Among the many relief arms to which the Cubs have been connected this rumor season, Marlins closer A.J. Ramos was one of the less enticing. Although he comes with team control through next season, he’s making $6.55 million this year, which means his final year of arbitration could net him upwards of $9 million next year. How much trade value does a player in that situation have? Especially when he’s having a down year, and his walk rate is up?
In any case, against that backdrop, I suspect that’s why this is one of those rare situations where a controllable player is traded to a non-competitive team at the deadline:
Sources: #Mets acquiring AJ Ramos from #Marlins.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 29, 2017
#Mets sent Merandy Gonazlez and Ricardo Cespedes to #Marlins for Ramos
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) July 29, 2017
At six games under .500, miles out in the NL East, and 9.5 games out of the Wild Card race, this trade is not about competing this year for the Mets. Clearly, they really wanted Ramos for 2018, and the teams in the race weren’t going to pay extra for getting him down the stretch in 2017.
Like I said, it’s rare, but this is the set of circumstances where it happens. For their part, the Marlins pick up two top 20ish prospects in the Mets’ system, which is really not a bad return for a guy who was otherwise going to take up a big chunk of your light payroll next year.