If the Yankees had to win one playoff game and could send out whomever they wanted to the mound, that pitcher might be Nathan Eovaldi, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Eovaldi, who has posted a 2.93 ERA in his last 12 starts, has looked like a top starter for more than two months and a scout familiar with him from his NL days says he’s the best hurler the Yankees have right now. The question is, is this all a fluke or is Eovaldi for real? Sherman is betting on the latter. Here’s more from the AL East..
- Now that Alejandro De Aza has started two games in a row for the Red Sox, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe (on Twitter) wonders aloud if the outfielder is being showcased for a trade. Through 89 combined games for the Orioles and Red Sox this season, De Aza owns a .264/.320/.441 slash line. The Dodgers and Giants both had interest in acquiring De Aza after he cleared waivers this month but both NL West teams felt that the asking price was too high.
- New Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has a history of pulling off quality trades and he isn’t the type to beat around the bush when it comes to negotiating, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald writes. “There wasn’t a lot of back and forth,” said former Phillies GM Ed Wade, reflecting on his 2005 acquisition of Ugueth Urbina. “I think it was two or three calls. Every conversation with trades, even prior to that, was pretty matter of fact and to the point. Dave always seemed to get to the crux of the matter pretty quickly.” Among the great deals on DD’s resume are the acquisitions of Miguel Cabrera and Max Scherzer and also Mike Lowell when he was with the Marlins.
- Rays prospect Blake Snell could be the franchise’s next great starter, Roger Mooney of The Tampa Tribune writes.
Eovaldi? That’s hilarious. Perhaps if they want to lose they should. Tanaka or Servino are the better options, seriously….
The Yankees’ moves of trading for Eovaldi and Didi are paying off right now, as is the non-trade of Severino. Too bad the Jays are in beast mode and can’t be caught!
Disagree with Sherman though. Tanaka is the ace and Severino is the second best option.
Add Porcello for Cespedes to the list of Dombrowski fleecings. Thanks to that ridiculous trade, the Sox in essence received for Jon Lester a pitcher with a five and a half ERA who will be paid $95M over 5 years. That alone warranted Ben’s removal as GM.
Let’s let the contract start before we call it a bust. Plenty of pitchers had bad first seasons with the Red Sox before going on to be successful. See Beckett, Josh and Lackey, John.
I don’t see why you would use that example, which wasn’t the trade at all, when you could point to the Lackey trade instead. Putting aside the Lackey retiring threats, taking on Craig’s salary given his performance and lack of clear position on the Sox was just silly when Lackey was going to be paid the league minimum.
Porcello hasn’t worked out. Doesn’t mean that trading Lester for Cespedes and the comp pick wasn’t a a smart move. The extension seems like an unnecessary risk, but it doesn’t really reflect on what he did with Lester.
Technically the Sox had to kick in a couple of prospects in that deal too. Sot it’s worse than you said.
Sherman is reading too much into Eovaldi’s 13-2 / W-L record. Eovaldi has been doing great but he’s still not an innings guy like Tanaka nor is he as consistent. Servino has been great but it is debatable who the #2 is between him and Eovaldi.