Diamondbacks and the Winter Meetings: Day 4 Round-up

"I think that we've done a pretty good job overall in what we've tried to accomplish. But you guys know the end result will be once we see what happens once we start play."
-- GM Dave Stewart

Wade Miley is still a Diamondback, with no further movement on the reported trade to the Red Sox. GM Dave Stewart seems to be firm in his demands as to the quality of the third prospect included by Boston. I hope he stays that way, because a) there's really no need for Ariona to trade Miley, and b) he seems to have no shortage of teams interested in his services. If you don't get what you want - walk away.

As mentioned earlier, the team did use their #1 pick in the Rule 5 draft, selecting a raw catching prospect from the Rays. De Jon Watson, the team's Senior VP of Baseball Operations said, "I think the catch-and-throw is major-league ready now. I think the bat is a bit behind,. That's the one area that we'll have to try and assess and evaluate during spring training, but we're excited about getting a young catcher that has tremendous upside and game-calling ability and we think he's got a chance to be somebody."

Perhaps the most interesting - and, to be frank, least plausible - report to come out of today in San Diego, was this one

The #Dodgers would have traded Matt Kemp to the #Dbacks for CF A.J. Pollock, but rejected Dbacks counter-offer of pitcher Archie Bradley .

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 11, 2014

I'm not sure which part of that is most ludicrous. Even discounting the whole "Pollock for Kemp" concept, which already has smoke coming out of my ears, the allegation that we not only offered the Dodgers Archie Bradley, but that they turned that down...Without knowing the exact financial side, it's hard to precisely pin down specifically how awful either of these transactions would have been. But unless there's something we don't know i.e. Bradley fell into a wood-chipper, the baseline probably starts at "very bad," and goes down from there. Between this and the "Miguel Montero for Andre Ethier" rumor, there have been some very odd bits of Los Angeles-Arizona gossip lately.

A moment of sympathy for manager Chip Hale, whose time in San Diego will be remembered for reasons other than transactions:

#Dbacks mgr Chip Hale was treated at a San Diego hospital in wee hours of the AM for a kidney stone. Is doing better. Was not admitted.

— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) December 12, 2014

And elsewhere...

Something to file away in case the D-backs are looking for pitching help again next winter? The Padres were not able to reach agreement with Korean pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim. They will be refunded their $2 million posting fee, and the pitcher is eligible to be re-posted next winter.

St. Louis just signed one of my all-time favorite D-Backs. Welcome to the Cards, Mark Reynolds.

— Fabian Ardaya (@fardaya15) December 12, 2014

Time to chew over all that was done, I think. It's certainly a very different D-backs roster that comes back to Phoenix, from the one which went to San Diego. Better? Worse? Hard to say. Not the same though, that's for sure, as Stewart and his other associates proceed with remaking the team in their image.