Hardy / Harris Traded

[DonBo]

KE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The Twins and Orioles agreed early Thursday to a deal that will send shortstop J.J. Hardy to Baltimore for two Minor League pitchers, a source confirmed to MLB.com.

The trade is pending physicals. Neither club has commented on or confirmed the transaction. Hardy and infielder Brendan Harris will go to the Orioles in exchange for pitchers Brett Jacobson and Jim Hoey.

Another source with knowledge of the situation told MLB.com that the deal wasn't quite complete and might have to wait until after the Rule 5 Draft, which was to be held Thursday morning at the Winter Meetings. The teams are expected to talk again after the Draft.

Twins general manager Bill Smith would not comment earlier in the day on reports of trade talks involving Hardy, but Orioles president of baseball operations Andy McPhail said that the team had "talks" with the Twins, Rays and Cardinals as they aggressively try to fill their shortstop position.

A source with knowledge of the negotiations told MLB.com on Wednesday evening that the two sides were continuing to talk and that the news that Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett had been traded to the Padres, eliminating one shortstop option for Baltimore, was paving the way for the two sides to pull closer to a deal.

Jacobson, 24, was 8-1 with a 2.79 ERA in 34 appearances as a reliever at Class A Frederick last season. Hoey, 27, had a combined 6-0 record with a 3.25 ERA in 42 outings between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk last season. He made 35 appearances for the Orioles during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, going 3-5 with an 8.13 ERA, but missed all of 2008 with a right shoulder injury.

The Twins had been in talks with a few teams, including the Orioles and the Pirates, in recent weeks regarding Hardy. The Pirates reportedly came close to dealing for Hardy last week before the Twins tendered a contract to the shortstop, but talks fell apart.

Hardy, who was acquired by the Twins in a trade with the Brewers in November 2009, batted.268 with six homers and 38 RBIs in 101 games for the Twins in 2010 while being hampered by a wrist injury. He made $5.1 million last season and is one year away from free agency. He's likely to earn around $6 million in his final year of arbitration-eligibility.

Harris, 30, hit .157 with one homer and four RBIs in 43 games with the Twins in 2010. He is set to make $1.75 million in 2011.

The trade indicates that the Twins are likely closing in on a contract with Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Although Smith said Wednesday that Nishioka was "an independent piece," the club wouldn't likely move Hardy unless they knew that they were in position to finalize a deal with Nishioka. The Twins are expected to go with a middle-infield combination of Nishioka and Alexi Casilla, with Casilla likely playing shortstop.

The club is also making a strong push to re-sign veteran starter Carl Pavano. The Twins have been considered to be one of the frontrunners for Pavano, although there are at least three other teams interested in the starter.

In addition to meeting face-to-face with the Twins on Tuesday, Pavano also met with the Nationals, Brewers and one other, yet unknown team.

Pavano's agent, Tom O'Connell, said Tuesday that there was no hurry to get a deal complete for his client this week, stressing that they'll take their time in evaluating every opportunity and that didn't seem to change at all on Wednesday. The expectation has been that a deal for Pavano could likely occur after the Winter Meetings are over.

[B. Amish]

harris is dead weight so getting rid of his salary is nice.

i liked hardy and would've liked to see him back at short along with the japaneese guy at 2nd and casilla as main utility guy.

i like casilla, but it's a huge question mark of what he'll bring over a full year at short.

the big question about this whole thing is are these two prospects going to contribute this year, because bullpen is definitely a big need right now.

if they resign pavano, that's great. maybe gibson comes up mid-season and we have some starting pitching that we could deal in a trade.

[Big Tom]

I too would have preferred keeping Hardy. It's his free-agent walk year.

Our whole system is a bit light on pitching though and these two look good. We need big league talent soon though. Perkins and Slama aren't going to cut it.

What do we have for back-up infielders now beyond Tolbert?

[B. Amish]

punto is still lurking on the free agent market...

[mrklean]

casilla still give me nightmares about him and gomez the two loose cannons, hopefully it will all come together

[CodyDawg]

color me a little skeptical. a 27 year old who played mostly at AAA? And a 24 year old who was in A ball? the 27 year old has been in the majors and was not effective, then had a shoulder injury. casilla is not a proven MLB shortstop, period. i dunno about this move. i kinda liked hardy.

[JBMasterAngler]

And what happens if we don't sign the guy from Japan? PUNTO!!!!!!!!!!

[SledNeck]

Gonna be hard to replace harris' bat in the line up

[PerchJerker]

Gonna be hard to replace harris' bat in the line up

Is that because no one can find it?

[zamboni]

What exactly did you guys like about Hardy? Dude was hurt WAY too often. We didn't give up too much for him, but our return was nothing spectacular either.

[CFRay]

We traded Gomez for Hardy, Gomez came to us as part of the Santana deal and was the only major league player of the group. With Hardy moving on this means we got two minor league pitchers for Santana.

[solbes]

We traded Gomez for Hardy, Gomez came to us as part of the Santana deal and was the only major league player of the group. With Hardy moving on this means we got two minor league pitchers for Santana.

I was thinking the same thing. Don't forget that half of Bartlett and Garza were traded for Harris (well maybe not half). So in reality we got Delmon Young and a couple of guys who may not see daylight for Santana, Bartlett, and Garza. At least Delmon had a good year last year.

As for the trade of Hardy and Harris, some deal had to be done with the way they want to restructure their middle infield.

[Harmonica Bear]

That's one way to look at it. The fact is Santana was gone, and we got what we could. Gomez and a stiff pitcher.

Gomez sucks period:

2010 stats

Avg HR RBI Runs

.247 5 24 38

Gomez for Hardy, that was an ok trade for us. Would have ben better if Hardy could stay healthly.

Hardy and Harris (who doesn't really count other than salary) for a couple minor league pitchers? The value of that trade will be a wait and see.

[CodyDawg]

he played in 101 games they said. not as much as you would like, but hey, casilla is hurt as much or more. hardy has potential pop in his bad, casilla doesnt. i dunno, i am optimistic, but skeptical. prolly more for salary considerations than anything maybe.

[solbes]

prolly more for salary considerations than anything maybe.

Bingo... Big dog gotta eat next year (I'm not really complaining about this). I'd rather have Hardy for the pop too, but I was really surprised by Casilla late in 2010. Reminded me of Guzman with all those slap infield hits he gets. Can he do it again next year?

[mrklean]

well he has been in the league a few years now maybe he is finally maturing

[harvey lee]

And what happens if we don't sign the guy from Japan? PUNTO!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like it is a done deal without being a done deal yet. I like all the trades and moves as they do need some speed and a few better bats,

[knoppers]

I was shocked when they traded hardy, I thought he would be a good fit to our infield. sorry to see him go, he had a good year in milwaukee, so his potential was great.

[Coach1310]

I'm take it or leave it with Hardy. Hopefully the arms we got in return are something the Twins can use. To me, Hardy is a decent glove guy, with a little pop, but he'll only play around 100 games per season because he is made of popsicle sticks..... his lack of speed and middle infield being the best/only place the Twins felt they could add some speed was the biggest factor in my opinion.