Following rumors surrounding an expected trade between the Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers all day Monday, the two sides eventually came together to complete the deal, which involves right-hander Yovani Gallardo as the headliner in exchange for three prospects, as T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com reports.
Despite Gallardo's name recognition and former ability to pitch as a quality mid-rotation arm, the swap is rather underwhelming from both angles.
Here's a breakdown of each team's perspective, along with a grade.
The Trade
Brewers send RHP Yovani Gallardo and $4 million to the Rangers for INF Luis Sardinas, RHP Corey Knebel and RHP Marcos Diplan.
What This Deal Does for the Milwaukee Brewers
While it might seem painful for some Brew Crew fans to see their longtime No. 1 starting pitcher sent packing, Gallardo was only an "ace" in nominal terms at this point as a soon-to-be 29-year-old who has seen his stuff back up on him the past two seasons.
In other words, the Brewers are cashing in on Gallardo while they can—he's under contract only through 2015—and they're simultaneously opening a rotation spot for young starter Jimmy Nelson, a 25-year-old righty who was Milwaukee's top prospect a year ago and who actually has some upside.
In fact, Nelson probably is at least as good as, if not better than, Gallardo at the respective stages of their careers.
Because Milwaukee has four other starters to roll with aside from Nelson in Wily Peralta, Matt Garza, Kyle Lohse and Mike Fiers, the club is unloading some depth and adding younger, cheaper help elsewhere.
"Yovani has been a huge part of the Brewers organization and has left a mark as one of the best pitchers in franchise history," Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said in a statement, per Stephen Hawkins of the Associated Press. "He is a great competitor and professional who will be missed. At the same time, we have added three young and talented players to our organization."
Sardinas, who recently ranked as the Rangers' seventh-best prospect by Baseball America, might have a shot to be a second-division starting shortstop or second baseman. But because the 21-year-old doesn't offer much offense at all (.691 career OPS in five minor league seasons), he's best suited as a capable backup middle infielder who plays strong defense and can run a little.
In Knebel, a 23-year-old first-rounder in 2013, the Brewers get a quality back-of-the-bullpen arm who has closer potential if his command clicks. For what it's worth, he now has been traded twice in the past six months, having been packaged with right-hander Jake Thompson in the Detroit Tigers' acquisition of righty reliever Joakim Soria back in July.
While both Sardinas and Knebel already reached the majors, albeit briefly last season, Diplan is the wild card, as a teenage project who pitched in the Dominican Summer League in 2014 at age 17.
As Sullivan notes: "Diplan was signed by the Rangers for $1.3 million out of the Dominican Republic. The right-hander is 18 years old and could end up being a big-time prospect for the Brewers. He was 7-2 with a 1.54 ERA in the Dominican Summer League last season."
A big-money international signing, Diplan possesses some nice upside, but he's also several years off. To counter that, Milwaukee does get the benefit of having both Knebel and Sardinas as likely major league contributors in 2015.
Grade: B
What This Deal Does for the Texas Rangers
While Gallardo has at times been effective the past two years, his biggest asset at present seems to be an ability to make 30-plus starts—something he has done six years running—and throw 180-plus innings.
There's value in that, especially to a team like the Rangers, who had a plague-like number of injury problems in 2014, including several to their rotation.
To wit, each of the club's projected starters—Yu Darvish, Derek Holland, Martin Perez, Matt Harrison and Tanner Scheppers—spent time on the disabled list, and an incredible 15 different pitchers made at least one start for Texas last year.
"The biggest thing we were lacking was innings in our rotation," Rangers GM Jon Daniels said via Hawkins.
Here's the "but" with regards to Gallardo.
Across 2013-14, Gallardo posted a 3.84 ERA and an ERA+ (adjusted for league and park) of exactly 100, making him the very definition of league-average.
Perhaps more concerning is the fact that the righty's velocity has dipped from a career-best 92.6 in 2011 to 91.3 last year, and his strikeouts-per-nine rate has plummeted five consecutive seasons from a career high of 9.9 in 2009 to a career low of 6.8 in 2014.
That's not the kind of profile that tends to transition well from the NL to the AL and to Texas' hitter-friendly Globe Life Park in Arlington, no less.
Given all of the above, Gallardo doesn't seem to be a strong candidate for a qualifying offer at year's end, meaning the Rangers likely won't get a draft pick should he sign elsewhere as a free agent next offseason.
In addition, Gallardo's 2015 salary goes up from $13 million to $14 million by virtue of being traded, per Jon Morosi of Fox Sports.
That isn't far off the going rate for a proven, durable starting pitcher on the open market these days, and Gallardo fits that bill. But given that his performance has been trending downward and that he is in the final year of his contract, it's easy to see why the Rangers also are receiving $4 million.
Ultimately, Gallardo should help the Rangers simply by pitching league-average innings, which was something that proved problematic for them a year ago. That allows them not to have to rush back Perez and Harrison, who still are recovering.
But Gallardo's presence likely won't have much to do with Texas' potential return to contention in 2015. That will depend almost entirely on how healthy the team—including Gallardo's new and better rotation-mates—will be entering the season and can stay going forward.
Grade: B-minus
Statistics are accurate through the 2014 season and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.
To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments