NEWSLETTER
With Trade Deadline week upon us – Friday at 3pm CT (though it has historically been more like 3:20 or so) – I found an anecdote, shared by Matt Duffy, to be particularly compelling. The human element this week is easy to lose as we think about farm systems and prospect rankings and trade value and market needs. And, although it is absolutely fair to consider and report and evaluate those things, it is also important to remember the humanity. Maybe it isn’t as hard this year, given the affection fans have for so many of the guys who might be traded, but still. It’s a good story.
In a wide-ranging article about the Cubs’ performance against the backdrop of knowing how many guys are headed out, Patrick Mooney conveys the story of Duffy being traded, shockingly, from the Giants to the Rays five years ago:
Duffy speaks from an experience that left him speechless when Bobby Evans, the Giants general manager at the time, contacted him before the 2016 trade deadline. Duffy had risen from an 18th-round pick in the 2012 draft to a bench player on San Francisco’s 2014 World Series team to the runner-up behind Bryant in the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year voting. The Giants were focused on Tampa Bay starter Matt Moore, a left-handed pitcher who could match up against the Dodgers.
“We were in the hunt, so mentally it was like we’re just adding,” Duffy said. “I was also coming off the injured list. I was on a rehab assignment at the time. I don’t know how common it is for guys who are on the injured list to get traded, so I actually told my now fiancee that morning, ‘There’s nearly a zero percent chance I get traded.’ And then like 20 minutes before the deadline, Bobby Evans called me and was like, ‘Hey, the Rays are asking about you.’
“The Rays had been asking for me for a couple years at that point. (Evans said), ‘I want to do a prospect-driven deal, but they want big-league-ready guys. I’m going to try to pivot. But if they won’t pivot, I’m going to make the trade.’ Which was nice of him to let me know because you don’t always get the heads-up, even if it was only 20 minutes.
“But, yeah, 20 minutes later, it was like, ‘Yeah, we did the trade. Thank you for everything. You’ll be hearing from their traveling secretary and their GM.’ Just like that, it hit me like a ton of bricks.”
Oof. Duffy, then just 25, was looking like a set piece on a Giants team that was winning. I remember when the trade happened, and it was one of those really surprising trades that just stood out at the time for what the Giants were giving up. To be sure, Moore was a very compelling pitcher at the time (on a great contract), costing the Giants a couple prospects in addition to Duffy, but you just didn’t see Duffy getting traded. The Giants had struck gold with him (seemingly), and I just remember thinking, “How did they find that guy? How is he getting results? And why are they moving him?”
Turned out, both clubs were probably right to make the deal, even if the Giants – like Duffy – were pretty sad about it at the time. From an MLB.com article when the trade went down:
Giants general manager Bobby Evans, who called yielding Duffy “incredibly difficult,” sounded a trifle somber as he discussed the transactions in a conference call.
“We get attached to these guys,” Evans said. “Our anticipation from the day they sign is that they’ll be a Giant in the big leagues, and hopefully for a long time. This is a very difficult day to see anybody go out the door, much less top prospects and our own Major League player in Matt Duffy. It’s emotional, and it’s personal.
“The fact is, in … trying to improve your club, in addition to trying to develop players, you’re going to have to sometimes trade players. That’s just the stark reality of the game and the business that we’re in. I still think this is more of a game than a business, but today it feels a lot more like a business.”
That’s gonna be a thing this week, too, eh? For the players, yes, but also for the organization. My heart will definitely go out to the players much more, but I don’t think Jed Hoyer would be unaffected by trading guys that he’s helped steward for the better part of a decade.
As for Duffy, having only just returned from a multi-month IL stint, and not really having the time to show possible suitors that he’s a clear and significant bench upgrade for a contender, I tend to doubt any trade offers would outweigh the value to the Cubs in just keeping Duffy around to evaluate for next year. I understand that you can’t count on him being what he was for that very brief stretch earlier this year, but I still want the Cubs to have the option of having the first crack at re-signing that guy for 2022.
