Boston and Arizona traded from their strengths to address weaknesses yesterday, as the Red Sox dealt Shea Hillenbrand to the Diamondbacks for Byung-Hyun Kim. Arizona's offense was struggling to put runs on the board, leaving them fourth in the division with a winning percentage in the bottom third in baseball. Meanwhile, Boston's pitching has prevented the second best offense in baseball from pulling ahead of the Yankees in the division.

The Red Sox drafted Hillenbrand out of Mesa Arizona Community College with their 10th round pick of the 1996 draft. His subsequent ascent to the majors was somewhat haphazard. After splitting 1997 between A Michigan in the Midwest League and A+ Sarasota in the Florida State League, Hillenbrand returned to Michigan for all of 1998. He then spent two seasons at AA Trenton in the Eastern League, only to jump directly to the majors in 2001.

After skipping AAA, Hillenbrand needed a season to adjust to the majors, but 2002 gave us a good look at his potential. The 27-year-old maintains his batting average with a high contact rate, while his walk rate has always been a source for concern, so he seems vulnerable to a fast fade. His 18 homers last season were the result of 634 at-bats, so he's more likely to hit around 12-15 dingers in 2003 rather than 20. However barring injury, he should continue to produce at his current levels for the next few years.

In his first year of arbitration eligibility, Kim's salary jumped to $3.5M this past off-season, and he'll likely be in line for another large raise this coming off-season. Given the Diamondbacks' other expenditures, they weren't enthusiastic about the prospect of paying another expensive starter. Kim's injury demonstrated to Arizona that they could manage without him on the pitching staff. Meanwhile, the success of Brandon Webb and the presence of several other young pitchers in their organization allowed the Diamondbacks to feel comfortable dealing Kim.