As the baseball world finds out about Dan Haren's trade to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, there seems to be a clear consensus: the Diamondbacks are dumping salary. Here's what ESPN's Buster Olney reported over two tweets:
The D-Backs' trade looks like a pure salary dump. Arizona gets out from under about $30 million in salary obligation, and gets a good (but not great) pitching prospect.
One slight problem: unlike the starter he's being traded for, Dan Haren seems to be underpaid, compared to market value. Says Joe Sheehan:
It's not even an effective salary dump. Saunders will be 4+ and probably make $6M next year. (Haren: $12.75M.)
The linchpin in the deal seems to be the player to be named later; reports are that it's one of the Angels' top prospects, and outfield prospect Mike Trout would be the closest thing to a deal-saver. One tiny problem, per Jeff Passan (emphasis ours)
Unless that PTBNL is Mike Trout -- and it isn't -- the Angels pulled off a whopper of a deal. Inauspicious start for D-Backs without Byrnes.
Both our Angels blog at Halos Heaven and our Diamondbacks blog at AZ Snake Pit have held off on offical stances on the trade so far, but if their reactions fall in line with the outside consensus, they'll come to think that the Deebax have just been fleeced.