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Cliff Pennington traded to Blue Jays; Jamie Romak called up

S'funny. The D-backs do absolutely nothing before the trade deadline, then a week later, deal a pair of veterans away in less than 24 hours. Cliff Pennington joins Oliver Perez on the road out of Phoenix, going to Toronto.

By Jim McLennan
Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

Pennington came over to Arizona from the Oakland A's as part of a three-team trade in October 2012 - we sent Chris Young to Oakland. Since then, he has been a solid bench-player for the Diamondbacks, never hitting particularly well, but providing a great deal of value with his glove. Overall, in his time with us, Cliff had a line of .244/.320/.315; that's only a 77 OPS+, but his defense helped to give him a value of 3.7 bWAR for Arizona, at a cost of about $7 million, which is definitely very solid value for money. However, with Brandon Drury knocking on the door for the team, and Pennington a free-agent at the end of the year, you can see the reason for the move.

Lugo was ranked #14 on one list of Blue Jays' prospects at the start of the year, and like yesterday's acquisition, Junior Garcia, is another long-term prospect. Lugo is aged 20, but is already in his fourth minor-league season. He started the year off in High-A, but struggled there, with a line of only .219/.258/.292. He was sent back down to A-ball at the beginning of July and has hit much better there, batting .336, though only took five walks in 132 PA.  That lack of plate discipline has certainly been a theme, with an overall walk-rate of just 3.3% in his minor-league career, though in his defense, he has been played in leagues above his age.

He's obviously far from a major-league spot, so the departure of Pennington opens up an immediate spot on the roster, and that is being given to Jamie Romak, who has been absolutely destroying pitching with the Reno Aces this season [usual caveat: it's with the Reno Aces]. He has a .928 OPS for our Triple-A affiliate, clubbing 22 home-runs in 107 games, but his debut stint in the majors, with the Los Angeles Dodgers last year, did not go as well, Romak getting just two hits in 21 at-bats over 15 games. Romak is 29, and offers similar positional flexibility as Pennington, having played at five positions for the Aces this season (1B, 2B, 3B, LF and RF).

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