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Marlins Notes: Relievers, Johnson, McGehee

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The Marlins sit 8.5 games off of the NL East pace entering today’s action, with a 46-52 record and negative-26 run differential. But that mark beat the expectations of many, and the club seems inclined to continue to develop good will with its fans (if not also star outfielder Giancarlo Stanton) by fielding a competitive ballclub.

Here’s the latest out of Miami, home to one of the more interesting organizations to watch over the coming days:

  • Scouts are flocking to watch Marlins relievers Steve Cishek and Mike Dunn, reports MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro, but thus far Miami has not indicated that it will make either available. In fact, the club still hopes to act as a buyer, says Frisaro, with a “controllable starter” and second baseman both in its sights.
  • In fact, the Marlins are actually showing continued interest in acquiring struggling former Athletics closer Jim Johnson, reports Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. The teams have discussed a deal involving minor leaguer Adam Conley, a 2011 second-rounder who has scuffled in Triple-A.
  • Another Marlins player that has drawn interest is reclaimed third baseman Casey McGehee, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. One club with potential interest is the Mariners, says Heyman, who seems to indicate that Seattle might even be willing to use McGehee in the corner outfield.
  • While there may be interest in McGehee, Frisaro reports that the Fish see McGehee as a mid-term or even long-term piece and are not marketing him. The 31-year-old has a season of arbitration eligibility remaining after signing a one-year, $1.1MM deal with Miami, Frisaro notes, and the team has actually considered offering him an extension.

The Details Of John Danks’ No-Trade Clause

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White Sox starter John Danks is permitted to designate six clubs for no-trade protection under his five-year, $65MM extension. His list for 2014 includes the Athletics, Orioles, Nationals, and Blue Jays, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin reports on Twitter.

Though Danks has reportedly drawn some interest, including from the Yankees, his contract certainly limits his appeal. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted in breaking down the potentially available starters, Danks is due about $34MM through 2016. However, the 29-year-old lefty holds some value after working back from shoulder surgery, as he has shown the ability to produce over stretches. Through 124 innings on the year, Danks owns a 4.35 ERA with 6.3 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9. But he had lowered that mark to 3.99 before getting hit hard two days ago by the Astros.

Of course, it is far from clear that any of those four clubs would be interested in adding Danks (and, in particular, his contract), so the clause’s impact on Danks’ market may be limited. The A’s and Nats appear to be set in their rotations, while the Jays are reportedly interested in adding a pure rental and the O’s may likewise prefer not to take on that kind of commitment after promising $50MM to the struggling Ubaldo Jimenez before the season.

No-trade details have begun to emerge on several possible trade pieces around the league. Earlier today, we covered the teams to which A.J. Burnett and Cliff Lee can block trades (here and here).

NL Central Links: Pirates, Burnett, Cardinals, Peavy

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The Pirates are not on A.J. Burnett’s 20-team no-trade clause (as outlined by ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick earlier today), and they are his preferred destination if the Phillies choose to move him, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). As I speculated in this morning’s post on his no-trade clause, however, Rosenthal notes that Burnett’s complex mutual/player option may be a deterrent for the Bucs, as Burnett could potentially be a spendy acquisition if he makes a full season’s worth of starts. Nonetheless, Pirates players are lobbying with the front office in an attempt to persuade GM Neal Huntington and his staff to reacquire their former teammate, according to Rosenthal.

Here’s more out of the NL Central…

  • Pirates president Frank Coonelly says that the team has financial flexibility to add payroll, tweets Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Whether or not that would extend to taking on Burnett’s future commitments, of course, remains to be seen.
  • Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said last night that he expects Michael Wacha to pitch in September, but Rosenthal tweets that St. Louis is still looking for rotation upgrades. The Cardinals are exploring everything from front-line starters to back-of-the-rotation types, he says.
  • Peter Gammons reports that the Red Sox have been scouting Cardinals short-season Class-A outfielder Rowan Wick in case the Redbirds decide to make a run at Jake Peavy (Twitter link).
  • The reason that a deal sending Peavy to the Cardinals has not yet taken place, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com, is that Boston wants a prospect of some kind in return. St. Louis, meanwhile, was more interested in doing the deal primarily in exchange for taking on Peavy’s salary. Peavy is earning $14.5MM this year. (A $15MM player option would vest for 2015 if he is able to log at least 137 2/3 more innings this year, though that would appear to be quite a tall order.)

Jeff Todd contributed to this post.

