Yesterday, Montreal moved from buyer to seller, dealing OF-L Cliff Floyd and cash to the Red Sox for RHP Seung Song, RHP Sun-Woo Kim, and a PTBNL. Rumors began to swirl last week that if the Expos were more than 10 games out of the wild card on July 31st, the team would trade Floyd. However we were still rather surprised to see this trade.

Boston signed Seung Song out of Korea as a nondrafted free agent in 1999. He spent the 1999 season in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and played for Lowell in the Short-Season New York-Pennsylvania League in 2000. Song split last season between A Augusta in the South Atlantic League and A+ Sarasota in the Florida State League.

He's shown a high level of dominance with good control as a starter prior to 2002. Boston assigned Song to Trenton in the AA Eastern League this year. In 108.2 IP, he's compiled a 116:37 K:BB with 106 H and 11 HR allowed. The 22-year-old could easily move to AAA before the end of this season and be ready to join a major league rotation by mid-2003.

Kim signed with Boston as a nondrafted free agent out of Korea in 1998 and was assigned directly to A+ Sarasota. The following season he moved up to AA Trenton before a full season at AAA Pawtucket in the International League in 2000. Kim spent a short time in the majors last year following another season at Pawtucket. Despite spending almost all of his time in the minors as a starter, Boston used Kim as a reliever in 18 of his 20 appearances last season. Either the change of roles or the higher competition disagreed with him as Kim's dominance dropped and his control diminished in the big leagues.

The 24-year-old's split this season between Pawtucket and Boston, again starting in the minors and relieving in the majors. At Pawtucket he has a 37:16 K:BB in 45.1 IP with 34 H and 4 HR allowed over 8 starts. Meanwhile in the majors he's allowed 34 H and 5 HR in 29 IP with a 18:7 K:BB, including 2 starts in 15 appearances. His numbers at AAA have been better in previous seasons, but Montreal needs to either move him to relief in AAA before his next call-up or leave him there until they need a starter.

Boston will likely slot Floyd in the fifth spot in their batting order and have him split time between LF and DH with Manny Ramirez. I'm somewhat conflicted about the benefits of this trade for the Red Sox, as while I thought they needed to do something if they wanted to make the playoffs, I'm not sure this was it. Floyd is definitely a quality addition to the lineup, but I'm concerned about shaking up Ramirez's routine.

The Red Sox have expressed an interest in signing Floyd to an extension before he becomes a free agent this off-season. Floyd definitely seems interested, but the comments of some Boston officials lead me to believe they think he'll give them a discount, which I'm not sure will happen.

As for the players exchanged in the deal, I don't think Boston overpaid for Floyd but at the same time Montreal received good value if this was the move they were going to make. On Sunday night going into a Monday with no NL games, Montreal was 15 games behind the Braves in the division, so they were playing for the Wild Card. The Expos were 7 games back of the Wild Card with 5 teams in front of them. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Cincinnati had all made moves to improve and the Mets seemed likely to complete something before the July 31st deadline. Houston could go either way.

Of course, the Expos knew they were competing for the Wild Card when they traded for Floyd, as they were 10 games back of Atlanta at that time. However, they were only 5 games back of the Wild Card with two teams in front of them and one tied with them. Still, it was an acknowledged long shot at the time.

Montreal GM Omar Minaya claims that this trade does not necessarily take them out of competition for the Wild Card but rather it frees room on the payroll for them to make waiver deals in the next month. He's able to make this claim in part because Floyd did so little during the time he was with the Expos. He went 11 for 53 with 2 doubles, 3 home runs, 1 stolen base, and a 3:10 BB:K for a .208 BA, .263 OBP, and .415 SLG while in Montreal. Consequently, Minaya can argue that they might as well take their chances with other moves. Although the argument includes some interesting points, it isn't really effective, as Floyd should have returned to his traditional level of play soon, and even if they make a waiver move they lose the intervening time in which they could have improved in the standings.

While trading Floyd practically eliminates their chances of making the playoffs, in retrospect, the only reason I approved of acquiring Floyd was that I thought the Expos had little choice but to compete this season. However, this deal makes sense if they intend to play as though they have a future; what I object to is the inconsistency. My instincts are to condemn MLB for skewing the trade environment, especially with the coincidence of Floyd moving between the three teams that swapped owners this off-season. Unfortunately I can't say Montreal has behaved outside the realm of typical team action; many teams not collectively owned by MLB make worse moves on a consistent basis.

Quite a lot of activity has surrounded this season's trade deadline, and I hope to cover all trades over the next week. I'll be happy to take requests as to the order in which I approach the multitude of deals that occurred today.