1:31pm: The Marlins and Diamondbacks have announced the trade. Arizona moved Shelby Miller to the 60-day disabled list to open a 40-man roster spot — a move that could end Miller’s season.
12:20pm: The Diamondbacks have reportedly struck a deal to bring back veteran right-hander Brad Ziegler. They’ll send relief prospect Tommy Eveld to the Marlins in return.
Ziegler, 38, is a rental piece who is earning $9MM in 2018 and will hit free agency at season’s end. He’s still owed about $2.95MM of that sum through the end of the year, which the D-Backs will pick up in full.
While Ziegler’s 3.98 ERA on the season isn’t especially eye-catching, he’s been on absolute fire over the past two months, working to a sterling 0.93 ERA with a 22-to-11 K/BB ratio and an otherworldly 80.3 percent ground-ball rate through 29 innings dating back to June 1. Right-handed opponents are batting just .219/.305/.365 against Ziegler this season and have mustered only a .229/.285/.300 slash against him over the course of his Major League career.
The D-Backs are certainly plenty familiar with Ziegler, as he pitched for the organization from 2011 through 2016. He came to the organization at the deadline seven years ago today, then was spun off in a July 2016 deal that paid dividends for the Red Sox down the stretch. Ziegler joined the Marlins on a two-year pact in the ensuing winter. Over his time in Arizona, Ziegler worked to a sparkling 2.49 ERA and recorded 62 saves in 335 2/3 innings.
As for Evald, the 24-year-old is a recent ninth-round pick who only recently re-started his baseball career. He had recently moved up to the Double-A level after a dominant showing at High-A, where he spun 36 1/3 innings of 1.24 ERA ball with 10.4 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9.
Given how things looked after Ziegler’s ugly opening work this year, this counts as a clear win for the Marlins. Not only did they acquire a reasonably interesting pitching prospect, but they saved some real money on the tail end of Ziegler’s contract.
John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 tweeted the connection between the teams, with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter) saying a deal was close and Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter) reporting one was in place. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (in a tweet) had the return, with Zach Buchanan of The Athletic (on Twitter) providing the financial details.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
What a career he had as a cub
No big loss.
Could almost say it’s been better than that of Darvish.
Cubs have zero minor league trade chips. Will need to trade from mlb roster to make impact moves moving forward. Theo has missed frequently in free agency also.
They’ve managed to add already so far without giving up anything of value.
Most of the Cubs roster was home grown or acquired through trade.
Morrow, Lester, Cishek, Zobrist, Heyward, Darvish, and Chatwood are the only guys I can think of that came from FA on this year’s squad. Five of them have been key contributors this year.
Additionally, the overwhelming majority of the players available are secondary type guys – either 7th/8th inning relievers or bench pieces. None of them are worth nearly enough to trade a guy off the ML roster.
The best pitcher with a realistic shot of being dealt is Chris Archer. He’d cost at least Ian Happ without having any promise of being any better than the pitchers already on the roster. The next best guy is Gio Gonzalez, who is a rental piece and in the same category as Archer. Is that what you want? Archer for Happ?
Brad Ziegler was never on the Cubs. I feel feel sorry for him he had to go from a winning team traded to Miami only to be traded back to AZ. Why trade him in the first place. I’ll take the 3.pitchers the Cubs got over him all day.
Seriously? Come on Theo!!
Right!! Cmon I thought we had this one in the bag
You do realize they already have someone who throws the same and is better right?
Serious question not being a smartass, who? Yeah i wasnt sweating over this one
Cishek
Really not a big deal. It was more of a bonus than anything. Theo not going to give any value or pay any cash in a trade for some 38 year old.
Mean time Yank fans still think they can trade for Harper with garbage and in la la land as every TDL comes.
We need another bullpen arm and they way Z has been throwing, I will take him. Who cares is Ciahek is throwing well too?
I’d be happy to have Ziegler back in AZ. He shouldn’t cost much in terms of prospects either
Welcome back, Brad.
Was just talking about how much I missed him. Would be great to bring him back!
I wanted him for the Cubs, damn it!
He’s been “on fire” because of a .176 babip during that time. Still only striking out 6.8/9 over that span. More gas on the fire with him and Andriese there now.
He’s never been a strikeout guy so I’m not concerned about the K/9 numbers. He pitched extremely well in a hitter friendly park in Arizona for years so he’s a proven guy that adds depth near the back end of the bullpen. You can tell that Hirano, Chafin and Bradley are starting to get worn out a bit because they’re used so often. Nothing wrong with adding some reinforcements even if it’s not a lockdown dominant guy
You can’t even use advanced metrics correctly. Take a look at the results he has: 11.7 LD% (career best), 74 GB% (2nd best in career), and a GB/FB ratio over 5.
