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The good news
I'm told there is absolutely zero chance of the Diamondbacks trading both Cahill and Skaggs to #Angels in any deal.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) December 10, 2013
Well, thank heavens for that. After all, Trumbo is a one-dimensional player, who would certainly make the Diamondbacks outfield older and more expensive, but arguably, would not improve its overall performance, due to the significant defensive downgrade he represents. Probably best if the team just moves on to other alterna...
The bad news
Hearing Skaggs-Trumbo discussion now includes White Sox possibly getting Adam Eaton, sending Hector Santiago to Angels
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) December 10, 2013
As someone suggested in the open thread, this has to be some kind of revenge troll. Because, if Cahill + Skaggs made "absolutely zero" sense, how does Eaton + Skaggs suddenly appear any better? Indeed, it anything, it's probably worse, given Eaton will be playing at league minimum for the next couple of seasons, and a much more reasonable price even when he starts to get into his arbitration seasons. There may be more to the deal than that, of course.
According to an MLB source, the #Dbacks would also receive a pair of good prospects in Trumbo deal.
— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) December 10, 2013
However, it's hard to see where those prospects might come from. When Baseball America ranked the farm systems in October, the White Sox were 24th, and the Angels 27th. Neither side had anyone in the top sixty of MLB.com's top prospect Chicago's highest-listed prospect, Courtney Hawkins, was #64, and Anaheim had Kaleb Cowart at #78. These are not well-stocked farm systems, folks, and it's not easy to see what we could take that could make up for the loss of Eaton and Skaggs.
WTF? = Why the face?
#Dbacks view Trumbo as protection for Goldschmidt in the lineup and believe defense will be adequate in left field.
— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) December 10, 2013
Yep, that's all I've got. Because as I've pointed out before, "protecting" Goldschmidt with the "adequate" defense of Jason Kubel worked out so well for the team over the past couple of seasons. I've generally been pretty supportive of most of Kevin Towers' trades. But I have to say, this deal, as currently constructed, is simply a bad move, and one which the Diamondbacks seem doomed to regret, quite possibly as soon as 2014.