Deal for Young is finally a done deal

It took a little while for Michael Young to decide that he wanted to join the Phillies, but on Saturday, he finally decided to come to town. The deal to get Young sends two pitchers to the Rangers.

In the end, Michael Young decided that leaving Texas might be the thing to do. Young decided Saturday to waive his 10-and-5 rights and accept a trade that sends him to the Phillies for reliever Josh Lindblom and minor league pitcher Lisalverto Bonilla. The Rangers will also pay $10-million of the remaining $16-million left on Young's contract, which expires at the end of the 2013 season.

The deal was actually completed Thursday at the Winter Meetings in Nashville, but Young weighed the pros and cons of accepting the deal for about 48 hours before giving his blessing.

Young has played in all or part of 13 major league seasons and spent his entire career with the Rangers, which apparently made the deal a little tough to accept.

While Young has spent a lot of his time as a designated hitter over the past few seasons, he has still started more games as a position player (173 games) over the past two seasons than he has as a designated hitter (140 games).

Young won a Gold Glove as a shortstop in 2008, moved to third base in 2009 and then spent more time as a designated hitter starting in 2011 when the Rangers acquired Adrian Beltre. In his career, Young has played 358 games at third and has a career .956 fielding percentage, while the MLB average is .954 for thirdbasemen. Young can play all four infield positions and is a right-handed hitter.

The Phillies had acquired Lindblom last July in the deal that sent Shane Victorino to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Lindblom posted a combined 3.55 ERA in 74 games with the Dodgers and Phillies last season and had a 4.63 ERA in 26 games with the Phillies.

Bonilla was a solid pitching prospect who was chosen to pitch in last year's Futures Game, but suffered a thumb injury the night prior to the game when he was messing around with other players. The injury required surgery and ended his season. Bonilla has recovered and is pitching in the Dominican Winter League, where he has posted a 6.92 ERA in 15 games.

Premium users can see what impact Young will have on the Phillies from a piece written when the deal was initially announced.

Michael Young's career stats

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
2000	Texas	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000
2001	Texas	106	386	57	96	18	4	11	49	3	1	26	91	.249	.298	.402
2002	Texas	156	573	77	150	26	8	9	62	6	7	41	112	.262	.308	.382
2003	Texas	160	666	106	204	33	9	14	72	13	2	36	103	.306	.339	.446
2004	Texas	160	690	114	216	33	9	22	99	12	3	44	89	.313	.353	.483
2005	Texas	159	668	114	221	40	5	24	91	5	2	58	91	.331	.385	.513
2006	Texas	162	691	93	217	52	3	14	103	7	3	48	96	.314	.356	.459
2007	Texas	156	639	80	201	37	1	9	94	13	3	47	107	.315	.366	.418
2008	Texas	155	645	102	183	36	2	12	82	10	0	55	109	.284	.339	.402
2009	Texas	135	541	76	174	36	2	22	68	8	3	47	90	.322	.374	.518
2010	Texas	157	656	99	186	36	3	21	91	4	2	50	115	.284	.330	.444
2011	Texas	159	631	88	213	41	6	11	106	6	2	47	78	.338	.380	.474
2012	Texas	156	611	79	169	27	3	8	67	2	2	33	70	.277	.312	.370
13 Years		1823	7399	1085	2230	415	55	177	984	89	30	532	1152	.301	.347	.444

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/6/2012.

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