An exceptionally busy offseason for Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto continued on Monday, as the Mariners acquired left-hander Wade Miley and right-handed reliever Jonathan Aro from the Red Sox in exchange for lefty Roenis Elias and right-handed reliever Carson Smith. Both teams have formally announced the trade.
Miley, 29, has a long history with Dipoto, who not only was a consultant with the Red Sox after electing to leave his job with the Angels this summer but also served as the Diamondbacks’ scouting director when Miley was drafted back in 2008. Miley is controlled for at least two more seasons for a total of $15.25MM, and his contract also contains a $12MM club option for the 2018 season. He’ll give the Mariners a reasonably priced arm to slot into the rotation behind Felix Hernandez alongside Taijuan Walker and James Paxton.
Miley’s first season with Boston got off to a slow start, but the lefty rebounded from a ghastly 8.62 April ERA to 4.10 ERA with a 137-to-58 K/BB ratio across his final 178 innings of the 2015 season. Miley has been a healthy and consistent innings eater dating back to his sophomore season in 2012, averaging 198 innings of 3.92 ERA ball per year despite spending three years with the hitter-friendly Chase Field as his home park and a fourth season in the American League East. One can imagine that the move to the spacious Safeco Field will benefit Miley considerably.
Aro, 25, posted outstanding numbers between Double-A and Triple-A in 2015 and ultimately made his big league debut. He logged a 3.04 ERA with 8.8 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 in 74 minor league innings. He yielded eight runs in 10 1/3 Major League innings and averaged 92.5 mph on his fastball while posting an eight-to-four K/BB ratio. MLB.com ranked Aro 26th among Boston farmhands, noting that his fastball features some sink and can touch 95 mph. He has a slider and changeup as well, with the former grading as at least average. Their scouting report feels he can pitch successfully in multiple-inning relief stints and calls Aro “durable.”
Seattle’s decision to part with Smith comes as somewhat of a surprise. The 26-year-old delivered 70 brilliant innings of relief, pitching to a 2.31 ERA with 11.8 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and an exceptional 64.8 percent ground-ball rate. Smith ranked sixth among qualified relievers in ground-ball rate and struck out a greater number of batters than nearly any pitcher on the top 30 in that regard. He’s controllable for another five seasons and will give president of baseball operation Dave Dombrowski and the Red Sox another elite relief arm to pair with the likes of Craig Kimbrel and Koji Uehara in the late innings.
The Red Sox will also pick up a left-hander with significant big league experience in the form of Elias. The 27-year-old has spent the past two seasons mostly at the big league level, logging a 3.97 ERA with 7.7 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 44.9 percent ground-ball rate. Elias has yielded an unspectacular .255/.333/.411 batting line to right-handed hitters but dominated lefties, holding same-handed batters to a .218/.304/.332 clip. His control against lefties could stand to improve a bit, but he’s a generally useful weapon against them and could conceivably be tougher if shifted to a bullpen role, where he could throw harder in shorter stints.
A bullpen slot could be his best shot at cracking the roster next spring, as an immediate spot in the Boston rotation doesn’t seem too likely. The Red Sox currently have David Price, Clay Buchholz, Eduardo Rodriguez, Rick Porcello and Joe Kelly, to say nothing of highly regarded left-handers Henry Owens and Brian Johnson more or less ready for big league action.
Of course, Elias could simply be rotation depth for the Red Sox in the event that they trade another arm or two, or he could be flipped to another club himself. Earlier this offseason, the Marlins were said to have some interest in him when discussing potential Marcell Ozuna deals (though they were looking for considerably more than Elias alone in exchange for Ozuna). Elias is controllable through the 2020 season and won’t be arbitration eligible until at least the 2017-18 offseason.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX reported earlier this afternoon that the two sides were making progress on a deal that would send Miley to Seattle. Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reported the trade was in place (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweeted that Aro, Elias and Smith were involved.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Thank god i hated him
Despite the clubhouse issues he actually wasn’t bad at all. inexpensive and a pretty good number 5 starter
Clubhouse issues?
