Phillies Trade Hunter Pence To Giants

The Phillies continue their westward outfielder purge, trading awkward baseball player Hunter Pence to the Giants in exchange for catching prospect Tommy Joseph. The trade comes on the heels of another deal which had the Phillies shipping Shane Victorino to the Dodgers.

Pence is hitting .271/.336/.447 with Philly this year and is making $10.4 million to do so. He could theoretically be in the Bay Area by game time tonight, though it's unlikely the Mets will see him, save for a possible pinch-hitting appearance, until tomorrow. He spent the first four-plus seasons of his career with the Astros, patrolling the Minute Maid Park outfield in an ungainly and otherwise unnatural fashion. Despite looking less like a baseball player than any non-obese MLB-er I've ever seen, Pence has nevertheless put together a nice little career for himself.

Joseph, for his part, was ranked the third-best prospect in the Giants' system by John Sickels, who just yesterday had this to say in his mid-season review of San Francisco's minor league system:

Hitting .263/.317/.397 for Richmond, eight homers, 25 walks, 62 strikeouts in 300 at-bats. Has caught 48% of runners. Defense and plate discipline have improved, but power production is down. Sharp platoon split, kills lefties (.338/.386/.500) but struggled against right-handers (.236/.292/.359).

The Giants already have Buster Posey in the big leagues and a slightly lesser catching prospect, Andrew Susac, in their system, so they're dealing from a position of considerable depth.

UPDATE: The Phillies will also receive big league outfielder Nate Schierholtz and RHP Seth Rosin from the Giants.