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Slingin' Stearns was at it again on Saturday, as he sent another one of Milwaukee's trade chips out of town. Keith Law had the news first:
Jean Segura and Tyler Wagner to @dbacks; Chase Anderson, Aaron Hill, Isan Diaz to @Brewers
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) January 30, 2016
While the trade itself comes as a bit of a shock given there were no rumblings of an imminent move, it's hardly a surprising development. The emergence of Orlando Arcia as one of baseball's top prospects -- he was #12 on the Baseball Prospectus Top 101 list and #6 on the MLB Pipeline Top 100 -- made Jean Segura expendable going forward, and the presence of Jonathan Villar gives the Brewers a short-term option up the middle for this season.
Aaron Hill, who turns 33 in March, joins the Brewers after four and a half seasons in Arizona. His best season was in 2012, when he hit .302/.360/.533 with 26 home runs. That year, Hill became the first player in the modern era to hit for the cycle twice in one season, the second instance coming at Miller Park against Milwaukee. He's has struggled over the past two seasons, limping to a .230/.295/.345 line in 353 at bats in 2015.
Hill is on the final year of a five year, $45 million dollar contract that will pay him $12 million this season. However, the Diamondbacks will be picking up part of his 2016 salary, according to the Brewers official Twitter account.
Chase Anderson is a 28-year-old starting pitcher that has compiled a 4.18 ERA over two seasons with Arizona. He's under team control through 2020, and will not be eligible for arbitration until 2018. He finished 10th in Rookie of the Year voting in 2014.
The most intriguing part of this trade for Milwaukee is Isan Diaz. Diaz is a 19-year-old shortstop who absolutely dominated the Pioneer League in 2015, hitting .360/.436/.640 with 13 home runs. His massive line was propped up by an unsustainably-high .434 BABIP, but it was enough for scouts to take notice: Diaz landed at #9 on the Baseball America Top 10 Prospects list for the Diamondbacks, and checked in at #14 on FanGraphs, where he's rated as a 40 FV prospect.
Segura finishes his Brewers career with a .266/.302/.361 line over four seasons. He was an All-Star in 2013, but never seemed to be able to find his hitting stroke after a white-hot start to his major league career. Wagner started three times for the Brewers in 2015, recording a 7.24 ERA. He won the Southern League ERA title with a 2.25 ERA over 25 starts with Biloxi.