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Grade the Trade: San Diego Padres trade Mat Latos to the Cincinnati Reds
Several years ago, it looked like starting pitcher Mat Latos was destined to become an ace in MLB. Unfortunately, things never quite worked out. Before he was a journeyman trying to find a job in 2017, Latos was swapped in a trade between the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds back in December 2011. In exchange for Latos, the Padres received a big package of players still relevant in baseball today.
At the time of the trade, Mat Latos was coming off of his second consecutive productive campaign at age 23. The young starter was about to head from the Padres to a very competitive Reds team with some great talent and playoff aspirations. As luck would have it, Latos only went to the playoffs once during his time with Cincinnati.
Acquiring Latos ended up being quite costly for the Reds. In total, four players were sent from the Reds organization to the Padres. Amazingly, all four are still in the big leagues today.
The four players the Padres received for Latos were Yonder Alonso, Brad Boxberger, Yasmani Grandal, and Edinson Volquez. These four are well-known around the baseball landscape and contributing in cities not originally involved in this Latos trade.
Alonso spent several years with the Padres putting up subpar numbers. He's currently with the Oakland Athletics having a career year. A similar thing happened with Grandal except his best days are now taking place as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Either the Padres gave up on both of them too quickly or the unfriendly confines of Petco Park limited their offensive abilities as neither produced much during their time there.
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Boxberger spent even less time in San Diego. He was eventually traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in another trade. As this is the case, he doesn't factor very much into this trade's grade.
As for Volquez, the veteran starter never quite returned to his glory year of 2008. He pitched terribly in his short stint with the Padres. Over the two years he spent there, Volquez was just 20-21 with a 4.96 ERA. Of course, Volquez later put together better years with the Pittsburgh Pirates and helped the Kansas City Royals win the 2015 World Series.
Although Latos was not an absolute stud for the Reds, he did go 33-16 over three years. He also posted a 3.31 ERA and managed to bring them Anthony DeSclafani in a future trade with the Miami Marlins. The Padres didn't nearly get the same level of talent the Reds did by shipping out any of the guys they acquired in this deal.
If the Reds had kept the four players they traded away for Latos they would have had some really good building blocks. Many of those players would have eventually been dealt. For instance, Alonso was clearly blocked by Joey Votto at first base. Only Grandal seems like someone who could have had a lengthy career in Cincinnati given his position and age.
Considering the Reds got far more out of their traing of Latos than the Padres did from any of those four players, they definitely deserve the better grade. The fact that San Diego failed to even make any good trades thereafter with these same players further adds to the poor grade.
The Reds got the best years out of Latos. In the end, they even managed to flip him for another talented pitcher. Because of this, they get the passing grade. Meanwhile, the Padres are left forging their parents' signatures on their test scores.