$100K MLB Medium Midsummer Classic Contest At DraftKings

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Earn your share of a $100K prize pool in tonight’s MLB Medium Midsummer Classic at DraftKings!  The contest has a $20 entry fee, and first place will take home $20K with the top 1,125 finishers getting paid.  The deadline for entry is tonight at 6:05pm central time.  You can sign up here.

The rules are simple.  Each entrant is assigned a fixed salary cap of $50,000 that they can use to draft their entire 10 player roster.  Click here to see the stats used and their values.  Here’s a look at my team, which steers clear of the Marlins-Braves contest because of the threat of a rainout.

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Don’t hesitate!  Sign up for the DraftKings $100K Medium Midsummer Classic right now!

This is sponsored post from DraftKings.

Cubs Designate Darwin Barney For Assignment

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The Cubs have designated second baseman Darwin Barney for assignment, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Barney, 28, had been the club’s regular at the keystone dating back to 2011.

Though regarded as a plus (and, at times, elite) defender, Barney has struggled to deliver value from the offensive side. After averaging a barely serviceable .265/.306/.354 slash over 2011-12, Barney has slipped to a combined .214/.266/.311 line since the start of 2013. He has also contributed on the basepaths, but certainly was not doing enough to merit a starting role; indeed, he has graded out as barely above replacement level over the past two seasons.

The move’s immediate purpose is to clear roster space for the activation of Emilio Bonifacio. In the grand scheme of things, however, it represents yet another step towards the infusion of the Cubs’ top prospects into the MLB roster. Since being promoted when Barney went on paternity leave, Arismendy Alcantara has taken the lion’s share of time at second (though he’s playing center field tonight), with fellow top youngster Javier Baez reportedly also moving to that spot at Triple-A in recent days.

Blue Jays Designate Brad Mills For Assignment

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2:17pm: The Blue Jays have announced the move to designate Mills.

1:35pm: The Blue Jays will designate left-hander Brad Mills for assignment in order to clear a roster spot for top prospect Aaron Sanchez, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Earlier today, Nicholson-Smith’s colleague, Shi Davidi, reported that Sanchez would be promoted.

The 29-year-old Mills pitched two innings for the Blue Jays after they claimed him off waivers from the A’s, yielding eight runs on seven hits and a walk with three strikeouts. Overall, he’s surrendered 16 runs in 18 1/3 innings of work at the big league level this season despite tremendous success at the Triple-A level. In 75 innings with Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate, Mills pitched to a 1.75 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.

Yankees, White Sox Have Discussed John Danks

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The Yankees have checked in on White Sox left-hander John Danks, but talks are still in the early stages, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish hears that the market for Danks has begun to pick up over the past three days. Nothing appears close at this time, though Heyman notes that the Sox are looking for prospects, so Danks likely would require more than just salary relief to acquire.

The 29-year-old Danks averaged 195 innings for the ChiSox from 2008-11, but a shoulder injury required surgery in 2012 and limited him to just 192 innings combined over 2012-13. He’s been healthy all year in 2014, and while his fastball velocity is down to an average of 88.2 mph (per Fangraphs), he’s been reasonably effective.

Danks’ ERA spiked after a seven-run hiccup in his most recent start, but he had been a roll prior to that, posting a 2.69 ERA with a 42-to-20 K/BB ratio over his past 67 innings (10 starts). Overall, Danks has a 4.35 ERA with 6.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 40.1 percent ground-ball rate in 124 innings this season.

While Danks has a fairly sizable chunk of money owed to him, that shouldn’t be a huge issue for the Yankees. Danks is due $5.4MM through season’s end and $14.25MM in both 2015 and 2016, making for a total commitment of roughly $33.9MM.

2015 Free Agent Power Rankings

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The trade deadline will be upon us next week, but the 2014-15 free agent class still warrants an early look.  My June edition of the 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings can be found here, and the full list of 2015 free agents is here.

1.  Max Scherzer.  Scherzer overcame a midseason hiccup by posting a 1.87 ERA over his last five starts, bringing him back down to 3.34 on the season.  He even picked up the win for the American League in the All-Star Game.  It’s been a long time since agent Scott Boras has had a starting pitcher of this caliber as a free agent.

