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Texas Rangers rumors: Wade Miley has been traded from Arizona to Boston, according to some reports. Other reports, including public comments from the Arizona Diamondbacks, indicate he hasn't been traded. If he hasn't been traded, some reports indicate that the Rangers are still in on him. Other reports say the Rangers aren't in on him.
The deal between Arizona and the BoSox for Miley supposedly would have pitchers Allen Webster and Rubby de la Rosa going to the D-Backs, along with a third player. Texas and Miami are both also talking to Arizona, according to Bob Nightengale, although Evan Grant says talks between the Rangers and the D-Backs are thought to have died.
So basically, we don't know anything, other than teams want Wade Miley. I am pretty unenthusiastic about Miley...he's a poor man's Matt Harrison, a lefthander who gets lots of ground balls, but who had a sub-par ERA in 2014. Going by bWAR, he's dropped from 3.5 to 1.3 to 0.8 the past three seasons, while his fWAR has gone from 4.4 to 1.9 to 1.7 over that span.
Miley's sub-1 bWAR in 2014 is due in part to an elevated BABIP, which could be blamed on defense, but Miley has had a line drive rate over 20% every year of his career, his HR/FB% over the course of his career is above-average, and he had the lowest IFFB% among qualified pitchers in MLB in 2014. It leads me to wonder if his issue might not just be bad defense, but may be a matter of being too hittable.
On the plus side, Miley has averaged around 200 innings per season the last three years, will be just 28 next year, and if you have a quality infield defense, you can get some synergy from his ground ball tendencies. Still, he's not someone I'd be real fired up about acquiring -- particularly at the cost it would likely take to get him -- and so if it turns out that he is going to Boston, well, that's okay with me.
