The non-waiver trade deadline passed, but MLB teams will continue making deals this month. What kind of trades can we expect in August? Relievers and role players are often involved in August trades, while star-caliber players are likely to stay put. High-salaried players such as Alfonso Soriano could also be dealt in the next four weeks. MLBTR's Transaction Tracker offers a look back at which trades took place last August:
- Rangers acquire Matt Treanor
- Rangers acquire Mike Gonzalez
- Braves acquire Matt Diaz
- Braves acquire Jack Wilson
- Red Sox acquire Conor Jackson
- Indians acquire Jim Thome
- Rockies acquire Kevin Kouzmanoff
- Diamondbacks, Blue Jays swap Kelly Johnson, Aaron Hill, John McDonald
- Tigers acquire Delmon Young
Jeff Francoeur, Brian Fuentes, Zach McAllister, Pedro Feliz, Derrek Lee, Mike Fontenot, Jim Edmonds and Mike Sweeney were all traded in August of 2010. The previous year saw Thome, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, Ron Mahay, Scott Kazmir, Jon Rauch, Billy Wagner, Bill Hall, Ivan Rodriguez, Aubrey Huff, Alex Gonzalez and Carl Pavano get traded in August.
Note: I've excluded from this list players such as Manny Ramirez, Cody Ross and Alex Rios who were acquired in straight waiver claims.
Soriano is a great pick up for an AL team with a good farm system. The Cubs are prepared to eat a big chunk on his contract, and Soriano can still contribute.
I’d like to see Toronto make a move on either Soriano or Ryan Howard, offer Cubs and Phillies a few mid level prospects and get a good part time DH for the next 2-3 years.
Toronto have an awesome hitters ballpark, and a stacked system, they shouldn’t trade away any big names of course, but a Soriano or Ryan Howard could at the right price be a good piece in going to the WS in 1-2 years.
If they were to acquire Howard, they would have to take on a huge amount of money (95 mil between 2013-16, with a 23 mil option w/10 mil buyout) which I don’t think the Blue Jays would want to be burdened with. Soriano I could see being a more realistic option given he’s controlled just two more years after this, and depending on how much money the Blue Jays take on, wouldn’t be too expensive in terms of prospects. But that’s whether or not AA wants to have the DH role completely occupied for the next couple of seasons.
And if the Blue Jays want to finally return to the playoffs, they’re gonna need more contributions from the pitching staff (ex. Romero returning back to form as well as young arms like Alvarez and Drabek reaching their potential).
I feel Ryan Howards days as a superstar is way past, and the way to maximize his value is in an AL club with a DH spot. I think Ryan, if rotated between 1st base and DH, could regain some, but far from all of his past value. I see him as another Adam Dunn, perhaps even lower value.
But that being said, his value in salary could be somewhere between 10-15 million per year, and if the Phillies eats the rest of the contract, Toronto may have enough mid level prospects to trade that they won’t deplete their farm system to get a deal done.
The chance is that Phillies never can get full value from Ryan Howard if he has to play 1st base full time IMO.
Then again, it’s all about scouting Ryan Howards outlook the next couple of years versus what the prospects in the farm system could bring.
Even though he was a waiver claim, Pedro Strop was the other piece received by the Orioles in the Mike Gonzalez trade last August. Strop is one of the premier relievers in all of baseball.
The Hill-Johnson trade still blows my mind to this date.