The Diamondbacks currently sit at 17-22, in fourth place in the NL West and five games back of the Giants. The deficit doesn't seem insurmountable, but the Baseball Prospectus playoff odds report assigns the team a meager 0.8% chance. If GM Kevin Towers commits to selling in a couple of months, who might be available?
- Second baseman Kelly Johnson belongs at the top of the list, given his $5.85MM salary and impending free agency. However, Johnson is hitting .185/.256/.308 in 162 plate appearances and leads the NL in strikeouts. Even if he starts hitting, this will probably be a salary dump for Arizona at best.
- 29-year-old southpaw Joe Saunders is having a rough year, with a well-deserved 5.48 ERA through eight starts. There's a good chance he's non-tendered after the season. If he can put up a sub-5.00 ERA over the next two months the Diamondbacks might be able to save a few million on the contract. Lefty Zach Duke, recovering from a broken hand, may not make his season debut until late May or early June. If he pitches well in June, he could be a more affordable alternative to Saunders.
- There's an argument for trading shortstop Stephen Drew this summer. It'd probably make the team worse in 2012, but Drew's trade value could be higher than Jose Reyes' since the Arizona shortstop is under control for next season. Towers was willing to listen on Justin Upton during the offseason, and I think he'll field calls on Drew in the coming months. If Drew can be had, Towers would have to listen on catcher Miguel Montero as well, as Montero is also under team control through '12.
- Closer J.J. Putz is another solid player the D'Backs have to consider moving even if it hurts in the short-term. Putz is under contract for '12 and possibly '13. He's nine for nine in save opportunities in a world where Matt Capps can net a team Wilson Ramos.
- The Diamondbacks have a slew of additional veterans who wouldn't net more than salary relief in trade, assuming they're even around in July: Melvin Mora, Armando Galarraga, Aaron Heilman, Xavier Nady, Geoff Blum, Henry Blanco, Russell Branyan, and Willie Bloomquist.
AA supposedly was interested in Johnson before, I could see him targetting him again..
The teams 2B picture isn’t that clear anymore
That would probably be an off-season move and Johnson is hitting pretty bad too. All depends on Hill.
If Escobar or Drew can move to 2B, I wouldn’t mind seeing AA acquire Drew.
he’ll cost quite a bit I would think
Probably something like Hechevarria + Zach Stewart + Carlos Perez
Could AA go after Johnson and Upton?
Something like Johnson,Upton for Hill,Snider,cooper,reyes…..and more ?
-next year outfeild
Upton Davis Bautista
-2 years from now
Upton Gose Bautista
ANd re sign Johnson next year to one of his 1 year 3.5 mill with a club option for a 2nd year at 3 mill?
“Something like Johnson,Upton for Hill,Snider,cooper,reyes…..and more ”
…. unless that ‘more’ is Drabek, D’arnaud and Marisnick no chance the Jays would get Upton and Johnson for anywhere close to that deal.
i think we all like to fantasize about our teams acquiring justin upton in ridiculous ways, but most of us don’t do it out loud. and neither should you
Uptons not even a 300 hitter so he’s not worth as much as u think…with sniders upside and with coppers as well would be good and I would toss D’anaurd in there to and hill still a good player…so there is no fantasizing here Justin upton isn’t Ryan Braun or Jose Bautista
single-handedly ruining the good reputation of jays fans
Haha thank you so much. My annoyance with these ridiculous proposals was momentarily replaced with laughter. Well done sir
Brewers need to get a deal ready for Stephen Drew.
Good luck for the team with the worst farm baseball in baseball. They already had a poor farm before the Greinke trade and now it’s just awful.
Somebody saying it’s the worst doesn’t mean a. that is is the worst. Ratings like that are very subjective or that b. it’s without talent that other teams would covet. The Brewers have some pitching talent in particular at the lower levels (Bucci, Ross, Thornburg) that is pretty good. Brewers are fairly deep in CF position with Schafer (currently injured), and Komatsu (.913 OPS at AA) too.
It also doesn’t mean they couldn’t include someone now on the major league roster that Arizona could use.
Did you see who the Angels traded for Haren? You don’t need to give up anything really good if the team is trying to move contracts.
It’s all about how the GM’s value players. The brewers do have enough, say peralta/rivas, one of the davis’s/hunter morris, and heckathorn. But how much the D backs’ GM values guys that like would determine the possibility of a trade. However, let’s just trade betancourt and parra for drew (haha)
Stephen Drew is going to be a Pirate by July 31st
Man, I would love that, but it would take a lot to get him and I don’t know if it would be worth it.
yea it would take alot lol but the Pirates are going to acquire a piece for the future this year, there are way too many prospects that need protected for the Rule 5 this year, can’t keep them all. Might as well try and package some of them together and see what you can get.
