This one probably sounds worse than it is: the Yankees fell just $5K shy of landing Maikel Franco as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic, as Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com reports on Twitter. Franco ultimately received a $100K bonus from the Phillies, and of course ultimately rose to become quite a well-regarded young player. For his part, Yankees GM Brian Cashman indicated that he is not aware that the team fell just shy of picking up a winning lottery ticket, but neither did he deny that an offer may have been made, as Daniel Popper of the New York Daily News reports. Regardless of what really happened, of course, it would be awfully hard to lay much fault on the New York international scouting department for missing out on Franco, who was obviously not a premium prospect at that time (as his bonus indicates) and took some time to blossom as a professional. Philadelphia does certainly deserve some praise, however, for its investment: the now-22-year-old entered play today with a .319/.368/.604 slash and ten long balls over 155 plate appearances on the year.
Here’s a look at the latest from the AL and NL East..
- The Red Sox have shown no interest in dealing pitcher Clay Buchholz, major league sources tell Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. That’s no surprise given the way that Buchholz has pitched (3.87 ERA, 8.8 K/9 vs. 2.3 BB/9) and his team friendly deal, which allows for club options in both 2016 ($13MM) and ’17 ($13.5MM). For his part, Buchholz wants to stay in Boston through the end of his deal. “Yeah, unless something crazy happens I expect to be here,” he said. “I’ve always called this place home. [Trades] happen, and it’s happened to a lot of guys, where they walk in and they’re told their somewhere. That’s the business part of it and I think everybody understands that. I would love to be here throughout the next couple of years and everything goes well sign another extension. That’s sort of how I look at it.”
- Could the struggling Mets make a managerial change? As of right now, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Talk of the Mets dismissing skipper Terry Collins is “very premature,” a source tells Marc Carig of Newsday (on Twitter). New York is mired in a six-game slide and has dropped back to .500, but it is certainly tough to blame Collins for the roster’s lack of offensive punch and variety of injuries.
- If the Red Sox fall out of the race, Boston would almost certainly trade Mike Napoli or let him go, as Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal writes. The aging slugger is in his walk year and he doesn’t figure to be in the plans for next season and beyond. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen what kind of market there would be for the 33-year-old in July. His overall slash hasn’t been pretty, but he’s still doing well against lefties, hitting .226/.351/.516. Recently, MLBTR’s Jeff Todd checked in on Napoli’s free agent stock.
Wait, did that paragraph really start with “IF the Red Sox fall out of the race?”
Must have been written in early May.
They are currently “only” 9 games out and they have intentions of winning the division. They aren’t definitively out of the race yet.
I think its safe to say we are all done. Its not like they have really shown many signs of life beside a few spread out games mostly against other weak teams.
I’m not expecting the season to go anywhere after such a bad start, just saying that they aren’t technically out of it yet. They are pretty close to being out of it, but making a run is still a possibility if it happens sooner rather than later. At the trade deadline would be a good time to definitively say whether or not they’re out of it.
The article also goes on to say that Mike Napoli is “doing well” against lefties, hitting .226
An .867 OPS is “doing well”. Interesting that you would cherry pick the one stat in that line which is not flattering. An OBP of .351 is very good. SLG of .516 is excellent. A BA of .226 is not so good but the resulting OPS works. Obviously the salary is not commensurate with what a platoon player would command so any trade would need to be subsidized but he has clear value against lefties at the moment. There doesn’t look to be any chance of a Qualifying Offer so trading him for anything, regardless of how much cash needs to be shipped, would make sense at the trade deadline, even if the Red Sox were not out of it.
TRADE HIM NOW. While he still has some value. Of course this is a tease. He surely will revert back to the same old Clay very soon. Get what you can get for this fraud.
Mets lost 7 straight… nothing needs to happen
I still think the Cardinals need to grab a 1B.. MO should move in.
Are there other managers available other than Gardenhire, Backman, Black and Baker? Black sounds okay at best, but honestly those other options sound pretty horrible to me. Is there a forward thinking manager in the mold of Maddon out there? Like an assistant coach for the Rays or something?
Bobby Valentine
HoJo once had aspirations for the Mets job. The M’s just “demoted” him when they made Edgar Martinez the new hitting coach.
Collins to be fired??? Give me a break! Alderson who put this team together and has sat on his hands to do nothing while all of these “key” players as he calls them is out on the disabled list. Collins has been handed a bad deck of cards from Alderson. Alderson should be the one to be let go, what has he done for this organization??? Get rid of bad contracts and salary, oh by the way the two players he has brought to this organization to be a play maker right now is Colon and Wheeler. The jury is still out for Wheeler who returns in two years, as for D’Arnaud and Syndergard. Alderson has brought in bad contracts: Chris Young – the guy he jumped at like a little puppy to get the first day, Curtis Granderson – a classy guy, but not worth the 15 plus million a year, but was only signed to shut up Met fans and WFAN Mike Francesca and Michael Cuddyer – surrounded by the team, perhaps he would have been money well spent, if the team hit! If anyone has to go it’s Alderson!!!