Orioles Showing Most Early Interest In Samardzija
2:27pm: Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun adds to the story, reporting that the Cubs had one of their top talent evaluators — one who is not typically assigned to low-level minor league games — present at one of Harvey’s most recent start for Class-A Delmarva.
Connolly asked Orioles executive VP Dan Duquette about the timeline for trades, and Duquette replied by pointing out that the team just made a trade to acquire Nick Hundley this weekend. Duquette added that he and his staff are constantly talking to other teams, though naturally, he declined to comment on Samardzija specifically.
Of course, as Connolly points out, even if the O’s are being aggressive, it doesn’t necessarily behoove the Cubs to deal early. They could potentially extract more from a deal by getting other teams involved in the bidding to drive up the eventual return.
10:42am: While we’re still more than two months from the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, multiple sources have indicated to Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago that the Orioles are the “leading team of interest” in the early stages of the Jeff Samardzija sweepstakes. According to Levine, there’s mutual interest between the two teams, which isn’t surprising given the Orioles’ wealth of young pitching.
Baltimore has built up a strong crop of top-tier pitching prospects in the form of Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman, Hunter Harvey (who, as a 2013 draftee, is ineligible to be dealt until after this year’s draft) and Eduardo Rodriguez. Each of those players ranked inside the game’s top 61 prospects, per Baseball Prospectus. While Harvey didn’t crack the Top 100 lists of Baseball America or MLB.com, the other three are all present on those lists as well. That crop makes the O’s a particularly logical trading partner for the Cubs, who are stocked with high-end hitting prospects in their well-regarded farm system but lack potential high-impact arms.
Those names might seem a steep price to pay for Orioles fans, but it’s likely that the Cubs would ask for two from that list, in my opinion. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports recently reported that the Cubs asked for Drew Hutchison and one of Marcus Stroman or Aaron Sanchez from the Blue Jays this winter, and that was before Samardzija got off to the best start of his career.
The 29-year-old Samardzija ranks second only to Adam Wainwright with a 1.68 ERA among qualified starters (Wainwright, at 1.67, has only been nominally better in terms of ERA). He’s racked up 75 innings while averaging 7.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 to go along with a career-best 51 percent ground-ball rate. The Chicago ace is affordable, as he’s earning just $5.35MM after avoiding arbitration last winter, and he’s controllable through the 2015 season. Sabermetric estimators agree that Samardzija’s start has been outstanding, with FIP pegging him at 2.79 and xFIP estimating 3.27.
Last summer, Cubs GM Jed Hoyer and president Theo Epstein were able to extract a package of C.J. Edwards (now the game’s No. 28 ranked prospect, per BA), Mike Olt, Justin Grimm and Neil Ramirez for two months of Matt Garza. It seems logical that Chicago’s front office will look to exceed that package in order to deal a pitcher with more team control that is off to a better start and comes with far less injury concern than the one they traded away last summer.
Baltimore currently sits just 3.5 games back in the AL East, thanks largely to the team’s offense. Orioles starters have combined for a 4.57 ERA this season, which ranks 25th in the Majors.
Padres Acquire Ronald Herrera To Complete Kyle Blanks Trade
The Athletics announced (on Twitter) that they have traded right-hander Ronald Herrera to the Padres as the player to be named later in the Kyle Blanks trade. That deal, which was reached on May 15 this month, also sent outfielder Jake Goebbert to San Diego.
Herrera, 19, has spent the season in the rotation for Oakland’s Class-A affiliate in Beloit, pitching to a 3.38 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 in 50 2/3 innings of work. The Venezuelan hurler ranked 16th in the A’s farm system, according to MLB.com. Baseball America ranked Herrera 17th among A’s prospects prior to the 2014 campaign.
The A’s signed Herrera for just $20K out of Venezuela back in 2011 (as MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo notes in his free scouting report on Herrera). Mayo writes that Herrera is exceptionally polished for his age and features three pitches, including a fastball that touches 94 mph despite his small frame (he is listed at 5’10” and 168 pounds). Mayo also writes that Herrera’s changeup shows more promise than his curveball, and his fastball features some nice sink. Baseball America agreed in their 2014 Prospect Handbook, noting that Herrera has outstanding command and “has the makings of a solid big league starter” down the line.
