Reports: Diamondbacks Acquire Shelby Miller For Ender Inciarte And Two Top Prospects

Just three days after signing Zack Greinke to a six-year, $206 million contract, the Arizona Diamondbacks continued to make over their rotation by trading for Braves starter Shelby Miller, according to Ken Rosenthal. Steve Gilbert adds that they’re also getting minor leaguer Gabe Speier.

Miller had a putrid 6-17 record last season, which is about as misleading of a statistic as possible. His ERA was 3.03, but with an average of just 2.65 runs scored by his offense per start, Miller had the worst run support in all of baseball. He’s just 25, and figures to get even better.

The Diamondbacks gave up quite the haul to slot Miller into their rotation. According to Nick Piecoro, the Braves will acquire Ender Inciarte, Dansby Swanson, and Aaron Blair. Inciarte is a talented young outfielder who has started over 115 games in each of the past two seasons, while Swanson and Blair are the Diamondbacks’ top two prospects. At midseason, Keith Law ranked them the 22nd and 31st best prospects in baseball.

As for the Braves, “rebuilding” is too charitable of a word to describe what they’re doing. In the past month they’ve now traded away two of their three best players, Miller and Andrelton Simmons. It’s not like Miller or Simmons are old or in line for big paydays either; they’re precisely the type of young potential star most rebuilding teams do everything to hang onto. But in trading them away to raid the Angels’ and Diamondbacks’ farm systems, the Braves are making it clear that their timeline to compete is more like three-to-five years, not one-to-three. They should have one of if not the best farm system in baseball, at least.

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