Pilkington was acquired for an injured platoon bat that would have been dropped from the 40 man at the end of the season and a 32 yr old reliever who had appeared once in the last two seasons. The Indians also saved about $500,000 while acquiring him. If not traded by the Rays, he is unlikely to have been protected in the Rule Five.
In other words, we got him for virtually nothing....or likely could have picked him up for virtually nothing in December.
Battenfeld was acquired for a middle reliever already in arby and a prospect that would not have been protected in the Rule Five. We saved about $400,000 on the deal.
In the end we got those two and about $900,000 for three players, two of which would not be on the 40 man in December, and Maton.
Thats pretty darned close to dumpster diving.
Again, that doesn't mean that they can't, or won't, become quality MLB SPs. But it does mean that we should temper our estimates as to what their value in trade would be.
Dumpster diving is smart trading.
But it still stands.
If we got these guys for nearly nothing...and got paid in the process...at the deadline, they aren't gonna be a major piece in any trade in December.
At this point in time, they are depth pieces.
If you rank our young SPs from Cleveland to Akron, they probably are #9 and #10.
Bieber
Civale
Plesac
Quantrill
TMac
Morris
Allen Jr
Cantillo
And thats not counting Espino, who will likely get to Columbus next year.
At this point in time, they all have more trade value.
I'm only talking about potential and trade value at the moment.
In re Espino...
If he is as good as many are insisting, the org will make room for him, no matter who is in his way...just like they did for Biebs, Civale, Plesac...and a big kid named Sabathia. Kids like Espino, if he is as advertised, don't get stuck in AA for an entire season. They are put on the express elevator.
Don't forget the 10 pitchers we just drafted. Some of them were high end college pitchers that could develop fast.I know that everybody is really excited by our SP situation. It looks like both quality and quantity.
I know that I am more excited about it than I've ever been. But my excitement is more focused on the quantity...because the failure rate of high end SP prospects is nearly 80%. 80% don't do diddly squat in the first six years of MLB. (This org obviously does better than that.)
Everybody has their personal can't miss...maybe two or three or even four of them. But history says that there are no sure things with pitching prospects.
At the beginning of 2015 these were our SP prospects in two tiers.
45FV
Sheffield
Mitch Brown
Cody Anderson
40FV
Luis Lugo
Dylan Baker
Grant Hocking
Ryan Merritt
Sean Brady
Plutko
If you are looking for any significant production as a measurement of success, that's a 100% failure rate, although Sheffield has two years left to do something within six years.
The best of them were in the same tier as anybody we had or now have at the beginning of this year...excepting TMac and Espino.
The difference isn't the quality, its the sheer quantity. While in 2015 we had three 45FVs and six 40FVs, we had this year...
Two 50s
Five 45s
Four 40+s
Three 40s
And we added Battenfield (35+) and Pilkington (40)
We also have a slew of 35+s....Morris, Mejia, Scott, and Moss.
That means we have twenty candidates...likely or not...to go along with Biebs, Civale, Plesac, Quantrill, and Allen sr.
If we assume that our present rotation, including TMac, but excluding Allen sr, are successes...and look at a 20% success rate from the rest, we have nine solid to elite SPs to cover the rotation for years to come. If we assume that our org will continue to have a better than average success rate in pitching pitching development, we probably have 12 solid to elite SPs for years to come.
I think both assumptions are reasonable.
And if you believe that a better than average to elite rotation automatically makes a team a contender, as I do...
Our window of contention is at least seven years long.
Don't forget the 10 pitchers we just drafted. Some of them were high end college pitchers that could develop fast.