Rays trade Corey Dickerson to Pirates

The Tampa Bay Rays have traded outfielder Corey Dickerson to the Pittsburgh Pirates for relief pitcher Daniel Hudson, infield prospect Tristan Gray, and $1 million. Dickerson was DFA’d earlier this week by the Rays to make room on their 40 man roster for C.J. Cron, who was acquired by the Rays from the Angels.

The decision to DFA Dickerson and then trade outfielder Steven Souza was decried by many in the national media as irrational cost cutting by Tampa, though they’ve since signed Carlos Gomez to a free agent contract for $4 million plus incentives, and now acquired Hudson, who is due to make $5.5 million in 2018. The series of moves are thus pretty close to payroll-neutral for Tampa.

Dickerson was an All Star in 2017 for Tampa, but declined in the second half of the year, ultimately putting up a 2.7 bWAR. Hudson put up a 4.38 ERA and a 4.34 FIP in 2017 for the Pirates, more or less league average. Gray, a 2017 thirteenth round pick of the Pirates out of Rice University who received a $125,000 signing bonus, had a nice debut in short-season A as a second baseman.