Drew should not net a return better than Reyes. 2012 control or not, he’s not in the same league as Jose. Especially this year.
Anywho – if these guys were moved – Upton, Drew, Montero – the product on the field would be a joke. Chris Young would be the face of your team. I’d rather lock them up and have some sort of team to build around than consider giving so much away now.
Aside from the # of games each has played I don’t see how Reyes’ season has been significantly better than Drew’s. Throw in Drew’s lower salary and a full extra year of control and I do think he should net a better return than Reyes.
Reyes has a better average and (though slightly) OPS/OPS+; he’s stealing more, his WAR and UZR/150 are much higher -without going stat crazy, Reyes is having a significantly better year.
I’ll give you the salary and control argument, but I’d much rather have Reyes on my team in 2011 while he’s performing this well.
The WAR and UZR/150 stuff is entirely unreliable, as it’s coming from tiny fielding samples. It’s not something we can use to predict how they’ll play for the rest of the season. Basically what we’ve got is more playing time and a .356 wOBA vs. .369. Rather than performance the biggest question for me would be who is more likely to stay healthy.
Hey, I’m just proud of myself for keeping up with you in this argument at all. I see your point again about the sample size.
I guess what it comes down to is my personal expectations of Drew and Reyes in 2011, with the much better year going, in my opinion, to Reyes, and these early numbers look very promising to support this.
If I’m the Cards I’ll go after J.J. Putz. That team really needs a closer.
This is a team that this is one decent starter away from contending. Hudson is starting to turn it around . If they can get someone to replace Galarraga/Saunders they could be in it. I think Johnson and Branyan are the only ones who go anywhere. The only way Upton/Drew/Montero get moved is if it’s for Teixeira level talent.
The Red Sox need a catcher, is Montero the solution though?
Dude, Salty hit a home run last night. Good. To. Go.
That Dan Haren trade was so ridiculously awful for the Diamondbacks. I’m a Dodger fan and I feel sad for them…
Take in the fact that they gave up Brett Anderson, Carlos Gonzalez and Chris Carter with 3 others for him….and traded him for Joe Saunders. MLB should have never let that trade happen. Disgustingly one sided.
At first glance I would say that the Cubs should go after Justin Upton, but then when checking the numbers Upton would seem to be a cheaper Soriano 2.0 that can still steal a few bases. I would think that there would be a lot of teams interested in Upton and I look forward to seeing what the asking price is. But… “no” for the Cubs.
“Upton would seem to be a cheaper Soriano 2.0 that can still steal a few bases”
Did that not make sense? I basically meant that he is a right handed power hitter that won’t hit for a high average, strikes out a lot, streaky, average defensively, but when hot he can carry a team. Should be a 30/30 type of player as was Soriano in his younger days.
you said “soriano 2.0 that can steal a few bases”, so you seemed to be talking about present-day soriano
young soriano makes more sense. young soriano with more discipline and much better defense. and also under affordable team control for the next 4 seasons. the only good reason i can come up with for someone not wanting him is that he’ll cost a king’s ransom
Exactly and the cubs simply can’t get him for two reasons. 1 they don’t have the prospects. 2 no where to play him. Way to much money caught up in soriano-Byrd- koske.
I think we shouldn’t get too carried away here, i like the speculation and trade rumors don’t get me wrong, but there is a LONG way to go in this season.. With the underperformance so far from the likes of Kelly Johnson, Justin Upton and our 3-5 starting pitchers and injuries to Bloomquist and Duke we stand 5 games back from San Fransisco. Not to mention the very dificult schdule we have had early on. The only people I see getting moved are Kelly Johnson, Russell Branyan, and Saunders/Galaraga. Either way I believe we can contend THIS year and with our stacked minors system coming in we are going to have a hell of a team if we keep most of our productive players. The next 5-10 years will be fun to watch, go dbacks!
i don’t think a post that’s titled “IF the dbacks BECOME sellers” is getting carried away
you got a point, but what im doing is just trying to defend the fact to some of the people commenting on here that the dbacks arent for sure going to have a fire sale.. not saying the title is getting carried away at all.
Oh yeah, and Red Sox fans, how about this..
AZ: Clay Buchholtz, Ryan Kalish, Jared Salty, and Jose Iglesias/Jed Lowrie.
BOS: Miguel Montero, Justin Upton.
Just an idea.
i’m hopeful that the dbacks and sox will be talking that kind of thing this offseason. i don’t see them parting with buchholz now that he’s extended, but lowrie belongs in arizona
Well they are gonna have to give up Buchholtz if they wanna land Upton.. you gotta give to recieve. and what do you mean by “Lowrie belongs in Arizona”?
Interestingly enough not a horrible trade for both teams
I’d be okay with that