Except for the fact he was a #3 starter on the Red Sox.
Woulda liked buchholz but I’ll take Miley
Interesting to see who it’s for. I feel like Miley’s value isn’t as high as it should be.
Why?? How doe he improve the team even Elias is better then him
Hardly. Miley’s solid. In a pitcher friendly environment he’ll be a good middle rotation guy.
Its called competition. Do you really want to go to camp with Walker/Paxton/Elias/Karns behind Felix with no other somewhat proven guy to at least provide competition.
It should of never of gotten to that point. Dipoto messed up big time in not making Kuma a priority from day one. His contact is less than $7 million more in total value than Miley’s(when counting the his option year).
While Elias was part of a crowded lefty SP, he made peanuts and seems to be undervalued by our GM. Plus you are giving up one of the M’s best bullpen arms who was under team control until 2021.
How is Elias better ?? Look at stats and saber metrics FIP and other stats shows Miley is much more durable and better I mean he made all star team in 2012 going 16-11 with 3.33 era and over 200 Ip
You have to look at the fact that Miley has pitched full seasons and pitched with only a slightly higher ERA in a hitter friendly park. Where Carson and Roenis have pitched in a pitcher friendly park. I think the worst part was the potential of Carson. But we have to remember he only went 13/18 save opportunities which is horrible except he replaced a closer that blew almost EVERY save opportunity. He should make for a good setup man, but Roenis is still young and he pitched ok but he single handidly took us out of games when he was off…. I am loving how fast Dipoto is doing everything and getting EVERYTHING we need. Where Eff face Jack would wait and hold out as if he had any leverage…. I also like the fact we’re going after Lind. Shouldn’t have to give up too much and Dj Peterson should be ready by next year. Good job so far Dipoto!!!!!!!
I swear if we traded him for a bullpen arm …..
I’ll put my money on “bullpen arm and fringey prospect”.
You were basically right. I can’t imagine that Elias is going to be handed a starting job.
TWO bullpen arms.
That’s the point, we wanted bullpen arms and the fact that Seattle gave Smith to us is absolutely perfect
It seems like Dipoto is pretty biased towards players and personnel he’s familiar with.
ya think, messing the whole rotation up
Wow he has a high era. I hope we didn’t give anybody good for him
carson smith and roenis Elias
Power arm and fringe lefty. I was close…
wow who thought mariners would be so active
Hope it’s a reasonable return. For a 200 inning pitcher signed for two years at under $10 mil a year,it should be.
Bring back the comment layout from yesterday. I don’t want to “show” every negative comment and I want to sort by most voted.
My guess is they’re probably doing this for the week due to massive traffic for the winter meetings. Not sure what impact it actually has, but it must help in some way.
What good is a comment section if it’s at its worst when comments are posted most frequently?
Hey, I’m not arguing in favor of it, just stating the likely reasons for it. I wish it was as it was prior to today as well. This version of the forum is borderline unbearable IMO.
i know, what’s going on. rogue marsupial possums trashed this place overnight
Solid trade by the Mariners if they didn’t give up something crazy. Good middle, late rotation arm especially in a pitcher friendly park!
agree with john see samardjia
Why does this seem lopsided for the Mariners, or is it just me?
For the Red Sox*
yeah, i was gonna say, if you thought it was lopsided for the mariners, it was just you
I wonder what the return will be
Carson smith was way too much to give up.
Great deal for the Red Sox!
elias and smith.
Moves like these make me say, thank god Dipoto is no longer the GM of the Angels
Elias feels like a downgrade, but just with more years of control, but Smith looks solid, I guess?
Elias isn’t going to be in the rotation and probably won’t be on Boston on Opening Day. Boston had to move a SP. Price, Porcello, Rodriguez, Buccholz, Kelly is most likely the rotation now, and if anything changes it will be Boston getting a SP via trade or sign and then trading either Buccholz, Kelly or Elias.
