Atlanta Braves: Could a Nolan Arenado trade actually be possible?

Should the Atlanta Braves care?

From Bridich’s earlier comments, it sounds like there wasn’t a big effort to try from trade partners to pry Arenado away over the past month or two. In light of the now-explosive emotions becoming public, though, interested parties might need to revisit the issue… and the Rockies should consider being more amenable.

Of particular note… both Bridich and Atlanta Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos have been down this same road before.  Let’s see what that looked like.

In July 2015 it was these men who engineering that Tulowitski trade… another star infielder with a big contract and a chip on his shoulder. 

That trade went down as follows:

— Note:  Jesus Tinoco was also included (going to Denver); the graphic failed to show him.

This deal wasn’t at all like what we might expect from an Arenado deal.  It was actually scripted out to be very nearly salary neutral on an annual basis.

While Tulowitski was making $20 million a season (and would have been doing so through 2020 had Toronto not paid him off early), Reyes was a $22 million player at the time.

From Colorado’s point of view, the deal was a bust:  Reyes got entangled in a domestic dispute, and the Rockies effectively had to eat around $40 million just to get him to go away… they were the real victims of Reyes’ bad behavior.

Jeff Hoffman, the centerpiece prospect in the trade, has never come close to living up to his hype and has been struggling mightily.  The other minor league pitchers have both made it to the majors, though with sketchy records as relievers… and Castro is with the Orioles now.

In total, Tulowitski was only worth about 5 Wins as a Blue Jay, but that still was far-and-away better than the Rockies got from this trade.