Lawrence for Castilla

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I think we can reasonably assume a few things from this trade. They are:

1) The Sean Burroughs experiment is over for better or worse.
2) Brian Lawrence was considered expendable due to either pitching in the farm system or pitching forthcoming in a trade.
3) Vinny Castilla's production relative to salary, in the view of the Padres, is greater than that of anyone available on the free agent market when you take into account the difference in salary between Lawrence and his replacement.

We'll have to wait and see what else the front office does this off-season in order to put this trade into some sort of context.

This past season Castilla produced at a higher level than any of our third basemen did. Brian Lawrence pitched quite a few innings, but was not particularly good. If it really was necessary to replace Burroughs and B-Law is not part of the organization's plans for the future, it makes sense to seek that replacement by moving Lawrence.