Despite pitching just 28 1/3 innings in 2013, Gavin Floyd inked a one-year deal with the Braves yesterday that is worth $4MM and could reach $8.5MM via incentives. That's a fine payday for a mid-rotation arm coming off Tommy John surgery, but Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports that Floyd could have been paid even more handsomely. According to Connolly, the Orioles offered Floyd a two-year deal that could have reached $20MM after incentives, but Floyd turned them down. Here's more out of the AL East…
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that there's no traction to trade talks between the Yankees and Mariners regarding Dustin Ackley (Twitter link).
- David Ortiz told WEEI.com's Rob Bradford that, contrary to reports, he and the Red Sox never made an agreement to hold off on discussing a new contract until the completion of his current two-year deal. Said Ortiz: "Why would I do that? I want to get a deal done." Ortiz and the Sox are discussing an extension.
- The Rays are interested in infielders Jamey Carroll and Mark Reynolds, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (on Twitter).
Other than Gardner who NYY has “no intention” of trading, who does NYY have to offer in a trade?
Brian Roberts
JR Murphy has some value as a (nearly) big league ready catching prospect. Teams love to overpay for catching prospects.
Not teams that have arguably the best catching prospect in baseball who is already in the majors (Mike Zunino).
I wasn’t even talking about the Mariners. He asked what trade chips the Yankees have other than Gardner.
Well I’m assuming that his comment is in reference to Ken Rosenthal’s comment about the Yankee’s potential to trade for Ackley, but sure in a general statement, the Yankees have things of value to trade.
Gary Sanchez, David Phelps, Ivan Nova, Mason Williams Jr, Tyler Austin, Dellin Betances, Aaron Judge, Ichiro Susuki, Vernon Wells, KellyJohnson, Zolio Almonte Etc..
Suzuki and Wells are liabilities, not assets; Judge can’t be traded this year; Phelps and Nova would be dealing from an area of weakness, unlikely they’d do that; their prospects all had terrible years, so they’d be selling extremely low; and Johnson wouldn’t net you much at all. Any other ideas?
Phelps is not an area of weakness. The Yankees have plenty of back-end caliber starters, their issue is a front-end. I think Nova can reach his ceiling as a “3” which means him, Kuroda and CC, for right now, are untouchable. But Phelps? You also have Pineda, Nuno and Warren. Not to mention Marshall and the ability to get a stop-gap. We’re talking a buy low candidate in Ackley and an established back-end starter in Phelps.
Maybe, but I’d be surprised if they dealt him. Pineda hasn’t thrown a big league pitch in how long? And the other guys are maybe guys you’d want to have one spot belong to, in a pinch, definitely not two spots. That is, unless they sign Tanaka or someone else which is definitely not out of the realm of possibility. But what if one of the 3 goes down to injury? You want Warren stepping in?
Agreed. If the Yankees don’t sign another starter for the front-end, four at the worst, this conversation is irrelevant. My entire premise is they’re signing another pitcher with or without Phelps. Assuming they do, the Yankees have plenty of fifth starter options, Phelps is not a four starter to me regardless so his spot with the team is replaceable.
I doubt Pineda starts in majors after missing 2 years. I don’t see them trading anyone until they sign another pitcher. You have Marshall, Nuno, Phelps, and Warren for 3 slots right now. Ideally you only give 2 of them a slot next year.
Two slots. CC, Kuroda and Nova.
NYY is not moving Nova or Betance given their pitching shortage. They need Johnson for the IF. Judge was their first round pick in 2013 so I doubt they are moving him. Ichiro and Wells are not worth anything even if NYY eats the contract. So that leaves Williams, Sanchez and Austin. So they have some low level prospects that are several years away from the MLB….
I would understand if it was Trout, but Ackley really shouldn’t cost that much.
But it’s four years of 25-year-old Dustin Ackley, who is projected at about 7.7 WAR over those four seasons, for one year of 30-year-old Brett Gardner, who is projected at 3.7 WAR in 2014.
LOL.
I wouldn’t give up gardner straight up for Ackley.
A 3.7 WAR player is much more valuable than a 1.9 war player simply because it is relatively easy to find on scrap heap a 1-1.5 WAR player over a whole season, much harder to find a 4 war player.
Not when he is in a walk year if Gardner was a controlled player with a couple of years of team control then yes.
Ackley or Franklin are the best Trade options for 2B. Though I like Gardner, Yankees would have to get a 3rd team involved believe it or not to acquire anything from Seattle. Their Farm is completely depleted.
Not depleted, but many players seriously underperforming.
+ 1 controlablity is very valuable.
Nobody. One of worse farms in MLB
A-Rod
Why?! The Rays don’t need Carroll OR Reynolds….
What they need is some power, right now their line-up is looking like
DeJesus OF
Zobrist 2B
Myers OF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Escobar SS
Jennings OF
Lobaton Catcher
Rodriguez/Joyce DH
That’s like 2-3 guys that could break 20 hrs.
Reynolds does have power. Just would rather not sign him, due to high strikeout totals.
