The Indians may be more willing to listen to trade scenarios regarding their controllable pitching than they have indicated publicly, according to a report from Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). In particular, they’ve spoken with the Blue Jays regarding righty Carlos Carrasco.
There are other appealing arms under long-term control in Cleveland — Corey Kluber, Danny Salazar, and Trevor Bauer most notable among them. But the report indicates that the Indians are most willing to consider a deal involving Carrasco. The 28-year-old carries only a 3.94 ERA this season after last year’s breakout, but his peripherals (10.1 K/9, 1.9 BB/9, 49.0% groundball rate) suggest he’s rather an elite performer. And ERA estimators all value his work this season at a sub-3.00 level.
Expanding Carrasco’s value is the fact that he’s only just started playing under a four-year, $22MM extension inked over the winter. That deal includes two option years (both of which include escalators) that could boost its total value to $48MM. Even at that price, though, it looks to be quite a bargain. And the flexibility at the back end limits the already-reasonable risk.
With the Tigers still debating whether to market David Price and the White Sox still waiting to decide on Jeff Samardzija, the AL Central suddenly seems to hold the key to the starting pitching market. It remains to be seen whether some or all of those players will seriously be marketed, though at least Samardzija seems a good bet to change hands.
Carrasco, though, would be a much more palatable target for Toronto since he comes with plenty of affordable future control. As Passan notes in his report, the Jays have a number of notable young talents that would certainly hold appeal to Cleveland — he mentions Jeff Hoffman, Daniel Norris, Dalton Pompey, and Anthony Alford — and it would be much easier to part with one or more for a non-rental.
On today’s MLBTR podcast, Steve Adams and I discussed the possibility of Cleveland moving an asset such as Carrasco — possibly as a means of offloading some of the big salaries owed to players like Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn. It’s unclear what kind of deal might conceivably be structured between the two clubs, but it’s notable (as Steve and I also covered) that Toronto has significantly more open payroll capacity in the future than they do at present. Taking on some later-in-time money could in theory offer a route to acquiring a controllable arm while limiting the damage to the club’s talent pipeline.
More SPs on the market. Awesome. Keep doing nothing though, Walt, I’m sure someone will give you that magical super mega prospect package you’re waiting for. Embarrassing.
Relax its only 8 more days, patience my friend!
Yeah, look at the exciting players Beane just got by trading the first starter. Household names both! When Walt does make his trade, you won’t know the players he gets, either, so you will probably complain that he got too little.
As I mentioned they should do in the last Indians thread……..
Carrasco, if available would cost a mint. The guy is cost controlled through 2020 with those 2 reasonable 9m team options. EVERY team in the league would be in a bidding war if it’s actually true the Tribe is shopping him and the Jays don’t have the farm system to win that war.
I really, really doubt they have him on the market, it would be too good to be true for rich farm systems.. Like Houston, The cubs and Boston.
if i were the phillies, id take on every contract the Indians want to dump in order to get Carrasco.
Don’t stop their Indians……shop……..Moss,Brantley,Bourne,Kipnis,Santana,Murphy,Gomes,Kluber,Salazar,Bauer,Swisher,Aviles,Raburn…….
You missed a couple names
indians.mlb.com/team/roster_active.jsp?c_id=cle
Haha hahaha. Always good for a laugh. FU NYY!
NOOOOOO! Not Raburn!
It’s AA’s style. Doesn’t hurt to ask about these kind of pitchers that haven’t really been “on the market.” Same kind of thing he did when he stole Donaldson from the A’s, no other GMs even knew he was available.
Absolutely. It doesn’t hurt to ask. Everyone is available at a certain cost. Except Stroman. I still think AA should get a crazy offer together for Gray, Clippard and Reddick.
And we all know that AA has a good relationship with Beane. I wouldn’t be surprised honestly, and I agree with keeping Stroman. If Gray, Clippard and Reddick would be packaged to Toronto…the cost would be super high. Like really super high. In a deal like that though, I’d be okay with having Hoffman, Pentecost & Norris being the centrepieces going to Oakland.
Id be fine moving all those guys for just Gray, but to get just him I bet you have to add in sanchez
Norris + pompey + Castro + Pentecost + Cola for the dream A’s pkg I previously mentioned.
Word big bird. The only way I’m OK with losing Hoffman is if it nets us Sonny G. Big fan. As far as Norris goes, I’d love to keep him but would rather lose him than the Hoff.
I’d rather have the ace that exists than the potential ace that Hoffman might someday turn out to be. Hoffman has already had one TJ surgery, one more and his value will plummet.
