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Marlins, D-Backs Had Agreed to Wade Miley for Nathan Eovaldi Swap?

By Ehsan Kassim |

Earlier this offseason, we had heard that the Miami Marlins thought they had a deal in place with the Arizona Diamondbacks to acquire left-handed starting pitcher Wade Miley, before the D-Backs pulled out.

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I had speculated that the name the Marlins could have sent Arizona in that deal was probably Nathan Eovaldi. As it turns out, that was exactly the scenario that took place, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.

• In the first days of December, the Marlins thought they had a deal arranged of Wade Miley for Nathan Eovaldi, a swap that would’ve provided more experience and balance for the mostly right-handed rotation. But the Diamondbacks backed away, and so the Marlins wound up trading Eovaldi as part of the deal that netted Martin Prado and David Phelps.

As I said yesterday, I feel Miley will be a more valuable player than both Prado and Phelps for the upcoming season, but Miley probably wouldn’t have been a huge upgrade over Eovaldi.

Miley has 2 years of  team control remaining, while Eovaldi has 3. Eovaldi is also younger than Miley.

Miley was instead traded to the Red Sox and the Diamondbacks were able to net prospects Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa. Both prospects came over for the Sox in the salary dump that included Josh Beckett and other Sox players to the Dodgers.

All 3 teams actually made out better doing seperate deals. The D-Backs landed two promising prospect pitchers, and not a guy headed to arbitration for the first time. Which makes sense, as they are a rebuilding team, rather than a contender.

The Marlins were able to dump the salary of the overpaid Garrett Jones. As a result, the Marlins lineup is stronger now than it would have been with Jones still on the roster. Prado is an upgrade over McGehee, but the trade as a whole was a wash for the team in terms of wins.

Unfortunately, the Prado trade moved wins around for the team, rather than actually making the team better. The team was likely the same talent level with Eovaldi/McGehee than Haren or Hand/Prado.

For the Sox, they added a guy who should slot nicely into their rotation and even has potential to be a strong #2 guy down the road.

While the trade did have its merits, the Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox are now all better off since this deal didn’t go down. The Marlins and Sox will look to contend in 2015, while the D-Backs will continue to rebuild and build a “true baseball team” (whatever that means).

Next: How much Ichiro will we see in 2015?

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