We’ll use this post to track the players placed on revocable waivers today …
- The Blue Jays also placed knuckleballer R.A. Dickey on waivers on August 25th, Cafardo tweets. That means that he will either clear or have his claim awarded to a team at some point today. (Of course, that does not mean he will ultimately change hands.) Dickey is owed $12MM next year and comes with a $12MM club option ($1MM buyout) for 2016. He has not shown his Cy Young form since coming to Toronto, and owns a 4.11 ERA over 400 1/3 innings across the last two seasons.
- The Red Sox placed a series of younger players on revocable waivers yesterday, Cafardo tweets. Bryce Brentz, Drake Britton, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Anthony Ranaudo all hit the wire on Tuesday, and would all appear to be unlikely to clear or be included in any deal.
Earlier Updates
- Blue Jays starter Mark Buehrle has been placed on revocable waivers, according to a tweet from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. The 35-year-old lefty has had one of his finest seasons, posting a 3.41 ERA over 161 frames, but is guaranteed $19MM next year in the last season of his heavily backloaded four-year, $58MM contract. Toronto had figured to be a buyer for much of the year, and may well still hold onto its veteran pieces for next year, but now looks to be a longshot for the postseason after slipping back to .500. It is not clear precisely when Buehrle went on the wire.
For a more complete explanation of how revocable trade waivers and August trades work, check out MLBTR’s August Trades primer. You can also check out MLBTR’s list of players that have cleared revocable waivers to see who is eligible to be traded to any team.
With Stroman, Hutch, Sanchez and Norris all looking to be in the rotation next year, it doesn’t suprise me the Jays would look to unload Buehrle (or Dickey) if there’s a buyer.
The fact that Dickey isn’t on waivers is pretty surprising.
Apparently Bob Elliott said Dickey, Reyes, Happ and Redmond were all placed on revocable waivers.
No team wants a knuckleballer. Especially because they are streaky and require a personal catcher. Dickey isn’t exactly cheap either..
$12 mill isn’t terrible, but I don’t see an AL team taking him given the splits from NYM vs TOR
$12 mill definitely isn’t worth a 4.00 ERA. Call up any decent prospect and he’ll do better than that.
No decent prospect is going to get you 200 innings though, so you better make sure you have more than one to fill the void. And there are a fair amount of other pitchers with a worse ERA making more money (Wilson, Verlander, Danks, Burnett, Lincecum)
Obviously there are some exceptions. Regardless, Dickey is no bargain and is nothing special in terms of “stuff”. He’s hittable and doesn’t exactly have a postseason resume. Not an appealing offer for GM’s.
A decent prospect isn’t going to have a postseason resume either, unless you think they are going to perform like a Sonny Gray…then go for it.
You’re not paying a prospect $12 mill.
If you have payroll flexibility, that’s not an issue, especially if you are making a playoff push.
I’d hold onto Buehrle and Dickey. Toronto’s pitching woes have been a product of our horrible defense, it’s a clear cut correlation that earlier in the year we had decent defense with guys like Lawrie, Gose and even Ryan Goins, our pitching looked better then it was.
The team was 12-7 when Goins came back up and he played. (July 22-August 10).
The team is 41-28 in games in which Gose has played this year.
The team is 39-31 in games in which Lawrie has played this year.
I’m not advocating for either to be traded, I just don’t think it’s as impossible as this guy is thinking. However, with the 4 young guys and Buehrle, Dickey and potentially Happ, the only way AA makes any desirable upgrades on the pitching front is if someone is traded. I think without question, the biggest needs this offseason is 2nd Base and the bullpen.
If. If.
Seeing as how we’re speaking in regards to something that is unknown, of course we’re speaking in ifs. You’re speaking in ifs too by assuming a team can just call up a top prospect and they will instantly pitch under a 4 ERA.
Dickey is especially unknown in terms of his athletic performance. Cheers mate smh
Considering the Jays have one of the worst defenses in the game, especially right now with Brett Lawrie out, having a 4.00ERA playing in the AL East is pretty good.
Just look at how Liam Hendriks pitched tonight for the Royals, who have one of the best defenses in the league, when the Jays had good defense playing behind Hendriks, the Jays won the 2 games he pitched and the boxscore made him out to be better then he actually was. Once Lawrie got hurt and the Jays started playing Kawasaki every day the pitching suddenly got really bad and you start getting games where the Jays can’t keep the game close for their offense to explode and win it for them.
Throw in Fransisco, Reyes and Kawasaki playing nearly everyday and you get the albatross blowouts early in the game that the Jays are use too.
I assumed that was a misprint on his salary. Nope. Holy smokes. That is a crazy last year of his deal. Good luck Toronto on finding someone to take that contract on.
Buehrle is a magician when you consider the results he gets with the tools he has, but that’s a lot of money to spend. And it’s even more if Toronto wants a return for it besides taking on all or a significant portion of his contract.
Buehrle’s ERA splits by month: 2.16, 2.48, 2.79, 5.74, 5.68
I have always liked him, but he’s rapidly falling back to Earth after a hot first half. I think you’re right that Toronto would have to eat virtually all of his salary to get anything back in return.
Bluejays has a long time rule to place all players on revocable waivers. This is a non-story unless someone offers them a good deal or they want to open up salary room for next year.
Mets will trade Colon for Dickey
Texas should claim Dickey. Don’t give up much in terms of players, but they could use the depth he would provide.