Who would you trade by the deadline?

[Hoofhearted]

(07-09-2018, 02:01 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: With the exception of Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman (and arguably Todd Frazier) I feel like the trades we've done have, almost across the board, improved our team in a way that keeping those players couldn't have possibly resulted in.

In 2014, they flipped Mat Latos and Alfredo Simon into Anthony Desclefani and Eugenio Suarez, both of which were absolute steals, especially considering what Latos and Simon did from that point on (neither player had an ERA below 4.89 since the day we traded them, or racked up even a single WAR).

Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake they traded at the deadline in 2015 and got, really, a pretty decent package with Finnegan and Reed and Duvall and Mella coming back, respectively. 

For the Cueto trade, neither has panned out thus far, but both were considered high quality prospects. And this was done when Cueto was purely a rental. They knew they weren't going to re-sign him at the end of the year (although I disagree with that logic in principal, especially with Homer being inked for a ludicrous deal earlier that year.)

Leake was also a rental trade and brought in an every day LF (though one we will admittedly have to eventually replace, despite his excellent defense and power, due to batting avg woes) as well as a potential impact relief pitcher in a year or two. Neither of these trades blew the roof off the stadium in terms of value, but both players were going to sign to the highest bidder in the winter anyway, so it's not like we were losing all that much.

Todd Frazier they could have sold high on him at the deadline of 2015 and gotten a pretty massive haul (he had a very weak second half of the season to degrade his value a bit), but we still got Peraza and Schebler for that trade, two of today's starters who are both showing promise. Looking at what Frazier is doing right now, I don't think you can make an argument that Frazier's 2016 and 2017 seasons would have helped the Reds at all (he hit .220/.308/.454/.763 in those two years). 

The Aroldis Chapman trade was probably the worst trade in recent Reds history, as we got essentially nothing for a top tier reliever that, later that summer, netted the Yankees a top 5 prospect in Gleybor Torres. An overreaction to that gun charge. I mean...this one still stings. But, again, a rental trade that they had no intention of re-signing, so it was more so what they lost in potential trade value rather than losing the player himself.

They turned Jay Bruce, a rental inexplicably having a career year with prospects waiting behind him into a former top 50 prospect who has played very well at AAA this season and was just called up to the majors in Dilson Herrera. He has .300 hitting potential from an infield position which is always valuable and hopefully will be starting soon if we do indeed trade Gennett.

They converted Dan Straily, a waiver claim that was seen as a nobody into a potential ace that showed great potential last year and is starting to get back to form this year in Luis Castillo.

Brandon Phillips was a weird trade but his time in the majors was done anyway, as much as I know everyone hated to see him go... (as he has not made a major league team this season).

And then finally trading Floro for Marinan, while it sucks to see a quality bullpen arm like Floro go, he was another buy low sell high prospect who offers us nothing as we're rebuilding.

Honestly, going back over our trades in this recent era, the only one I actually cringe at is the Aroldis Chapman trade. Every other trade I feel like we came out on top, except for Cueto, but for different reasons (We should have given him Homer's contract + more!!!). Do you see any players on that list that you believe would still be on the team today and/or would have made this team immediately better (like playoff worthy) in the year or two after they were traded? Because I don't. Maybe I'm just a homer (but not a Bailey).

A+ analysis. Only thing I'll add is that they were facing those gun charges, and at that moment, they thought his suspension would be much longer than it was. Plus, they were dealing from no leverage what-so-ever. But yeah, extremely bad trade either way. I also think they waited a year to long to start the rebuild, which resulted in it taking longer than usual because of the lack of return value once the firesale started. More prospects = higher chance of hitting on one. 

Good thing is they are starting to draft really good players recently, so if we can keep that going and develop them this team will be good in next one to two years.