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Brewers Acquire Felipe Lopez from Diamondbacks in Salary Dump

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From multiple Twitter sources, including @RotoWorld_BB, the Diamondbacks today traded Felipe Lopez to the Brewers in exchange for minor leaguers Cole Gillespie (OF) and Roque Mercedes (P). Before the season, John Sickels ranked Gillespie as a C prospect, which means his expected future value is about $.5M since he's already 25. I can't find Mercedes in Erik's spreadsheets, so he's likely even less valuable, which you might expect given he's a 22 year old reliever in A+ ball. Felipe Lopez, well, he's going to make about $1.75M the rest of the way and can play a variety of infield positions. He just can't play them very well, with a career (well, since 2002) -11 UZR/150. Over 1/5 of the innings at 2B, he's actually been average, though, which is surprising given his play at short. If that holds and his wOBA the rest of the season is around .331, as ZiPS predicts, he's basically a league-average player, worth 1 WAR the rest of the way. Earning slightly below free agent value, traded for some nothing prospects, and considering the importance of the games the Brewers have left to play, acquiring Lopez is a solid move by Milwaukee. And given that the Diamondbacks have little to play for in 2009, this is a nice salary dump for them. As minor trades go, this is a good one for both sides. What do you think?

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