When the Cincinnati Reds traded away top prospect Taylor Trammell and outfielder Yasiel Puig in the summer of 2019, they did so in hopes that their return would pay off down the road, obviously. Said return was Cleveland ace Trevor Bauer, who came to the Reds in a three-team blockbuster that didn’t make a ton of immediate sense at the time for a Reds club buried in the standings.
The Reds wanted Bauer for their 2020 push, though, and in his final year before reaching free agency, they got exactly what they’d hoped to get.