In a very active offseason, Washington D.C. and Iowa City have just agreed to perhaps the biggest trade of all of them: Iowa City gives P Wladimir Mercado for D.C.'s B.C.Alfonzo, Hack Palmer and Rymer Deduno. Here's how it happened from the point of view of Iowa City GM slashtc:
"The trade started by him asking about pitching (as he did publicly I believe in the world chat). I told him I have some good pitchers, but they are young and controllable (and cheap) which was perfect for my rebuilding team. I view(ed) my future rotation as Chris Osborne (Sea 33 #1 overall), Theo Schulte (Sea 31 #6 overall), Mercado (Sea 30 #2 overall), Dan Keller (Sea 27 #5 overall) and a FA to be determined as my team gets better.
'It started that I offered him Mercado for the C (Hack Palmer -- Sea 32 #28) and DH (Rymer Deduno - Sea 32 #39) I ultimately got and the SS he had already included in another trade (Oswaldo Seguignol - which I wasn't aware of at the time). The big thing for me with the SS was he was a plus defender and a great batting eye (plays well in my park).
'That started discussions where I told him I needed something of value to me beyond the 2 prospects coming back to deal Mercado. I asked for Zumaya while sending him back J.D. Booker. He didn't want to move Zumaya (understandably). We discussed various prospects that weren't good enough to help my team at all. We discussed Hasegawa but that deal started getting too complex with Aramboles going back to him.
'We had essentially reached a stalemate. He hadn't rejected a couple of the offers I made meaning he was still thinking about them. I told him a had some other inquiries about Mercado but I wouldn't make a move today without giving him a chance to decide first. He sent me two offers with BC out of the blue (he had not been in any previous discussions). One was for Mercado and Schulte where I got BC and Zumaya. I rejected that one right away as giving up half of my future rotation wasn't on my to do list. The other was the offer that I ultimately accepted, though I did think hard about it.
'By ratings it looks like a no-brainer, but I have concerns about BCs health rating (and the fact he hasn't had a major injury yet) and his contract. This team is still at least 2 seasons from being really good. Once it is, he'll be approaching FA, which means other than draft picks (assuming no career ending injuries) I will have nothing to show for him. It's also $5M less that I can spend on IFAs after transfer and this is my last year to have a shot at that before I need to start adding ML pieces. What this may ultimately do is move my timeline up and I may become a player in FA next year."
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