So, this was a win-now move for the win-now Angels, sending prospects for a star, but it was also a long-term move.
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So, what does this deal do for both teams?
Ellis is a promising right-hander who also pitched at Arkansas last season. If they believed it to be a sure thing that he would get much better, Hicks probably wouldn’t have been traded. Aybar should be an upgrade offensively over Simmons, no small consideration given Atlanta’s feeble offense. Last year, his DRS was 25.
MARINERS-PADRES: Seattle kept on addressing its bullpen by acquiring right-handed reliever Joaquin Benoit from San Diego for a pair of minor league prospects. And Aybar had -3 DRS at shortstop each of the last two years. He hit just 3 homers and had 30 doubles in 638 plate appearances and posted an fWAR of 1.0. 276 in 1,220 regular-season games since 2006.
Will any of the 20 free agents accept the $15.8 million qualifying offers they were given last week? He has an overpowering repertoire, as evidenced by his 168 strikeouts in 136 innings. Though he hit just. He averaged double-digit strikeout-per-nine tallies as well, though his composite 5.0 BB/9 walk rate shows that he’s still in need of polishing.
They have enough concerns, in fact, that even when I floated names such as Zack Wheeler, Amed Rosario and Kevin Plawecki as potential pieces to put together in a few way to form a trade, there was real hesitance.
Sickels placed Ellis 8th on the Angels’ prospect list (now 7th after removing Heaney) and graded him at C+/B-. So this is not a stud Atlanta is getting back – at least not yet. He went 9-3 with a 2.28 ERA in 27 starts between low Class A, high Class A and Double-A this year. The Braves are looking to dump any players in return for salary relief, and boy have they…this kid is a stud, pure athletic freak and was coveted by GM Billy Eppler during his time with the Yankees. Besides, Simmons’ numbers are only slightly below average at the SS position.
Simmons is the only player in history to have three consecutive seasons of 3.5 or better Defensive WAR, with each of his three full major league seasons ranking among the top 30 individual seasons by a shortstop over the past century. A former member of the Colorado Rockies organization, Briceno was rated as high as the 18th best prospect in the Rockies’ organization after 2014, per Baseball America. 320 on-base percentage, and the hope is that, as he gets older, that will continue to improve.
Simmons’ defensive value is enormous, but his offensive game (save for the 17 home runs he hit in 2013) has been poor, limiting his overall value. Now the team will have to look elsewhere to replace the playmakers.
For Atlanta, rebuilding is what they have been focused on.
But my early read is the Braves are not in the mode of lowering their price too much. Why the rush to sign A.J.
Obviously, Atlanta wanted Newcomb.
Newcomb left the University of Hartford as the best pitcher in school history. Superlative as Simmons’ glove is, Los Angeles already had the seventh-best defense in baseball, per FanGraphs.
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The Braves also have top prospect Ozzie Albies waiting in the wings although he could be several years away from being Major League ready.
