The acquisition of Touki Toussaint was a coup for the Braves, Jim Callis of MLB.com writes. Braves president of baseball operations John Hart managed to add last year’s No. 16 overall pick by giving up Phil Gosselin and assuming the balance of Bronson Arroyo’s $9.5MM salary (plus buyout). The move sacrificed a bit of the present for Atlanta, but it significantly brightened its future, Callis writes. Here’s a look at some more reactions to yesterday’s surprising trade..
- The Braves have discussed Toussaint with the D’Backs for more than a month, but he wasn’t trade eligible until recently (June 12th), Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets.
- The move will cost the Braves some cash, but it was a deal they felt they had to make. “We felt the payoff down the line would be too good to just let it go,” Braves assistant GM John Coppolella said (via Bowman on Twitter).
- The D’Backs sold Toussaint for $10MM, five months after paying $16MM (with tax) for Yoan Lopez, who is not as good, Ben Badler of Baseball America tweets. On top of that, signing Lopez prevents them from any signings above $300K for the next two years (link). Meanwhile, the Braves paid $10MM to add a Top 100 prospect and might blitz the international market in 2016 (link).
- With spending restricted everywhere but free agency, eating cash for a great talent like Atlanta did for Toussaint is a no-brainer, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets.
- The Diamondbacks are getting criticized quite a bit for the deal, but Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports isn’t ready to condemn them just yet. Toussaint could have a bright future ahead of him, but he is still in his first full season of professional baseball and is likely years away from the majors. Even then, he’s hardly a sure thing.
- Steve Adams of MLBTR (on Twitter) can’t recall a deal being this universally panned for one side.
- Arroyo said that he is disappointed that he didn’t deliver on the contract he was given by Arizona, as Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic tweets. “The most difficult part, really, honestly, is the fact that I pitched for 10, 12 years for other ball clubs and gave them their money’s worth,” Arroyo said. “And nobody could ever say that Bronson Arroyo kind of shorted the team. But coming here, I gave these guys, I don’t know, 14 starts and seven wins. For a two-year deal, that was pretty expensive. That was definitely disappointing on my part. But that’s just the way it is.”
- Arroyo says he’s hoping he’s to return in mid-August, but he also acknowledged there’s a chance he won’t be able to pitch at all this season, Piecoro tweets.
- When you total up the D’Backs’ dealings with the Braves this year, they have traded Trevor Cahill, Arroyo, Toussaint, and this year’s No. 75 overall pick to save about $15MM, Piecoro tweets.
- Toussaint took to Twitter to thank his former club. “Thank you @Dbacks everything you guys have done for my family and I. The memories made this past year are unforgettable. I appreciate it!“
Great coup for the Braves. Tough to see why the DBacks would want out from under Arroyo’s contract so badly.
The Rangers should talk to the D-backs this time next year and talk to them about helping them save money by trading us Goldy, but only if they include Swanson to offset the money! 😉
Goldy makes like 1 mil. a year and is controllable until 2017…
Considering how hard up AZ is for pitching, getting rid of their 2014 first round pick for $8M or so (they paid him $2.7M to sign, remember) just makes no sense whatsoever. At least get back the Braves 1st rd pick or something.
The Dbacks are going to run a train on the free agency market this off season.
If that’s the case, I’m sure they could have eaten Arroyo’s contract and kept a 1st rd selection who is only 19.
Mark D- you can’t trade 1st round picks. So no, Arizona doesn’t get the Braves 1st rounder.
This trade made literally no sense for the Diamondbacks, none.
Steve Adams needs to recall the Vernon Wells trade.
I guess this clears salary for a misguided win-now move, so we just have to add Touki to the cost of that. Meanwhile, Jon Hart pwns another GM. His stash of young pitchers is getting close to attrition-proof.
It is not a move I would have made but I will try to defend the move a little bit as it doesn’t seem as awful as the reaction would make it appear.
Toussaint has potential but he is not exactly a sure fire talent, he is a fringe top 100 barely making MLB’s list (98) and not even registering in BPs list though coming in at 71 on BAs. He also is not dominating in lower A ball, after struggling in rokie ball last year, with a mediocre 6.7 k/9 and okay 3.69 ERA. Granted, his career is still very young and this is not a large sample by any means, but if these numbers continue he may not even be a top 100 before next year. What it boils down to is how much is a fringe top 100 prospect worth, to me $10 million doesn’t seem that absurd of a price.
The bigger issue here is that they drafted a guy that they were quickly willing to sell for cash after making a similar cost cutting move earlier this season. It is a troubling trend.
I agree with you and I agree with Rosenthal…. It is not a sure thing (as much as some people want to believe that) and it is much too early to tell whether this is a lopsided trade or not. Arroyo is mainly a salary dump, granted, and done so because pitchers of his age group do not have a great return rate after TJS. I also tend to believe that teams do not always share everything they know when making a trade. They are required, under the CBA, to share all medical records but they are not required to share their opinions. I do believe that many times when a trade is made and it appears to be nonsensical the team making a trade has a less than favorable opinion of the player. It could be due to suspicions of impending ailments, personality flaws, work ethic or any number of things. Only time will tell.
I could be wrong, but didn’t Towers draft Touki, as opposed to now GM Stewart? I really think ATL benefited from the change in power.
This is seriously disappointing for D-Backs fans. Here they finally get rid of Towers and they still have to put up with ridiculous trades.
This trade isn’t as bad as it looks. Touki is doing pretty horrible for being in rookie ball. He might turn around but even then, his ceiling isn’t as high as most first round pitchers. He also wasn’t going to be in the majors until 2017 or 2018. Gotta take advantage of Goldy’s team friendly contract before the bidding war begins…
(Braves fan)- I agree that the trade isn’t as bad as many are making it out to be, but look at Touki’s A numbers compared to his rookie numbers. Yes, he still needs to work on his control, but doesn’t give up a lot of hits (does walks). For an 18-19 year old, that’s impressive, especially considering he’s not dealing with any injury issues and he has such an athletic build. I don’t understand how you can say that he doesn’t have as high a ceiling, especially when Braves brass called him the best high school arm of the 2014 Draft (3 hs arms went before him at #16 overall, including #1 (Aiken) & #2 (Kolek)).
Snakes needed to get from under a bad contract, and had to pay to do so………saved money for today, and who knows what prospects develop in 4 years…….
That would make sense if they really are going for it this year, but the trade of Trumbo does not suggest such. Arroyo’s option wasn’t all that much (unsure of if it was mutual/team/player) to give up a 1st rd selection from only a year ago. Sure, who knows how prospects develop, but this guy obviously has a lot of raw talent and is already starting to put it together at 19. I definitely like him over high school P (Brady Aiken) that was taken #1 overall in that same draft.
Bad deal for AZ. Touki might still tank, but the odds are not in their favor.
If you read Cameron’s article the odds ARE in AZ’s favor. 80-90% chance a prospect ranked on the fringe of a Top 100 list DOES NOT make an impact at the major league level.
While the Snakes are giving up POTENTIAL, they are actually realizing a for sure cost savings. All this really comes down is whether you take the sure thing (saving $10M) or gamble on a potential lottery ticket. If you hit big then sure, you will regret the trade. Most likely outcome is that we look back and realize that AZ made the right move.