The Mariners “traded” three players to the Braves in exchange for two pitchers, one recovering from an injury who never pitched pitched professionally, and one who failed so far in his career at the major league level.

The Atlanta Braves acquired outfielder Jarred Kelenic, left-hander Marco Gonzales and first baseman Evan White from the Seattle Mariners for right-handers Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips on Sunday, kicking off the winter meetings with a money-dump deal by the Mariners that netted the Braves the high-upside outfielder.

The trade, which represents the second purge of veterans by the Mariners after they dealt third baseman Eugenio Suarez to Arizona earlier in the winter, will save Seattle a significant amount of future guaranteed money. While the Mariners included an unknown amount of cash in the deal, White and Gonzales are owed $29 million.

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Kelenic replaces Eddie Rosario who is now a free agent. Kelenic earned less than two years of service time so far, which means the Braves get his prime years at low cost. Gonzalez and White see their contracts balloon as time passes, but neither is owed that much money going forward. The Braves can certainly handle the added payroll for the added depth.

Once again, this is a trade that didn’t need to be a trade. Teams used to dump salary by selling contracts, but Bowie Kuhn put a stop to that when the Oakland Athletics tried to dump three stars for cash to the Yankees and Red Sox in the mid 1970s. So now teams throw in useless players to make it look like a trade. Rather than giving teams cash they can spend now, they just have money coming off the books. It’s inefficient, and that teams should be allowed to sell contracts.