Miller for Swanson

December 9, 2015. The Diamondbacks traded Dansby Swanson, Ender Inciarte, and Aaron Blair to the Braves for Shelby Miller. Swanson was the first pick in the draft that June. Inciarte was a center fielder already playing a Gold Glove defense. Blair was a pitching prospect. Miller was a major-league starter Arizona believed it could win with immediately.

In 2016 Miller went 3–12 with a 6.15 earned-run average and was sent to the minors. Swanson became Atlanta's shortstop and won a World Series there in 2021. The trade did not fail because the prospects were famous on the day it was made. Swanson had not played in the majors. It failed because the pitcher, who was the known quantity, was not the pitcher the deal required.

A deadline trade of a star for prospects is one shape. This is the other: three players, one of them the first pick in the country, for one year of a starter who then lost twelve games.