Sox Trade for Mike Carp in Hopes of Strengthening Bench

The Red Sox have reached a trade agreement with the Seattle Mariners that will send 1B/OF Mike Carp to Boston in exchange for a player to be named later or cash (cue the "we wanted Mike Trout, not Mike Carp jokes"). Carp was designated for assignment by Seattle on February 12, and Boston was one of teams vocally interested in him.

Carp is a 26 year old lefty who has played both 1B and outfield over nine minor league seasons, and four stints in the majors. He is a career .276/.366/.465 hitter in the minors, with 136 home runs in 838 games. He has played in 173 major league games for the Mariners since 2009, hitting 18 home runs and batting .255 with a .740 OPS.

Although no longer the exciting prospect that he once was, the Sox are hoping that Carp can bring some value to the team. He is expected to compete for the backup 1B bench spot (alongside Lyle Overbay, Mitch Maier, and others). Although a lefty back up to Napoli at 1B is needed, it is interesting to note that Carp has fared much better against lefties than righties in his major league career (.300 against lefties, .241 against righties). Carp offers some flexibility as he can play in the outfield, although you probably don't want him to. Considering that Carp is also not strong defensively, this move should not garner much enthusiasm among fans. Personally, I'd rather see Daniel Nava backing up Napoli - he can hit righties, and his defense can't be much worse than Carp/Overbay/Maier.

In order to make room on the 40-man roster, Ryan Kalish was moved to the 60-day DL. Assuming the PTBN is nothing special, this seems to be a low-risk, potentially medium-reward move by the Sox.

Update: As Tim Britton of the Providence Journal points out, Carp's combined splits since 2005 have been .250/.331/.369 against lefties, .282/.377/.498 against righties. Perhaps small sample size and a lack of minor league splits caused me to jump the gun on this move - Carp might work out after all.