The Cincinnati Reds made two trades in the past ten days. The first brought pitcher Tanner Roark from the Washington Nationals. The second delivered Matt Kemp, Alex Wood, Yasiel Puig, Kyle Farmer and a pile of cash from the Dodgers.
At first glance, the two deals look completely different.
Take a closer look.
If you bracket out the swap of bad contracts (Homer Bailey for Kemp), what’s left of the two agreements is a common strategy. In both trades, the Reds exchanged second- and third-tier prospects for valuable major league players with one year of team control.