Yesterday I saw a trade idea that would send Mike Trout to the Phillies for Aaron Nola and Nick Castellanos.1 A weird thing happened when I read it…I didn’t hate it. This is a bad deal trade. The idea is that the next 5/$185m that is Mike Trout comes to the Phillies in exchange for the 5/$125m Aaron Nola contract plus the 1/$20m Nick Castellanos deal. The Phillies would be down a pitcher, but they save money this season. Trout still has some pop even if he is slow and mostly a DH now. The Angels would probably have to throw in some cash too. It doesn’t really matter, this kind of trade isn’t going to happen. HOWEVER, it did get me thinking of other outrageous trades that could possibly get Aaron Nola off the roster.
First, fair warning, if you like Aaron Nola and still see him as a good pitcher, the following is not for you. Personally, I didn’t want the Phillies to sign him 2 years ago and you can thank him when you have to say goodbye to Ranger Suarez in the next two weeks. He was bad last year and has been vacillating between simply untrustworthy and bad for the last few seasons. I do not expect to win Aaron Nola starts and he is here for the next 5 seasons. Let me dream for a bit…
How About Nothing?
The Colorado Rockies have a player who is going to give them absolutely nothing over the next 3 years and they will pay him $81m to do it. Kris Bryant has maybe the worst contract in baseball and that’s saying something (good night, Anthony Rendon, you had a spectacular run). Of course, no one would trade for that contract. The Rockies would have to sweeten the pot.
What if in addition to swapping Nola for Bryant, the Rockies threw in promising outfield rookie Jordan Beck and took the Nick Castellanos contract? This would give the Rockies a pitcher, the Phillies a cheap bat, and $18m in extra cash this year. The Rockies would get something for Bryant, but the Phillies would be saddled with a lot of dead cash. It’s close.
The Albatross
Does Aaron Nola have the worst contract, not even close. How about Xander Bogaerts? Well, he at least still actually plays, and isn’t a negative fielder, but the 33-year-old has EIGHT YEARS left on his contract at $204m. That’s miserable and is not going to get better. Even if you think him and Nola are equally bad, XB still has 3 extra years of similar money. How can we do this?
Well, the Padres could pay that off. All things being equal, are they equal? XB plus $75m for Nola? Can he play 3rd base? Would the Phillies need a sweetener?
Fair Trade?
The Cubs are swollen with young position players right now with more on the way in young SS prospect Jefferson Rojas. What they are in need of is pitching. Would they be in the mood to offload the 32-year-old jewel of their free agent spending 3 years ago? I’m talking about Dansby Swanson.
Nearly all of Swanson’s value is derived from his fielding ability. His bat is pretty lackluster. Even with his 24 HRs last year, he was still barely over .700 OPS. If you take out a great month of May, he was a disaster at the plate. That hitting is not going to get any better either. He’ll be making $109m over the next 4 years.
How about 1 for 1, no incentives? Unfortunately, Rojas probably will not be ready to join the majors until 2027. A lot can change in that time, but the Cubs probably won’t want to have a gap year at short. If they are interested, I would do this deal straight up and maybe move Turner to 2nd and Stott to 3rd with Bohm in the wind.
This is How Much I Don’t Like Aaron Nola…
The Rangers need salary relief and just traded one bad contract in Marcus Simien for another. I’m sure in the end they wouldn’t mind getting rid of that new contract too. Granted Nola’s contract would be going the opposite way, but perhaps the Rangers wouldn’t mind if it was pitching?
You know what I am getting at… Brandon Nimmo to the Phillies for Aaron Nola. It makes me shiver. The idea of having to root for Brandon Nimmo and his broken ass sprinting to first base on a walk is one that I don’t take lightly. It’s nauseating. However, his 5/$97m is just that much better and fills a bigger need in the outfield than Nola does in the rotation. In the end, would I do it? Probably not. I would think about it though.
All salary info courtesy of Spotrac. All stats from Baseball Reference
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