For months now, everyone has been talking about how second baseman Akinori Iwamura’s $4.85 million 2010 option might be too expensive for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to pick up, especially with the explosive emergence of Ben Zobrist (your 2009 MLB leader in WAR). But all the speculation I’ve seen has focused on whether the Rays would pick up Iwamura’s option or let him walk.

Nobody mentioned the smarter move, which would be to simply trade Iwamura to a team that found his $4.85 million price tag acceptable. But of course the Rays and GM Andy Friedman were ahead of the curve on this one, and it’s clear that they have been thinking trade for several weeks now, and never even entertained the idea of letting it get to the stage of picking up the option or not.

Instead, they shipped Iwamura to the Pirates today for cost-controlled reliever Jesse Chavez. This move makes sense for both sides. The bullpen was an issue at several points last season, and the Rays were definitely in the market for an arm, so Chavez is a useful addition, especially when their only viable option with Iwamura was going to be to let him walk and get nothing. Meanwhile, the Pirates get a league-average to slightly above league average at a not-unreasonable price to serve as a one-year stopgap at second while they continue to rebuild.

Monday is Hot Baseball Wife Day here at UmpBump, and this week’s honoree is Misaki Iwamura, the wife of Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

Born in a small fishing village near the town of Shimonoseki in western Japan, Misaki was working as an “Office Lady” when Akinori saw her while out at an event hosted by mutal friends.

“It was love at first sight,” confides Akinori, who then asked his friends to invite her out again so he could ask her out on a date.

Akinori did his best to conceal that he was a famous baseball player, and Misaki did not find out who he was until she mentioned to her baseball-loving brothers that she had been asked out by some guy named “Akinori Iwamura.” They told her she should accept right away, but she played hard to get, making Akinori ask her out numerous times before she finally said yes.

The couple was married in 2005, and had a son, Taiki, in 2007.  They live in St. Petersburg, Florida.

More pictures after the jump…

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