Possible Returns for Broxton in a Trade

Quite a bit of talk has existed about Jonathan Broxton being moved at the trade deadline and what type of player can be expected in return. I have gone back over the last 3 years and looked at all the trades where one established closer or top setup man was traded alone for other players. I wanted to look at semi-recent trades has it seems GMs are not trading decent prospects for closers. Here are the trades I could find:

• 07/31/11 Baltimore Orioles traded Koji Uehara to Texas Rangers for Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter.
• 7/31/11 Oakland Athletics traded Brad Ziegler to Arizona Diamondbacks for Brandon Allen and Jordan Norberto.
• 7/31/11 San Diego Padres traded Mike Adams to Texas Rangers for Robbie Erlin (#102) and Joe Wieland (#103).
• 07/30/10 Washington Nationals traded Matt Capps to Minnesota Twins for Wilson Ramos and Joe Testa.
• 7/31/10 Arizona Diamondbacks traded Chad Qualls to Tampa Bay Rays for Matt Gorgen.
• 7/31/10 Cleveland Indians traded Kerry Wood to New York Yankees for Andrew Shive and Matt Cusick
• 7/31/10 Pittsburgh Pirates traded Octavio Dotel to Los Angeles Dodgers for James McDonald and Andrew Lamboto
• 7/7/09 Arizona Diamondbacks traded Tony Pena to Chicago White Sox for Brandon Allen.
• 7/23/09 Cleveland Indians traded Rafael Betancourt to Colorado Rockies for Connor Graham.

Low Level Prospects (Betancourt, Wood, Qualls and Adams trades)

These types of trades are for low minor league players without a pedigee. Not many of these have not had a chance to pan out yet. The best trade made for these type of players seems to be the haul the Padres got for Mike Adams. Erlin is the 102nd and Wieland is the 103rd ranked prospects in baseball according to John Sickels at minorleagueball.com. None of the other players obtained in these trades made the list.

Fringe MLB Players (Dotel, Capps and Uehara)

In each case, the teams got players that were on the team's bench or were having problems making the MLB squad. In each case, the trade work out great for the team getting getting rid of the reliever. McDonald should have been an All-Star, Chris Davis is having a breakout season in Baltimore and Ramos has generate over 4 WAR in 3 seasons with the Nats.

Brandon Allen (Pena and Ziegler)

What is the fascination with Brandon Allen? He is going to hit a few HRs, but not enough to make up for the 35% K%. I wonder if teams think they can turn him around. Hopefully, Dayton doesn't think we need another Mike Jacobs 1B/DH.

It looks like closers and good setup men can bring in decent returns. The most productive trades were for players that were on the fringe of making or staying in the majors. The team and players available for Broxton can only be speculated on for now, but if Dayton plays his cards right, he could get a decent return for Broxton.