Shelby Miller trade update: Still not good for the D-Backs

By now you know all about Shelby Miller and what he’s done with the Diamondbacks. No need to beat a dead horse by bringing up his 1-6 record or his 7.09 ERA. No sense in that.

But you might not have been paying attention to what the guys Arizona sent to the Atlanta organization have been doing. Partly because it’s been so hard to watch the Braves this year– they’re by far the worst team in the NL. They fired Fredi Gonzalez two weeks ago, because their poor performance is clearly all his fault.

As far as their Shelby Miller return, Aaron Blair hasn’t helped the team much. He’s 0-4 with an 7.13 ERA with the Braves this season, making him one of the few pitchers in the National League to underperform Shelby Miller. But he was widely considered to be the second-best prospect in the Diamondbacks’ organization at the time of the trade, and he still factors to improve as a part of the Braves’ future.

Ender Inciarte has not done much either. He’s only batting .213/.289/.262this season, a far cry from the .303/.338/.408 slash he put up last season. This has been by far the biggest disappointment from the Braves’ end, considering he was the established big-leaguer coming their way in the trade.

Dansby Swanson, however, has continued his ascension. He was promoted to Double-A on April 30, and has batted .277/.361/.438 with four homers and 17 RBI in 32 games there. He’s batting .298/.392/.471 overall on the season.

This trade was hard enough to justify when the Diamondbacks thought they were getting a reliable No. 2 starter. It’s getting even harder to justify now.