011, going 10-4 with a 2.85 ERA, a 1.211 WHIP and 20 saves. Melancon was traded to Boston in December 2011 for Jed Lowrie and Kyle Weiland and was subsequently traded to Pittsburgh in December 2012.

Happy Birthday - 3/28

No future Astros, only former Astros with birthdays today ~

1B Glenn Davis (51)
Davis, a 1st round draft pick (5th overall) for Houston in 1981, played for the Astros from 1984 to 1990, hitting .262/.337/.483 with 150 doubles, 10 triples and 166 home runs over 830 games.  Davis was a two-time All-Star and also won the Silver Slugger Award before being traded to the Orioles in January of 1991 for Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling and  Steve Finley.  After a disappointing tenure with the Orioles, he ended up back in the minor leagues and eventually played for two seasons in Japan.  According to Baseball-Reference:

He returned in1996 [to Japan] and became the 10th player in Nippon Pro Baseball history to hit a sayonara (walk-off) grand slam home run to win a game; he was the first gaijin to accomplish that.

Ironically, he never hit a grand slam in the MLB.

RHP Mark Melancon (27)
Drafted by the Yankees in the 9th round in 2006, Melancon came to Houston along with Jimmy Paredes in the Lance Berkman trade in July 2010.  Melancon pitched in 91 games for Houston in 2010 and 2011, going 10-4 with a 2.85 ERA, a 1.211 WHIP and 20 saves.  Melancon was traded to Boston in December 2011 for Jed Lowrie and Kyle Weiland.

Roster Moves - 12/14

The Astros traded RHP Mark Melancon to the Red Sox for IF Jed Lowrie and RHP Kyle Weiland.  To make room on the 40-Man Roster, IF Brian Bixler was designated for assignment.  Here is Zachary Levine's story on the trade.  And here is a fun read about the Legend of Jed Lowrie.

It's never easy to see a good, young player like Mark Melancon go, but I think Sean Feist said it best ...

@native_astro Sean Feist

@AGirlintheSouth Having a closer on a 100 loss team is like having a taser gun taped to the side of a battleship. #Astros
~~~~~~~~~

And as I was writing this, Zachary Levine tweeted that IF/OF Nick Stavinoha was given his release by the Astros to play in Japan.  Here is Levine's story on that.