Miami Marlins notes: pitching change; Luis Arraez suitors

The biggest story of the last few days is obviously the Miami Marlins trading 2B Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres. It wasn't taken well by The Fish's fans. Trading the popular slugger in the midst of a bad season only made th fanbase more irritated. Was there a better return out there? Perhaps the return was there... There's also some transactions to discuss.

More of the fall-out from the Miami Marlins trading Luis Arraez to San Diego.

Let's start with some simple transactions. The Miami Marlins called up RHP Eli Villalobos, who just made his debut. He's coming off an unimpressive 4.72 ERA in 9 games and 13.1 innings pitched in AAA this season, all pitched in relief. I'm not particularly optimistic about him. He pitched an inning yesterday and put up a 0.00 ERA/4.16 FIP, with 9.0 K/9 and 9.0 BB/9 in an extremely small sample size.

In order to make room for Villalobos, RHP Darren McGaughan was designated for assignment. A fellow righty reliever, McGaughan produced a horrendous 15.43 ERA/13.87 FIP, with 3.9 K/9 and 5.8 BB/9 in a game and 4.2 innings pitched. I guess it could be an upgrade, though that's not asking for that much.

It turns out that the Kansas City Royals were interested in acquiring Luis Arraez as well. According to farm system rankings, the Miami Marlins are at #29 (at least were before the Arraez trade), the Kansas City Royals are at #28 and the San Diego Padres are at #4. That makes me think that maybe San Diego's offer was indeed the best available at this time.

I'm also under the impression that the Kansas City Royals did indeed reach out to The Fish with an actual offer. The question is whether San Diego's offer was not only the best now, but also the best possible in the long-term. Is it hard to consider the possibility that there could've been a better return closer to the Trade Deadline? Would more teams have been interested? I would love to have the answer to all of those questions.