During the past offseason, the Oakland Athletics decided to make a huge fundamental change in the way their organization was heading. They purged their roster of any and all unnecessary contracts, shipping Gio Gonzalez off to the Washington Nationals, Andrew Bailey to the Boston Red Sox and Trevor Cahill to the Arizona Diamondbacks. In return, the A's received plenty of young talent to help them in their rebuilding process.
One of those talented young players was Jarrod Parker, now a starting pitcher for the Athletics after coming over from the D-backs. Parker was the centerpiece of a trade also involving Ryan Cook and Collin Cowgill in exchange for Trevor Cahill and Craig Breslow.
Tonight, Cahill and Parker will get a chance to show their respective teams which side got the better end of the deal. But truthfully, it really isn't all it is hyped up to being.
This is the type of game fans want to see. Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers sought out Cahill as a way for the team to start winning now. But if anyone has seen Parker pitch as of late, they might realize that they could have possibly accomplished the same feat by keeping him.
The last time he was on the mound, Parker threw seven hitless innings before ending his outing with one hit allowed. Overall, he is 2-2 on the season with a 2.40 ERA.
Cahill, on the other hand, pitched a shutout against the Padres during his last trip to the mound, recording nine innings pitched total. He is 3-5 with a 3.45 earned run average.
As of now, it's a bit hard to tell which team got the better end of the deal. The win now approach that Towers took when pulling the trigger on the trade has not panned out as of yet, especially since the D-backs are still two games below .500. But if you were to ask either of the clubs, they would tell you that it's hard to look at it that way.
"I think everyone looks forward to it, but we probably don't get caught up in it as much as the fans who have maybe rooted for both," Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. "But there's definitely some intrigue to it."
Trevor Cahill shared a similar sentiment with his former manager in the Bay Area:
"It's pretty much the same," Cahill said. "Just trying to pitch normal and not think about it too much."
So while the fans want to see if their team got the better end of the deal, it really does not hold a lot of weight. Yes, it is a fun matchup, but it truly doesn't matter who wins outside of how it affects the standings.
By the time the end of the regular season rolls around, maybe then we will be able to judge which team won the trade.
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