Walt better hope we can get some people for cueto I’ve been saying we should of traded him well before the all-star break
Safe to say there are plenty of suitors for Cueto.
It would be quite the move for Shapiro and company if they can find a way to trade away the Twins SS/OF Danny Santana. I’d keep the pitching and listen to offers for him first if I were GM.
It would indeed. Even better if Terry Ryan could somehow make those players magically change places as I did.
(Fixed.)
By Danny Santana do you mean Danny Salazar?
Yes, edited. I blame some combination of rumor flurry and constantly talking to Steve Adams about Twins utilitymen.
It’s Danny Salazar, not Danny Santana. For what it’s worth, if they deal Carrasco, I will retire my Indian fandom unless they rob someone blind for 2-3 hitters including a cornerstone 3B.
Yes, addressed above.
I think most player for player trades should give a decent haul since the Jays DO have some pretty decent talent in their farm, but if they trade Carlos with Bourn/Swisher and get nothing really worth noting in return, I’d be absolutely miffed. No way they’re spending that money on anyone worthwhile over the offseason.
no way do the Jays want anything to do with Bourne or Swisher. That would be a non starter.
Why not? Bourne would be an improvement in the OF for the Jays.
Not sure those guys are upgrades over Colabello and Pillar.
Colabello is terrible in LF. He was also pretty bad at 1B yesterday. I don’t know the advanced stats for him, but he is just a terrible defender. The Jays even put Carerra in as a defensive replacement for him yesterday.
Plus, Bourn is a left handed hitter, I’d imagine his production would go up hitting in between Donaldson/Bautista/Encarnacion.
They are both defensively better than Colabello. Offensively, they tend to have better track records than Colabello does.Even then, the Jays offense is not exactly a weak spot right now.
Of course — point would be to take on salary to reduce prospect value you’d need to get Carrasco.
I would have to agree. Pillar is probably better than both Swisher and Bourn defensively. All 3 are better defensively than Colabello. If it means giving up less in the way of prospects, it would be a smart risk for AA to take.
It fills two holes at once, and involves less of a cost in prospects in theory. My only real concern with your theory is if the Jays are willing (and able) to take on the extra salary they would need to in order to make it work. From what has been posted on this site and elsewhere before, the Jays have somewhere between $4 – $8 million left to spend, which means the Jays would need to shed salary from somewhere.
Would that require moving Dickey or Reyes to facilitate a trade?
Don’t forget, AA had 8 million to work with that he was planning to use at this time of year. The season is over half over, meaning that less than half of this years salary has to be paid. Next year, Dickey/Buehrle/Romero are no longer paid by Toronto, giving them 40 million more to work with next year.
I doubt AA has approval to add more salary than the $4-8 million that is being speculated. So we move Dickey and Reyes (and obviously some prospects) to make room for a high priced outfielder? I would assume Buehrle is going nowhere.
Thinking about it more, that would make the team look like this:
C: Martin 1B: Smoak/Colabello 2B: Travis SS: Goins 3B: Donaldson OF: Bourn or Swisher, Pillar, Bautista DH: Encarnacion
Carrasco, Buehrle, Hutchison, Estrada, Sanchez/Norris/someone else (in no particular order)
Think if had choice of taking on just ONE of those awful contractual players? Would take Bourne, him could stick on the bench as a 4th/5th OF type, even though he and probably Boras still believe he’s a starting CF and would gripe next year about his 2017 option not triggering but you know? That’s what happens when you sign a LT contract and sit on your rear end the 1st 3 years and don’t produce.
Swisher is finished, another Allen Craig that would just clog up a roster spot IF the Jays could manage a deal. Borne at least could probably learn to play all 3 OF spots, more use like that.
Carrasco is owed like 1 million for the rest of the year. Bourn is owed around 6 million for the rest of the year. Falls under the 8 million AA has to work with.
If that’s all Kashmir cost, shouldn’t samrzadja cost about the same or pretty close?
I’d think they are quite close in value. Similar salary. Kazmir has been better, but the injury concerns balance that out.
If Carrasco is truly available (still waiting for the next rumour to say that isn’t the case), then the Red Sox should be all over him. He is exactly what they need.
Yes, because the Indians always get great players back from the Red Sox! NOT!
What does that have to do with anything? If the Indians want a particular player in a deal and that player doesn’t work out, then that is their own problem and they deserve 100% of the blame. That means their own evaluations were flawed. The past isn’t gonna stop any team from making a deal that makes sense.