The Mets traded OF Gary Matthews Jr. to the Orioles for LHP John Bale on Wednesday. New York will leave Bale in the minors for the time being, but he provides them with a quality lefty option if someone on the roster is injured or if they decide to trade Bruce Chen. Due to John Franco's injury troubles, it seemed as though Chen would need to stick around at least until Franco was healthy again. However, they've now acquired a capable potential replacement for Chen.

Baltimore acquired Bale from the Blue Jays in December of 2000 for top catching prospect Jayson Werth. Bale has starting potential though the Orioles used him as a lefty reliever last season. He had some elbow stiffness this spring, but it was not determined to be serious, and while he'll turn 28 in May, he should still have a solid career either out of the bullpen or as a lefty starter.

The Orioles successfully sent Bale through waivers, so it wasn't even a matter of making a trade to acquire something rather than losing Bale on waivers for nothing. Considering Jayson Werth will likely be Toronto's starting catcher next season, Baltimore has now completed two bad trades involving Bale.

Melvin Mora appears to be healthy, so the Orioles' outfield isn't even as pressed by injuries as was originally feared. Matthews is a nice guy to have around if you need a back-up centerfielder, but Baltimore has several and will have more as players return from injuries. The Orioles are fortunate enough to have a number of good pitching prospects approaching the majors; however that is no excuse to throw one away for talent that could basically be found on waivers. Just take a look at the White Sox if you want to see how quickly a strong group of pitching prospects can be drastically minimized.

New York will replace Matthews with McKay Christensen, who was picked up off waivers from the Dodgers on Wednesday. If they hadn't wanted to take an extra infielder, LA likely would have kept Christensen. He has less major league experience than Matthews but had a good Spring Training and should be quite able to adequately fill Matthews' role.

After John Hart's comments following the Texas acquisition of RHP Luis Vizcaino, there was reason to suspect that Vizcaino might be turned around for another player before the season started. Therefore it wasn't overly surprising to read that he was traded to the Brewers for LHP Jesus Pena on March 24th.

Texas didn't have room for Pena either, but they were able to send him to the minors, where they had been a little shallow on injury insurance for their major league lefty relievers. However, it makes little sense to essentially trade Justin Duchscherer, who has good potential as a starter, for a lefty reliever who could have been found on waivers and was an available minor league free agent last winter. If the plan was to make a profit as a middleman, they definitely failed. The Brewers definitely come out ahead on this deal, while the Rangers would have been better off never trading for Vizcaino in the first place.

Vizcaino immediately joined the Milwaukee bullpen and became a closer candidate. Although they are more likely to use him as a setup man, Vizcaino is exactly the kind of reliever the Brewers needed. They added a high skills, hard throwing righty without injury problems to a bullpen that has been severely depleted by injuries this spring. Milwaukee still has Valerio de los Santos in the minors, so they don't need Pena for lefty insurance.

On Wednesday, Texas traded LHP Juan Moreno to San Diego for SS Jason Moore. The Rangers didn't have room for Moreno on the team and wanted to acquire something for him rather than simply lose him on waivers. He's 27 and should be a capable left-handed reliever for the next several years. Due to injuries, the Padres' were short on lefties so Moreno will step right into their pen.

Moore is a 24-year-old switch-hitting middle infield prospect who spent last season at A+ Lake Elsinore. He has power potential but no speed and needs considerable work on his plate discipline. With Alex Rodriguez, Mike Young, and Frank Catalanotto, the Rangers are hardly in need of immediate help in the middle infield, but Moore doesn't appear to have a lot of upside. He's at least two seasons away from the majors, at which point he'll already be 26. Moore may be able to break onto a major league bench for a few seasons as a middle infielder during his peak but likely won't develop into a regular.

Unless Moore displays hidden skills in the next few seasons, the Padres likely received the better end of this deal. Texas would have been much better off sticking with Moreno rather than trading a PTBNL to the Braves for LHP Rich Rodriguez, who they kept on the roster over Moreno. I will wait until the PTBNL is named in order to analyze that deal, but in all likelihood they've been on the losing end of two trades simply because they wanted Rodriguez this season.