The Dodgers have identified James Shields as their top target, Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports (hat tip: Rays Index). The Rays will exercise the right-hander’s 2013 option, but could consider trading him as a way of freeing up payroll and addressing other needs.
Dodgers GM Ned Colletti aims to add a starting pitcher this offseason, Saxon writes. Shields would be an excellent fit, as I suggested when previewing the Dodgers’ offseason. The 30-year-old posted a 3.52 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 227 2/3 innings this past season and his contract includes an option for 2014.
Colletti said he has also spoken to the agent for left-handed reliever Randy Choate. The Dodgers made their first major offseason move last night, signing Brandon League to a three-year deal.
Bye Bye Seagar and Pederson
Corey Seager isn’t going anywhere. He is likely the Dodgers’ 3B of the future.
He’s also like 18 years old.
And cannot be traded until July.
Not really familiar with the LAD farm, but Tampa isn’t going to give away Shields and I am not a supporter of Shields by any means.
Colleti is going to have to turn his farm upside down for Shields and probably if that is the case? better off telling Friedman they would rather target someone worthwhile.. David Price.
I dunno about turning the farm upside down. The Dodgers are limited in position player prospects at this time.
I am sure they will explore options and if no common ground is found, both teams will move on.
Doesn’t have to be a case where one team fleeces the other.
Why are you not a supporter of Shields? Dudes a beast. Top 50 prospect ++ should do it.
Cost for Garza was more than that. Look at where Garza was when he was swapped. Cost was astronomical and far more than a top 50 prospect. I suspect if a team is going to give up multiple top prospects, might as well go after an Ace and that is Price.
Per MLB rules can’t trade Seager until he has been in the Dodgers system for at least 1 year since he was just drafted this past year.
yep but he can be a PTBNL although i like the AJ Ellis mention above Ellis, Gordon and Pederson might get it done.
The Rays will ask for AJ Ellis “as part of the package” while the Dodgers turn around and sign Mike Napoli for 5Y/$100M.
No way Napoli gets a 20 million a year.
Um….NO.! AJ is too highly respected in the organization to be trade bait. Gordon, Fedex, and cash. Otherwise we can easily bring Kuroda back instead.
No way the Rays deal Shields for that garbage. Plenty of other teams out there to get much better than that. (Or just hold onto him like the article states).
The Dodgers better have a good catcher and 1B they are willing to give up.
why 1B? agon is there for like 5 seasons.
He’s saying the Rays will want a 1B in a deal for Shields.
we dont have a good 1B prospect….that i know of.
Scott Van Slyke has been hitting well this winter.
Not really a prospect…
Thinking the top catcher (or closest) is Federowiscz? he was PCL catcher of the year..
Could TB use Kendrys Morales at 1B. If the Angels don’t bring back Haren, Santana and lose Greinke, we’re going to need pitching.
I’d offer Dee Gordon and Joc Pederson for Shields.
Rays can non-tender Sean Rodriguez & Ryan Roberts and plug in Gordon and they get a CF in Pederson to replace B.J. Upton.
Pederson is a strong prospect, but he’s behind Puig and Dodgers can play Luis Cruz at SS and move HanRam to 3B if they want or keep it the way it was last year with HanRam at SS and Cruz at 3B.
Rays shed a ton of salary and get cheap players in return.
Give up a catcher or it’s a no go. The Rays have Zobrist at SS now
I don’t think LAD match up well with TB’s needs.
So they don’t plan to use Zobrist in the OF?
Sure, Dodgers can also send over Federowicz. So Gordon, Pederson and Federowicz for Shields.
Signing a backup catcher should not be hard.
Getting Shields for $10.25 mill for ’13 would be great. Allows the Dodgers to probably go out and target another mid-tier SP to bolster the rotation.
Gordon, Pederson, and Fed-x for two years of James Sheilds? given how much the dodgers have traded their farm system away, this seems steep to me, even though he is a great pitcher.
If they could make an extension part of the deal, maybe. Otherwise that would be giving away too much, especially considering the available free agents.
why thinking it is only two years? given current trend, good pitchers get locked up by their original teams. If dodgers trade shields, they have money to lock him up. Not to mention Shields is born and raised in LA.
