It stinks on the surface.
It might stink even worse beneath the surface.
And yet, as awful as it appears that the Pirates could have traded Major League Baseball's best closer for a 25-year-old middle reliever and another team's 28th-ranked prospect -- Neal Huntington just dumped Mark Melancon to the Nationals for big-league lefty Felipe Rivero and Class A lefty Taylor Hearn -- it's one of those exchanges that's just so spectacularly putrid it almost certainly will be followed by more.
There just has to be more, right?
So it seems fair, at least from this perspective, to hold off on any broader judgment until the trade deadline passes Monday and Huntington has a chance to parlay this, through whatever means, into the starting pitching that his team needs and deserves, being only three games out of a playoff spot at the 101-game mark.
Maybe he won't make another move, and he'll have ripped the rug out from his manager and players, and that will be the time to rip away.
But maybe he will take it another step, possibly parlaying Rivero or this prospect or even the $4.5 million that's now saved on Melancon's contract into real help for this team this season, as he's stated time and again he intends to do.
Waiting to see how it plays it is only right.
That said, I'll offer three thoughts and keep this one brief:
• Tony Watson is eminently ready and deserving to be the closer. But don't confuse that with a one-for-one deal. Because the hole he leaves behind in the eighth is taken by Neftali Feliz, and the hole Feliz leaves is taken by someone else, and so on. The lack of starting pitching already has this bullpen ranking second in the majors in innings pitched. The loss of Melancon isn't just about switching up the ninth inning.
• There's a commonly held notion that the Pirates would have lost Melancon "for nothing" had they kept him through the season, as he'll be a free agent this fall. This, of course, is an insult to anyone's intelligence. Because Melancon came with real value to this team this season. And if this team had gone on to compete in playoffs with some success, he'd have been a huge part of that. That's not "nothing." Championship teams value that sort of thing a lot.
• Melancon will be missed. In addition to his stature in the game, he's a terrific person, a ton of fun, and he's one of the most fascinating humans in the game, given his love of world travel and learning all he can even during his playing days.
Best wishes to him, his wife Mary Catherine and his family in our nation's capital and no doubt to many, many great destinations beyond.
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