Some of the biggest trade chips have already been moved, some contenders are dropping out of the race and few teams seem willing to take on salary. All of these factors give MLB executives the sense that this trade deadline could be a quiet one, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Lots can happen in the coming three days, so here are Sherman’s latest rumors:
- One NL scout says the Phillies are “the most active team out there.”
- The A’s think their young pitching will keep them in contention next year. The club expects to be able to afford a major power hitter like Adam Dunn this offseason.
- The Blue Jays tell rival teams that they are content to keep Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg, Jason Frasor and John Buck. The Jays claim they’d offer arbitration to all four, but some teams believe they’re just posturing. Frasor (barely) and Downs project as Type A free agents, while Buck and Gregg project as Type Bs. Click here for the details, but essentially the Jays could obtain six top picks in 2011 if all four players turn down arbitration to sign elsewhere.
- Toronto officials say Downs would earn a contract comparable to Darren Oliver ($3.5MM) or Jeremy Affeldt ($4.5MM) if he accepts arbitration.
- Twelve teams have called on Downs and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports notes on Twitter that the Dodgers are a “longshot” to acquire the lefty. Ned Colletti & Co. have interest in the Jays’ relievers, according to Rosenthal.
I believe the Jays (re: offering arb) for all of those guys except Frasor…well, they might but its a guarantee he accepts if he stays a type A. guess they don’t mind him being around in 2011. I could see him being traded after Downs though, so to not knock a bidder out of the Downs sweepstakes.
Frasor can still sign with a team like Boston even if he is a Type A. They have a few FA where they can get 1st round picks back if they are unable to sign him and the pick they would be giving up would be pretty low, the same probably applies to Downs as well.
I think Frasor is more likely to achieve Type A If Gregg is traded.
um why would Adam Dunn ever want to sign with the A’s? then again he did sign with the Nats when they had Thug life Outfield and were at the bottom of the basement… I hope he stays with the Nats an sticks around with Stras
I feel as if the A’s are two power hitters away from being a serious contender in the AL West. The pitching is making serious improvements, and there are decent supplementary pieces that could surround a few good power hitters. If Carter/Taylor come up, that further augments the core.
Adam Dunn goes a long, long way to help that team contend.
The A’s make the playoffs much sooner than the Nats do. They don’t have one star guy like Strasburg, but they’ve got a full rotation of good pitchers.
To get to the playoffs a little quicker.
I’m thinking they’re (Jays) bluffing. I can’t imagine all those guys turning down arbitration, seems like becoming a Type A free agent is more of a curse for free agents these days (with teams starting to value their draft selections)…
they jays offered arb to all the free agents last year, and its not like the jays are hurting for money, they will offer arb and take their chances. worst case scenario they pull a trade like soriano.
also if teams like yankees/redsox sign werth/cliff lee, that means any subsequent free agent gets a lower pick, the jays would get the yankees 2nd round pick.
I don’t see the Jays having any issues with any of these guys accepting arbitration. All are useful pieces and the cost isn’t that great. The Jays have money to spend, so it’s not an issue.
I think they all get multi year deals elsewhere, except maybe Gregg. He isnt much better this year than last, though some GM might like his save totals.
AA is right though, he expects the Jays to contend next year, with some additions on the ball club. He’d be alright if all players accepted arbitration. Then he would need to add a LF and/or a 3B. Especially the way the starters came together this year, with some luck, the Jays can be a threat in the East.
So, why would AA drop down his demands for the best lefty reliever on the market, just because Yankees/Sox fans want him to? He should keep asking for Kelly/Montero all the way till noon Saturday. If some team blinks and pays AA’s price, great. f not, take the high picks in the super-deep draft next year.
“Then he would need to add a LF and/or a 3B”
Assuming he trades Baustista?
I was wondering that too. If they keep Bautista, you have a line up of Snider (LF/RF), Wells (C), Bautista (RF/3B), Wallace (1B), JPA/Buck (C), Hill (2B), Yunel (SS), and ???Emaus maybe?? (3B).
What do you think happens if Hechevarria is ready part way through 2011? Do you move one of him, Yunel, or Hill to third? Or do you trade one of them?
Positions you can fill defensively… but we need a lead off hitter. Currently, no one in the organization fits that bill. So AA needs to find a table setter who can either play 3b or RF. and bautista plays wherever this new lead off batter doesn’t… bullpen needs a shake up, rotation will be better next year, they will be better but still 2-3 years away from post season
Could definitely see Buck declining arb. Not Frasor. Probably not Gregg. Don’t know on Downs, but it’s not all that bad either way. Buck seems like he could definitely turn it down though.
