Starling Marte to the D-Backs

[joncarlos]

Well, we all thought Ben Cherington came in with a mandate to build up the farm system and possibly burn down the 25-man roster... and here we have it.

Marte should have been a really good trade chip. Under team control for 2 more seasons at a very good price. Even if ZIPS only has him for 2.5 and 2.1 WAR for those 2 seasons.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/diamondbacks-add-a-full-time-center-fielder-in-starling-marte/

The Pirates got the D-Backs 5th best prospect (SS Liover Peguero) and 10th best (SP Brennan Malone) per Fangraphs ... 8th best and 16th best according to MLB. Peguero spent last season in Low-A and Malone was a supplemental 1st rounder out of HS last year, so he's also young. So... no real prospects of seeing these guys in PNC Park any time soon. But I do trust Cherington to identify good prospects.

There isn't a lot left for the Bucs to tear down unless they're going to deal away Josh Bell (I think he has 3 years of team control left, FA after 2022?)

The D-Backs lineup is even deeper but still doesn't really have any superstars unless Ketel Marte is really a 7-WAR player. Their lineup is something like Marte and Marte, Eduardo Escobar, David Peralta, Kole Calhoun, Christian Walker, Nick Ahmed, and Carson Kelly.

[Sour Masher]

Yes, they got robbed. The only possible reason to justify taking so little is if the market was depressed because Marte is not the most durable fellow around. I don't know if those fears drove this price, but it wasn't talent.

[MagSeven]

The Pirates' current payroll sits at $43.25 million. Cherington also said that the savings will be put back into the team whenever they determine it will give the team the best chance to win. It might be 2020 but it could also be beyond that time frame.

[Judge Jude]

I haven't often see a dealing of two far, far away but high-ceiling prospects in the same trade.

plus SMarte is dicey as a CF, which would concern some teams.

seems like the DBacks have many options in OF and INF - speculation is mostly KMarte to 2B now, but he could do some CF if there are corner OF issues.

SMarte's price is okay, but it's not a stone-cold guaranteed steal.

while this is brutal for the 2020 Pirates, it feels like one of those deals where I doubt in 5 years we say, "yeah, that was fair for both sides."

more likely, we say one of these teams got slaughtered....