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Earlier on Tuesday a big-time, three-team trade between the Los Angeles Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox was executed. Nick Piecoro of AZCentralSport.com broke the news that LA sent OF/1B Mark Trumbo, minor league RHP A.J. Schugel and a player to be named later to Arizona, who moved outfielder Adam Eaton to the White Sox and RHP Tyler Skaggs back to LA. Chicago sent RHP Hector Santiago to the Angels.
The News Breaks
Dbacks will be getting Trumbo and two players to be named later, Eaton to White Sox, Skaggs and Santiago to Angels.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) December 10, 2013
Deal agreed upon: Trumbo and 2 prospects to DBacks, Eaton and possibly 1 prospect to White Sox, Santiago and Skaggs to Angels. @foxsports1
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 10, 2013
Done deal: trumbo to dbacks, eaton to chisox, santiago/skaggs to angels.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 10, 2013
Lots of rumors, lots of names, and lots of reactions.
The Reaction
Re-sharing due to a link that somehow busted. Mark Trumbo's heat map (cold map?) pic.twitter.com/5wTNPXqVW8
— Mark Simon (@msimonespn) December 10, 2013
Welcome to AZ Mark Trumbo! Him and Goldy should be fun to watch in BP together!
— Daniel Hudson (@DHuddy41) December 10, 2013
Love what the angels got in the trade, trumbo could destroy that ballpark in Arizona.
— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) December 10, 2013
The Angels just traded the guy who led them in homers in each of last three seasons. Why? http://t.co/MW19Oj0iY7
— robneyer (@robneyer) December 10, 2013
Dipoto: "Moving Mark trumbo is not an easy thing for us to do. We'll miss the player and the person." #Angels
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 10, 2013
Must be weird for Mark Trumbo to have MLB GMs offering lots of stuff for him and errbody on Twitter talking about how terrible he is.
— Sam Miller (@SamMillerBP) December 10, 2013
And of course there's the reaction of someone actually involved in the deal.
The Player Reaction
Well, that escalated quickly...
— Adam Eaton (@AdamSpankyEaton) December 10, 2013
Finally, of course, there's the one question everyone wants answered...
The "Who Won the Trade?" Question
If the Angels land Skaggs/Eaton or Skaggs/Santiago for Mark Trumbo, Jerry DiPoto will have actually made up for the Bourjos trade.
— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) December 10, 2013
Steamer projects Adam Eaton for a 112 wRC+, Mark Trumbo 113. Trading Eaton for Trumbo straight up is silly, much less adding an arm.
— David Cameron (@DCameronFG) December 10, 2013
Because Kubel worked out so well. MT @SteveGilbertMLB Dbacks view Trumbo as protection for Goldschmidt and believe defense will be adequate.
— AZ SnakePit (@AZSnakepit) December 10, 2013
@vanevanedc I'd say Trumbo's defense will counter the HR, so I don't think we got significantly better for 2014. Older and more expensive.
— AZ SnakePit (@AZSnakepit) December 10, 2013
I really like the Adam Eaton move. I've said before that Eaton will be a better major league player than he was a minor league prospect.
— Jason Parks (@ProfessorParks) December 10, 2013
Greatly enjoyed the @HecSantiago53 era. Best of luck on all future endeavors.
— South Side Sox (@SouthSideSox) December 10, 2013
Adam Eaton doesn't profile well in Chicago - ZiPS has him at 251/338/348, 1.5 WAR in CF.
— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) December 10, 2013
Not sure we're appreciating what the White Sox did in this trade. Hector Santiago is meh. Adam Eaton could be quite good.
— David Cameron (@DCameronFG) December 10, 2013
Normally in the aftermath of a big MLB trade, the question is always asked: "Who won?" It's an interesting conversation, that's for sure. While it's respectable that Arizona GM Kevin Towers has had such an aggressive approach to improve this winter, I have to consider the Diamondbacks to be the losers in this deal at the moment. As I noted on the site earlier, Trumbo's career OPS (dating back to 2011) is comparable to players such as Jason Kubel—who the DBacks know well, Garrett Jones, Lucas Duda and Adam LaRoche.
Is there an end-all statistic in baseball? No, of course not. You love the power that Trumbo brings, but at the same time, you have to look at the big picture. As a player that's been dubbed as "one dimensional" by people around the game, Trumbo has consistently struggled to hit for average, walk and cut down on strikeouts in his early career. One player you've seen Trumbo compared to lately is Mark Reynolds, the former Diamondback, who offers big-time power but has struggled to put the ball in play at times and over the years struggled more and more to make contact.
The White Sox got Adam Eaton back in the trade, and only had to give up Hector Santiago, a young but middle-to-back of the rotation guy, in the process. Prior to the 2013 season, many had Eaton etched in as the National League Rookie of the Year, but an injury to his elbow derailed the youngster's rookie campaign, and he only played 66 games. That said, there's a lot to like about Eaton, who will now be patrolling center field for Chicago. Whether or not he turns into the player he was once thought to be in Arizona remains to be seen.
Finally we come to the origin of this deal—the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. While Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago may not exactly make the eyes of readers widen, it appears to me that LA got far more in return than I ever expected. While power is at a premium, especially in this market, we all know Trumbo's issues. One of the Angels' biggest problems last season was the severe lack of a starting rotation. Adding Skaggs and Santiago to a rotation built around ace Jered Weaver and the left-handed C.J. Wilson could very-much benefit this team.
Who won the trade? Who lost? It's certainly worth the discussion.