IMO AA is not bluffing, he will ofer arby to them all, Gregg has team options in his contract that can be excersised if I am not correct
the only move that would make the phils better is getting oswalt or a better closer like dotel…..i really dont think kendrick or blanton is that much worse than westbrook and definitley not worth the prospects
A’s really do have a good rotation.
cahill
braden
anderson
mazzero
someone else
solid 1-4 if not 1-5. good leadoff hitter in Davis. Good Catcher. some talent in the minors. They could be a darkhorse next year.
forgot Gio Gonzalez
Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill, Vin Mazzaro make up one of the best rotation’s in Baseball when healthy.
Why would we get picks from Gregg? Either we buy him out or exercise his options. I don’t see how we’d be offering him arb.
AA can decline the option on Gregg and then offer arbitration.
don’t exercise the option and offer arb
It depends what you think his value will be after this season. Last year Gregg got a deal for $2 million (+.75 buyout) and his options are for $4.5 million+. It’s tough to say how this season will have affected his value but the options are quite simple once you have a number for his market value:
1. If he’s worth less now than 2.75 million, you decline the options and don’t offer arbitration
2. If he’s worth the greater than or equal to 2.75 but less than 4.5, you decline the option but offer arb, since he’s likely to get a multi-year deal for more than he’d get in arb.
3. If he’s worth about 4.5, you take the one year option
4. If he’s worth significantly more than 4.5, you pick up both options.
Based on his performance to date, I’d say the #2 is actually the most likely.
Bluffing? Have you been paying attention to what AA has done since he became GM? He will offer arbitration and if they accept (all but Gregg) he will be fine with it. If they decline, he does what he did last year and gets a shitload of draft picks. Sure he wants to trade them, but want to and have to are 2 totally differnt things. The only ones I see moving are Downs and Buck, and they will go for some high end talent!
Frankly, i think they really want the draft picks again. These guys doubled their scouting staff, and seem quite anxious to load up the system from top to bottom. I think having 6 extra early round picks is very appealing to these guys.
No one will sign frasor as a type A, or gregg as a type b.
Why would the team that sign him cares if he’s a type B??? They don’t loose any picks. And some team will still sign Frasor as a type A… one that will have a protect 1st round or a team that signed a higher rated type A
Since none of those players are worth high end talent I highly doubt anyone will trade for them unless the asking price comes down. I honestly think that AA will be loosing out big time if he doesn’t trade most if not all of them because if these guys are offered arbitration all of them are likely to accept and so the Blue Jays get no picks and still won’t be good enough to contend next year. It’s going to take a few more years, like 2 to 4, for the Jays to be a possible playoff contender again. And they better hope that they will have better talent on their team than the Sox, Yanks, and Rays by then because even though the first two may lose players they will sign new ones or promote within the system and the Rays are going to probably lose Crawford and/or Pena but they definitely have the farm system to replace those two not to mention the pitching depth in that farm system.
AA in the driver’s seat
The A’s will definitely be in contention next year (along with this year). They have a solid, young rotation that has plenty of depth top to bottom while also having one the better bullpens in all of baseball the past couple years. That, along with its solid defense, makes the A’s a very strong team. All they really need is a power bat or two to really contend. Dunn would be a very good target for the A’s, for he wouldn’t probably sign for more than 2 or 3 years (he’s stated he wants 3-4 years, but I doubt that happens in this economy unless the Nationals really want him to stay). I expect the A’s to go after one of either Dunn/Pena/Glaus/Ortiz/Berkman (if he becomes a free agent, which is likely given his expensive option for next year) for the DH role. The A’s are well-stocked at every position except for LF and DH. I don’t know whether Cust will be resigned or not, but he is starting to get hot and starting to hit more homers while also having a high batting average for once. Werth would also be a good option as he has power, hits for AVG/OBP, has speed, and is solid defensively. Though the A’s could just fill those positions internally, as they have Carter and Taylor in the minors. They could fill both DH and LF respectfully.
When you adjust for park and league, Cust’s a better pure hitter than Glaus and Berkman at this stage in their careers.
Cust should be offered arb (aka resigned). An .800-850 OPS bat (in the Coliseum, which is death to hitters) for under 5MM in arb? Do it. All day. He’s not going to get a lot in arb since he got DFA’d to start the season and spent a month in AAA.
