Dustin was happy in Cincinnati and we felt the right thing to do is shop him around as we did not want this to get too far where he would never consider resigning in future seasons. We felt his value is at his highest now and he has a great future as well but we were able to land a player in Blake DeWitt, who I consider a GREAT replacement.
Dustin provides more contact but Dewitt is still above average, possesses more power and can also play gold-glove defense at 2B-3B. I think we definitely upgraded our defense.
Nathan is an ELITE closer no doubt but is the weakest link in our pen right now and at $13 mil per season, felt would could land 2 very good Major League relievers and move one of our guys to the closer role.
We shed a lot of money in this deal as well as improving depth even more so in the pen, bettering our middle of the infield defense, which may help our pitchers and provide more pop in the lineup.
This trade took about 10 days to complete, LOL but we got there. The Derek Lowe deal was a huge factor in this getting done as I didn't need to demand a Starting pitcher in return thus making it much easier to complete. Actually 3 emails after the Lowe deal finalized this thing. Also pedroia was THIS close to being moved to a contender in the AL East.
Best of luck to all teams...
by the way, lets all get together, recruit for this league and MAKE THIS WORK.... i got to return the Reds back to dominance.