By now, you’ve seen the reports that Kolby Allard, #2 prospect on MLB Pipelines’ Braves list, has gone over to Texas for Chris Martin. A few different thoughts about the trade:

Kolby Allard

If there was a starting pitcher you were going to trade for a reliever, Allard was it. Just about every starting pitcher in Atlanta’s system can profile as a reliever. So if you can’t find a spot in the short- or long-term for a starting pitcher prospect, you can stick him in the pen. For Allard, that wasn’t the case. There are significant concerns his lack of velocity would not play in the bullpen. And obviously the Braves agreed; as Allard pitched well in AAA and our bullpen was in disarray, Allard never got a call.

Allard needed an opportunity to plug into a rotation and get enough leash to see if he can have success. So he was a great candidate to trade. However, I’ve heard the argument that because Allard was expendable and better as a trade candidate, that is almost didn’t matter what he was traded for. “We can afford it,” they say. I don’t agree with that. Almost all of us can afford to lose $10. Would we buy a gallon of milk for $10? No. So it depends on what we got for him.

Chris Martin

Martin is a guy that had struggled to figure it out. He’s 33, and he’s only got 116 major league innings under his belt. He’s got a mid-90s fastball, and more importantly, he keeps the ball on the ground (49% ground ball rate), pounds the strike zone (0.95 BB/9), and gets strike outs (10.18 K/9).

He spent two years in Japan, and his return to MLB is what has shortened his years of control. As the trade first came out, most people read on Baseball Reference and Spotrac that he has 2+ years of control. But apparently his contract stipulated that his control would end at the end of this year.

Kolby Allard for 2 months of Chris Martin — probably about 1 bWAR — seems like an overpay, especially after what Marcus Stroman went for. I think there’s another angle here though. The Braves probably feel like a portion of Allard’s value is going towards getting Martin for 2 months. The rest of Allard’s value is going towards getting a first hand look at whether they want to re-sign him. A 33-year old reliever with one good season probably won’t cost much, but the Braves would want to know what they’re getting, and getting him in the organization is a good way of doing it.

Otherwise, I would have liked to have gotten more control for Allard.