Earlier today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported that the Mets were discussing R.A. Dickey in trades with other teams. He hears that the club has not made a "substantial (extension) offer" yet, and if they get the right trade offer they may just move on. Here are the rest of Rosenthal's rumors from the GM Meetings…
- The Rays need B.J. Upton to reject his qualifying offer before making a serious run at his brother Justin. The elder Upton is drawing interest and figures to reject the offer by tomorrow's deadline.
- The Tigers are a darkhorse for Justin since they could offer top third base prospect Nick Castellanos and others, including guys like Avisail Garcia, Rick Porcello, and Drew Smyly.
- The Braves do not appear to be in serious pursuit of Upton.
- The Red Sox continue to be disinclined to trade Jacoby Ellsbury and the chances of moving him are slim. GM Ben Cherington is the type to listen on all of his players, however.
- Brett Myers is telling teams he wants to be a starter first, a closer second, and a setup man third.
- Jon Garland, who has not pitched since July 2011 due to shoulder surgery, intends to make a comeback. He threw for 10-15 teams in September.
It doesn’t surprise me the Braves aren’t in on Upton. We are dealing with Kevin Towers here..
We have a lot of pitching prospects – which they have enough of to put the #3 overall pick of 2011 draft (Bauer) on trade block – and we don’t have SS/3B prospects high enough to hold any real value. Simmons isn’t going anywhere and no one outside of ATL thinks Terdoslavich or Salcedo will be our 3B of the future, based on what we’ve seen up until now.
La Stella and particularly Ahmed seem to have a decent amount of value at this point. I doubt Ahmed’s bat will ever play real well at 3B, but there’s a good chance he can stick at SS. I’m a big fan of La Stella and that ridiculously good plate discipline. He’s 23, but I think he’ll hit for more power than he’s shown so far. Excited to see how he fares in AA next season. I’m no scout, but I’d be surprised if his ceiling isn’t at least a solid utility guy.
I thought there was talk of moving Ahmed to CF with Cunningham since Simmons looks to be the SS for the near future. Don’t know much about Tommy La Stella. Seems to be a lot of guys with nice tools, but rarely are any putting it altogether. It’ll be great to see what Evan Gattis does, He could be our own Josh Hamilton – not with the same ceiling, of course.
In my opinion I do not think it would be a smart idea for the dbacks to trade Bauer (although arrgoant with some adjusting and tweaking he is a #1 starter) although with Ken making various comments about the dbacks players (Bauer inclucded) it could happen. I dont think its right for Ken to make these comments public as well. If he has beef with a player he should approach them directly.
Agreed, but performance dictates a #1 starter more so than attitude. If Bauer pitches according to his talents, and perhaps he adds just a little bit of humility, maybe that’s enough for ARZ to deal with a diva. In light of Ken’s past public questions of Upton, and now this on Bauer, his publicist needs to work overtime to prevent this from getting out and possibly hurting their trade value, if they are indeed on the block.
Being a Braves fan, I can respect an organization willing to “eat it” on a talented player trying to preserve a team attitude. I don’t know if Upton and Bauer are both cases of this, but why else would you sell a #3 overall pick with ace potential and an affordable OF hitting in the heart of your order, unless you’ve got someone better to replace them. And with all due respect to Kubel, Eaton, and Parra, I don’t think they are better offensively.
That and the fact that the Braves minor league system is pretty terrible.
It’s unbalanced, but I don’t know how having top pitching prospects coming out of our ears and not that much depth at some positions equates to “pretty terrible”. Remember: Beachy and Medlen were never at the top of our prospect boards, yet Breachy was the best NL SP the first half of the season and Medlen was the best the 2nd half. Yet, they leaped over higher-rated prospects, all the while having TJ surgery. Even then, we’ve produced one of the best defensive SS in the game (Simmons) to go with Heyward/Freeman and added to the best bullpen in the NL, which is headlined by 2 guys from our system: Venters/Kimbrel. Yes, we could use some more growth from our position prospects, but it’s not coincidence that almost our entire team is homegrown and continues exceeding expectations.
Look at our 2013 starting rotation and almost every publication has Tommy Hanson as our 5th starter, who was the top pitching prospect in MLB just 3 years ago and has had a 10-win season ever since. Not even the Nationals has that kind of depth.
1. Austin Jackson
2. Victor Martinez
3. Miguel Cabrera
4. Prince Fielder
5. Justin Upton
6. Alex Avila
7. Jhonny Peralta
8. Andy Dirks / Avisail Garcia / Quintin Berry
9. Omar Infante
That’s a frightening 1 – 5.