Minor Moves: Johnny Monell, Nationals
Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Dodgers have acquired catcher Johnny Monell from the Orioles, reports Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish (Twitter link). In a followup tweet, he adds that “future considerations” are being sent to the Orioles in exchange, likely indicating cash. The 28-year-old Monell is hitting .209/.280/.286 with a homer in exactly 100 plate appearances for Triple-a Norfolk this season. He has limited Major League experience, as he appeared in eight games for the Giants last year, collecting one hit in nine trips to the plate. Monell will serve as catching depth and head to Triple-A Albuquerque for the Dodgers.
- MLB.com’s Bill Ladson tweets that the Nationals have released a trio of minor leaguers: right-hander Andy Santana, left-hander Niko Spezial and outfielder Hayden Jennings. None of the three had progressed to full-season ball since joining the Nats organization, though Spezial did pitch at short-season Low Class A last year.
NL East Links: La Stella, Uggla, Lee, Franco, Mets
Just five games stand between the first-place Braves and the last-place Phillies in the current NL East standings. Here’s the latest out of baseball’s tightest division…
- The Braves announced that they have called up second base prospect Tommy La Stella, though no corresponding move has been announced. However, a source has indicated to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that Dan Uggla is remaining with the team rather than being released or designated for assignment to create room for La Stella. The 25-year-old La Stella hit .293/.384/.359 in 198 Triple-A plate appearances this season and ranked as Atlanta’s No. 7 prospect per MLB.com and No. 9 prospect per Baseball America.
- There’s no telling how long Phillies ace Cliff Lee will be sidelined until he’s reevaluated today, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. tells Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News. “It could be up to a month, it could be a month and a half, it could be three weeks,” said Amaro. “I have no idea when the guy is going to be ready to pitch … I have no timetable until he’s up and throwing again.”
- Amaro also tells Lawrence that top third base prospect Maikel Franco was considered as an option when Cody Asche was injured, but ultimately, Franco simply isn’t ready for the Majors yet. “Offensively, he’s made some adjustments, he’s made some improvements better than in the earlier part of the season, but he’s not really going on all cylinders now. We’re still contemplating it. We’ll see how it goes.”
- Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes that Mets GM Sandy Alderson thought he’d be working with a bigger payroll when he took the job, though Alderson would never admit to that himself. Martino adds that the mood around the Mets is tense these days, due to speculation about Terry Collins’ job security (which he says is not justified) and the post-firing comments from hitting coach Dave Hudgens.
Dodgers Links: Crawford, Kemp, Payroll
The carousel of playing time in the Dodgers’ outfield may settle for the time being, as Carl Crawford is headed to the disabled list after rolling his ankle in last night’s win over the Reds. As MLB.com’s Earl Bloom wrote, manager Don Mattingly said the injury “didn’t look good,” though x-rays on Crawford’s ankle did at least come back negative. Here’s more on the team that trails the Giants by 4.5 games in the NL West…
- Prior to last night’s Crawford injury, Bloom wrote that Matt Kemp would begin to see some time in left field, despite not having played there since he was a rookie in 2006. The Dodgers feel that Kemp, he of an eight-year, $160MM contract, is currently better suited for left, as he’s lost a step in breaking on fly balls and doesn’t run as strong of routes as Andre Ethier. Crawford’s injury, of course, simplifies the division of playing time for now, but conventional wisdom suggests that at some point, something has to give with the Dodgers’ four high-priced outfielders.
- General manager Ned Colletti and president Stan Kasten spoke with Howard Bryant of ESPN about the club’s payroll. Colletti told Bryant that the Dodgers admittedly don’t plan to spend at their current $229MM level forever, but they felt the need to turn things around “overnight” and make up for a four-year span of disappointment as they fought irrelevancy. Kasten told Bryant, “I always say that smart beats rich. But it’s better to be smart and rich.” He went on to say that his club is trying to find a balance of the financial power we’ve seen from the Red Sox and Yankees over the past 15 years and combine it the intelligence consistently shown by the Athletics and Rays.
AL Notes: Ventura, Zimmer, Paxton, Rangers, Suarez
While there are, thankfully, no new Tommy John procedures to pass on, the news out of the American League was once again dominated by injury situations involving young arms. Here’s the latest:
- The Royals avoided an immediate scare with Yordano Ventura, but the news was not all positive, explains Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). Manager Ned Yost said on the club’s television broadcast today that trainers diagnosed Ventura with “valgus stress overload,” which Passan says can have longer-term complications. Passan lists cartilage damage, arthritis, bone chips, and instability (with possible exposure for the UCL) as problems associated with that condition.
