Major baseball trades

Thus far, this offseason appears to be having some bigger trades than last year. (Plus it has the annual Manny Ramirez trade rumors. Who could ask for more?) The Marlins appear to be dismantling their team, having a tentative agreement with the Mets for Carlos Delgado and one with the Red Sox for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell. Trading Delgado I can understand, although it makes the Marlins' decision to sign him during the 04-05 season to be a rather odd one. If this trade is consumated, they'll get two excellent prospects in the deal (Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit), so this is very likely a good move, especially given that Jacobs is ready to play everyday in the majors now and Petit will be up this season (and perhaps even at the beginning of the season). The Beckett trade is a bit more questionable. While the Marlins are getting very good prospects in the deal, Beckett is a 25-year-old stuf starting pitcher. They should lock him up long-term instead. Assuming this trade becomes official (which just requires the players involved to pass physicals), the Red Sox will have improved themselves greatly. Mike Lowell was an albatross for the Marlins last year, but he's only 31 and should return to something closer to his career norms and Beckett is simply going to kick ass. The other trade pending physicals is that the Philloies are sending Jim Thome to the White Sox for Aaron Roward and thereby removing one of their contract albatrosses. With Ryan Howard's emergence at first base, this trade works perfectly for the Phillies, because they also get a useful center fielder in the process of getting rid of a bad contract. Now, Rowand isn't a great player, and Thome still has the ability to help the White Sox offense, so I can see this trade helping the White Sox as well. It all depends on whether Thome is healthy. The Phillies just didn't need two first basemen, so getting rid of the huge contract is quite a boon for them.