However, without any specific reason, the Braves backed out of the deal and presumably took Miller off the market. He’s a 25-year-old outfielder who bats left-handed and has been historically labeled as a defensive player and a contact hitter.
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The Arizona Diamondbacks signed Zack Greinke to a $206.5 million contract on Friday and got themselves an ace.
That’s an optimistic scenario for the Braves’ side of the deal, which also includes outfielder Ender Inciarte.
This is a freakish move by Arizona, to say the least, as Swanson was the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft and was seen by many as the type of player an organization could build around.
As for the Braves, “rebuilding” is too charitable of a word to describe what they’re doing.
While the Cubs appear to be out on Miller, the club could also be targeting another young pitcher, Alex Cobb of the Tampa Bay Rays.
And perhaps Miller will be as completely average in Arizona as Bedard was in Seattle (Bedard was 15-14 with a 3.31 ERA for three Mariner teams that never came close to making the playoffs). Miller has the attention of plenty of teams in the league while the Cubs are simply just one of them, but they have the best offer for the Braves as both Soler and Baez could be building blocks for the future. He was the guy the Braves continued to ask about, he was the guy everyone wanted, he was the guy we all thought we’d have if we got rid of Miller….well, that’s not the case and I’m very okay with this.
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The trade rumors involving Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Shelby Miller and the Chicago Cubs have taken many twists and turns over the course of the past two weeks. The D-Backs were a sub-.500 team because they didn’t have almost enough pitching. The first reports of the Miller trade quickly mentioned that center fielder A.J. Pollock was not in the deal, and while Swanson, Blair and Inciarte was a big price to pay, trading Pollock would have hurt Arizona’s 2016 chances quite a bit more.
