The Indians have traded Marc Rzepczynski to the San Diego Padres for Abraham Almonte in a fairly minor trade deadline deal this afternoon.
Almonte is a 26-year-old outfielder who has a .233/.283/.336 batting line in 362 MLB plate appearances over the last three years. He has no power, he doesn't draw walks, and he doesn't steal bases, all of which is to say he's not much of an offensive player. Defensively he looks perhaps mildly above average. He strikes me as a lesser version of Tyler Holt, which is to say he strikes me as not much of a Major League ballplayer.
If course, Rzepczynski hasn't been much of a ballplayer this season either, with a 4.43 ERA in just 20.1 innings of work. His peripherals are better than that, but he's likely to get something like $3-3.5 million through arbitration for next season, and I doubt the Indians were interested in that. They'll save the ~$1 million he's owed for the rest of this season, and let someone else join the 37-man bullpen for a while.
(Actually, for now it'll be Jerry Sands joining the roster.)
This move has little impact on the Indians for the present or the future. They save a little money while losing nothing of consequence.
Off topic, I suppose, but the Padres have been a total disaster during the last ten months. They destroyed a really good farm system to try and win this season, but brought in ill-fitting pieces that have not worked out. They had a chance to get back some young talent and partially make up for poor decisions, but decided not to. Between San Diego and Arizona, the NL West is 40% incompetent these days, which the Dodgers and Giants have to enjoy.