The Atlanta Braves have acquired RHP Touki Toussant and RHP Bronson Arroyo for INF Phillip Gosselin.
Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal broke the initial news of the trade late Saturday night:
Source: #Braves acquire RHP Touki Toussaint from #DBacks. Rest of trade not know. DBacks’ No. 5 prospect, per Baseball America.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2015
Touissant, who just turned 19 on Saturday, was the Diamondbacks number one selection in the 2014 (#16 overall). Arroyo, 38, is currently on the 60 day disabled list and recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Phil Gosselin is recovering from his own surgery, although a less serious one. The 26 year old infielder/utility man injured his thumb on May 18th and was expected to return around the All Star/Royals vs NL game.
This seems to be a pretty open and shut case of highway robbery for John Hart and the Braves, even amongst baseball insiders.
With this $10 million in savings, maybe the D’Backs can now afford a better GM?
— Dave Cameron (@OneDaveCameron) June 21, 2015
Sure, they’ll have to take on the remaining money of Arroyo’s deal (roughly $10MM between the rest of this season and an option buyout on 2016), but trading a utility infielder and some money for a 19 year old kid who has already entered Baseball America’s Top 100 before his first full pro season is absolutely insane. This is one of those rare situations where you can’t understand the motivation on Arizona’s end.