Although Roque Mercedes isn't half bad either.

A little more on the thought process behind the Felipe Lopez deal...

The Diamondbacks saw Lopez as being on the cusp of ranking as a Type B free agent, but the more important question was whether they would have been willing to offer him arbitration. (You must offer arbitration -- and the player must decline and sign elsewhere -- in order to collect the supplemental pick.)

The club didn’t see it as a worthwhile risk to take. Even though he is a Scott Boras client, Lopez said on numerous occasions how much he enjoyed his time with the Diamondbacks and therefore might have been a risk to accept the one-year deal.

Had he accepted, he would have received something in the $5 million-$6 million range in 2010, not a price that was appealing to the Diamondbacks.

Even if they had offered and Lopez declined, the supplemental pick would have been somewhere in the range of No. 45. The Diamondbacks view RHP Roque Mercedes as about the equivalent of that kind of pick, plus they got OF Cole Gillespie in the deal as well.

Moreover, they save about $1.5 million on Lopez; they’re going to finish out of the playoffs with him or without him.