There is a reason that BABIP is so low. Because people are making poor contact off of him. Can you please not misuse statistics?
His FIP is 4.23 over that “hot streak”. Please roll out to the masses your super formula that is so much better lol
His season xFIP is 3.58 which his more accurate considering his HR/FB ratio is ridiculously overstated.
Even when using FIP. It is a flawed statistic when a pitcher actively pitches to contact like Ziegler. Do you know how to calculate FIP?
Also his hard contact % is 39.5% this year! Lol that’s his highest in a season by a mile. Clown
Again cherry picking and then attempting to insult me. Keep digging my friend.
Do you guys work for the Marlins new analytics department? awesome!
Lol that’s cute. You believe the Marlins have an analytics department
The NL West should be a great race down to the wire. As a baseball fan I’m going to enjoy watching it.
Poor cubs. Maybe they can get in on archer ♂️. They need someone to replace there last crappy addition
Their*
With no real threat in the division, the Cubs don’t have much to worry about until the playoffs, they should have no trouble loading up on depth prior to Sept. 1 deadline.
The Cubs have a 1 game lead on the Brewers but they aren’t a threat? Okay.
Cubs fans will not see the Brewers as a threat until they win the division. Probably not even then.
Just worry about the Yanks. Boston has a 5 + lead on you and instead of dreaming about Harper trades you better get some SP. oh yeah you got Lance Lynn. What happened to Archer? Mad Bum? DeGrom
Typical NYers talk all the BS in the world. All talk. With garbage trade fantasies. Last year Sonny Gray will rock this rotation. Lol. Now all of a sudden everyone wants him out. Get over yourself your not all that. Please. Going to be great when You see Boston own you again. NY is no match for Boston or Houston come to think of it. But it will be even funnier watching them 1 and done in a WC.
Yeah esp since they own them in reg season. Yeah ok.
We didn’t need him that bad. Our pen is fine. Mean time what is Milw doing? What place are they in? Better get that SP you have 2 1/2,hours left or you be crying on the Milw board with the already crying fans. Lol
Being a child hater won’t get you to post season.
Archer is not that good lol. What’s his era over the last 3 years. Just like all you idiots where high on Gray lol.
Maybe Milw should get him they will need him.
His arm action provides a very different release point and movement. Still slinging at 38.
Hope we get Vargas or Lopez back for him
Your getting a no name prospect that’s it. Lol read.
He is unranked in the Dbacks system, but I would say he is underrated. He has decent minor league numbers. Also note that JJ954 made the comment before they mentioned the return. It’s not because he did not read the article.
Yea a RP in AA with a 1.11 ERA this season. He’s struck out 47 and walked only eight in 40.2 innings. is pretty solid.
Sometimes you gotta zieg when everyone else zags.
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Took Mattingly a year and a half to figure out how to use Ziegler relatively correctly, and look what happened…he was on fire for the last couple of months. Good job getting that money off the books…its not like the several teams being interested should have netted a prospect or anything…good thing we still haven’t traded Carlos Marmol (barraclough) since we’re apparently planning to need relievers with no command as we rebuild
Tommy Eveld has decent minors numbers. 10.3 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 119+ minor league innings. That is excellent and average to above average respectively according to fan graphs. His minors numbers are better then every other bullpen pitcher currently on the team.
He is almost 25, with those numbers in A ball. The Marlins have several similar relievers in the minor leagues themselves. I’m not saying he isnt interesting. I’m just saying dont act like it’s an actual return. Main return is the money
He is also from Coral Springs, which seems to be a pattern of importance for this front office
He was 22 when drafted. It’s not like he has been in A ball for 6 years. Also you have to remember that this is for a rental 38 yo reliever who has been bad for the the Marlins more than he has been good.
He has only been bad b/c we have the worst manager that ever existed. I wanted Gabe Kapler back when Redmond was hired, and again when he was fired, and again over the last 2 years while we were stuck watching Mattingly live off his borderline HoF playing career that ended 20+ years ago. That’s literally the only reason he has a job
I’m not saying we should get back an amazing prospect. I’m not even necessarily talking about just this trade. I just want the Marlins to be like other organizations in trades, and not give up way too much, or get back almost nothing every single time. It’s like they’re in a different league than everyone else.
Great move I’ll take him over Boxberger all day!
He has actually had a decent career. His worse seasons came in Miami and that’s understandable. Hopefully he finds his form he had before when he was in Arizona. Still a good pick up