The Braves have acquired Trevor Cahill and $6.5 million in cash considerations from the Arizona Diamondbacks for minor league outfielder Josh Elander.
#Braves acquire RHP Trevor Cahill and cash considerations from Diamondbacks in exchange for minor-league outfielder Josh Elander
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 3, 2015
Cahill, who will be paid $12 million this season ($5.5 million from the Braves), is pretty mediocre. His career ERA over 1000+ innings is 4.07 and his FIP is worse at 4.28. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio isn't even 2-to-1. At best – and if healthy – Cahill is a fourth starter.
At the same time, the Braves' current starting rotation had lefties Wandy Rodriguez and Eric Stults slotted at the back-end, and Mark Bowman tweeted that wasn't going to work.
Cahill will only get $5.5 million from the Braves, and even if he repeated his bad 2014 season (0.8 WAR), it still would be pretty fair for market value. Cahill was on the wrong side of a .350 BABIP in 2014 and posted a solid 3.89 FIP. He also struck out way more batters than normal (21% compared to a 16% career mark), though his walks also increased. Getting out of Chase Field should do him some good.
Roger McDowell has a way of fixing guys with mechanical flaws, which Cahill has dealt with for two years now. Here's hoping McDowell can work his magic again.
Here's what assistant GM John Coppolella said Thursday night, via the AJC: "We saw his last outing, where he showed a real good fastball to 94 (mph) with real good sink. We thought he was kind of a good buy-low, based on the fact he’s still young. He’ll be in a free-agent walk year."
Is this a game-changer for Atlanta? Absolutely not. But if the Braves can figure out some of the problems that have plagued the 27-year-old righty the last couple seasons, they could get a decent bargain out of this. They could also get a nice trade chip for the deadline, which would beef up the minor league system even more after this winter's overhaul.
There's no real downside or risk for the Braves, and those are the kind of moves the front office should be making right now with its eyes on 2017 and beyond.