The Diamondbacks will open a series against the Dodgers tonight with a rotation that has produced a combined 6.57 ERA that trails only the Twins for the worst mark in Major League Baseball, but general manager Kevin Towers tells MLB.com's Steve Gilbert that he's not actively pursuing trades of pitchers at this time (Twitter link). However, he does expect to sign a veteran starter to serve as depth at Triple-A in the coming days.
As the Arizona Republic's Nick Piecoro wrote this week, Josh Collmenter seems likely to be headed into the rotation in place of either Randall Delgado or Trevor Cahill (and that was written prior to another poor outing from Delgado last night). That might provide an upgrade, but it's not the most impactful move that the club could make. Top prospect Archie Bradley is looming at Triple-A Reno, where he tossed five shutout innings in his first start of 2014. Bradley would need to remain in Triple-A through late April to delay his free agency another season or stay in the minors through June to avoid Super Two status. CEO Derrick Hall recently told fans that service time isn't a consideration, and Bradley is "exactly where he should be right now to fine tune some skills and work on his command." (Of course, those comments are the expected refrain from an executive.) Gilbert tweeted to one of his followers that there has been no mention of Bradley being promoted as of yet.
A look at the remaining free agents shows that Towers and his baseball operations staff don't have a lot to choose from in terms of starting pitchers. Freddy Garcia would make sense, but he's said that he would prefer retirement to pitching in Triple-A, making him an unlikely fit as minor league depth. Jair Jurrjens could have the most upside of the group. He underwent knee surgery last September but should be recovered based on the timeline tweeted by Yahoo's Tim Brown this winter. Those two names are pure speculation on my part.
I understand the skepticism about keeping Bradley down and stopping his service clock. But didn’t the D-Backs give him a few prominent late-ish spring training starts after Corbin’s injury, which he then kind of blew horribly? It’s not like he looked ready and they sent him down.
I’m not sure Bradley’s 4.32 ERA and more K’s than IP was “horrible”. You may have been thinking of Trevor Cahill’s spring starts. I live in Reno so I got to see Bradley’s first start and he looked pretty good to me with five shutout innings. That said, he did walk too many guys this spring, but if you’re basing the decision on talent alone and not service time, it’s pretty clear he’s one of the team’s top starters.
You’re talking cumulative. I am–as I said–talking of his final two spring starts: a Cactus League game and an exhibition vs. Team Australia. The D-Backs indicated they’d see if he could force his way onto the big club.
In his 3/13 Cactus Lg start, he gave up 4 ER on 5 H in 2 IP. In the 3/21 exhibition, he gave up 3 R in 3 2/3 IP, with 6 H (inc 1 HR) and 3 BB.
They gave him a chance at the end of spring; he blew it. He was nervous. He’ll be back. But saying he was sent down to stop his arb clock is unfair. He earned that demotion by stinking it up when faced with better competition at the end of spring.
jason hammel straight up for delgado, you’d have to at least consider it if you’re AZ right?
No you Trade a SS for a SP.
Why don’t you consider that he can’t be traded before June 15th without his consent before making fantasy proposals?
hammel signed a one year deal with the cubs, he knows what’s coming.
It’s not coming for a few months.
Daisuke for Didi
Judging by your profile picture I am going to go out on a limb and say you are overly optimistic Mets fan. KT laughs and hangs up at that proposal
Unless Jurrjens’ surgery was to give him back the knee cartilage he no longer has, he’s not a reliable option. Too bad, because he was good with Atlanta, but it was painful to watch him try in Baltimore last year.
Santiago and Skaggs are probably lookin pretty good right about now.
This is a “problem” entirely of KT and Gibson’s own making.
Bradley still has some real control issues, so there really is no reason to bring him up yet. He can get those walks under control without starting his clock, since just adding Bradley to the rotation does not suddenly take the team from being a 95 loss type team to a .500 team.
Diamondbacks sign Randy Wolf to a minor league contract.