Haren's the best deal

There has been a lot of major trades made this offseason, most recently completed was the Eric Bedard deal. I believe that best trade offseason was not the Johan Santana Deal, not the M. Cabrera and Willis deal, not the Nick Swisher deal and not the recently completed Eric Bedard deal.

I will compare the Haren deal to the Santana and Bedard deals.

It was the Dan Haren deal between Oakland A's and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The reason I say the Haren deal over the others is because of the money involved and the age of Haren. Haren is making 4 million this season, 5.5 next season, and TEAM option of 6.75 in 2010.
Haren also is only 27 years old, which is a year younger than Bedard and Santana. Bedard is asking for 6 million in arbitration this year, while Santana is making 19 million this season.

In the deal for Haren, Arizona did have to give some their top notch prospects to the A's, but so did the Mets and Mariners to get their guys. The Mets also had to pay Santana 123.1 million over the next 6 years, while the Mariners will have to pay Bedard more Haren to keep him during his arbitration years, and afterwards sign him to a Santana like deal.

Haren's numbers are also going to better with a transition to the NL west. Last season, Haren was 15-9 with ERA of 3.07, and he also pitched 222.2 innings. While Santana numbers were 15-13 with an ERA 3.33 and pitched 209.0 innings. Santana's number will also improve because of his transition to the NL, but the word on Santana is his better days are behind him, while Haren appears to be entering his prime. Bedard will also see improvement in his numbers when he switches from the hitter friendly Camden Yards to Safeco Field. Bedard numbers for last season were 13-5 with an ERA of 3.16 and 182 innings.

Santana and Bedard will give their teams more strikeouts than Haren, but in my mind judging by the numbers, the Diamondbacks got the best deal this offseason.