You don’t get rid of a cheap power hitter just to add a more expensive power hitter. The A’s can live with putting one of Dunn/Cust in the field and the other at DH.
There’s no guarantee that Carter AND Taylor outhit Cust, and even if they do, a LH bench bat isn’t a bad thing to have.
Thats what I was thinking. The A’s could add someone like Dunn while also resigning Cust. Since Dunn wants to play the field and not DH, stick him in LF while having Cust return to the DH role.
CF Rajai Davis
1B Daric Barton
DH Jack Cust
LF Adam Dunn
C Kurt Suzuki
3B Kevin Kouzmanoff
RF Ryan Sweeney
2B Mark Ellis
SS Cliff Pennington
That right there would be a pretty patient lineup with Barton/Cust/Dunn in the 2-3-4 spots. Some people might be wary of Cust batting third, but he would get some good pitches to hit in front of Dunn which might help him out a bit. Otherwise you could just bat Sweeney third in front of Dunn and have Cust hit behind him.
I feel bad for the A’s and A’s fans. They need that stadium, they need to be able to spend some money. They need to be able to afford to make some mistakes. A’s pitchers get hurt, and the team falters. Yankees and Bosox pitchers get hurt, and they buy a new one.
While I agree with your comment, and I accept your pity; I think they have money to spend but are just to cheap to do so. Look at the Crisp and Sheets signings, both awful due to the massive amount of money that they both rec’d. He grossly overpaid for both.
” I expect the A’s to go after one of either Dunn/Pena/Glaus/Ortiz/Berkman”
Leave it to the A’s to go after the one that is best friends with the DL.
Hahaha I see where you’re going with this. But other than that, there isn’t much unless you go after Crawford or Werth, in which both will be coveted by many teams and will probably cost a lot.
Love how fans of Red Sox and Yankees think they are just going to get what they want for whatever they want to give. Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman meet AA.
Buck Martinez was on the FAN 590 a few minutes ago, and let it slip that the Yankees and Jays were talking about “a bigger name than Joba in a possible trade for Downs”.
It will be here shortly:
fan590.com/ondemand/
Couldn’t find the clip but I would take what Buck says with a grain of salt. He also said that Bautista shouldn’t be traded unless Dominic Brown is PART of the return.
no he didn’t.
Buck M. said that “if” a guy like Dom. Brown is part of the deal, then you make the deal.
meant to add that the wording is slightly different but the effect is larger. he was implicating: sell big or don’t sell at all
Thx for the link Jeff…tried to do a triple like….but…not available…..will other members please be kind enough to do some likes on my behalf
link is not working for me as well
as if buck martinez is kept in any sort of loop with the gm
Yeah, i hear ya..but he is around these guys daily.
I heard that too — assumed it was a reference to Montero. Enjoyed hearing him and McCown mock Keith Law for saying the Jays should take what they can get for Bautista.
A’s have the 2nd lowest team era in the AL
This is with braden, anderson missing chunks of the season, duchscherer only pitching a handful of games, Sheets being an overpaid innings eater. No one denies their pitching talent, the problem is their terrible, power lacking offense. I dont see Dunn signing there. IMO the only alternative is using their pitching depth for hitting
The A’s really need to stay away from signing perpetually injured players and wasting money on them. 10M+ will be off the books with Chavez finally gone next year, as well as Crisp and Sheets. Tough to blame them on Chavez, but 10M was way too much for Sheets when they didn’t have a huge need for pitching to begin with. It seems like this team plays well despite a lot of things. Beane still does a great job at stocking the farm system and having some quality young talent, but it seems like every time they try to supplement the roster with a FA or trade it blows up in their face. They are just having some very bad luck signing free agents. Too bad they couldn’t get Beltre. Then again, he is another guy who deals with injuries and I just think Fenway is a perfect hitter’s park for him.
don’t know about anyone else but I’ll be watching http://www.milb.com to see what phillies minor leaguers either miss starts over the next several days or are pulled from the lineups.
Wonder how much the Astros like Vance Worley’s shutout last night???
Maybe looking to much into this but AA spoke to Bautista and Frasor durring warm ups today
Since bautista has now become an expert on bad pitching, he was probably asking bautista tips on what to tell frasor.
heard prince fielder maybe going to the mets for ike davis and adam dunn to the yanks.
Source please.
it was either 660 WFAN or 1050 ESPN both NY stations.