Trevor Bauer to Reds, Yasiel Puig to Indians in 3-team deal

A three-team trade takes place between the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, and San Diego Padres Tuesday night in what has been the biggest deal made ahead of the July 31st trade deadline so far.

And just when we thought that this year’s trade deadline was going to be a snooze-fest, the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, and San Diego Padres got things going in spectacular fashion.

Jeff Passan of ESPN dropped a Woj-esque bomb Tuesday night, revealing the Cleveland Indians have sent starting pitcher Trevor Bauer to the Cincinnati Reds in a three-team deal. Bauer’s name has come up as a serious trade candidate over the last day or so, thus becoming one of the most prestigious starting pitchers available on the market.

Bauer has had a pretty good season, and with another year on his contract following this season is a pretty valuable commodity, meaning the Tribe must have gotten a significant return. So, who did they get?

Yep, one Ohio team sent a charismatic hothead pitcher to the other Ohio team for a charismatic hot head outfielder. as Yasiel Puig becomes the newest member of the state’s junior circuit squad.

This brawl happened in the Cincinnati Reds game moments after Puig was traded, who was on the field involved in the scrum:

Amidst all of this craziness, we almost forgot about the third team in this deal — the San Diego Padres. The NL Central club sent young outfielder Franmil Reyes and rookie pitcher Logan Allen to Cleveland, and in return received outfield prospect Taylor Trammell from Cincy.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic broke down who has been sent where so far:

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So, who are the rest of these guys?

Well, Franmil Reyes is in his second season in the bigs, having a similar year to his rookie campaign. He has 27 home runs and 46 runs batted in with a .847 OPS that’s slightly higher than his 2018 mark.

Logan Allen is a 22-year old who made his ML debut on June 18. He has eight big-league appearances under his belt — four starts, four in relief — with a 6.75 ERA and 1.78 WHIP. Allen was the Padres’ #7 prospect according to MLB Pipeline.

Taylor Trammell is the only known player involved in the deal who has no Major League experience. The outfielder began the day as Cincinnati’s top prospect per MLB Pipeline, known as a very speedy player with above-average hitting and fielding. Trammell struggled this season with the Reds’ double-A affiliate, the Chattanooga Lookouts, batting .236 with 6 homers and a .688 OPS.

At first glance, it seems as if all parties won the deal except for the San Diego Padres. Cincinnati has several expiring contracts and dealt one of them (which I wrote about Tuesday morning) and added a pitcher that immediately becomes the ace of their staff as they try to bring themselves back into contention. The Tribe rids themselves of a player who became difficult to deal with due to his antics and receive much-need outfield reinforcement and a young, promising pitcher.

The Padres, however, inherited a slumping outfield prospect for two young players who they gave up on seemingly too early. Reyes was set to have a 30 home run season in just his second year in the bigs, while Allen only had a cup of coffee with the parent club. Now, both will get to continue their careers with the Cleveland Indians while all San Diego gets in return is a .236 hitter in AA.

All in all, this will surely go down as one of the biggest blockbusters of this year’s trade deadline. Stay tuned for more to come.