According to Buster Olney, the Red Sox have a potential deal in the works that would send Mike Lowell and Julian Tavarez and some prospects to the Colorado Rockies for first baseman Todd Helton. The Rockies would be on the hook for less then half of Helton’s salary over the next six seasons as part of the deal.
There’s no doubt Helton would be a huge addition to this lineup and he’s just the kind of patient hitter that the Red Sox like. The problem is, he comes at a huge price tag and he’s lost a lot of power, which is saying a lot for a guy who plays half of his games at Coors Field.
Helton is an on base machine though. In each of the past seven seasons, he’s had an OBP on the north end of .400. His OPS has dropped in each of the past two seasons though and this year it dipped below .900 for the first time since his rookie year in 1997.
With Lowell leaving, you’d probably see Kevin Youkilis move to third base and Helton would then be the first baseman. Regardless, if Helton could maybe even revert back to his 2005 numbers (which were down from his past seasons but not as down as 2006), he’d be a huge addition to the lineup. Then again, PECOTA seems to think he’ll regress another season, although I could live with his weighted mean average of .303/.396/.501.