Because his current contract is only for 2013 with an extension in 2014. They’d have to trade and get him extended at the same time, or it isn’t worth a lot of prospects — when instead they could shoot for Grienke on a multi-year, deal or Kuroda for one year and neither one costs the team any prospects.
Well, Pederson is blocked because the Dodger OF is full and Puig is the guy next in line in terms of promotion.
Dee Gordon obviously brings speed, but I think HanRam and Cruz block him right now as well.
Federowicz is a decent defensive catching prospect, but he’s not an elite C prospect by any means.
I think the trade gives the Rays cheap, usable prospects and also sheds them of Shields’ considerable salary for ’13, which is what they really want.
This is just a laughable offer. Some others are really bad too. Shields is a top 20-25 pitcher in the game. You’re not going to get him for an unproven, solidly talented SS and a decent prospect. You’d have to give up star minor league talent to get Shields or Price. The conversation would likely have to start with Zach Lee and then add from there.
Then keep him and try to make payroll!
the Dodgers aren’t the only ones who want him, look what they got for Garza
You should not expect a team to take on $20M and give up top prospect besides, especially when the player they are trading is under contract for only two more seasons.
Ah, yeah you should. Considering that $20 million for 2 years of Shields is well well under market value.
Maybe, but let’s see what the market says about that.
You’re kidding, right? PLEASE tell me you’re kidding. The money is the best part about Shields. Qualifying offers this year for departing free agents is over $13M and most of them are a good bit worse than Shields. He’s a GREAT pitcher and a great pitcher at $10M a year is nothing short of a steal.
Okay, I’m kidding. Feel better? Seems to be some debate over exactly how much he is worth, but even accepting your figures, the difference probably isn’t worth giving up several top prospects, let alone one or more major league ready players under team control as some are suggesting. Not for two years it isn’t. The Dodgers are more likely to send the Royals some money than Gordon or Federowicz or any of the pitching prospects that they refused to trade before.
I see trading Shields as more as a value-type trade rather than trading for needs. James Shields is one of the better trading chips the Rays have and are very confortable going into next season with him rather than without him, so I doubt they’ll force anything.
I dont think the Dodgers have much to really offer that they’ll be comfortable giving up. Granted, if there is a MLB-ready catcher, CF or 1B in the deal, that would be ideal for the Rays; but I can see the Rays asking for some minor-league arms with upside as well. I dont think the Dodgers have enough that they’ll be willing to part with and that the Rays would want, so they’ll probably have to get another team involved somehow.
The Rays aren’t in a very strong position to bargain with Shields right now. They might be in a better place after some of the top starters are signed as free agents. The teams that don’t get what they want from the free agent pool might be more motivated to give up something serious for Shields, but I’d be surprised if it happened before then.
Exactly, which is why I’d be surprised if a deal gets done before marquee names like Zach Grenkie are signed. I do think that the Rays are in a strong bargaining position. They could very well keep Shields for one more year (he has 1 more option year after that), but there are a lot of teams searching for top-tier SP.
The Rays are apparently motivated to dump payroll, and as is generally the case in such situations, they are not likely to get bunch of top prospects to boot.
They are eventually, but not this offseason. They’d happily have Shields on the team this year if they cant find anything they want or trade him this July; however, when the salaries of the rest of the team (Longoria, Zobrist, Joyce, Jennings or some of the other pitchers) start to escalate, they’ll have to get rid of Shields or Price.
If that’s the case, then I imagine Colletti is telling the Rays that he’d rather spend the money on Grienke or Kuroda.
James Shields’ Velocity in 2012
July: 93.17
August: 93.56
September: 94.5
October: 95.57
Since he tweaked his delivery after all star break, his velocity jumped up super high. It will be possibly his career year in 2013 given his 2nd half number and career high advanced stats. Hope Rays hold onto this guy.
Griff Erickson is going to give the Dodgers more than FedX over time, so adding him to a deal to get 2 years of a pitcher entering his prime would be worth it.
Ethier for Shields.
Tampa can’t afford Shields, they certainly can’t afford Ethier. The bat would be perfect, but salary would have to be 5-6m, rather than 15mAAV unfortunately for them.
Dodgers would likely be open to trading Ethier for Shields, Probably would be willing to eat SOME contract too, but not likely to the point that makes Ethier enticing for the Rays.