- Meanwhile, the club is not sanguine about the possibility of its other top young arm — Kyle Zimmer — making his way back from a lat injury to help the big league club this year, reports Dick Kaegel of MLB.com. “We were looking down the road at maybe after the All-Star break, if Kyle was really throwing good and there was a need, he might be a guy that we could bring up to help us,” said Yost. Now, says Kaegel, Zimmer may not even be throwing a baseball by the All-Star break. While the skipper indicated that the long-term prognosis remains positive, the injury could certainly have implications for how Kansas City navigates the summer.
- Turning to the Mariners, one of the team’s rehabbing young starters, James Paxton, has been shut down after an MRI revealed shoulder inflammation, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (on Twitter). The club is hopeful that the rest period for the 25-year-old lefty will not be longer than one week, but it had been hoped that Paxton would be nearing a big league return. It bears noting that Paxton, who entered the year with 27 days of MLB service, has been adding time to his clock while on the 15-day DL.
- In spite of their extensive injury woes, it is too early to count the Rangers as trade deadline sellers, writes MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan. “We’re in May,” said GM Jon Daniels. “The players aren’t giving up, and we certainly aren’t either.” Of course, the head baseball man also seemed not to rule out the possibility of the club ultimately deciding to recoup some future value if it cannot keep pace over the summer. “We’ll continue to evaluate it and let it play out,” he said. “We’ll make adjustments if we have to, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”
- Ever since shortstop Jose Iglesias was lost for the season, speculation has run rampant about the possibility of the Tigers making an addition up the middle, but the club has thrived without a major move thus far. On the other hand, the club sits at second-to-last in the bigs in shortstop production (half a win below replacement level). As MLB.com’s Jason Beck reports, GM Dave Dombrowski recently got an in-person look at 22-year-old shortstop Eugenio Suarez, who has thrived in his first few games at the Triple-A level. “He’s done very well this year,” said Dombrowski. “Everybody has talked well of him.” Indeed, Suarez currently boasts a .291/.351/.520 line over 191 plate appearances, most of them at Double-A. While the GM certainly did not suggest that he was ready to hand the young Venezuelan the reigns, Beck notes that Suarez could well force his way into the big league conversation. Though Suarez has only just made it to the highest level of the minors, it could well make sense for Detroit to look at him at the major league level before deciding whether (and if so how) to shop at the trade deadline.
NL East Notes: Mets, Howard, Gonzalez, Capps
Dismissed Mets hitting coach Dave Hudgens set off some controversy today when he told Michael Kay of ESPNNewYork.com (audio link) that, if Mets GM Sandy Alderson “could do everything he wants to do, they would have a winner here,” and suggested that the club’s ownership needs to “let the purse strings loose.” Of course, it is worth noting that Hudgens added that he has no personal information as to how the front office is run. For his part, Alderson said that payroll was not the problem in New York, as Marc Carig of Newsday tweets.
Here’s more from the Mets and the rest of the NL East:
- The Mets received good news on top prospect arm Noah Syndergaard, whose MRI results were negative. As Andy Martino of the New York Daily News tweets, Alderson said that Syndergaard is “essentially fine.” Certainly, a prolonged absence for Syndergaard would have dealt another tough blow to the club’s timeline for putting a competitive MLB club on the field.
- Darin Ruf started in place of Ryan Howard against a lefty today for the Phillies, which could potentially be the beginning of a platoon, reports Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Howard has struggled mightily against same-handed pitchers over the course of the season, with a 41.7% strikeout rate and 73 wRC+. When asked if Ruf might keep seeing time against lefties, manager Ryne Sandberg responded: “Yeah, if it happens to work. It’s an opportunity to have a lineup like that, and if it produces that becomes an opportunity … to possible get some consistency with the offense against right-handed and left-handed pitching.” Howard, of course, is earning $25MM this year and is still promised an additional $60MM over 2015-17.
- Meanwhile, Phillies‘ international signee Miguel Gonzalez has experienced a case of dead arm and will be checked out by the team’s top physician, reports Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Gonzalez, 27, had been working on a rehab assignment at High-A, where he had allowed seven earned runs (on three strikeouts and nine walks) over 9 1/3 innings. “Hopefully, it’s nothing serious,” commented GM Ruben Amaro Jr. As Gelb implies, it looks increasingly unlikely that the club will get any major league production out of Gonzalez this year.
