Everyone knew — except for the Arizona front office, apparently — that the Atlanta Braves robbed the Arizona Diamondbacks in a December trade that sent starting pitcher Shelby Miller to the Diamondbacks, and lots of good young talent to the Braves.
In the deal, the Braves got a very good young outfielder in Ender Inciarte, the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft in shortstop Dansby Swanson, and right-handed pitching prospect Aaron Blair (a consensus top-60 prospect entering the 2016 season). All of this for a “good, but not great” pitcher, as our Joe Lucia correctly put it when reacting to the trade in December:
In exchange for three years of Shelby Miller and relief prospect Gabe Speier (himself acquired by the Braves earlier this offseason in the Cameron Maybin trade with the Tigers), Arizona gave up starting left fielder Ender Inciarte, pitching prospect Aaron Blair, and shortstop prospect Dansby Swanson. It’s a hefty package – one major league caliber player, and two top 100 prospects – for a pitcher in Miller, who is a good (but not great) starter.
So, this appeared to be a bad trade on the surface for the Diamondbacks, even if Miller performed as expected. Well, not only has Miller not met expectations, but he’s been absolutely awful. The 25-year-old has allowed 55 earned runs in 69 1/3 innings pitched on the season, good for a 7.14 ERA.
Shelby Miller has the highest ERA (7.14), by nearly a run and a half, of any pitcher in the majors with at least 14 starts.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) July 14, 2016
Miller has looked so bad that the Diamondbacks decided on Thursday to send him down to Triple-A:
Dbacks have optioned Shelby Miller to Triple-A Reno. — Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) July 14, 2016
Miller even said that he was surprised he wasn’t sent down to the minors sooner:
Shelby Miller says he understands why he was sent down and was surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) July 14, 2016
Hopefully Miller can regain form, and there’s really no hurry for a Diamondbacks team currently sitting in last place in the NL West (FanGraphs gives them 0.0% playoff chances already). But if not, a trade that had already looked bad for the Diamondbacks would look absolutely disastrous.
