ESPN: Goldschmidt is D-backs’ most untouchable player

As the August trade deadline fast approaches, contending teams are sprawling to find that missing piece for a playoff run, while under-performing teams look to drop some unnecessary weight.

ESPN’s David Schoenfield took a look around the league at each team’s one player that would take more than a king’s ransom to acquire, and for the Arizona Diamondbacks, it fell on the shoulders of America’s first baseman.

The season’s most disappointing team, even with Jake Lamb’s breakout season. Does that make Lamb more untouchable than Goldschmidt, who is signed through 2019 and will make less than $35 million the next three seasons? Probably not, but imagine with the D-backs could get if they did make Goldschmidt available?

But, what if the Diamondbacks did make Goldschmidt available? What type of haul could the team get for him?

Sitting at the bottom of the National League West division at 41-58, Arizona hasn’t come close to resembling the team it hoped to be back in February. Zack Greinke is on the disabled list and Shelby Miller is in Triple-A. Arizona has reportedly begun fielding calls on Miller. While the team won’t get the type of haul it sent out to acquire Miller in the first place, it doesn’t hurt to gauge the interest level.

Diamondbacks chief baseball officer Tony La Russa insisted that he has no intention of blowing up the roster, but many major league executives have questioned how the roster has been constructed.

While the possibility of a Goldschmidt trade would be wildly unpopular, and highly unrealistic, moving the 28-year-old in his prime could rejuvenate a barren farm system and help put the team in a better spot in the long-term, much like the New York Yankees trading Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs.