It’s an annual tradition around baseball, usually in the period of time between rosters being set for the Rule 5 Draft in late November and then the Draft itself in early December: a team sends another team a PTBNL that you totally forgot was still on the table to wrap up a trade that took place months earlier.
But not today!
The Cubs and Tigers have finalized the midseason trade that netted the Cubs Justin Wilson and Alex Avila for Jeimer Candelario, Isaac Paredes, and a PTBNL or cash:
To complete the Alex Avila/Justin Wilson trade, the Tigers have received cash considerations from the Chicago Cubs.
— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) November 30, 2017
To be sure, the deal being resolved at this time of year suggests the PTBNL never would have been a significant prospect – perhaps a player who is eligible for, and exposed to, the Rule 5 Draft – and the Tigers simply preferred a little more scratch.
At least it’s over, and now we can look at the trade as a whole and … um … hope that Justin Wilson is very good in 2018.