The Troy Tulowitzki trade speculation has been plentiful over the past week, but Jon Morosi of FOX Sports asked Rockies owner Dick Monfort about the rumors at this week’s owners meetings (Twitter link) and was told, “We’re not trying to trade him. There’s no story there.” Morosi’s colleague, Ken Rosenthal, couldn’t even get that level of an answer out of Monfort last week, as Rosenthal recently wrote that Monfort quickly hung up the phone when asked about the Tulowitzki trade scenario. Many, including Rosenthal, have written that the belief is that Monfort himself, not GM Jeff Bridich or Tulowitzki, is in control of whether or not the shortstop is traded. Monfort has a history of reluctance in trading veterans; a report from hall of fame journalist Peter Gammons last summer indicated that Monfort vetoed a trade of Jorge De La Rosa for highly touted prospect Eduardo Rodriguez. De La Rosa was signed to a two-year extension shortly thereafter.
Here’s more from the NL West…
- Travis Ishikawa is nearing a return from the disabled list, and his impending activation creates a potentially uncomfortable roster crunch for the Giants, writes Chris Haft of MLB.com. The Giants will have to either trim a member of their bullpen or cut a bench player to activate Ishikawa, neither of which is a desirable outcome for the club, Haft continues. Ishikawa is aware that with Brandon Belt and Nori Aoki playing well, at-bats with the big league club could be few and far between, but he’s ok with a reduced role. “If I’m not going to be an everyday guy, I want to be the best pinch-hitter that I can be,” Ishikawa said. To this point, the veteran first baseman/outfielder said he hasn’t received any indication from the club as to what their decision will be.
- Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles speculates that the Dodgers‘ glut of infielders could be leveraged in trades to address the starting rotation. Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy are already out for the season, and as Saxon notes, Friedman told reporters (including MLBTR’s Zach Links) that an excess of good players can benefit a team by making trades easier to facilitate. Saxon quotes Friedman as saying, “…if we can add an arm, that would certainly be helpful.” I’d add that the Dodgers’ rotation is currently also banking on the injury-prone Brett Anderson to remain healthy, further increasing the possibility that the Dodgers may need to look outside the organization for rotation help. Of course, as Saxon notes, Brandon Beachy is on the mend from Tommy John surgery and is expected to be ready to return by June. Given that he’s returning from his second TJ operation, however, it would likely behoove the Dodgers to have depth beyond Beachy, Carlos Frias and Mike Bolsinger.
- Losing Ryu will make the Dodgers‘ efforts to acquire a starter significantly more difficult, opines Steve Dilbeck of the L.A. Times. Rival clubs already knew that they had leverage over the Dodgers, given the team’s rotation holes, and with Ryu slated to go under the knife, the Dodgers’ need has only been magnified. The Dodgers need to add a reliable mid-rotation arm, but teams can afford to demand a more premium asking price, Dilbeck feels, knowing that the Dodgers aren’t likely to be able to get by for the rest of the season with Anderson, Beachy, Bolsinger and Frias supporting Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.
- For those who didn’t see earlier, the Rockies made the somewhat surprising decision to option Drew Stubbs, who has five-plus years of Major League service, to Triple-A. MLBTR’s Jeff Todd took a look at the situation in more detail.
Dodgers should go get Harang….he should come cheap….
Yeah that seems like a good option, him or maybe kyle kendrick from the rockies? I know hes been horrible this year but pitching in coors field really hurts him.
Harang is 3rd in BWAR among MLB pitchers this year. I doubt he’ll be that cheap. Kendrick has a 6.70 ERA. If that’s an upgrade for a team I’m sure he can be had.
He’ll probably be pretty cheap because he is 37 years old and his performance has been all over the place in the last five years. He’s off to a great start, but the Phillies can’t seriously think they will get much back for him.
I wouldn’t say that other teams have “leverage over the Dodgers”. They probably won’t keep up this pace, but they’ve been playing pretty well. In my opinion there is no chance they give up Pederson, Seager or Urias in any trade. If anything they will look for cheaper options.
they are going to have to have insurance because I have greinke opting out of his contract
Then they can go throw money at Cueto and Price. The Dodgers have said all along that they won’t be trading those 3 players and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Ya know, they can always re-sign Greinke. He is essentially an insurance policy against himself.
Agreed. It’s a supply and demand issue. The Dodgers are going to be on the demand side almost for sure now, but we don’t know what other teams will also be buyers, or what the supply might be yet.
