Chris Ellis: Ellis reportedly headed to Braves for Simmons

“We are extremely excited to acquire an impact shortstop and one that fits our championship standards”, Angels general manager Billy Eppler said in a statement.

Simmons is possibly the best defender in the game in his prime.

The Atlanta Braves traded shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels for a package of players including veteran shortstop/second baseman Erick Aybar and the Angels’ top two pitching prospects, lefthander Sean Newcomb, 22, and Chris Ellis, 23. However, Simmons was the best defensive shortstop by both ultimate zone rating (UZR) and defensive runs saved (DRS), per FanGraphs.

Williams was Washington’s manager for two seasons.

Simmons is the only player in history to have three consecutive seasons of 3.5 or better Defensive WAR, with each of his three full major league seasons ranking among the top 30 individual seasons by a shortstop over the past century.

Simmons brings less to the table offensively. 983 fielding percentage with outstanding range, leading all major leaguers since 2013 with 1,354 assists and leading all shortstops with 692 putouts. In 2015, he hit. 265 with a. 321 OBP.

If I were grading this trade return against the Jason Heyward deal (ignoring Erick Aybar), then I’d have to say that Heaney + Newcomb would be more the equivalent than Newcomb and Ellis. Aybar is still a solid everyday guy, but he’ll be 32 next year and 2016 is his last season before free agency; this is a slight improvement for 2016, and an item checked off next winter’s to-do list. “It was a supply-and-demand equation”.

“Today is a very exciting day for this organization”, said Eppler, in his first year at the helm. As we sat there as a baseball ops group, we look at run-production and run prevention. He is locked up through 2020 and is owed about $43 million.

The only way this might be able to happen is if the Padres offer to take on the contracts of Nick Swisher ($15 million for 2016) and Michael Bourn ($14 million for 2016), kind of like when they absorbed Melvin Upton’s onerous deal in the Kimbrel trade a year ago. While they had admired the Atlanta Braves shortstop for years, it didn’t seem to them that he was getting to absolutely every ball hit in his time zone.

This move alone won’t fix all the Angels’ problems.

Now they are just one more offseason away from that transition. The Angels would have been taking a risk in re-signing him because of his age, and they had no apparent replacement in the farm system.

Benoit, a former Tigers reliever, was 6-5 with a 2.34 ERA in 67 appearances last season for San Diego. That 2.75 ERA I gave you was the highest at any stop, and depending on what else might be going on, he could actually be a candidate for Atlanta coming out of Spring Training. They both reached Double-A in 2015.

The Braves signed Simmons to a backloaded seven-year, $58-million extension last February. “It gives you a lot of pause and makes your stomach hurt a little bit”. The 15th overall pick in the 2014 draft was ranked as the 70th best prospect by Baseball America entering last season.

The Angels also acquired catcher Jose Briceno, a 23-year-old who spent past year at Class-A. 255 hitter in the minors, but he hit.

What really smarted was giving up Newcomb, a flame-throwing 22-year-old who did exceptionally well at three minor-league levels in 2015 – Single-A Burlington, advanced Single-A Inland Empire and Double-A Arkansas.