Hooooooo boy, this one’s going to take a while to digest. The Angels have reportedly acquired defensive wizard Andrelton Simmons and $3 million from the Braves in exchange for Erick Aybar and top pitching prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis.
Acquiring five prime seasons of the hands-down best defensive infielder in baseball for ~$10M/year is a great get in a vacuum—i.e. if you ignore the cost. Because oh man was the cost steep. In order to bring in Simmons, the Angels surrendered a league-average-or-better shortstop (and the draft-pick compensation that’ll likely be attached to him after 2016) in Aybar, a consensus top-20 pitching prospect in Newcomb, and their second-best arm in Ellis.