Dodgers trade Dee Gordon hours after appearing at team charity event
The beauty of baseball’s hot-stove season, and in particular MLB’s Winter Meetings, is that a deal can come together quickly and with very little warning. Of course, that can also lead to a little awkwardness as players honor team-related commitments that on some occasions overlap baseball business.
Such was the case for Dee Gordon on Wednesday. In the morning hours, he was representing the team at Union Elementary as part of its partnership with the L.A. Fund for Public Education’s School Fuel program. By late afternoon, he was officially traded to the Miami Marlins, along with Dan Haren, in exchange for four minor leaguers, including Miami’s top prospect Andrew Heaney. Heaney was later flipped to the Los Angeles Angels for second baseman Howie Kendrick.
Yeah, that’s a bit awkward for everybody, but perhaps most awkward for the fifth-grade students who arrived home to tell their parents about meeting a Dodgers player, only to learn he was no longer a Dodger a short time later. Deflating may actually be a more apt description from their perspective. If only for a short time, they established a personal connection with Gordon. A pretty big deal for kids that age. But just that quick, in a “Flash” you might say, he’s moving to the other side of the country.
The dominos obviously fell quickly. The Dodgers first acquired Jimmy Rollins from the Philadelphia Phillies to fill the shortstop position vacated by Hanley Ramirez. Gordon, who played second base in 2014, was a candidate to fill shortstop. The moment Rollins was locked in, the Dodgers flipped Gordon with an obvious eye toward acquiring Kendrick from the Angels.
Given how quickly these events played out, it would seem Los Angeles had this mapped out well in advance of Wednesday. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the timing of Gordon’s trade was unfortunate and will undoubtedly sting for those who were in his company on Wednesday.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
