Braves traded Simmons to Angels for Aybar

Well, baseball’s Hot Stove has warmed up faster than anyone expected.

The Atlanta Braves on Thursday traded shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels in a deal that nets the Braves a package of prospects, and established shortstop Erick Aybar.

Whoa…okay, so sounds like Law thinks it was a good deal for both teams, but still probably better for the Halos. He has similar offensive stats to Brandon Crawford at a similar age, and he just won a Silver Slugger, so don’t just write Simmons off as an all-glove guy. There’s projection there. Still, in 2016, he’s not going to be the engine that propels the Angels toward 800 runs.

Adding a player of Simmons’ ability is exciting, if unexpected – news earlier this week that Atlanta was shopping him was a bit of a surprise.

All 34 qualifying offers were turned down in the first three years of baseball’s current collective bargaining agreement.

Ozzie went on to take his legacy to the St. Louis, cementing his reputation as the greatest defensive shortstop at least in the modern era. His offense took a dive in 2015, but Aybar has hit.273/.308/.366 for the past three years while primarily playing in pitchers’ parks. Los Angeles could also use an upgrade at second base, with Johnny Giavotella being average at the plate but bad defensively in 2015. He hit just 3 homers and had 30 doubles in 638 plate appearances and posted an fWAR of 1.0.

Simmons has a career batting average of. However, he’ll make million over that five season span, $28 million of which will come in the last two seasons of his contract in 2019-2020.

The Mariners are working to climb upward, making moves in recent days to build upon their core of Felix Hernandez, Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz and contend for the AL West title in 2016.

The Houston Astros got it right when they dismantled their team in Braves-like fashion, going from 111 losses two years ago to a wild-card berth this season. He issued 76 walks and struck out 168 batters in 136 innings.

The Braves also get $2.5 million, while the Angels get minor league catcher Jose Briceno in a deal headlined by two quality major league shortstops trading places on teams with differing needs. That’s why we had to get back major league value.

Ellis, 23, finished 11-9 with a 3.90 ERA in high Class A and Double-A in 2015. The Angels acquired the 2015 Wilson Defensive Player of the Year in Simmons, but it also cost them two of their best prospects.

Click on the link, and see Sullivan go into further detail on where he thinks Simmons is headed, especially in regards to his bat. A Texas League source saw him throw seven hitless innings in a late August start and described a lefty with three plus pitches who looked like a number two starter, but other trusted sources who saw him in less-successful games point to problems with fastball command, erratic secondary pitches, and mechanical inconsistency. He did manage a career-best. Williams was recently fired as manager of the Washington Nationals. And while the team is definitely trying to win it all right now, the future looks bleak once this team’s aging stars finally hit the wall. They never used the word “rebuild”, but that’s exactly what’s going on here. Why did they sign Nick Markakis to a four-year deal last year? Why the rush to sign A.J.

Newcomb has a chance to be a good pitcher.

The idea that other teams match up better than the Mets in a few trade scenarios is true, but the Mets are being asked for insane returns almost every time they pick up the phone.

It’s easy to turn tail and run or hide now, or even be angry and perturbed and the front office knows that, but they can’t run a team and make decisions based off how the fans will react or feel about it. Let’s give Coppy the benefit here and let him work.