Why don’t teams trade prospects? Can you remember any recent deals, let’s say in the last 5 years, that were prospect swaps?
I don’t have a good answer here so I’m curious to poll the crowds.
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13 Responses to “Random Question”
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Garza for Delmon Young was somewhat a prospect swap although they were both Major Leaguers
Teams draft certain guys because they fit some sort of philosophy. Why trade those guys for other team’s philosophical needs? Just my two cents.
Risk aversion among GMs is my best guess. They figure the credit they’d get for getting the better of the deal isn’t worth the hell they’d pay if it turns out they traded off the next superstar.
i think, generally, if a team is willing to trade its top prospects it is because it has an immediate need at the major league level that cant be filled by another prospect from a different organization. there are only so many major league ready prospects with the ability to help a contending team.
I agree w/ DCGreg – it takes some stones to trade away prospects w/out getting any immediate help back. But how much help did Victor Zambrano give the Mets anyway?
That being said, I’m still in favor of David Freese + OF surplus for Jason Donald.
Do we count Reyes for Perdermo? I know Reyes had easily lost his rookie status, but they were both in the minors.
Has anyone else seen this article?
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/features/column.aspx?sport=MLB&columnid=2&article=31709&pg=2
He doesn’t seem to be very high on Wallace
That’s a good question. Surely there are teams with a surplus of talent in a given area (MIF, catching, etc.) that could be trade partners for a team like the Cards with a surplus of 3B prospects (Freese, Craig, Wallace).
My guess is that no one is willing to trade pitching for position players, regardless of any surplus. Pitching is too valuable and too unpredictable in its progression toward the majors. You can forget trading a righty for a lefty, I’ll bet.
That leaves position for position or pitching for pitching (Perdomo/Reyes was already mentioned). I’ll bet MIF and, to a lesser extent, catching prospects are considered to be too rare, valuable and unpredictable to give up in most circumstances, too.
Now, we’re down to swaps of 1B/3B for OF and I bet there’s just not enough incentive to do that very often since they’re the most interchangeable parts.
With teams becoming more cost conscious and afraid to dole out long term deals for FA’s, I think that this is the wave of the future. The savvier GM’s are going to figure this out and start to do more of these deals. The rub is the risk involved. Teams are definitely afraid of trading prospects and coming out on the losing end. There would be quite a bit of uncertainty in dealing on the limited knowledge that most teams have of other teams prospects. Yes, as punditmoi says there are positional value discrepancies, but these can be overcome just like in any trade. I
How about Werth for Frasor? That’s the best example I can think of…
Within the last 2 weeks the Philles traded Greg Golson to Texas for John Mayberry Jr. It’s rare, but does happen.
One guess is that teams overvalue their own guys, so it’s hard to get anything done.
The White Sox traded Aaron Cunningham to the D’Backs for Danny Richar a couple years ago, a deal I didn’t like for them. Richar never amounted to anything and was shipped to Cincy in the Griffey deal, while Cunningham is a contender for an outfield spot in Oakland after being included in the Haren deal.
I think that it’s more that teams can be essentially divided into those who are trading to win now and those who are rebuilding with younger player. These teams make for more natural trading partners since each has what the other wants. They are more likely to talk first and seal a deal before either one is going to talk to another team in a similar situation as them. Having said that I still think that trading prospects is a good idea. I do think that the Cardinals should be exploring if there is an equivalent middle infield prospect in another team’s system who may need a catcher like Brian Anderson. When Brett Wallace is eligible to be traded I think that the Cards should look for a similar match with a team willing to risk his defensive limitations.