It remains to be seen whether the Mets will pull off a deal for veteran starter Bartolo Colon, whose fate will be one of the most-watched storylines over the next few days. Over at Fangraphs, Mike Petriello questions why there has seemed to be such little demand for the righty, concluding that he is likely worth his $11MM salary for next season and could well be an important last-minute upgrade for a contender.
Here’s more from the east …
- Recent Red Sox signee Rusney Castillo has obtained a work visa in surprisingly short order and is now clear to play, Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com reports on Twitter. It remains to be seen whether Boston will expose him to MLB action this year, but that is now a possibility with about a month left to go in the regular season.
- The Yankees continue to move forward in a fairly high-stakes attempt to rehab Masahiro Tanaka for a return this year, with success meaning a top-end arm down the stretch and failure potentially meaning a delayed resort to surgery. As George A. King III reports for the New York Post, Tanaka continues to pass hurdles, with colleague Ken Davidson writing that today’s simulated game was a significant step towards a return.
- Recent acquisitions of the Yankees — including Martin Prado, Stephen Drew, and Chase Headley — could hint at a broader strategic shift, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. All of those players have seen action at multiple positions, and Sherman argues that New York could well commit more resources to depth and versatility going forward, essentially putting additional cash behind the strategies of the Athletics and Rays.
- Marlins star Giancarlo Stanton said that some have misconstrued his recent comments regarding his contractual situation, as Juan C. Rodriguez of the Sun Sentinel reports. “There is no answer to what my future is,” he said, explaining that some have over-interpreted his words in either direction. Nevertheless, planned offseason extension discussions are sure to lead to immense scrutiny and speculation.
- Cole Hamels was just the latest Phillies player to publicly show up manager Ryne Sandberg in some manner, as Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com explains. Though the skipper downplayed the incident and said he has control of his clubhouse, Salisbury paints a picture of a tense situation in Philadelphia. As Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes, this on-field drama is playing out in the midst of broader leadership questions with the club. Martino says that the “fiercely loyal organization” is facing a difficult choice between that loyalty and the evident need for accountability.
As in the last verse of the song call and answer the Phillies have to “rebuild” their whole organization.
It’s really tough to be a fan right now when the organization is a complete disaster.
The mets should consider trading colon and some cash if they get a good prospect
Dodgers get colon and 3 mill for zach Lee or Scott Schebler
Angela get Colon and 2 million for Grant green
Royals get colon and 4 million for bubba stealing and cheslor cuthbert
If the mets get any of those players I’ll be extremely happy as a mets fan!
Mets need to realize if they don’t start spending money thy won’t gain money from the fans due to the disappointing team they put out there!
I think you are overestimating the return potential of trading a soon-to-be 42-year old pitcher owed $11 million on a waiver deal. Forget about Lee or Green. Not happening. Royals have stated they have no interest in Colon
Also I love my Angels and Green but isn’t Zach Lee and Bubba Starling in a league above Grant Green?
dodgers woudnt even trade lee last season when his vaule was high i doubt they do it now for a older not so good pitcher who cost alot. dodgers need bullpen help more
Recent Red Sox signee Rusney Castillo has obtained a work visa in surprisingly short order. Yeah, I was surprised too! Because I know a lot of baseball players have this Visa Problem year after after at the start of Spring Training.
This guy Castillo sashays into the Visa Building and gets his way, right away like some old school burger joint I used to go to! =P
Kyle Kendrick and David Buchanan should be thankful they’re in the Majors. Neither one has any business showing up a manager no matter what they think of him. They both have well-below average numbers and haven’t exactly helped the Phillies cause in 2014. Brown has shown himself to be a bust this year and last year’s numbers are starting to look like the exception to the rule. If Ruben Amaro had any genuine concern for his manager he’d find a way to blow out all three of these guys before 2015.
Tanaka -“high stakes” in delaying his surgery?? I think not. Even if they went with surgery back in late June or early July, he was going to miss all of next season. The reality is that its actually “low stakes” in chasing rehab, because if it fails, they lose nothing, since he still will miss all of 2015 rehabbing.
