You won’t hear a lot of baseball insiders support this trade from an Arizona Diamondbacks perspective. According to multiple reports, the team has dealt 2014 first-round pick Touki Toussaint along with veteran pitcher Bronson Arroyo to the Atlanta Braves for 26-year-old utility infielder Philip Gosselin.
Source: #DBacks getting IF Phil Gosselin for Arroyo, Toussaint. Clearing money.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2015
Toussaint, 19, was the 16th overall pick out of Christian Academy in Florida last June. He boasted a 3.69 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 39 innings for Arizona’s Single-A affiliate, Kane County, prior to the deal. Baseball America ranked him as the organization’s fifth-best prospect back in January.
Based on the remainder of Arroyo’s $9.5 million salary this year and a potential $4.5 million buyout for next season, Arizona saved about $10.1 million by making this deal.
However, the idea of yielding a top prospect in order for another team to take on an injured veteran won’t sit well in the desert. Arizona obviously had Toussaint pegged as one of its core pieces moving forward when it drafted him in the first round last June. Trading the young righty after just 19 professional appearances is mind-boggling. Doing so for a utility man with no real hope of becoming an every-day starter makes even less sense.
Gosselin, who is currently on the 15-day disabled list, was hitting .325 in 42 plate appearances prior to the trade. He was a fifth-round pick out of the University of Virginia back in 2010.
The Braves also get a consistently good veteran arm in Arroyo, who should be returning some time in August from Tommy John Surgery. If the Braves pick-up his $13 million option for 2016 (unlikely), he could be inserted in the rotation to give the team more depth moving forward.
Diamondbacks general manager Dave Stewart had this to say about the trade:
“We are getting some good pitching from our young rotation and that’s the direction we are going to go. With this year’s draft we stacked our minor league system with college guys who are ahead of Touki Toussaint on depth chart.”
Explaining it away is one thing, but moving Toussaint in a deal for peanuts makes no sense. At the very least, Arizona saved some cash.
Photo: USA Today Sports