Walt Jocketty did well to turn the remainder of Mike Leake’s contract into Keury Mella, a nearly 22 year-old starter with a high ceiling, albeit yet another one in an organization now overstuffed with them. Disregarding the redundancy of the return, snagging one of the best arms in another team’s farm system for the oft-undervalued Leake is a great deal, even if that system failed to land a single prospect on either Baseball Prospectus or Baseball America’s midseason Top 50 lists.
But, lest you think the Reds plan to go with a 10-man rotation in 2017 and play Tony Cingrani in the outfield, the Leake trade brought back the Reds’ first (and only) position player in a deadline deal—the big stick-carrying corner infielder, Adam Duvall.