MLB Trade Grades: Diamondbacks strike first in Marlins reliever sweepstakes
The 2024 MLB trade deadline is approaching us rather quickly. On Thursday night, we got our first taste of the hectic nature that the baseball world will be in for the next week as the Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to the first deal of trade deadline week.
The Arizona D-acks grab left-handed reliever AJ Puk from the Marlins for Deyvison De Los Santos and a minor-league position player, as @CraigMish reported
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 26, 2024
For a while, the Diamondbacks has been on the fence as to whether they should buy or sell. With the trade sending a 29-year-old reliever to the Diamondbacks, it's pretty obvious they're in buy mode. Arizona is going to need to put together a few other deals alongside this one to really make a run, but this is a good start.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, and join the discord to get the inside scoop as we near the July 30 MLB trade deadline.
MLB Trade Grades: Marlins deal A.J Puk to the Diamondbacks
Here's the full details of the trade:
Puk Dbacks
First, let's look into Puk and why he's such a good fit for the Diamondbacks. Arizona likes Puk because he has an additional year of arbitration on his contract, and he's been nasty this year. The 6 foot 7 lefty has an ERA over 4.00 this season, but since transitioning back to the bullpen, he's been lights out.
In his last 30+ innings, Puk holds a 2.08 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and a 33:8 K:BB ratio. He's going to be a high leverage reliever for the next year and a half in Arizona.
Now for what the Diamondbacks had to give up.
Deyvison De Los Santos headlines the return and if you don't know his name yet, you better get familiar with it. The 21-year-old infield prospect is slashing .325/.376/.635 with 28 home runs and 84 RBIs in 87 games between two levels of the minor leagues. He looks to be an absolute superstar that could come up to the major leagues as early as August of this year.
He's a huge get for the Marlins and looks to be a building block for the future of their rebuild. It hurts for the Diamondbacks to lose such a promising young bat.
Pintar, 23, hasn't quite been as electric as De Los Santos, but that's hard to accomplish. Still, Pintar is no slouch. He's slashing .285/.384/.468 in 69 games between rookie ball, High-A and Double-A this season.
Overall, on a first look basis, the Marlins won the trade. They had no use for Puk and for them to acquire a dynamic bat like De Los Santos is incredible. On the Diamondbacks side, they should have been able to get a slightly higher return for what they traded. Still, the trade is pushing Arizona closer to another playoff berth.