James Shields isn’t the only member of the Tampa Bay pitching staff who could be traded this summer. The Rays are open to moving any of their right-handed starters, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. Right-handers Jeremy Hellickson, Wade Davis, Alex Cobb and Chris Archer would all appeal to teams in need of pitching. Here are more of Rosenthal’s notes from around MLB…
- The Rays probably won’t sell if it appears Evan Longoria will be able to return before long, but the third baseman’s timeline remains unclear.
- It’s highly unlikely that the Athletics will trade Bartolo Colon, Rosenthal reports. The A’s value Colon more than the mid-level prospects they’d be able to acquire for him in a trade.
- Executives say the Angels have enough young talent to trade for a pitcher of Zack Greinke’s caliber. Though GM Jerry Dipoto is reluctant to trade Peter Bourjos and Garrett Richards, both would appeal to other teams. One executive noted that prospects Jean Segura and Kaleb Cowart are also appealing trade chips.
- The Angels are looking for a left-handed reliever, Rosenthal reports.
- The Cubs are exchanging names with teams interested in Ryan Dempster. The Dodgers, Tigers, Braves and Red Sox are in the mix. A friend of Dempster’s said the right-hander would probably approve a trade to Boston but considers the Dodgers a better fit. The Dodgers have enough prospects to build a package for Dempster, rival executives tell Rosenthal.
- The Red Sox are still interested in Matt Garza, another potential trade chip.
- The prospect-rich Blue Jays are interested in Justin Upton. GM Alex Anthopoulos is pursuing numerous players and willing to listen on all of his own players, Rosenthal writes. The Pirates have shown considerable interest in Upton, but the Diamondbacks don’t view Pittsburgh as a fit.
- The Rangers are almost certain to bolster their bench. One option: upgrade over catcher Yorvit Torrealba.
- It’s not surprising to see the Giants pursuing relief help, Rosenthal writes.
Send Shields to Detroit, you can have Brantly, Young, and a first base prospect…
Why Hellickson? He’s so young and talented with 5 years of control. I don’t think this can be right. Their probably “just listening”.
They are just listening. I guarantee it.
Trading Hellickson would make absolutely no sense
Yes it does, he’s not that good. His xFIP is 4.96(!) this year. He’s been worth -.3 fWAR this year, and wasn’t that outstanding last year either (1.4) His K/9 rate is low for a front line starter and his BB/9 is too high to be a control pitcher. His BABIP has been insainely low (Mainly do to the excellent defense that the Rays have) for his career, so he is definitely going to regress, so trading him now would capitalize on his value.
No, his BABIP is low because he induces soft contact. Watch a Rays telecast and that’s all they talk about. It’s not just luck. He’s also one of the most effective pitchers in baseball with runner’s in scoring position.
Greinke will be pitching for the Angels every 5th day before August 1st… Book it!
Royals should be all over this…
Headly, Gregerson and Street for Burjos, Segura and Richards?
Intriguing but I would probably decline that. Angels need a lefty in their bullpen and another starter, although I do like Headly the other pieces don’t seem to fit.
re: Dempster. According to Alex Speier “the Sox have not been pursuing the right-hander actively”
Thank goodness.
Another reason why Tampa might be willing to trade Shields: 23 ER in his last 31.2 IP.
now that’s sour
The Rays can get a HUGE return for Hellickson. I mean huge. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense right now, but if they can get two good hitting/power prospects + an MLB ready power hitter, you never know what they will do
It doesn’t matter whether we get Dempster or not. We can’t bloody hit!!! ARG!!
Hellickson has a WAR – 0.3 this year according to Fangraphs. His K/9 is 5.90 and his BB/9 is 3.77. I don’t see them getting a huge return for him at this point.
Jays will trade lefty Oliver for sure along with Lind…..Possibly Rajai Davis to the Reds…Kelly Johnson may also be gone very soon. I suspect the jays will deal any combination of these players with great prospects Gose, Hech, Syndegaard…for Upton…Upton will be a jay very soon. We may see Greinke also. Toronto would be great fit for him. I would say Travis D’Arnaud is the only player that is untouchable at this point.
Because they have a lot of pitching depth and needs bats?
Friedman is just looking for potential deals and what the market is for some of his pitchers, the chances he trades anyone besides Shields is slim to impossible.
If you judge the return for either pitcher based on what their fans say then the redsox will not be trading with cubs this deadline. But luckily the red sox fans have never even seen a front office much less know what value is in trades.
seriously?
You plan on paying Dempster 12.5 million next year?
Why would a team trade a player if they are not getting something usefull back? The A’s do not need to trade Colon since he is owed only 1 million. Would you rather have some 4th outfielder with a slight chance to make it to the majors or a starter that pitches well. So if a team wants a starter they would need to pay for him. Just like in Dempster the cubs would want something usefull in return he is not a salary dump.
It doesn’t matter if he likes or dislikes “large markets”. He does not obtain a no-trade clause so he could not block any trade before the deadline.
He also happens to be represented by Scott Boras, so…. he’s not staying cheap for real long unfortunately.
When you offer arbitration this year it will be the average of the top 125 (I think) salaries or about 12 million. So if you offer arbitration my guess is a 36 year old Dempster accepts readily.
Especially not any left over beer the Sox couldn’t finish during games last season.
Why would a team with no hope of competing in the next few seasons be demanding a major league ready anything?
They have Cecchini, who has a higher ceiling than Middlebrooks, and started the season at the same level as Castellanos. He’s obviously not as highly rated as Castellanos, but he has a similar ceiling and is a lot more likely to be moved in a trade.
1 year deals don’t hurt clubs like 3 year + deals.
I’m in the same boat. I don’t know jack about the Sox organization, other than the ubiquitous talent at the MLB level. However, I keep seeing the same response from Sox fans: “Talk about a team you know something about,” or “You don’t know anything about the Sox.” This is not helpful. Could you please list some of the talent that might be going back to Chicago in a deal for Garza or Dempster?
He is not.
Yes but he still with with the team through 2016 which I’d say is a fairly long time. Wayyyy too early to trade him
soxprospects dot com has a top 60 ranking of the Red Sox’ prospects with scouting reports, and all of it is free. And while I don’t trust Sickels as well as I do Baseball America, his midseason top 120 list offers a lot more names to know, and is a deeper ranking (10 different Red Sox prospects’ names appear on his list, including the “also considered” names).
Aside from the “big three” of Bogaerts, Bradley, and Barnes they have guys like Garin Cecchini, Ryan Lavarnway, Sean Coyle, Henry Owens, Bryce Brentz, Brandon Jacobs, Blake Swihart, Jose Vinicio…
There are a lot of interesting names in the system (names that Theo would obviously know), but it’s hard to really say which ones are how good without going one by one with scouting reports, so if you’re really interested I would recommend looking at Sickels list to see the highly rated names, and go to soxprospects for scouting reports.
That’s kind of what I’ve been trying to say about the Sox system, their ~10 through low 20s prospects are all ‘B’ish prospects and fairly interchangeable, and have been or could be considered for a top 100 list (Sickels had 7 Red Sox guys in, or considered for, the back end of his top 120 list – including Cecchini), so there are a lot of valuable prospects who people really don’t get to hear much about.
For example, Jose Vinicio is their #21 prospect according to soxprospects dot com, and Sickels put him in the same range as Garin Cecchini (their #9 prospect according to soxprospects), and Bryce Brentz (their #6 prospect according to soxprospects).
Apparently I’m not allowed to say that…
So I’ll just tell you that you are wildly misinformed.
Thanks, I’ll check that out tomorrow. Just got home from work and I need some shut-eye.