Miami Marlins Trade: Trevor Williams for Richard Mitchell

Yesterday the news broke that the Miami Marlins had stolen pitching guru Jim Benedict from the Pittsburgh Pirates, and named him their vice president of pitching.

This caused mass confusion in the ranks of Marlin fans, as it seems to fly directly in the face of they’re long-established strategy of hiring only the most incompetent people for the front office. Questions went asked and unanswered about what this would mean for the future of the franchise. But it was speculated that this could mean the Fish look to focus on developing the pitching talent already within the organization, as opposed to adding a big name starter through free agency.

One day later we have the first piece of news related to this hiring. RHP Trevor Williams will be moved to the Pirates in exchange for fellow Righty Richard Mitchell.

Williams is 23 years old and finished last year at the AAA level, after spending the majority of the season in AA. He posted a 3.85 ERA between the two levels, and both struck batter’s out and avoided walks at an acceptable, but not great rate.

Richard Mitchell on the other hand is a 20-year-old prospect, who has yet to make it beyond Rookie ball. His K/9 is well below average and he projects as a pitch to contact guy. Typically players with this profile don’t workout. If you can’t miss bats in the low minors your stuff probably isn’t that great.

In a vacuum this trade doesn’t make a lot of sense, a prospect on the verge of making the majors swapped out for one a long way away, and possibly never going to make it. But when you consider the recent addition of Benedict, it seems likely that this was done to make him happy.

If that’s true this could end up being a good trade for the Fish, Benedict’s a smart guy, maybe he sees something in Mitchell that we can’t.

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