- The Marlins are hoping to avoid losing another pitcher to season-ending elbow surgery, as reliever Carter Capps will shut down and rehab an undisclosed elbow injury, reports Craig Davis of the Miami Sun-Sentinel. “He’ll be down for an extended period of time and start building back up, and see where we’re at,” said manager Mike Redmond. Capps, a hard-throwing 23-year-old righty, came to Miami in the Logan Morrison trade, and had tossed 12 innings of 3.00 ERA ball with an impressive 11.25 K/9 against just 2.25 BB/9. The injury situation is all the more difficult in light of the fact that the Fish surprisingly remain right in the thick of things in the NL East.
Minor Moves: Ramirez, Brach, Newby, Buckner, Boyer, Lo
We’ll keep tabs on the day’s minor moves right here …
- The Royals have signed catcher Max Ramirez to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). Ramirez, 29, was once a top-100 prospect with the Rangers, but has only seen 140 career MLB plate appearances (all with Texas). He was the primary backstop for the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate from 2012-13, but posted an interesting .192/.382/.192 line in 68 plate appearance with the Reds’ top farm club this year before hitting the open market.
- Two Somerset Patriots right-handers have been signed away to affiliated ball on minor league pacts, tweets Mike Ashmore of MyCentralJersey.com. Brett Brach has signed with the Nationals, while Kyler Newby will join the Angels. Brach, 26, had spent his career in the Indians organization, briefly reaching the Triple-A level. The 29-year-old Newby, who has spent ten seasons in the minors and owns a lifetime 9.9 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9, threw to a 2.70 ERA in 60 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A in the Athletics organization last year.
- Billy Buckner and Blaine Boyer have each accepted assignments with the Padres‘ Triple-A affiliate, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on Twitter. The pair of righties was designated for assignment (and, it turns out, exposed to outright waivers) on Sunday, in conjunction with a series of roster moves relating to the team’s acquisition of lefty Troy Patton.
- The Astros have released righty Chia-Jen Lo, according to the PCL transactions page. The 28-year-old Taiwanese native tossed 19 1/3 big league innings and even notched two saves last year for Houston. He worked to a 4.19 ERA with 7.4 K/9 against 6.1 BB/9. Lo, who was outrighted off of the club’s 40-man early this season, had struggled to a 4.74 ERA in 19 Triple-A innings in 2014, getting hit hard while striking out 8.1 and walking 5.7 batters per nine.
- MLBTR’s DFA Tracker shows several players in DFA limbo, with Blake Wood of the Indians joining Phil Irwin, Wandy Rodriguez, and Vin Mazzaro of the Pirates.
Mariners To Sign Xavier Nady
The Mariners have agreed to terms with free agent outfielder Xavier Nady, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). The sides were said to be in discussion on a minor league deal, according to an earlier report from Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune.
As Dutton explains, Nady will likely join the club’s Triple-A affiliate in hopes of earning a call-up. Should that occur, he would offer an outfield option to slot in against opposing southpaws for a club that has struggled in that department. (Seattle’s outfielders have mustered only a .273 wOBA and 70 wRC+ against lefties, as a unit.)
Though Nady is obviously past his prime, he does carry a career 112 wRC+ against opposite-handed hitters (against a 93 wRC+ against righties). He has continued that trend both in recent major league action and in his solid Triple-A campaign last year, when he put up a .879 OPS in 135 plate appearances against lefties.
Mariners Nearing Deal With Xavier Nady
The Mariners are close to reaching agreement on a minor league deal with veteran utilityman Xavier Nady, according to Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. Nady, 35, recently declined an outright assignment with the Padres.
Nady will head to Triple-A for a virtual tryout, Dutton explains, with a call-up likely if he impresses at Tacoma. The Mariners outfield mix is rather lefty-heavy at the moment, with Cole Gillespie (.580 OPS) and Stefen Romero (.566 OPS) providing minimal production from the right side of the plate.
Since his last season as a big league regular in 2008, Nady has managed only a .234/.287/.353 slash over 807 plate appearances. But he was solid at Triple-A last year, putting up a .296/.360/.456 line and 15 home runs in 495 trips to the plate for the Royals and Rockies organizations. Nady carried some of that regained pop forward to 2014, hitting three long balls in 42 plate appearances with the Padres this year, though he slashed just .135/.238/.405 in that stretch.