Confirming expectations, Orioles executive VP Dan Duquette made clear that he has every intention of pushing for the post-season, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. He expects a “seller’s market,” as do most observers, because “just a handful” of clubs profile as true sellers. But don’t expect Baltimore to take that opportunity to cash in any of its expiring contracts. “Our pending free agents, the most value they could have would be to this year’s ballclub and their contribution to this year’s team,” said Duquette. “So any pending free agents, we’d like to see them play their best for the Orioles and help us accomplish our goals. That has been our focus all year. … “We have some pretty solid depth to the team and within our organization. Our club is in the hunt and we want to stay in the hunt and we’re going to do what we can to supplement our major league club.”
Here’s more from the American League East:
- The Yankees plan to keep young second baseman Rob Refsnyder on the big league roster after the All-Star break, John Harper of the New York Daily News reports. Refsnyder, 24, has only logged two big league games, but could take time away from veteran Stephen Drew as the team continues to evaluate its middle infield options ahead of the trade deadline.
- Meanwhile, the have yet to sign 16th overall draft pick James Kaprielian, but multiple reports suggest that a deal is likely to get done. Sources tell Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (Twitter link) that the righty is likely to head to New York rather than returning to UCLA for a final year. And MLB.com draft guru Jim Callis, who has broken a significant portion of the draft signings this year, tweets that he anticipates an agreement — while adding that the Yankees will likely be forced to max out their spending right up to the line of giving up a pick in next year’s draft.
- Red Sox skipper John Farrell says that he sees good reason to acquire more pitching before the deadline, as Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports on Twitter. Though Farrell indicated that he is confident in the current staff, he went on to say that “to add some arms to the group that we have … would go a long way to stabilize things.”
Yankees need to cut Drew , NOW !
This is silly, I don’t know why people continue to say this. Why would they cut him? He shouldn’t be an everyday player obviously, but he could be a nice Utility option with some pop in his bat off the bench. Cut Ryan if we’re looking to move dead weight.
I agree, Ryan will be the odd man out!
Yankees are winning. Girardi is a sensational manager. He’ll work with whatever they give him.
The Yanks will still need Drew’s defense in the late innings!
Why? I would rather them DFA Bendan Ryan and keep Drew for defensive replacement late in games or potential pinch-hitting duties if the numbers make sense.
Why? He is getting paid regardless if they cut him or not.. At least he can also play SS pretty well and he can stay off the dl..
Drew is a good back-up for the Yanks at 2nd and SS for the late innings. I still don’t know why he lost it so guickly.
SS-Gregorius
CF-Ellsbury
LF-Gardner
DH-Arod
1B-Teixeira
C -McCann
RF-Beltran
3B-Headley
2B-Refsnyder
If you compare Gregorius’s stats to other starting shortstops he is actually not very bad.. I really think he is going to improve even more with the bat and will be a real asset to the Yankees.. That lineup looks steady and pretty decent.. That should be what it looks like next year and the only thing I can see changing in 2017 is Judge in RF and either Bird on 1st or perhaps McCann moves to 1st and Sanchez or Murphy take over catching duties full time.. I must admit that I haven’t really thought about it much but that lineup is more solid looking than I had envisioned..
I agree, the SS position is average right now and Didi is adequate. I disagree with you on next year, Tex has taken back his spot at first base, and Heathcott, Flores, and Williams have all joined the party in the outfield. Flores has shown he is a major league outfielder. As for Judge, he has the power upside, but still is unproven, many of these guys will not make it. I think Severino has the best shot next year.
Reading between the lines, Farrell just made the understatement that the arms he had are unstable. So glad he noticed. My question is, Can you expect to win if your arms are “stable”?
That sounds like JF. Here’s the perfect example of JF and the lack of use of his pen…
Sun. big game with the Yanks, he summons Ogando to rescue Miley. Gets out of the jam. He sends Ogando out the next inning; now it’s over 90 on the field and humid–Ogando was warming up for an inn before coming in–gets out of the jam. Og gets into trouble in the next inning–the Sox are losing at this point in a must win game. Leaves Ogando in to face the rookie Refsnyder who takes him yard–now 8-4. He has every arm in the pen available.
In my estimation JF kind of gave up on the game. To give JF more arms for him is useless unless you get Pap, Betances and Miller.
My suggestion get a new manager to take over for the second half. There is a reason the Jays were not upset to lose JF a couple of years ago.
JF is a great guy, a great human being but not a great manager. He would be the Exec of the year if he was the GM.
I haven’t seen Farrell manage much, but wasn’t impressed when I did. He doesn’t seem to be a very good tactical manager. However…..
He did a remarkable job with the Indians when he ran some sort of player development area – he was instrumental in working with all players, not just pitchers (and as I recall, he also worked with guys on the ML roster that had gotten out of sorts). Not sure the Indians farm system has put out players that well trained since he went to the Red Sox as pitching coach. And of course, he did a wonderful job with that – IMO,his working with the staff had more to do with breaking the so-called jinx then anything else. His strength is in working with individual players. Turning them over to his coaching staff doesn’t work as well.
I’d often thought he should be a GM. But that would even take him further away from the players. Were he to want to do it, I think he would be sensational as a sort of George Kissell (Cardinals) – working with players throughout an organization. But in today’s baseball climate, that sort of thing is low visibility and doesn’t pay very well.
I don’t see how Duquette can manage to make a push for the postseason, as his only valuable assets are major pieces of the MLB team.
How can you play in 2 games, hit a 2 run home run, have .286AVG, 1.000OPS and still have a -0.3WAR?
Most likely because he committed an Error in the field. WAR does not like Errors.
That error should have been on the pitcher although he should caught the ball. He showed his inexperience, you have to be expecting a bad through from anyone especially a pitcher.
Due to luxury tax, parity, and the 2nd Wildcard, I think we now are in an era where the non-waiver trade deadline means less. And, maybe the waiver deadline means more?
Will we eventually get to a point where we will hear rumblings to push the trade deadlines to later in the year?