Actually if he as the surgery in June or July he could’ve been throwing rehab games by August and possibly been back in big league action by September. At this point he’s guaranteed to miss all of 2015 with surgery and depending on how long it drags out he may actually miss part of 2016 as well. Which means the Yankees would have only been able to get part of 2014, none of 2015, and part of 2016 out of Tanaka before he can opt out of the deal after 2017. Which would be almost a guarantee if the surgery had proven to go well. There is a risk in both strategies.
C’mon, Chris. Let’s be serious here. Pitching next September would have been the BEST CASE SCENARIO. And he would have been extremely rusty at that. And even if he came out next Sept and threw no-hitters in all of his 5 starts, what good does it do the Yankees to go into the 2015 season knowing that at best they will only get 5 starts from him in Sept? And they may not even be in contention next September. So to me, the better risk was to try and rehab him now, while they are battling for a playoff spot, knowing that if it doesn’t work, all they risked was MAYBE 4 or 5 starts next September. To me this was a no-brainer by New York.
Sandberg is not manager material. I read that the guy barely spoke throughout his career and that he has had to work really hard to become an effective communicator. You can tell it’s still not easy for him. I’m not sure how a guy who struggles that badly with communication becomes a baseball manager. I think there’s a reason why the Cubs, who knew him best, didn’t invite him to manage.
Here in blue collar Philadelphia, fans have been accusing the Phillies players of being divas and babies who aren’t used to being held accountable. I don’t think that’s fair. Five different players with no history of attitude problems (minus, perhaps, Hamels in 2009) have been visibly or vocally upset with Sandberg over a short span of about ten days. I just don’t think that “being held accountable” is what makes these professional athletes so upset.
Even if some of their comments were off-base (i.e., Brown, Kendrick, and Howard, who have not earned their playing time), I don’t think they would have said them if they had a strong and effective leader that they felt they could communicate with directly instead of passively (which seems to be Sandberg’s MO) through the media.
A guy that barely spoke? Somehow he managed to get more than he should have out of all the minor league teams he managed. He also had a fiery attitude as a manager in the minors, and no one ever said he had an issue with communication.
The pass over at the Cubs was likely a good thing for him as everyone knew the cubs were going to be tanking the next few years.
Everyone but Phillies management knew the Phillies were going to be a mess this year, and they dumped Manuel in the middle of last year to secure Sandberg as their manager. If they had waited til the off-season, some other team probably would have snatched him up.
I meant he barely spoke through his playing career, not his managing career. I wish I could find that article, it was really interesting. It just showed that he’s not a natural communicator and he had to work hard to learn how. Anyway, even if he was a good communicator at the minor league level, it doesn’t necessarily translate into effectively managing major leaguers.
Maybe it is good for Sandberg that the Cubs passed over him, but that’s irrelevant. Their tanking has nothing to do with the fact that they just didn’t want him as their manager.
I agree it’s not Sandberg’s fault that the Phillies are such a mess, and I wouldn’t expect any manager to turn this team around, but I think the patterns of his communication and leadership that have leaked to the media are concerning moving forward.
I dont see why they wouldn’t let Castillo play in the majors and see what he can do, nothing to really lose at this point.
Yeah, it’s not like he has concerns over his service clock or anything. Let him get a little stint so they know what to focus on next spring.
Has he played recently? He may not be in shape but that’s just my guesstimate.
IDK the guy hasn’t play pro ball at any level in some time and he’s never come close to MLB competition or pressure like Boston. Let him get his feet wet in the minors and if he thrives bring up, otherwise workout his issues behind close doors instead of on ESPN every night.
I mean at this point the first big time Cuban signing who busts (or struggles at the start of his career) is going to be blasted as a bust and “warning sign” for future contracts. Why expose him to that before next year if you don’t have to.
I think the problems trading Colon are maybe more obvious than people are willing to admit to. He’s ancient, significantly overweight, costs eight figures, has an ERA+ of 92 this year, and bWar of 1.0. And the Mets want something significant in return for him. There must be a lot of GMs who look at that picture and worry.
He has a FIP of 3.34 and a 2.3 rWAR for whatever that’s worth.