Trade Reactions, Part One

by John Sickels on Aug 1, 2025 12:15 PM EDT Comment 17 comments

about 1 month ago: Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Dan Haren (24) reacts after striking out the Boston Red Sox David Ortiz to end the first inning in their baseball game Monday, July 26, 2010, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

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Quick Impressions of the Deadline Deals

Here are some quick, rapid-fire impressions of the deadline deals.

Alberto Callaspo for Sean O'Sullivan and Will Smith: Callaspo was excess in Kansas City and in exchange the Royals picked up a couple of Grade C/C+ type pitchers. Seems OK to me for both teams, Callaspo helping the Angels out at third base, while the Royals add some pitching depth for their youth movement.

The Dan Haren Trade: Haren to Los Angeles, with Pat Corbin, Rafael Rodriguez, and Joe Saunders going to Arizona. On first blush, I thought the Diamondbacks could get more for Haren. Saunders is OK as an inning eater but hardly a huge talent, and at age 29 that's not likely to change. Rodriguez looks like a fair relief spare part. Corbin is something like a younger version of Saunders, as a finesse lefty with inning-eating potential if he can add some strength to his frame. The PTBN is rumored to be Tyler Skaggs, who would be the best talent of the prospects involved and would make this package look better. Overall I like the deal from the Angels perspective. It would work out OK for Arizona too if Corbin and Skaggs develop properly.

More to come

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Comments

Isn't it a pretty awful deal for Arizona if it only works out if Skaggs and Corbin pan out, though?

It seems like Arizona just completely overrated Joe Saunders as an asset.

I just absolutely hated that deal for the Diamondbacks. How the hell do you trade a top-level player signed long-term at a reasonable price without getting back any kind of top-level talent in return?

An awful start to the post-Byrnes era, in my opinion.

I like baseball.
I write for Beyond the Box Score and The Hardball Times Fantasy

by Satchel Price on Aug 1, 2025 1:50 PM EDT reply actions

depends

Depends on how good Skaggs turns out. I think he could be really good. I agree they overrated Saunders.

by John Sickels on Aug 1, 2025 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions

But do you really want to trade Haren and get Skaggs as the key piece of the return package?

I like Skaggs a lot, too, and he immediately becomes one of the top pitching prospects in that system.

But it just seems like they took a lesser package of prospects in order to have Saunders included in the deal, which makes absolutely no sense to me.

I like baseball.
I write for Beyond the Box Score and The Hardball Times Fantasy

by Satchel Price on Aug 1, 2025 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Perhaps Arizona feels that Haren's best days are behind him

It was definitely a terrible trade at first appearance but the only logical reasoning for this deal is that Arizona feels that Haren is on the decline and his stuff isn’t as sharp as before. Perhaps this is similar to last year’s Kazmir deal (although Haren has performed much better) and they want to get out of that contract. Regardless I don’t know what the rush to deal him was, unless they expect him to perform his typical August implosion. It seems like they would have gotten more for him in the offseason.

by King Billy Royal on Aug 1, 2025 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions

That's not an excuse for taking a sub-par package, though

I don’t have a problem with Arizona’s decision to trade Haren or the timing of the whole deal.

My problem is that they seemingly took a lesser package of prospects because they wanted to get Saunders so bad, but it’s not like he’s going to even be a good value after what he’ll make through arbitration.

The idea of trading Haren was fine, but the execution of the whole plan seems to have been pretty poor.

I like baseball.
I write for Beyond the Box Score and The Hardball Times Fantasy

by Satchel Price on Aug 1, 2025 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Agreed

I’m not defending the deal, just explaining their possible reasoning behind it.

by King Billy Royal on Aug 1, 2025 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions

How do you know they took a lesser package of prospects?

The other rumored deals were at least as bad. For example, Yankees wouldn’t even offer Joba, were apparently just offering McAllister and Nova. That would have been even worse because there’s no upside involved.

Maybe the market for Haren just wasn’t as good as we all thought it should be.

Plus, I really like both Skaggs and Corbin.

by OremLK on Aug 1, 2025 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Saunders

While there is nothing sexy about Saunders he has been a decent back end starter. In the NL I could see him putting an ERA up in the low 4s. He may not have great peripherals but he tends to get the job done.

by King Billy Royal on Aug 1, 2025 1:55 PM EDT reply actions

He may not have great peripherals but he tends to get really lucky.

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by alskor on Aug 1, 2025 2:53 PM EDT up reply actions

Really?

He has done it for 5 straight years. That isn’t lucky. Some guys can be decent starters without putting up k’s.

by King Billy Royal on Aug 1, 2025 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions

can you really call what he has done "succes"

by what measure has Saunders been a good pitcher? A pitcher can be useful with low strikeouts (Mark Buehrle), but not with the number of walks and decent GB numbers he has.

by Navi's_Navy on Aug 2, 2025 12:54 AM EDT up reply actions

unsuccessful spelling of success

by Navi's_Navy on Aug 2, 2025 12:54 AM EDT up reply actions

He has had a decent ERA and logged a decent amount of innings

By no means is he a top 3 starter but he isn’t a bad 4-5 guy on most teams.

by King Billy Royal on Aug 2, 2025 1:05 AM EDT up reply actions

He definitely hasn't done anything good for five years, though

He pitched 186 innings with a 4.60 ERA last year, 198 innings with a 3.41 ERA in 2008, 107 innings with a 4.44 ERA in 2007, and 70 innings with a 4.71 ERA in 2006.

It seems like he’s being entirely overrated because of the ERA in 2008 and the 33-14 W-L record from 2008-2009. He’s a fine back-of-the-rotation starter, but that’s it.

And you simply don’t trade away a guy like Haren so you can get the final arbitration year of a guy like Joe Saunders.

They needed to get more high-quality prospects in return than just Skaggs and Corbin.

I like baseball.
I write for Beyond the Box Score and The Hardball Times Fantasy

by Satchel Price on Aug 2, 2025 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions

I am not saying the deal was good

It was a terrible trade, but my point is that Saunders isn’t as bad as some people think. People seem to believe that he has been terrible, but he has actually been an average 4-5 starter over the last 5 years. He may not have great results but a guy that can give you a fair amount of innings with a 4.50 ERA has value.

by King Billy Royal on Aug 2, 2025 9:50 PM EDT up reply actions