I think Rays would prefer cheap, cost-controlled prospects for Shields. That’s the whole purpose of trading Shields, to save money.
Shields was discussed pre non-waiver trade deadline. The fact that it’s revisited now would imply that a possible framework is there that makes sense for both sides.
What changed after the non-waiver deadline? Dodgers added Crawford, Gonzalez, Beckett and Dee Gordon is off DL. Making trading Ethier and/or Gordon a possibility.
That said, I assume a deal would be around one of those two guys.
Come on Dbacks… don’t let this happen… we could really use Shields (unless the Dodgers overpay again, in which case go after a more reasonable option).
y? so you guys can ship him to oakland in August?
Acquiring four over the hill, overpaid players from the Sox wasn’t a good baseball decision.
Three team deal that has the dodgers trading Ethier somewhere to get the prospects needed to get Shields or Price?
You mean a deal that leaves the Dodgers short an outfielder? I don’t think so.
If the Dodgers flip Ethier it would be followed by signing another outfielder. I won’t say Hamilton, but maybe a 2 year deal for someone while we wait for Puig.
So they play some warm body, while they wait for a player who may never arrive? This does not sound like a plan for winning to me. If they did flip Ethier it would have to be AFTER they signed someone better, and at this point, only Hamilton qualifies IMO.
Victorino can slide into Ethier’s role. Not as good as him, by a long shot. But he could be a good stop gap for Puig. Not that farfetched, IMO
Sounds kind of farfetched to me. Victorino is a free agent and is going to get a multiyear contract from somebody. Victorino is also a leadoff hitter by trade, and that role should be filled by Crawford next year. I also don’t think it makes any sense to plan around Puig yet, after only a couple of months in the low minors. I doubt the Dodgers are that high on him yet either.
so what’s wrong with a 2 yr contract with a vesting option for a 3rd year, either based of plate appearances or games played. Gives you time to see how well Puig can turn out. If he falters, you still have Victorino who can come and bounce back and be at least a 2 WAR player, and in 2 years, you can find a OF’er in FA. You don’t want Hamilton at his price.
And this is coming from a Rays fan, Crawford leading off is a HORRIBLE idea. He strikes out too much and doesn’t walk enough to be a lead off guy. He’s either a #2 or a #5.
Crawford’s OBP really dropped in 2011-12 (along with everything else) but before that was good enough for a leadoff hitter (mid-.350s). The Dodgers no doubt are banking on him coming back to form and batting leadoff. They don’t have anybody else really. Victorino was certainly not a good leadoff man for the Dodgers and even if he got back to form would not be any better than Crawford in that role. But the REALLY big problem with the Victorino scenario is that they’d have to sign him before trading Ethier, and I don’t see that happening since Victorino is looking for and will probably get a position (not 4th outfielder) somewhere.
I’m a Rays fan and I can tell you that there was a reason Carl Crawford was never in the leadoff spot. I’m telling you, he struggles in the leadoff role. I honestly have no idea why, but there’s a reason why Pinella and even Maddon hardly used him there
And you’re right. I wouldn’t try to resign Victorino unless Ethier is gone. All i’m saying is that I think Victorino can bounce back to his normal numbers, or slightly under them.
The Dodgers can’t sign Victorino before trading Ethier because they can’t offer him the starting role and multiple years he could get somewhere else, and they can’t afford to do it afterwards or they risk paying through the nose, or coming up an outfielder short. But since it is highly unlikely that Ethier is going anywhere I wouldn’t worry about this scenario. As for Crawford, I don’t know. I presume that the Dodgers are looking at him as the leadoff guy since nobody else in the lineup fits in any better.
The Dodgers have nothing good left to give.
Looking at the Dodgers roster, I see a few people the Rays can get for shields. AJ Ellis or Luis Cruz
Tampa isn’t going to give up a solid SP for a 31YO career MiLB player who had 1 decent season.
Just want to bring up another point, remember when everyone said the Dodgers will never get Agon. and look what happened.
I think sheilds for zack lee and dee gorden would work for both sides as the rays get another young pitcher and a controllable shortstop for sheilds
If im the rats i offer sheilds for zack lee and dee gorden