Over the offseason, the Arizona Diamondbacks took a hard look at their roster and figured that, sure, Paul Goldschmidt was easily the best homegrown player the franchise had ever had, but the team just wasn’t quite good enough to make a real run, so they traded him to the Cardinals.
The team, though, didn’t fall apart. On the morning of July 31, they found themselves exactly at .500, still right in the thick of the wild card race and with a positive run differential. The front office, taking a hard look at the realities of the roster, said to themselves, “Hmm, we should trade our best pitcher,” so they sent Zack Greinke to the Astros.