The towel has been tossed

Matt Sergey gets the water bucket after throwing the Frontier League's perfect game last August. The Wild Things were throwing in the towel today.

Carter Bell

For the Wild Things, Friday was officially Throw in the Towel Day.

Washington raised the white surrender flag on its season, trading two players who were in their second years with the Wild Things in exchange for, you guessed it, players to be named.

Washington dealt third baseman Carter Bell to the Joliet Slammers and Matt Sergey to Laredo of the American Association. The Wild Things dealt Sergey, who last August threw the only perfect game in Frontier League history, for two players to be named. Washington also traded pitcher Kevin Brandt and shortstop Jeudy Valdez to Laredo this year for players to be named.

Because Bell was traded to a team within the Frontier League, the Wild Things should get a player from the Slammers during the offseason. As for the trades with Laredo, read the post from June 29, 2015, and you'll see why it's unlikely the Wild Things will receive anybody for Sergey, Valdez or Brandt.

Sergey (3-4, 2.75) had been on the disabled list but the plan earlier this week was to activate him today so he could be the starting pitcher tonight at Normal.

Bell was batting .234 with four home runs and 19 RBI after hitting .289 last year. Bell was a third baseman for Washington but I have a feeling Joliet will play him at second base.

Washington lost two of three games to the Frontier Greys this week, dropping the Wild Things to 32-43 and nine games behind River City for the final wild-card spot with 21 games remaining.

In other words, it's time to throw in the towel.

UPDATE: Manager Bob Bozzuto explained the Sergey trade during tonight's pregame show:

"One of the things with Matt is it's third year in the league and he wants to play against older hitters to get picked up by affiliated teams," Bozzuto told WJPA Radio. "We will be getting two players to be named later for Sergey plus one or two with (Brandt and Valdez)."

He also added, "we are not throwing in the towel."

UPDATE NO. 2: This is what Lemurs manager Pete Incaviglia told the Laredo Morning Times about acquiring Sergey:

“We are very excited about getting Sergey,” Incaviglia said. “He’s a No. 1 guy and a guy you can build your rotation around. We were fortunate enough to win the sweepstakes on him. We gave Washington the best deal to get him here and hopefully he can make some key starts and fill that hole that (Greg) Holle left us with over these last three weeks. We’ve really struggled with Holle leaving.”