I wouldn’t sell them too short now. Myers and Longo if healthy are basically locks for 20-30+ HR. Zobrist has hit 20+ in 2 of the last 3 years and averaged 18 over the last 5, while Joyce has averaged 18 over the last 3 years in less than 500 PA. They also have Jennings and Loney who are consistent 12-15 HR/year guys. I don’t expect anyone to mistake them for the ’27 Yankees, but these aren’t the ’86 Cardinals either.
I agree with what you’re saying, but I think if they had somebody with Reynolds who could be a HR threat at the tail end of the line-up they’d be that much more threatening.
The Rays are going to address their need for power a different way. They’re going to move the corners at the Trop in to the same distance as the average little league field, install a jet stream from home plate to each of the short porches, and get some older players who can hit lots of popups into the jet streams that will turn into home runs.
Those Rays are clever to come up with that idea, aren’t they?
Oh, wait a minute . . .
I can’t begin to explain the interest in Carroll other than he’s just a solid veteran. Unless the Rays plan to get rid of Rodriguez who can play almost any infield position in a pinch, plays hard all the time, and every now and then can hit. Joe-Ma loves him so I don’t think he’s going anywhere.
Reynolds could be the RH DH with power the Rays need and he could spell Loney at 1st and fill in when the numbers against a particular LHP are not good for Loney. Delmon Young could also be a good choice for that slot but has never played 1B that I know of and is, um how should I say, a bit of a liability in the OF.
It’s been reported that Delmon has been working out at 1st base over the offseason. But i don’t know how good he will be by spring training. If he proves to be solid defensively, he could be a much cheaper version of Reynolds.
I was really hoping Roberts or any other IF would sign with the Yankees…. Making them desperate enough to take Uggla….:-(
Braves might as well just release Uggla, no one will trade for him unless the Braves eat the contract and accept a bag of balls in trade anyway.
Since the Baltimore Orioles lost Brian Roberts to free agency to the Yankees, the Mariners & O’s should pull off a trade between both teams addressing needs at some positions. Jack Z and Dan Duquette ought to think about making the move to trade catcher Matt Wieters & either pitcher Chris Tillman (third or fourth starting pitcher to return back to the M’s after being traded w/ Adam Jones for Eric Bedard) or Darren O’Day as the closer or setup man to Farquhar for Nick Franklin as Chris Schoop may not be quite ready to start at second base, pitchers Brandon Maurer or Tyler Pike & Carson Smith, Justin Smoak (can be traded to a team like the Pirates in a three team trade w/ Schoop or Weeks if Pittsburgh needs a second base help), and a player to be named. Wieters can be a solid insurance to Zunino at catching, while Franklin can start second base in spite Schoop or Weeks to back up Franklin/Hardy at times to give either a day off.
Trade who to where?
Wieters and Tillman or O’Day for Farhuhar, Franklin, and Mauerer
or
Wieters and Tillman or O’Day for Pike, Smith, Smoak, and PTBNL
Matt Wieters & Darren O’Day or Chris Tillman, and Travis Snider or Jose Tabata to the Mariners.
Nick Franklin, Tyler Pike, and a player to be named from the Mariners & Pirates to the Orioles.
Justin Smoak, Carson Smith or Brandon Maurer, Jemille Weeks or Chris Schoop to the Pirates.
I would think Adam Warren for Ackley was a fair trade for both sides. Warren would slide right into the backend of SEA’s rotation and could move into the bullpen as a longman if needed. He was very good for the yanks last year quietly racking up 1.2 WAR in less than half a year in the majors.
I like Warren but he did give up 10 homers in 77 relief appearances not to mention the Mariners have top prospects in Walker, Paxton , Hultzen who IMO is way better and both have way higher upside and they are younger and all major league ready.they also have a few other on the way like Pike so I do not see a match with Warren.
I would think it would take a deal like Tyler Austin & Jose Campos to get Ackley from the Mariners
M’s are looking for players who can contribute this year, not 1,2,3 years down the line. Hultzen will be out at least another year if he even makes his way back to prospect status. Assuming Paxton is in the rotation, that still leaves them with 2 very below average SP’s and a bullpen in need of relief. Warren is an upgrade to the 4th or 5th Starter position and also a big upgrade in long relief.
Yanks would never give up both of those young prospects for Ackley.
What in the heck are the M’s going to do with Ackley and Franklin? Ackley proved he was not a good OF last year and should stick at 2B, and Franklin is a 2B/SS on a team that has both locked up.
M’s need a good CF, but no good ones are left on the trade market because Jack Z didn’t get one early like everybody else. Without a good CF the M’s are still just a par to sub-par team.
This should’ve been priority 1 in the off season, Jack Z messed up here big time I believe.
Yankees trade chips: Brett Gardner, David Robertson, CC Sabathia (to a team needing an ace and innings eater), Ichiro (to a team needing a part time platoon OF/pinch runner/veteran clubhouse presence), Alfonso Soriano (if any AL team is searching for a good bat could be a trade chip despite his age – still very productive)
They need both Sabathia and Robertson. Sabathia would be almost impossible to move anyway.