Every small-market team dreams of building a rotation of young, controllable arms, and Peter Gammons (in his latest piece for Gammons Daily) feels the Indians have done just that in Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar and Trevor Bauer. Salazar was signed as an undrafted high schooler and the other three were acquired in trades, giving the Tribe an enviable collection of pitchers for both their wild card push this season and to stay in contention for years to come.
Here’s some more from around the game as we head into the weekend…
- The Astros have made little progress in negotiations with draft pick Jacob Nix and the situation between the two sides seems likely to proceed to a hearing, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reports. The MLBPA filed a grievance on Nix’s behalf after Houston withdrew an offer to the fifth-rounder that had seemingly been agreed-upon.
- Astros GM Jeff Luhnow hasn’t decided whether to make his managerial search candidates known to the public, he tells Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle.
- Mark Buehrle’s future with the Blue Jays is discussed by several Sportsnet writers and broadcasters. Buehrle will earn $19MM in 2015, his last year under contract, and the feeling amongst the panel is that the Jays could explore trading the veteran in order to free up payroll space. While Buehrle still has value on the mound and as a mentor to Toronto’s young starters, that might not be worth the $19MM piece he takes out of what could be a limited Jays budget.
- Koji Uehara will be temporarily replaced by Edward Mujica as the Red Sox closer, manager John Farrell told reporters today (including MLB.com’s Steven Petrella). Uehara has slumped badly over his last few outings, indicating to Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal that GM Ben Cherington may have erred in not dealing Uehara at the trade deadline. Uehara is a free agent this winter and, at the very least, his struggles have eliminated any chance of the Sox extending him a qualifying offer.
- Right-hander John Holdzkom began his season in independent ball and now may end it on the Pirates’ Major League roster. Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper looks at Holdzkom’s seven-year journey through the minors that finally led to his Major League debut last Tuesday.
It’s nice that the Tribe has the makings of a really good starting rotation, but if we can’t find guys that can hit on a regular basis, and hit for power, we will continue to lose. Especially with Chewy Francona at the helm.
The Marlins really backloaded that Buerhle contract didn’t they? It’s almost as if they knew they would be selling off pieces…
They’re the Marlins.
Pretty much all the big free agents they signed that offseason got heavily backloaded deals. Nothing fishy about that at all
I would like to think sanity would have prevailed at some point preventing the Red Sox from giving Koji Uehara the largest single season contract for a closer in the history of baseball. A QO for a closer is pretty much unheard of and at least 6 million dollars more than he’s worth. You can outbid the competition without having to pay that much. Even if he wasn’t struggling that’s still too much to pay for such a volatile position.
Why not trade him if they don’t think he’s worth a QO? I can understand why Boston wouldn’t extend an offer after his struggles but beforehand the QO had to be considered likely to refuse trade proposals. 1 year @ 15 million wouldn’t be the worse contract for a closer if Koji is striking out 10+ batters for every one he walks. Dodgers and Tigers gave Nathan and Wilson essentially 2 year 20 million deals, the cost of free agents keeps rising with more teams signing regional network deals. Then again both of those deals look pretty bad.
I think you just answered your own question. They didn’t trade him because they were planning on resigning him, and he had basically stated that there was no place he particularly wanted to play. He was just going to take the highest deal. Whereas Lester pretty much guaranteed he would listen to the club’s offer after the season, Uehara stated in not so many words that he would follow the money. If you trade him you give up your opportunity for exclusive negotiating rights. Maybe no one made the Sox an offer that was worth giving up the exclusive negotiation they would have until the free agency period began. And the value of your closer is hardly in strikeouts. I think if they resign him at this point there’s no guarantee he will be the closer. Unless he manages to fix himself by the end of the year.
“And the value of your closer is hardly in strikeouts.” I couldn’t disagree more. Kimbrel, Chapman, Holland and Jansen are clearly the top closers and they are all strike-out machines. What would you look for in a closer? Saves? ERA? Not really great ways of evaluating any reliever. I agree with every thing else you said.
I’m pretty sure the white sox would welcome buehrle back if the price was right.
The sox made a mistake by not dealing Koji this deadline. You have to think both LA teams and Det would have been all over him. That Cinci was able to deal Broxton to the waiver claiming team tells you how starved teams were for relief pitching this year. I wonder what kind of package they were asking for. Anaheim gave up 4 minor leaguers with value including a young SS, SP and a major league ready RP.
Why do I keep thinking that Uehara is hiding an injury and trying to play through it? I know he’s had minor shoulder issues before, but even at his age it’s hard to picture someone with his talent imploding the way he has without injury being a factor.
Blue Jays will have to basically give Buehrle away if they expect to remove themselves from the financial burden of his contract. I think Buehrle’s great too, but wouldn’t give up any talent if I’m paying him 19 million in 2015, that’s just absurd.