2.  Jon Lester.  Lester isn’t far behind Scherzer, having allowed three earned runs in 38 2/3 innings since our last set of rankings.  Lester owns a 2.50 ERA as well as superb timing, and he’s been better than Scherzer this year.  Lester hasn’t whiffed this many batters since 2010, and he’s never shown this level of control.  Accounting for performance prior to this year, I still give Scherzer the overall edge.  Around late June the Red Sox looked to reignite extension talks with Lester, but the pitcher did not receive a new offer and continues to prefer to table discussions until after the season.  With the Red Sox slipping in the standings of late, Lester could be traded by the July 31st deadline and freed of a qualifying offer.

3.  Hanley Ramirez.  Ramirez’s shoulder and calf have been bothering him, and he’s been hit by pitches three times this month.  The 30-year-old avoided the DL and continues to hit well.  On the other hand, he’s giving back some runs in the field, and defensive question marks are enough to push him down a few spots in the rankings.

4.  James Shields.  With a 4.39 ERA since May, Shields has failed to keep pace with Lester.  Still, Shields’ 2014 peripheral stats are mostly better than last year’s, which led to a 3.15 ERA.  The Royals also seem to be hanging around contention enough that they won’t give serious consideration to trading the big righty.  With a new contract that will begin with his age-33 season, Shields will be difficult to price in free agency.

5.  Pablo Sandoval.  As of May 13th, Sandoval’s OPS was down to .554.  He’s at .903 since then, with a .335/.370/.533 line in 230 plate appearances.  Just 28 in August, Sandoval has age on his side relative to most free agents.

6.  Nelson Cruz.  Cruz has stumbled since our last set of rankings, hitting .229/.282/.422 in 117 plate appearances.  He still ranks second in all of baseball in home runs and RBI, and could top his career-high of 33 longballs at some point in August.  Cruz is another tough free agent to price, as teams will be buying into his age 34-36 seasons (and perhaps age 37, if things go well for the slugger).

7.  Victor Martinez.  V-Mart’s resurgent contract year has continued unabated.  Though he’ll be 36 in December, Martinez’s goal might be a three-year pact.  On June 29th, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote that while there have been no extension discussions, Martinez would love to remain in Detroit.  One complication for the Tigers is that Miguel Cabrera is signed through 2023 and will probably need to move to DH at some point.

8.  Yasmani Tomas.  A new entrant to this list, Tomas is a different kind of potential free agent.  As Ben Badler of Baseball America explained on June 20th, Tomas left Cuba to pursue an MLB contract but still has to clear the usual hurdles before he’s free to sign.  A 23-year-old corner outfielder, Badler pegs Tomas’ raw power as a 70.  It seems possible Tomas’ actual free agency will coincide with the MLB offseason.  Jose Abreu’s dazzling debut has made his $68MM contract look like a bargain, which should help Tomas score big.  It’s worth noting that Tomas isn’t said to be as polished as Abreu and likely doesn’t have the same ceiling.  He is younger, however, which helps his cause.

9.  Melky Cabrera.  Cabrera, 29, is hitting .305/.352/.463 on the season.  His ties to Biogenesis cloud the picture, but his injury-shortened 2013 might end up being Cabrera’s only poor season in his last four.

10.  Russell Martin.  Perhaps Martin can’t maintain his .271 batting average, but he’s in the midst of another solid campaign and doesn’t turn 32 until February.  Teams are also placing more and more emphasis on catching defense, and Martin has gunned down 37 percent of attempted base-stealers while ranking sixth in extra strikes added via pitch framing, per Baseball Prospectus.

This month’s Kenta Maeda watch: the 26-year-old Japanese righty is down to a 2.08 ERA in 15 starts.  Ervin Santana has been decent of late.  Jason Hammel was traded to Oakland and has seen his ERA rise from 2.98 to 3.35 after two starts.  Josh Beckett returns from a DL stint for a hip injury tonight.

You likely won’t find a reliever cracking the top 10, but closers David Robertson, Francisco Rodriguez, Casey Janssen and Rafael Soriano have been excellent, while Luke Gregerson and Andrew Miller have been lights out in a setup capacity.

Among position players, Chase Headley, who earlier today was traded to the Yankees, is still not showing any power (though perhaps a move to the hitter-friendly parks of the AL East can change that).   Colby Rasmus was placed in something of a platoon role earlier this month.   Nick Markakis leads MLB in plate appearances and has been useful this year.  Aramis Ramirez, who like Markakis has a mutual option on his deal, is having a nice year at the plate as well.  Stephen Drew’s bat has started to come alive this month after his late start to the season, while Kendrys Morales is hitting .295/.319/.432 over an 11-game hitting streak.  Neither Boras client has very appealing overall numbers.  Both Asdrubal Cabrera and Mike Morse have dropped off the list after sluggish performances since our last edition of the rankings.  A strong finish could put either back onto the map.

