The Arizona Diamondbacks front office is sticking to their guns when it comes to the widely criticized Shelby Miller deal.
The Diamondbacks infamously depleted their minor league system by trading a massive package of talented youngsters to the Atlanta Braves last summer for pitcher Shelby Miller. In exchange for Miller and prospect Gabe Speier, Arizona gave up top prospects Aaron Blair, Dansby Swanson, and emerging outfielder Ender Inciarte. The deal has backfired tremendously. Blair, Inciarte, and Swanson have all been a part of the Braves major league roster in 2016, while Miller posted a 2-9 record with a 7.14 ERA in in 14 starts with the D-Backs before getting optioned to Triple-A.
Arizona is more than 20 games under .500 at 51-73. The season has been nothing short of a disaster. Still, Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, the criticism wasn’t justified considering the interest in Miller.
“How many front offices, if you polled the other 29, how many would have questioned it or said it was a bad deal?” La Russa asked. “At the same time that we were hearing the criticisms, I was also hearing from people that I knew personally saying, ‘Hey, man, we know where you were coming from. We were interested in Shelby, as well.’
“Sometimes the results are not as immediate as you want. It’s not fantasy island; it’s the reality of playing the game. We are still very solid in favor of having Shelby as part of our organization.”
Diamondbacks general manager Dave Stewart told Piecoro the move was made in lieu of the team’s expensive signing of Zach Grienke. He explained the cost was even higher in moves for Jose Fernandez and Danny Salazar.
“It was just the quantity and the quality of players in both of those deals,” Stewart said. “It was just an unbelievable ask.”
Simply because teams were interested in Miller and other team’s asked for a king’s ransom in trades for their ace pitchers doesn’t mean the Braves deal wasn’t bad. The Diamondbacks gave up an insane amount of talent for Miller, who’s surprisingly struggled. Miller at his peak performance with the Braves wasn’t worth Swanson, Inciarte, and Blair – maybe Fernandez is, but Miller isn’t in the same league value-wise. The deal was bad from the outset.
Swanson will return to Arizona on Monday night, as will Inciarte. The duo will serve as a stark reminder to Diamondback fans the trade was unforgivably awful. Arizona’s front office still doesn’t get that. La Russa and Stewart have been far too willing to move top prospects for uneven returns. If Diamondbacks ownership has any sense of pride, the duo will be replaced, because they’ve done a better job mortgaging the future of the team than building a winning squad.