Kelly will be in the pen with Owens starting.
I imagine Kelly will get a shot at starting in spring training. Kelly/Owens/Elias probably compete for the fifth spot.
Owens has options; Kelly doesn’t. Kelly will be given the rotation spot over Owens in the spring and will have to pitch his way out of it into the bullpen. Kelly’s value is maximized as a back-end starter (or better, if he ever really harnesses his stuff). Last fall was enough to let him get one more shot at it. If they believe in Owens long-term, it’s much better to have him pitching every 5th at Pawtucket than rotting in middle relief.
Joe Kelly can be the ball boy for all I care.
Sox could use another lefty in the pen, actually, so Elias might have been targeted primarily as a pen acquisition/swingman, which might be good for him.
Ehhh, the Mariners have been trying to get rid of him for months now. Bet he was a “well if you want Smith, you need to take Elias”. He’s really not good in any way. Can def see Boston just cutting him or trading him for nothing.
Smith > Miley allllll day though. Boston got way better with this deal, and I guess Seattle did too, although Iwakuma is much better than Miley.
The flaw in your logic is your including of Buchholz in the rotation. That might last 5 starts if they’re lucky. At this point, no one in Boston trusts Clay to scratch his nether regions without hurting himself. It will almost definitely be Price, ERob, Porcello, Elias, Kelly/Owens, by May at the latest.
Figure he might be turned into a LH reliever with both Owens and Johnson around as LH 6th SP options, no sense in having another that wasn’t very sharp already in an extended trial as it is, so might as well send him to Pawtucked after S/T and let him try to work on nothing but mechanics (which going from memory were not all that swift) and hope he gets a velocity uptick by going only 1-2 innings.
Otherwise? No idea why they allowed DiPito to include him in the deal since they have 2 lefties in Johnson/Owens sitting as 6th starters anyway, he provides no use to the Sox in that regard, only as a possible reliever if his velocity can be ticked up a bit..
Wow I’m loving this! Smith is great and we also get a starter who hasn’t even hit arbitration yet!
I’d be surprised to see much of Elias starting in the majors, barring an injury. He’ll be fighting with Kelly and Owens for the 5th spot, at best.
The mariners must be looking at a major relief pitching move if they were willing to trade smith.
Looks like the M’s got robbed again. Dipoto just making trades just because. Smith is a solid RP and Wade isn’t even an upgrade over Elias. This team is looking worst than before he told over.
WTF?!?! Carson Smith. seriously? Why do we always trade our electric young, cost controlled relievers. First carter Capps, now smith. Totally gonna regret this one Dipoto
Im pretty ok with this. Miley may be better than his stats say, but he was a time bomb just about every start for the Sox. You never knew when hed blow up and give up 5 runs in an inning.
Score one for the Red Sox…sigh. It’s hard being a Yankee’s fan this off-season. That’s too much to give up for Miley, who is ok, but not special, and about to get not cheap.
Maybe you guys are saving up for Harper.
That’s not for 3 more years…
you think if dipoto had cancer theyd give him exec of yr. doubt it
Smith/Tazawa/Uehara/Kimbrel, talk about a bridge. Well done Dombrowski
Taz will pitch before Smith, possibly Koji too.
Elias is bad . Fenway will tear him apart. Not that he’ll be starting at all seeing as he’s like Boston’s 8th best starter. That being said, I still think Boston wins this deal seeing as Smith is very good.
Boston cleaned up on this deal. While Miley is a decent back end guy, Smith-Uehara-Kimbrel is disgusting.
Haha atleast he didn’t claim he was going to be the Cy Young winner last spring….think something like that falls under the term headcase…and when his stuff was kept down he was very very good
Mariners got trade raped…. wasn’t the whole reason Boston was dealing off a starter is because price was bumping a starter off the rotation? In any case Elias and Smith are two pretty good returns for a time bomb like miley
As a fellow White Sox fan I’m embarrassed at your poor choice of words you chose to express your feelings on a one-sided trade. There’s no need for it.
