Past History Should Help Cincinnati Reds Get Past Cost in Trade for Eugenio Suarez

The Cincinnati Reds are reportedly one of the teams aggressively pursuing Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez ahead of the trade deadline. While some are concerned about how much it'll cost to acquire the MLB RBI leader, I can’t help but think of a quote from almost 10 years ago to the day.

That is when the Kansas City Royals acquired Johnny Cueto from the Reds in exchange for three highly-touted pitching prospects. Royals General Manager Dayton Moore made his feelings on the deal quite plain.

“If you focus on what you’re losing or giving up or trading away, you’ll never make a deal,” Moore said.

The Reds got three lefties: Brandon Finnegan, Cody Reed, and John Lamb in the deal. At the time, many praised the Reds for bringing in such a haul for a player on an expiring contract.

Those three pitchers combined for -0.2 bWAR while they were with the Reds. 

Cueto helped the Royals win the World Series in 2015 and in just 13 regular season games amassed more bWAR (0.3) than the other three pitchers did in their Reds careers.

So I say all that to say this: do not worry about what the Reds give up to get Suarez. He will likely be more valuable to the Reds in these last two months of the season than any player they give up to get him.