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The Chicago Cubs have reportedly agreed to send left handed relief pitcher Sean Marshall to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for left handed starter Travis Wood and two minor leaguers. The deal is pending physicals by all four players and the prospects have not yet been named.
The Cubs receive Dave Sappelt and Ronald Torreyes in this deal making this return a very solid one for the Cubs.
Don’t let the fact that he is not a closer fool you, Sean Marshall is one of the best relievers in the game. Marshall is entering the last year of his contract and is slated to make $3.1M in 2012, not a bad figure when you realize he was worth 2.8 fWAR last year and his 5.0 fWAR over the past two seasons is the highest of any reliever in the entire game.
If you simply take a look at Marshall’s career totals you would be doing him an extreme injustice. As a reliever in his career he has a 2.67 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 219 innings against only 63 unintentional walks and only 11 homeruns allowed. Pretty good, but he has gotten better each year.
Over the last two seasons Marshall has pretty much mastered his craft. He has a 2.45 ERA, 2.07 FIP, 2.50 xFIP, and 166 ERA+ in 150.1 innings while striking out 169 and unintentionally walking only 33 and allowing only four homeruns. He keeps the ball on the ground with a 54.9% groundball rate these past two seasons and a 0.24 HR/9 rate.
Marshall improved yearly and had his best season in 2011 with 2.26 ERA and 1.86 FIP. His groundball rate of 57.5% was also a career high for him and he set career best marks in HR/9 and BB/9. The Reds did not simply land a left handed reliever; they landed the best reliever over the past two seasons.
The Reds gave up Travis Wood who has back-of-the-rotation stuff and is under team control through the 2016 season and two prospects.
Wood has an 88-92 mph fastball, a breaking ball, cutter, and change up. None of his pitches are plus and while he has good control he does have some command issues and gives up a lot of fly balls. In fact, only Kevin Slowey has a worse groundball rate than Wood’s 31.4% over the past two seasons.
In 208.1 career innings at the Major League level Wood has a 4.18 ERA and very respectable 3.75 FIP while striking out 162 and unintentionally walking 60. His AAA results were not good last year but luck played a major part in that.
This deal allows the Reds to save money they may have intended to spend on a reliever in free agency and also allows them to transition Aroldis Chapman to the rotation. If the transition to the rotation does not work out then the Reds will have a deadly left handed duo at the end of games. If/when Marshall leaves via free agency, the Reds will likely land a draft pick as well.
The Cubs get a cost-controlled starter and two prospects in this deal and they save a few immediate dollars. Since we do not know which prospects are in this deal I cannot say whether or not this deal has a winner and a loser. The Reds do get the best player in the deal but only for one year and if they gave up a top 10 prospect and another top 15-20 then the deal may tilt in the Cubs favor.
-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and you can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert. Be sure to follow MLBdirt at @MLBdirt
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis Tagged: | Aroldis Chapman, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Kevin Slowey, Sean Marshall, Trades, Travis Wood
I like the trade and it should really help the Reds win in 2012.
I agree. I think all Reds fans will like this deal. Marshall is very good and the Reds seem to be in-it-to-win-it for 2012. They are looking very scary right now.
I’m sure you’re looking for my official response to this whole ordeal.
If I take away any sort of personal bias i have towards the situation, it’s a fantastic move by the Cubs. It’s no secret that Mr. Mashall is my guy, and probably my favorite player in the Majors. With that said- he’s only under contract for this season, and probably could get close to closer money with another good season. He’ll be 30 in August. This doesn’t really fit in with what Ep/Hoyer want to be doing while building for the future, although you can easily argue Marsh could have a good four seasons or more in him if he continues to pitch in relief. I mean Jeff Fassero pitched till it seemed like he was…. 60? (joking aside).
Is it possible he comes back after this season? Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it.
It’s possible he could close if CoCo Cordero doesn’t come back, and they don’t have a better option.
I’m not the highest on Wood, because his stats don’t excite me all that much, and he’s a flyball pitcher.. pitching in Wrigley? For me personally this move hinges on the prospects. Is Billy Hamilton or Robert Stephenson crazy talk? Regardless, Marshall is regarded at one of the best lefty relievers in the majors, and statistically speaking, it’s been backed up. The question is how much the Reds value a one year rental for a top tier reliever? With already trading ‘the farm’ for Latos, the Reds are trying to capitalize the Redbirds losing Pujols, and the potentional of the Brew Crew without Fielder AND Braun (for 50 games). Honestly, it seems like a great plan. They get Mesoraco for the full season, and still have that dangerous lineup, so I think they’re the early favorites for the NL Central.
If it were me, I would rather see the Cubs move Marmol, and let either Cashner or Marshall close. Then again, I wanted LeMahieu get a shot at playing 3rd this season.
Next order of business: Re-sign Kerry Wood, and find Mike Wood, and a complete corner hold on the “Wood” market.