One of the more shocking moves of the day was Arizona's trade of perhaps their top prospect, shortstop Jazz Chisholm, to the Marlins for pitcher Zac Gallen. Chisholm is electric on all sides of the ball -- he has incredibly quick hands, he's at least a 7 runner, and he's erratic but rangy and quick at shortstop, with the potential to come into a lot of power as he continues to fill out. He is raw at the plate, more so than I realized coming out of a successful 2018 campaign; he's hit just .204/.305/.427 this year as a 21-year-old in Double-A (young for the level) with a strikeout rate of 33.8 percent. If he's coming out of college into the draft right now -- he's the age of a junior and won't turn 22 until February -- he's a top-15 pick, and even that is speculative because we almost never see college position players with his kind of tools and athleticism; George Springer might be the last comparable such draft prospect. The Marlins must be ecstatic to get this kind of upside.
The Diamondbacks did get a major-league starter in return and Gallen has been really good so far in the big leagues, although with a lot of points that make it seem unsustainable. He works with big spin on an average fastball, so it plays up as his best pitch, as well as an above-average changeup and two fringe-average breaking pitches. He's had trouble throwing strikes in the majors this year, with his 12 percent walk rate the worst of his pro career by a wide margin, and his .259 BABIP isn't going to last. The Diamondbacks must see something they can alter here to make him more than a back-end starter, justifying giving up one of their best prospects, someone with top-20 overall potential if he can improve his approach and convert that bat speed into more contact.
• The Giants traded two relievers, Drew Pomeranz and the ridiculously hard-throwing Ray Black, to the Brewers for 25-year-old middle infielder Mauricio Dubon, who earlier this year became the first Honduran-born player to reach the major leagues. Dubon has primarily played shortstop this year and could handle it on a part-time basis, but I think his best chance to be a regular would come at second base. He's a high-contact guy who doesn't walk a ton, has doubles power, and runs well, with praise for his makeup from both the Boston and Milwaukee systems over his career. With Joe Panik below replacement level this year, they should give Dubon, who had just two at-bats this year for the Brewers, the everyday job at second base.
• Kolby Allard was the 14th overall pick in the 2015 draft, a classic high school projection guy who didn't project. He's lost velocity since going pro, throwing every fifth day now instead of every seventh, working largely in the upper 80s without good secondary characteristics to the pitch, so the great curveball that made him a first-rounder -- I had him as a top-10 talent in the draft class -- doesn't play up. Atlanta has so much upper-level pitching that Allard had slipped so far down their depth chart that there wasn't even a relief role waiting for him, which is why he was available to the Rangers for a rental reliever (Chris Martin).
• Atlanta also traded lefty Joey Wentz -- part of their huge draft class in 2016 that netted them Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller and Bryse Wilson -- along with Travis Demeritte as part of their big bullpen overhaul, sending those two to the Tigers for Shane Greene. Wentz has stalled a little bit in Double-A, still working with huge extension and average stuff across the board, another guy who hasn't seen his stuff tick up enough since high school. Demeritte is a very good defensive second baseman with a big swing and good bat speed but a history of low OBPs until he got to Triple-A this year, which makes it likely at least some of his improvement is the new baseball. I do like this for both sides but the Tigers didn't get much certainty -- Demeritte right now is probably a low-OBP, below-average regular at second, and Wentz has to work to get to be more than a fifth starter.
• And Atlanta traded oft-injured starter prospect Tristan Beck, who has made just 10 starts and thrown 45 innings this year, for Mark Melancon; Beck was a potential first-round talent after his freshman and sophomore years at Stanford but missed his entire junior year with a back injury and hasn't been quite the same pitcher since then. I'll be curious to see if the Giants put him in the bullpen or try to keep him a starter while working to help him regain his stuff.
• The A's needed some rotation depth and picked up Tanner Roark, in the midst of a very solid season in a tough pitching environment in Cincinnati, for last year's second-rounder Jameson Hannah. Hannah, playing in high-A at 21, is hitting just .283/.341/.381 for Stockton, mostly just hitting singles without power, walks, or value on the bases. He's also not a center fielder, playing more in right this year.