In any trade, the ultimate goal is for each team involved to get a positive return on the deal. This normally isn’t the case, as it’s fairly easy to go back and decide which team “won” an actual trade. And some trades involve multiple teams, which makes it even more difficult to end up with a “win-win-win” situation.
Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers was involved in a pair of three-team trades last offseason, one of which (Heath Bell, Cliff Pennington to D-Backs; Chris Young to A’s; prospect Yordy Cabrera to Marlins) yielded fairly mediocre results all around and could be looked upon as a wash at this point.
The other, at least as of now, had a clear winner, as the Reds received an amazing season from Shin-Soo Choo. The D-Backs received a strong defensive shortstop, Didi Gregorius, who had a solid year at the plate as a rookie. But the verdict is still out on the 23-year-old, who will compete for the starting job with Chris Owings.
Neither trade was a complete failure for the D-Backs, as pitching prospect Trevor Bauer, who was sent to Cleveland in the deal, has taken a few steps backward in his progress and doesn’t appear as though he’ll make the D-Backs regret the trade any time soon.
So Towers is back at it again, working with the Los Angeles Angels and Chicago White Sox to help fill needs for each of the three teams.
The three-team trade, first reported by Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, has slugger Mark Trumbo headed for the Diamondbacks, where he’ll fill their void for another middle-of-the-order power hitter, while the Angels receive two controllable starters in left-handers Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs. The White Sox receive center fielder Adam Eaton, which could put the team in position to make another trade to free up space in a crowded outfield.
Two players to be named later, one from the Angels and one from the White Sox, will head to the Diamondbacks in the deal.
While it’s too early to definitively declare a winner in the deal, we sure can analyze it and give our first impressions of the deal for all teams and players involved.