Steve Adams contributed to this post.

Yankees Acquire Chase Headley

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The Yankees announced that they have officially acquired Chase Headley from the Padres. The Yankees will send Yangervis Solarte and minor league right-hander Rafael De Paula to the Padres in return for Headley and $1MM.

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Headley, a lifetime member of the Padres, is hitting just .229/.296/.355 with seven homers this season, though he’s playing outstanding defense at third base, per both UZR/150 (+19.7) and Defensive Runs Saved (+7). Headley is earning $10.535MM in 2014, of which $3.97MM remains. He is eligible for free agency following the season.

The Yankees are just four games out of the division lead in the AL East and two and a half games back of a Wild Card berth, meaning every additional win the team picks up could be crucial. Yankees third basemen are hitting .245/.323/.391 on the season with 14 home runs (which translates to a nearly league-average 98 wRC+). However, much of that is due to what looks to have been an unsustainable hot streak for Solarte early in the season. The 27-year-old Solarte had a scorching hot month of April (fueled by a .349 BABIP), but he’s batted just .233/.307/.347 in 200 plate appearances since that time. If nothing else, Headley’s glove may provide an extra win over the rest of the season, but the hope is undoubtedly that a move from the pitcher-friendly Petco Park to the hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium will rejuvenate his bat as well.

It’s not long ago that Headley looked to be a breakout star. He batted a whopping .286/.376/.498 with 31 homers to go along with elite defense and solid baserunning in 2012, but since that time he’s been slowed by a fractured thumb, a calf strain and a herniated disc in his back (for which he received an epidural injection earlier this month). He’s hitting .323 with a homer, a triple and four doubles this month, so perhaps the injection helped to ease some of the pain he was experiencing. However, he’s yet to walk in July and has struck out 16 times, so his approach at the plate certainly doesn’t appear to be what it was in 2012 when he posted a career-best 12.3 percent walk rate.

From a big picture standpoint, the move signifies that the Yankees, in typical fashion, will maintain a dogged pursuit of the postseason. Despite losing CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and potentially Masahiro Tanaka for the season (with Michael Pineda missing the majority of the year as well), the Yankees feel they have a shot to contend in an abnormally weak AL East. The team has already acquired Brandon McCarthy (in exchange for lefty Vidal Nuno), and it seems likely that GM Brian Cashman will continue to be aggressive as he looks to upgrade his roster.

For the Padres, it’s tough to describe the outcome as anything but disappointing. Headley looked to be on the verge of stardom following the 2012 season, and they could likely have netted a king’s ransom had they moved him then. Even this offseason, Headley’s value coming off a .250/.347/.400 season with excellent defense would have been fairly strong. Now, they’ll receive a player whom the Yankees signed to a minor league deal this offseason (Solarte) and a pitcher that ranked 15th in a weak Yankees farm system coming into the year (per Baseball America). At this point, however, it has to be considered a silver lining for the Friars that they weren’t able to extend Headley — either with the reported franchise-record deal they were weighing last spring or the three-year, $33-39MM deal they offered over the winter.

Solarte is hitting .254/.337/.381 with the Yankees this season, though much of that production came in the aforementioned April hot streak. The Padres can control him for six years, as he made his big league debut this year, and he’s appeared at second base, third base and shortstop this season. Ideally, he could settle into a utility role for San Diego for the next several seasons.

De Paula, 23, has a 4.15 ERA with 10.5 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 89 innings (17 starts, three relief appearances) at Class-A Advanced Tampa this season. Baseball America noted in its scouting report that De Paula’s mid- to upper-90s fastball was enough to dominate hitters in Low Class A, but he struggled with last year’s debut in High-A Tampa due to an inability to throw his breaking pitches for strikes. He’s made some strides in his command this year, averaging fewer walks. BA noted that if he could learn to command either his slider or changeup, that would be enough to pair with his plus fastball to project as a big league reliever, but if he could learn to command both, he could start in the bigs.

De Paula doesn’t come without personal baggage, as BA’s Ben Badler notes (on Twitter). Badler says De Paula “will be a big leaguer,” but points out that he’s used multiple falsified identities and dates of birth in his road to professional baseball.

Jack Curry of the YES Network first tweeted that the two sides were close to a deal. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports first reported the trade was done and added the terms shortly thereafter (Twitter links).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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