Bronson Arroyo + Touki Toussaint dealt to the Braves

OFFICIAL: #Dbacks acquire infielder Phil Gosselin (@PGosselin15) from Braves for pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Touki Toussaint.

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) June 21, 2015

This was very unexpected, and I can't say I like it. It is, in some ways, an exchange of broken toys, with Gosselin also on the DL, with an avulsion fracture in his left thumb. The word from the team is that Arroyo's recovery has not been going smoothly: Jack Magruder says, "Arroyo has felt soreness in his TJ repaired arm, said it felt the way it did before the surgery," and if the team thought there was ongoing problems. it might have made sense to cut bait. We get off paying the balance of Arroyo's cost this year, probably about $5.5 million, and then $4.5 million in the buy-out for Arroyo's services in 2016 (an $11 million option).

But the cost seems high. Toussaint was our first-round pick, #16 overall, little more than a year ago, Now, obviously, he remains a prospect - today is actually his 19th birthday - but his upside was unquestionable, even if he was not going to help the team for three or more years. Was the Arroyo contract so bad that the team couldn't eat it? This certainly smacks of a move that's purely aimed at saving a few bucks, even if this comes at the expense of the potential future success of the club.

Gosselin, while not a throw-in [87 OPS+ in 70 major-league games, not bad for a mostly second-baseman], is already 26, and I'm not sure what the plan is with regard to the D-backs. We already have Chris Owings, Aaron Hill and Cliff Pennington on the roster for that spot, so unless there is something else coming up.... But it definitely feels like Dave Stewart was willing to do just about anything to get out from another bad Kevin Towers' decision. According to the GM "With this year's draft we stacked our minor league system with college guys" who are ahead of Touki Toussaint on depth chart. I'll finish with a comment from the man who broke the news of the trade, Ken Rosenthal:

#Braves essentially buying - and #DBacks essentially selling - the No. 16 pick in last year’s draft (Toussaint) for about $10M.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2015

We'll see how that works out in about five years.