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The Padres and Braves completed a trade on Sunday that sent closer Craig Kimbrel and outfielder Melvin Upton to San Diego for Cameron Maybin, Carlos Quentin, Matt Wisler, Jordan Paroubeck and the No. 41 overall pick in next year's draft, according to CBSSports.com Baseball Insider Jon Heyman. The teams later confirmed the report.
Kimbrel led the league in saves in 2014 with 47 and a 1.61 ERA in 61 2/3 innings pitched. Upton will join his brother, Justin, in San Diego. He hit .208 with 12 home runs and 35 RBI in 519 at-bats in 2014.
The Braves are also expected to designate Quentin for assignment after the trade, according to Heyman. Quentin hit .177 with four home runs and 18 RBI in 130 at-bats in 2014.
The Atlanta Braves, two years shy of opening SunTrust Stadium, obviously are in rebuilding mode with the news Sunday night that closer Craig Kimbrel has been traded to the San Diego Padres. Such a strategy was not as obvious earlier in the offseason.
When the Braves traded slugger Jason Heyward for right-hander Shelby Miller in November, it was a hedge against Heyward's coming free agency, and it was a chance to bolster the pitching staff with an up and comer. Fair enough.
There's a lot going on here and I think it's best to look at this as two trades. Trade No. 1 is Maybin and Quentin for Upton, which is just both sides rearranging some furniture. Both teams moved some bad contracts for other bad contracts that better fit their roster.
Trade No. 2 is the fun trade. That's Kimbrel for Wisler, Paroubeck and the 41st overall pick. The Padres already had a strong bullpen -- FanGraphs recently ranked San Diego's pre-Kimbrel bullpen as the third best in MLB -- and now it's arguably the best in the game. Kimbrel is incomparable in the ninth inning.
Kimbrel at closer slides Joaquin Benoit into a setup role, where he's always seemed more comfortable, and turns it into a seven-inning game for manager Bud Black. Black can use his middle relievers -- Shawn Kelley, Dale Thayer and Nick Vincent, specifically -- more liberally and spare his starters those extra 10-15 high-stress pitches each night.
But, more than anything, this is Preller simply staying on top of his game. He's been the GM for about nine months now and he's made four blockbuster trades to get Kimbrel, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton and Wil Myers. I feel like I'm missing a blockbuster. I guess Preller felt it had been too long since he rocked the baseball world.
In all seriousness though, Preller's aggressiveness is refreshing. Too many teams are content to sit back and preach patience. Wait for the future, the future will be better. When you have nothing else to offer, offer the future and lower expectations for the present. Lots of teams do it and it's widely accepted. The future is whatever you want it to be.
Preller's said to hell with the future. He's dramatically improved a roster that is still far from perfect -- their infield is shaky all around the horn -- and has created buzz for a Padres franchise that has spent too many years as an afterthought. Kimbrel adds excitement to the ninth and gives fans a reason to pay attention. That's not insignificant.