We’re better than that.
Carson Smith and Roenis Elias…wow, as a Sox fan, gotta like that!!
Don’t know what Dipoto is thinking with this one. I wouldn’t say Miley is much better than Elias while costing more for fewer years, plus Carson is going to be a legit closer at cheap/ controllable. Bad move
While im not a fan of him, im willing to bet Miley fares much better at Safeco than Fenway. I still think the trade very much favors the Sox though.
It’s like the A-Gon trade is a curse for anyone coming back to Boston.
I liked Miley 🙁 but Carson Smith is an awesome pick up…Decent trade.
I’m very happy with this one. Miley is a nice starter, but Smith has shown the ability to be an elite reliever. With the Red Sox starting pitching depth, I love this move.
I just hope this sets a market for John Niese.
I like this trade for the sox I would have Carson straight up
looks like a better trade for the red sox then mariners…..elias is a decent number 4 or 5 starter and so is miley but carson smith pitched lights out in relief last year and is only 25..
Guess that should round out the starting 5. Felix, Walker, Miley, Paxton, Karns. Not “knock your socks off” but adding Miley should help keep the bullpen fresh… which appears uber thin at the moment. Wonder what will be hauled in in the free agent market… hopefully bullpen help, 1B, and/or SS/Util.
Certainly not an upgrade over Iwakuma but I’ll take it.
Wade Miley trade tree continues.
Red Sox draft Wily Mota and Miguel Socolovich
Mota and Socolovich traded for David Aardsma
Aardsma dealt for Eric Patterson
Patterson included in the Adrian Gonzalez trade
Gonzalez traded to the Dodgers for Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa
Webster and De La Rosa traded for Miley
Miley traded for Smith and Elias.
So M’s fans how u feel about dipoto dissecting ur roster
….We actually got a major league contributor? TWO of them?? DD, well done sir.
P.S. Thanks for not trading Cy Kelly
Miley is better than he pitched last year but as a RED SOX fan I am elated with this .
Sox have a pretty nice Bullpen now. Smith, Tazawa, Uehara, Kimbrel… thats a pretty great bullpen. I’m sure Lane figures into the plans too but I’d really like to see one more good lefty reliever to take over for Robbie Ross. Maybe package Ross, Barnes and ____ for a lefty upgrade, as it appears Barnes no longer has a role on the big team.
Miley Cyrus is gone kc style bullpen plan tbe parade route for the red sox
I don’t think this is a bad trade on either side. The Mariners get a #3/4 arm who can eat innings and will probably be more effective outside of Fenway and the Red Sox get younger cost controlled pitchers which includes a major upgrade to the bullpen.
Bad move Seattle.
Jerry Dipoto might have thought about this move with his heart, not his head.
Dombrowski just picked up an elite arm for a 4.50ERA soft tossing lefty.
Seattle’s rotation now looks like…
1. Felix Hernandez
2.
3.Nathan Karns
4. Taijuan Walker
5. James Paxton
6. Wade Miley/Nuno/Montgomery
Trading Wilhelmsen was a little strange, but I understand because we picked up an elite defended with good potential.
Trading a kid with 5 years control and his amazing strikeout total AWAY from a team that has many holes in the bullpen is unsettling.
So we will be relying on a 38 year old to close games when we had a 26 year old with more upside for a soft tossing Homerun machine.
Dipoto just wants to tear the team apart because the team is not of his making.
Carson Smith was a closer in the making.
You can’t really tell if he’ll stay healthy but for Wade Miley?
Mariner fans should be disgusted already.
Seems like Moreno was right in keeping Scioscia in charge.
Not an amazing deal, but M’s should come out ahead. Whenever you can get the same WAR from one player that it takes two players that you traded combined to get, you’ve come out ahead. Add in whichever reliever that replaces Smith, even better off.
I like your optimism.
Nobody has mentioned Aro yet. Maybe they see him as a late-inning contributor. Maybe DiPoto has other transactions in mind that made Smith expendable.
