It’s gotta be Tony Abreu

Everyone is wondering who the “player to be named later” is in the trade that sent Jon Garland to the Dodgers, especially since the Diamondbacks are paying all of Garland’s salary for the rest of this season, plus his $2 million buyout after the season is over, meaning it’s got to be someone good.

One of the rumors out there is that it’s 2B prospect Tony Abreu, and based on a wide array of circumstantial evidence, I’m going to go ahead and say that it’s gotta be Abreu.

First of all we know that it is someone who played for the Dodgers this year, and is still on the 40 man roster. That limits the options quite a bit.

Second of all, we know that Ned Colletti and his cheapskate boss Frank McCourt are not at all afraid to trade a really good player just to save a bit of money. Although the Diamondbacks probably would have taken just about anybody for Garland if the Dodgers paid the rest of his money, it would not be strange to see the Dodgers give away Abreu, despite the fact that he posted a .991 OPS at Triple-A this year, just to save a few million bucks. That would make no sense for most teams, but we’ve seen the Dodgers do stupid shit like this before, as when they “threw in” rock god grade-A catching prospect Carlos Santana into the Casey Blake trade, just to save $2 million.

Third of all, we know that Joe Torre hates Tony Abreu.  And not just hates him in the normal way Joe Torre hates all young players, simply because they are young and not veterans, but in an extra-special, Tony-Abreu-only kind of way. Torre has been badmouthing Abreu to the press ever since spring training 2008, when he was convinced Abreu was faking an injury in what later turned out to be a sports hernia that required surgery.

Finally, we know that the Diamondbacks have a huge hole at second base, with no real options in their system, and after trading away Felipe Lopez, had basically no one to play there, other than taking a gamble that Ryan Roberts is somehow for real.

Nope, it’s gotta be Abreu.