Diamondbacks looking to trade Hill over Prado?

This evening, Jon Heyman of CBSSports reports:

The Diamondbacks are looking to trade Aaron Hill but are barely listening on Martin Prado, according to league sources. Hill has slipped from two years ago, when he had a career year, and is batting .251 with eight homers and 49 RBI. Prado's numbers are comparable (four homers, 37 RBI, .274), but Arizona views him as a key asset because of his leadership abilities and versatility. The two players have similar contracts, with Hill due about $28 million through 2016, and Prado $26 million.

Perhaps factoring into the decision, is the apparent ease with which they can be replaced. This would seem to indicate the team is putting their faith in Chris Owings and Didi Gregorius as the middle-infield duo of the future, presumably with Owings at short and Gregorius replacing Hill at second. Both have shown themselves capable of playing at the major-league level. The team does have prospects waiting in the wings at third-base too, in Jake Lamb and Brandon Drury, with Lamb the nearest, putting up a line of .322/.399/.565 for the Double-A Mobile Baybears. But they are, as yet, completely untested in the big leagues.

In perhaps related news, the Nationals placed their third baseman, Ryan Zimmerman on the disabled list yesterday with what is being called a "pretty substantial" right hamstring strain. For now, Washington will move Anthony Rendon to third-base, but because of his position flexibility, they could be open to picking up a 2B or 3B. The article mentions Hill and Prado as possibilities, and suggests the latter would be easier to handle, because of the same positional flexibility which makes Arizona want to keep him. However, their owner described Washington's $140 million payroll as "beyond topped out".

Other teams who have been mentioned in connection with Hill include the Yankees, reported to be "monitoring" the second baseman, and the Athletics, but that's from Bl**ch*r R*p*rt, so that beeping sound is your entire truckload of salt reversing into place. The Evil Empire (Eastern division) have also been linked to Prado, though the article does mention that we would likely be looking for pitching, not exactly a commodity with which the Bronx is overflowing in its farm system. Grant of McC suggests the Giants may also be in on Prado, simply because new arrival Dan Uggla "is the why-not in a glass case." Or what about sending Hill back to Toronto?

And then there's the whole bullpen situation, with Derrick Hall saying "Our bullpen is so strong right now, even with the young pitchers and (other teams) know that, they know we have a lot of veterans as well. I think teams that are having difficulties with their bullpen, they're going be looking at us.A lot of teams are wanting to come to us and look for bullpen and relief help, and I think we're going to be very active in that category within the next five days." Does that mean Brad Ziegler? Addison Reed? Oliver Perez? I guess we'll see in the next few days...