Add new comment

I'm never a fan of trades in which you're giving up the best player in the deal and not receiving a boatload of talent in return.
Olson did have some extremely impressive minor league peripherals and was a 1st round supplemental pick. However, the unanimous opinion seems to have him topping out as a #4/5 starter. I guess it's better than spending $10+ million on a Carlos Silva, but you shouldn't have to give up an Aaron Heilman. Rich Hill might be on the waiver wire soon, and he's practically as valuable if not moreso. The Cubs got Olson in exchange for a player who probably isn't worth a whole lot more than Franklin Gutierrez.
I think the good Doc is underrating Cedeno a tad, but the song remains the same - he's not a stud prospect, he's yet to hit in the majors, and he's out of options. This player does not hold much (if any) trade value.
This trade really makes me wonder if there's something we've yet to learn about Heilman. The M's got him as the centerpiece of the Putz blockbuster, it's not like that was the kind of deal where they'd be looking to immediately spin their return to someone else. I suspect either they learned something new about him once he was in their organization, or they wanted starting pitching not a reliever and re-evaluated whether Heilman would be able to provide that.