Tremendous or Tragic?: Dealing Dickerson

One aspect of Walt Jocketty’s time in Cincinnati has been littered with his penchant for bringing in former Cardinals into the Reds fold. This trade was no different. It was meant with stern resistence; however, when the deal was made, I was for it.

On August 9, 2010, the Reds sent Chris Dickerson packing to Milwaukee in exchange for Jim Edmonds. When the deal was made, I wrote a quick post about the deal. In that post, I included this little tidbit.

"Like this move. Like Edmonds. Good luck to Dickerson."

My former colleague here on BRM, Tim Grimes, left a great comment on this post, too. Little did I know…

When this deal was made, Edmonds was still nursing an Achilles injury and Dickerson was set to come off the disabled list and a minor league rehab stint. Walt was going to have to make a move one way or another, but in looking back, was this the move that had to be made?

I know what Walt was driving at with this trade. He was dealing inexperience for experience, postseason experience, plain and simple. Edmonds was bringing an edge as well as his experience. With Dickerson there could have been an issue of playing time. The Reds had Drew Stubbs, Jay Bruce, Jonny Gomes and Laynce Nix established as the four main guys in the outfield. I didn’t believe Edmonds would have created a fuss over that. And he didn’t.

With the Achilles issue, there was no question that Edmonds would not have been as big of an asset from a defensive standpoint, but he could still swing a bat. Despite missing all of 2009, the Brewers saw fit to give Edmonds another opportunity. In 73 games for Milwaukee, he hit .286 while cracking 8 home runs and driving in 20 runs. Not his most productive season by far, but I will hearken back to the experience. That was the main thrust of this trade.

Forward to September 21, 2010. Edmonds was facing his former team in the Brewers, a return to Miller Park. In the top of the second inning, Edmonds was facing David Bush. The fourth pitch resulted in Edmonds besting his former teammate for a solo shot. It was the “shot” as Edmonds rounded the bases that would, in some respects (in his opinion), end his career. As Edmonds was rounding the bases, he pulled up with an injury. That home run would be his last at-bat.

Going back to my original post about this trade, I stated this…

"The Brewers are reportedly looking for arms so Dickerson’s moving may not be done."

While the trade did not happen in 2010 (Dickerson played in 25 games as a Brewer), he was sent to the New York Yankees for pitcher Sergio Mitre on March 25th of this year. Dickerson played in 60 games this past season. He’s probably more noted for this…

That was on May 18th. He would return to play in the Yankees May 21st game against the New York Mets.

2011 wasn’t the best of times for Edmonds either. He signed a deal with the Cards on February 4th and then announced his retirement two weeks later.

It’s the aftermath of the retirement that Edmonds decided to voice his opinion about the Reds. Former BRM staffer Justin Hamilton brought us the deatils.

"In a fashion Tony LaRussa would be proud of, Edmonds had a take on a many things that are sure to stick in the craw of Reds fans.When asked about his injury situation of last season, Edmonds responded:“It’s awful. It’s still awful. I can’t do the things that I want to do. I’m frustrated. And I don’t know the right words to use toward the Cincinnati doctors. I’m in a situation now where I thought I would never be. I went so far in my career without really having a huge injury and had a bunch of surgeries. And I thought ‘Gosh, I’m going to be able to get out of this with everything, my health my kids are happy and I’m hoping to be able to walk out of this.’“It’s been a frustrating situation. It’s not healing and surgery is the option that I have and that would be a year rehab. I’m not looking forward to that.”Of course this deal was NOT tremendous. Dickerson is still in baseball while Edmonds is not.I still have a question about this though. If Jocketty had not made this trade, would we have seen less of Chris Heisey in 2010? Maybe Heisey would have been the odd man out.Or maybe less of Laynce Nix? Dickerson is a lefty hitter as is Nix.What about Jonny Gomes? He did have the defensive deficiencies.Just something I let stick in my mind about this trade. A huge part of me wishes this deal had never happened. What I thought was a good move turned out to be even more than tragic. “It’s awful. It’s still awful. I can’t do the things that I want to do. I’m frustrated. And I don’t know the right words to use toward the Cincinnati doctors. I’m in a situation now where I thought I would never be. I went so far in my career without really having a huge injury and had a bunch of surgeries. And I thought ‘Gosh, I’m going to be able to get out of this with everything, my health my kids are happy and I’m hoping to be able to walk out of this.’“It’s been a frustrating situation. It’s not healing and surgery is the option that I have and that would be a year rehab. I’m not looking forward to that.”"