In Saturday's five-player trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Arizona Diamondbacks think they just traded a prospect for a major league shortstop and top-of-the-order hitter. Unfortunately, as they're soon to find out, Jean Segura is neither of those things, and he hasn't been for two and a half years now.
Segura had a huge first half for Milwaukee in 2013, hitting for unexpected power that couldn't and didn't last; since that year's All-Star break, he has hit .250/.282/.328 in 1,367 plate appearances, which puts him way below the MLB average for shortstops in 2015 (.260/.308/.380). In fact, only two full-time shortstops in 2015 had lower OBPs than Segura did and he's replacing one of them in Nick Ahmed (.275). But at least Ahmed can play the heck out of shortstop, whereas Segura is below average, if you're charitable; he's a second baseman masquerading as a shortstop, if you're not. Even at second base, his bat doesn't profile well, although he'll be less of a liability on defense.