Commentary: Reds trading for Latos was 'right move'

Reds receive Padres' pitcher Latos for 4 players

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By B.J. Bethel, Staff Writer Updated 1:44 PM Monday, December 19, 2011

Hold your ire, Cincinnati Reds fans. Quit being so Latos intolerant.

The Reds finally made a move. Sure, they gave up the farm system, but trading four players for San Diego Padres starter Mat Latos was the right move and there are several things to take from it.

• If there is any doubt, the Reds aren’t in the dollars business. Don’t look for any big-buck moves like the Angels made to sign Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. This is a club on a moderate budget and it’s staying within that budget.

• Yonder Alonso is not the solution in left field, and wasn’t going to be a regular at first base unless Joey Votto was traded or injured. Now talk can end on Votto, at least until 2014, and the focus can go to building a team around him rather than trading him.

• No one traded was going to help this team in the immediate future. Yasmani Grandal is the third catching option behind Ryan Hanigan and Devin Mesoraco — he wasn’t coming up any time soon. Edinson Volquez’s days were numbered with his lackluster 2011 season.

Latos is 24 years old, he’s locked up for four years, and he’s a solid top-of-the-rotation starter. He isn’t Roy Halladay, but it’s the kind of judgment-based move a team in the Reds position could make without tying up the entire franchise in one player. They had the prospects and they dealt them.

With St. Louis and Milwaukee losing star power in free agency, Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty had to make a move. The window is slowly closing, but trading for Latos may have kept it open a little longer.

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