Rays right-hander Jake Odorizzi will visit a doctor on Monday to determine the severity of the oblique injury that forced an early departure from Friday’s start. Though the extent of the injury is yet to be determined, manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin) that it’s “fair to say” that Odorizzi will miss some time. Needless to say, the last thing the Rays need is another starter on the DL given how their staff has already been ravaged by injuries this season. Odorizzi was enjoying an excellent season, owning a 2.47 ERA, 7.4 K/9 and 4.2 K/BB rate through 76 2/3 innings as he and Chris Archer have been carrying the beleaguered Tampa rotation. Here’s some more from around the AL East…
- Dioner Navarro has returned from the DL and has resumed being one of the Blue Jays’ primary trade chips, Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star writes. Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos candidly discussed Navarro’s trade candidacy in a recent chat with reporters, saying that catcher was “an area of depth” for Toronto. “He could be an everyday guy for somebody. We like him on the team. He’s valuable,” Anthopoulos said. “We’re glad he’s on this team, but if there’s that opportunity we improve the club and it gets him an everyday playing spot, we would do that and I’ve said that to him as well. He understands that.” In short, Anthopoulos’ stance on Navarro hasn’t changed from what he was saying about the catcher’s trade status during the offseason. He noted that he had spoken to Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart about Navarro within the last few weeks.
- In addition to the Blue Jays’ known need for relief help, Anthopoulos noted that the Blue Jays were also looking for outfield depth. Dalton Pompey’s demotion has led to backup Kevin Pillar playing almost every day, and injuries to Michael Saunders and Jose Bautista led to variety of infielders (including Chris Colabello and Danny Valencia) filling the corner outfield slots with mediocre defensive results. Griffin figures that Navarro may be dangled as trade bait for an outfielder since the Jays’ remaining payroll space may be targeted for bullpen upgrades.
- The Red Sox aren’t looking to trade Jackie Bradley, Fangraphs’ David Laurila reports, nor is Bradley “in the proverbial doghouse” with team management. The Sox, however, have been using other outfield options and have no plans to promote Bradley from Triple-A despite his strong play, leading Laurila to wonder if his source was correct.
- Since the Orioles’ roster may be depleted by free agent departures this winter, MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski wonders if the team could draft college players to provide immediate help for 2016. This theory is countered, however, by an interview with MLB.com’s Jim Callis, who feels that it’s generally safer to just take the best player available, regardless of whether he’s a high schooler or a college kid.
- MLBTR’s Zach Links covered a couple of Yankees and Red Sox items in an East Notes post earlier today.
Pillar has really proven that he’s a starter outfielder for the indefinite future, guy gets no respect
He’s proven he can field really well, and that he’s not really a viable option as a starting outfielder. He can’t hit right-handed pitching well enough to be considered a starting outfielder.
His hitting leaves much to be desired when forced into an everyday role.
Agreed about Pillar. He gets some respect but not enough recognition of the fact that he’s essentially a second-year player and is still working it out at the plate.
Also, while Richard Griffin may have written that article, he’s only quoting the same things we all heard on the pre-game broadcast on June 6. Was he in the scrum with Anthopolous? I assume so. However, the reference to seeking an outfielder was made by Jeff Blair if I recall correctly. No wonder Griffin gets so much disrespect online.
Pillar has been terrific and is close to proving he’s a regular in the big leagues…
If Kevin hits the DL for an extended time, we do need at minimum a good rf/lf platoon that’s capable of playing center… Having a backup solution is good, especially since Joeybats is 34yo now, and Saunders knee is still causing him problems that could potentially last all year.
Defensively, he’s been fine. But hitting matters, and he’s been really bad v. RHP.
JBJ and Allen Craig will probably continue through the “15 season at AAA. I think it’s smart for both to get a full season with the PawSox. The Sox have promoted Swihart, Betts, Barnes, ERod, Castillo and Wright to the Major League roster and they have all contributed.
Both JBJ and AC are batting over .320 but neither has shown any power numbers.
If both get over 400 AB and find their strokes perhaps one or both would play a short term Winter Ball season ready to come to ST looking to compete for starting jobs.
If Napoli’s production continues to stay under .220 Craig may be able to convince Sox management not to resign Nap.
Bradley and Craig are getting from Pawtucket what Boston can not give them, which is steady playing time. I think both could work out their MLB woes with a patient manager, patient fans and a team not necessarily contending.
I think a team like the A’s would be the perfect landing spot for them both add Trey Ball and get a pitcher like Craveman or expand the trade with a couple of other prospects and get Sonny Gray. You know BillyB will be peddling both those guys when they get close to FA or high Arb eligibility. Only for an established pitcher like one of those two would I include Brian Johnson.
Patient manager? no. Patient fans? no. A team not necessarily contending? One out of three ain’t bad.
JBJ and Allen Craig will probably continue through the “15 season at AAA. I think it’s smart for both to get a full season with the PawSox. The Sox have promoted Swihart, Betts, Barnes, ERod, Castillo and Wright to the Major League roster and they have all contributed.
Both JBJ and AC are batting over .320 but neither has shown any power numbers.
If both get over 400 AB and find their strokes perhaps one or both would play a short term Winter Ball season ready to come to ST looking to compete for starting jobs.
If Napoli’s production continues to stay under .220 Craig may be able to convince Sox management not to resign Nap.
After Middlebrooks fetched Ryan Hanigan and Renaudo brought back Robbie Ross, expect a July swap of JBJ for Drew Stubbs or Skip Schumacher!
Dioner Navarro for any of the Rays expendable OFs. Make it happen.
I would love to see a 2016 OF of Castillo, JBJ, and Betts but that probally requires Hanley being a DH.
I also think they might want to consider platooning Ortiz this year indirectly and if he doesn’t turn things around start manipulating his playing time so he doesn’t get to the 425 PA needed to vest the option.
An OF of Castillo, JBJ, and Betts would probably be solid defensively, but where is the power going to come from?
The O’s do have quite a few free agents but I don’t think its going to be a complete drain on the team. Many of the players leaving: Wieters, Norris, Chen have replacements in house and ready to go. The pen will lose Hunter and O’Day but pen pieces are fickle and the O’s have found recent success in the pen with players from the farm. The one players who’s departure will leave a hole is Davis. All that being said the O’s will be freeing up close to 50 million in salary and will most likely resign a few of these guys as well.
They lost a few FA’s last year. How’d they do spending the money they saved? That’s right, they resigned Young, and gave out raises.
The FA’s they lost (Markakis, Cruz, Miller) were only about 25mil in salary and quite a chunk of that was sucked up by having so many players in arb (15ish if I remember correctly with many quite expensive ie. norris, davis and wieters) so hopefully with a lot more salary coming off the books this year and not as many players in arb Angelos might splash out with the check book (not holding my breath though….)