The Reds have been nearly unbeatable since losing their top player to injury and now have the best record in baseball at 64-41. Here are today's NL Central links after another Reds win…
- The Pirates considered and rejected a trade that would have sent two minor leaguers to Arizona for Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports (on Twitter). The prospects — not Jameson Taillon or Luis Heredia — are at the mid-to-low levels of Pittsburgh's farm system.
- The Phillies asked the Pirates for Starling Marte, Brad Lincoln and more in possible trades for Hunter Pence, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports (on Twitter). The Phillies ultimately obtained Nate Schierholtz, minor league reliever Seth Rosin and minor league catcher/first baseman Tommy Joseph from the Giants for Pence.
- MLB terminated the contract between the Cardinals and right-handed pitching prospect Andres Serrano, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. The Cardinals had signed the Dominican for $750K, but he failed the age and identity sections of his investigation, according to Badler. Brian Walton of TheCardinalNation.com had the story last month.
Any way to find out who those prospects were who could have been in the Drew trade? They should have also pulled the trigger on Pence and depending on the prospects, maybe Drew.
I’m glad the Pirates didn’t pull the trigger on Pence – that’s way too much!
IMO for what Pence brings right now, Marte and Lincoln might be steep.
Well they are pretty deep as far as OF goes in their farm system, but yeah I’m not sure if I would do that either. But depending on the prospects they wanted for Drew, they should have pulled the trigger on that one.
Agreed. Marte may just as good as Pence as soon as next season, then not to mention Pence could be making 15M or so and giving up Lincoln, no thanks. Funny they settled for much less though.
I agree with Mike, way too much for pence. There was no reason to overpay for a name. Especially when the best years are still in front of the pirates. They traded very little away (Lincoln and the draft pick most notably) and got very high potential players that they’ll control for multiple years rather than get rid of better prospects for a 2 month rental. (I know pence is controlled beyond this year, at a high price, but most targets were just rentals) The team is slightly better and seated to be even better next year.
Pence would have been a disaster.
Since June 1st, Hunter Pence: .738 OPS; Alex Presley: .727 OPS
Pence didn’t have Utley and Howard while the Pirates have been firing on all cylinders.
Even if you’re willing to ignore the bad year Pence is having at the plate, the fact that he is set to earn close to $15MM next year would absolutely cripple a team like the Pirates. Even with the free agents like Corriea, Bedard and Barajas coming off the books, the team payroll would jump close to $80MM. They would have to dump a few more salaries, like Hanrahan and Jones, and they wouldn’t be able to really make any offseason additions. All that for a guy that is giving you about the same production as Alex Presley. Like I said, Pence would have been a disaster for the Pirates.
No comments about drew, or do we know too little about the prospects? I would think that Brock Holt would be in the mix.
Barmes has been hitting around .240 and playing great defense over the past two months. At this point, I don’t think Drew is the type of player that could even match that production, much less upgrade it.
I hear that the package was centered around Hansen, but havent heard any names thrown around about the second guy. But if in fact they wanted Hansen, that would corroborate reports that Huntington tried to make a few counteroffers but couldnt put together a package both sides could agree upon.
Hansen is a top 50 MLB prospect (maybe 53 or 54..cant remember at the moment), and Drew is not worth that type of haul at this stage of his career, he is overpaid and injury prone. HOWEVER, I would have much rather had him than Barmes. Im guessing this means the pirates were the mystery team that was set to acquire Drew if in fact he got traded.
Best record in MLB, and we are doing it WITHOUT Votto, 14-3 since he went down. He’ll be back next week, here we come baby
Now we know the Pirates weren’t kidding about that asking price being insanely high!
I’m glad they didn’t bring Drew to Pittsburgh. I’d rather see Barmes & Jordy Mercer play short than Drew, he gets hurt constantly just like his brother, and is in decline. I suspect the prospects were probably better in the long term than Drew anyway.
If they are going to get an injury prone shortstop, I’d rather they get Jed Lowrie from Houston. At least he has better power.