Except in the WS. lol
Don’t remind me…
oh snap!!
You can say that again?
oh snap!!!
If only VMart had some legs…
The trade would deplete the farm entirely. Castellanos would have to be included as well as either Porcello or Smyly… and maybe even Rondon. We’d have to sign either Sanchez or another FA starter to replace Porcello/Smyly.
It’d be scary, but our system would need a complete overhaul after the contracts start coming up.
Well the minor league system needs an overhaul anyway, even with Castellanos. That cupboard has been pretty barren for awhile. Luckily they have quite a few draft picks this year, barring a surprise free agent signing this year that would cost them one.
Jupton hits second. If we lose Sanchez and get a Madson/Soria maybe kill the farm entirely and get Bauer.
Castellanos Rondon Porcello Hernan Perez and Brandon Loy or Tyler Gibson for Upton and Bauer
I’d put Justin 2 and vmart 5 since Justin can actually run and vmart would be a RBI machine again.
Dombrowski already said were probably not going to get a big named player but it would be pretty sick but dont forget castellanos might be ready and we might get brennan boesh back at least i hope we do because you gotta give the guy another chance he shown he can be a good player soo i dont think were gunna get a big named player we need a decent player on like a 2 year contract or something because of castellanos garcia and dirks if they get good and maybe brennan i hope or maybe a trade well iknow there will be a 80 percent chance of a trade of our out fielders
with what prospects? keeping in mind the D-backs dont need pitching prospects because they have a ton of them and all better than the tigers prospects
It’d be headlined by Castellanos… he’s the only prospect we have that’d be up to snuff on a deal like that.
Arizona gets Alan Henson, Jeff Locke, and the Hammer…..Pirates get Justin Upton
I’m not a Bucs fan at all, and I know nothing about their farm system so
I’m not going to say anything about your offer, however…
Can you imagine Cutch and Jupton in the same OF?
With Cutch in center, Upton in right, and Marte in left, it could be the best outfield in the National League
Not with the above offer for Upton
Why? Henson is the pirates number 3 rated prospect and the #9 rated SS prospect in the league. Locke is a proven major league ready lefty which Arizona is looking for a lefty reliever and the Hammer is a top 5 closer in the league. Arizona gets their left side of the infield and bullpen help while the pirates get their outfield help…makes sense
The problem is AZ already ha 3 Closers and are looking for a LHP with a proven track-record.
Brett Myers would be a nice addition to the Pirates rotation.
Justin Upton is going to get more expensive after next year and the Rays are not that kind of a team (as in they trade guys when they cross 10mm/yr). They also have nothing to offer on the SS front and AZ wants a SS more than a pitcher at this point.
If they want Upton without a SS think Price, Shields would be laughed at by AZ.
Shields would not get the Upton deal fdone by himself. However, he is a bonafide #1b/2 type of pitcher, so a package around Upton, with 2-3 projectable prospects would probably work. The Dbacks, for al the depth they have at pitching, are currently at a delicate point. They have only 3 known starters for the rotation. They have a 1b in Kennedy, ROY candidate Wade Miley, and then Trevor Cahill. The other two slots right now would be filled from a pool of Bauer, Skaggs, Corbin and Collmenter (as a long shot). Acquiring another reliable, quality starter like Price changes the dynamic there immeasurably, especially if Hudson comes back in July.
“Braves not very interested in Upton.” Is that a sick joke??? Which Upton?? haha
I’d assume BJ. He’s a great CF, but not a lead-off hitter. He’s a good 2-hitter, but we have a better one in Prado. Pay all that money to a CF and not get a true lead-off hitter. What’s MIN’s number for Span?
Also I have Brett Myers a no. 1 starter……..in Houston. Too soon?
With what money are the Rays able to pay for Upton’s contract (although it’s very reasonable) AND sign Mike Napoli, who is going to get a pretty decent payday.
The extra $25 million in revenue they’ll be getting starting in 2014 from the new TV contract? Maybe they see they have a true 2 year window here to be legitimate World Series threats and are going all in (knowing they have the extra revenue coming). (This is just spectulating and ignoring that they haven’t been rumored to be in on Napoli at all yet – even if he makes sense for them).
You have to account for arbitration raises, so it’s pretty much one or the other.
I could see a Shields for Upton swap (adding prospects and/or cash as well)
if napoli is going to take 7 million a year there are going to be a ton of teams in on him, first and foremost the rangers