I think Miley will be a good fit in Seattle. You’ll enjoy watching him pick off runners from first and completely shut down the running game, and he works at such a fast pace from the windup it speeds up the game nicely. I’d be careful making WAR comparisons with relievers, though, as it is cumulative and inherently rewards innings-eaters over specialists. Relievers are better evaluated with ERA+ and FIP, both of which Smith is excellent in.
Hmm they owe Miley 15m for 2 years now and still gave up two MLB ready arms.
While the Red Soxs shed payroll and upgraded the bullpen at the same time.
Seems like a work of art on Dumbrowski’s side.
Five years of an elite reliever/5 years of a cheap 5th starter/ lefty reilver for 3 more expensive years of a slightly better 5th starter and a reliever who probably won”t spend the full season in the majors.
Great trade for Boston
I believe earlier in the season Boston asked Carson Smith for JBJ and the Mariners said No. Though that was well before JBJ one good hitting month in August
It was actually for Furbush I believe. Not sure how the Mariners would’ve responded had it been Smith at the time. He wasn’t established they might’ve took that deal.
If the Sox move Buch, they’ll make a run at Cueto.
They got rid of 15m and still improved their pen.
If they can trade Buch that would me around 23m coming off the books.
If they didn’t do this to clear payroll for price.
They can clearly go after Cueto with the money that he freed up.
Doubt that very much……if they move Buchholtz, they will look for BP guys or another bat. RS can’t afford another $25+M/yr guy right now unless they dump Hanley.
Forgot about Hanley and Panda.
I wonder if Dumbrowski can unload their contracts as well.
If he can get rid of those two.
He’s probably the best GM out there by a landslide.
As an Angels fan, I love watching Dipoto trade away all of the Mariners talent for these players he’s been getting back
@DravenMoss. You are right, it was for Furbush
I’m not able to reply to comments from my phone on the web which appears to have another new comment section , and unfortunately the MLBTR app doesn’t have a comment section on my Droid
Horrible deal for the Mariners. We’ve seen the value commanded for elite relievers this off-season and trading a dominant one with five years of control left is just terrible business. If anything, let Smith build his value by having another good year or two. Rather he traded him and another decent arm, a no 4-5 starter or potentially good bullpen arm for a no 3 starter at best.
LOL M’s got straight robbed! I would be pissed if I were a Seattle fan, this is a terrible trade.
Miley is slightly better than Elias. You can pencil him in for 200 innings every year. Smith is head and shoulders better than Aro. Nice deal DD.
while i think the sox won the trade i wouldnt count out aro as a potential dark horse candidate
Red Sox fan, but does anyone else think that Koji is overrated going into this season? I know about his great track record. I have been watching him for years. He seemed to struggle a little bit near the end of the season last year. He is going to be 41 next April. I just do not believe that can go 60-70 innings this year and have around a 2.5 ERA. Gotta love Koji but I am predicting this year that he goes around 55 innings with a 3.00 ERA or higher
I think Koju will be OK, but I think Carson Smith will end up pitching the 8th inn more often than not.
As a longtime Mariners fan I don’t like this deal. Elias and Smith were solid major league players while Miley is mediocre. Elias and Miley are pretty similar in career ERA so why not keep the cheaper option. And Smith in his own right is a great bullpen arm. Boston will improve from this deal.
Elias isn’t as reliable as far as eating innings goes. That’s why Miley’s an upgrade.
My new mariner mantra is wait and see , I’m not nuts about trading Smith, but after 37 years of not a whiff of the WS and last years crash of a team a lot of the smart guys said could go all the way and stunk it up instead……I’ll just wait and see.
This deal reminds me of the Andrew Bailey deal. I’m not worried about what the Sox gave up hurting them in the future but how sure is a 2nd year reliever?
It was actually for Furbush I believe. Not sure how the Mariners would’ve responded had it been Smith at the time. He wasn’t established they might’ve took that deal.
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