Diamondbacks looking at a Trumbo drop

The #Dbacks still want a corner OF after losing out on #Yankees Beltran and have sights on #Angels Mark Trumbo among others

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 7, 2013

The #Dbacks have plenty of pitching depth w pitchers like Skaggs, Cahilll, McCarthy, possibly even Miley to obtain power hitting OF

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 7, 2013

Generally, the part of the first Tweet that would appeal is the "among others" section. Trumbo certainly has plenty of power, hammering 34 home-runs last season for LAA, and he would also be under team control for three more years, with 2014 being his first year of arbitration. However, he only hit .234 last season, and his walk-rate wasn't as high as you'd expect, with his on-base percentage still being below .300. That kept his overall OPS+ down to 109, ranked 27th among the thirty players with 25+ home-runs [interestingly, still above Cespedes, to whom the D-backs have also been linked]. That helped keep his bWAR down at 2.2, in line with his average of 2.6.

However, even the latter, higher number would be less than both Gerardo Parra and A.J. Pollock in the outfield last year, and only fractionally more than Cody Ross, who missed more than one-third of the season.  I think he could only be classed as an upgrade there in the event Ross is basically done. That's in part because Trumbo would has played the outfield less than 170 times in his pro career, and has a UZR/150 in the majors there of -7.0. He was drafted as a first baseman, and that obviously is not an option for Arizona - though, to be honest, Goldie is athletic and committed enough, I wouldn't be surprised if he could handle the outfield better than Trumbo.

These obvious deficiencies mean he should be relatively cheap in terms of trade value, and I was piqued to read Nightengale's list of suggested pitchers in his second Tweet. There's the obligatory mention of Tyler Skaggs, of course, but if the Angels were willing to bite on Trevor Cahill or Brandon McCarthy, whose combined cost is close to $18 million next year, that might make for an interesting move. As noted, Trumbo should be relatively cheap for the next couple of years, and the salary freed up would allow us a lot of freedom in terms of then being able to take on a genuine top of the rotation starter like David Price, or even someone like Cliff Lee, due to earn $25 million in 2014.