Yeah why panic and risk the future to acquire a guy like Hamels? They can wait and assess the market as the trade deadline nears. I’m sure they can get a solid veteran without blowing the farm.
True. According to Dilbeck’s logic, if you walk into a store looking for something, the price will go up if you are actually buying.
I don’t think there has ever been any willingness from the Dodgers to trade either of those three (Pederson, Urias, Seager).
if you look back at June/July trades over the last 10 years, top of the rotation and middle of the rotation pitching has become surprisingly easy to acquire. I’m sure the Dodgers can get a equivalent to John Lackey for a decent, reasonable price.
Of course they technically don’t need another ace w/ Kershaw and Greinke. Just someone adequate.
I think that they have to add somebody because I see greinke opting out of his contract
Well there’s plenty of options on the free agent market this winter. Right now they need to worry about 2015.
they can get that somebody in free agency. Price or zimmerman preferably.
Or Cueto and not give up a pick.
When you’re spending that much money on a guy in free agency, you don’t worry about the late first round pick that you’ll lose.
We’d have to be presupposing a trade of Cueto as well, or else Cueto would cost a pick.
I forgot that the Rockies will almost certainly have a protected pick. Great point – the Rocks would be losing a 2nd rounder, not a 1st rounder.
Why give up prospects now when they can spend money (their greatest advantage) on cueto, zim, price, and oh yeah Greinke.
The type of leverage teams have on the Dodgers in trade talks is different than the type of leverage teams have on a team like, say the BoSox. That’s not to say things won’t change for both, but as things sit, LA has managed to keep things going (which is admittedly impressive), and it’s hard to say a team winning like they have been loses a whole lot of leverage in talks. They can be more patient than most teams with a shaky rotation situation as long as they keep up their pace.
When your “shaky rotation” has Kershaw and Greinke at the helm… It can’t be that bad.
Precisely my point. While beyond those two, the situation is undoubtedly questionable, conversations will be more like “We know you’d like to add pieces to sure up the rest of your rotation at some point”, as opposed to “We know you have to do something or you’re in trouble this season because you’re not getting much from what you have”.
I think the 2014 Dodgers and Angels show that having enough pitching to get to the playoffs might not be enough to win the World Series. You need depth and you can’t count on someone no one expected to pitch well.
The 2014 Angels and Dodgers show that the playoffs is unpredictable, and trying to learn lessons from 10 games is foolhardy.
That is a lesson. It shows you might be able to get by with a weakness in the regular season but you’d better shore that up because it could hurt you in the playoffs.
Every team in baseball has weaknesses. It shows baseball is an unpredictable game in small samples.
I’ve been most impressed by Frías. I had never heard of him before but he could be this year’s deGrom.
If it’s true that a de la Rosa trade for Eduardo Rodriguez was nixed, well, holy crud.
Monfort is one of those guys you find on discussion boards who never, ever want to trade their beloved veterans for prospects, no matter how bad his team gets.
Which is a shame because the Rockies draw well. The people of Denver love the team and that part of the city is so nice now. Blowing up the team and rebuilding it with the right vision is the way to go.
Speaking of vision, I think the way to go for them is the KC strategy – get a bunch of speedy, high-contact line drive hitters with tremendous defense to take advantage of the spacious ballpark while preventing others from doing the same. Arenado and Tulo are already part of it, and I would push hard for guys like Heyward and Alex Gordon in the off-season.
The Dodgers will probably go after 2 starting pitchers by the trading deadline. I can see Ricky Nolasco going to them as a 4th or 5th starter.
The Twins won’t need him once Ervin Santana comes back – the other 4 starters are fine and they have a few starters just about ready in the high minors.
Nolasco is from the LA area and pitched for the Dodgers. He does much better in the NL, and Dodgers Stadium is a pitchers park. The Twins would be happy to dump the salary, which should be inconsequential to the Dodgers. Twins would happily take a prospect or two that might be able to be bullpen pitchers.
I could see the Dodgers trading for Cueto and giving up Corey seager, sadly.
What makes you think that? No way the Dodgers give up seager for pretty much anyone let alone a potential rental player. The Dodgers front office has been pretty open about their intentions of building a home grown team. I doubt they steer from that course now.
3 months of Cueto == consensus top 10 prospect in baseball.
Why? That seems like it would be completely against the front office’s strategy.