Dodgers president Stan Kasten told Jim Bowden of SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio (on Twitter) that he last spoke to Zack Greinke about his opt-out in the spring. He says that the two sides are playing things out this season and will worry about Greinke’s contractual situation in the offseason. Poised to hit the market as one of the top arms available, the 31-year-old hurler (32 this winter) may prefer to test his value rather than opt in with Los Angeles. Here’s a look at the NL West..
- The Dodgers have some dead money on the books but Kasten says that he views it more as a short-term expense than a financial burden (link). Those dollars, he says, are a “short-term expense for long-term gain.”
- Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post isn’t so sure about the return the Rockies got for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. Colorado acquired three quality pitching prospects in Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro, and Jesus Tinoco in the swap, but Colorado has a poor track record of developing pitchers. If things do work out with Hoffman, however, he could be a significant rotation piece in 2017, when the Rockies might be able to make some noise.
- The Padres will likely explore August trades but GM A.J. Preller might decide that the offseason is the better time to overhaul the roster, Dennis Lin of U-T San Diego writes.
Patrick Saunders apparently hasn’t noticed having no pitching at Coors hasn’t exactly been successful in the past
But the solid pitching they HAVE had was homegrown…. Jimenez, Francis, Morales, Corpas
If you have dig as deep as Morales to find “solid” pitching, you have no argument. There are very few relievers in Rockies history that you just KNEW were going to blow the game. Felipe Paulino, Boone Logan, and Franklin Morales are atop that list.
I’m not digging deep…those players were on their last successful team in 2007…and they were homegrown…that’s my only point… That their winners come from within and have to
BTW, Jorge de la Rosa is not homegrown and he is the winningest pitcher in team history. Pedro Astacio was pretty good for the Rox as well. It takes a very strong-willed person to be a successful pitcher at Coors. It doesn’t matter what system they come from.
Yeah, I’ll agree…but not many teams would have thought De LA Rosa was going to pan out….he didn’t show much with KC. Wasn’t that the Affeldt deal?
I just don’t see reason to climb on them for focusing on development.. They just can’t go big in free agency
Why is the media picking on the Pads so much? Lol
There are other teams that are failing who had a big offseason. But no, they always pick on the Padres. I think they are just mad that Preller made them look like fools because they (the media) said, “Padres are officially sellers.” And obviously traded no rumored players.
I know this is irrelevant to this article, but lately I’ve reading articles and been arching up on Twitter feed.
Well, the Padres are good right now to fill column space
A lot of media said the Padres *should* be sellers. As soon as it became clear that Preller didn’t know his elbow from his proverbial, the criticism began.
There’s always a rogue reporter who claim something that isn’t correct – but there’s a glut of more reputable journalists who are bewildered at the Padres last 12 months.
Actually, I remember there being a fair amount of criticism when he made these “rockstar moves” in the first place. Tearing the team and farm apart like it was MLB The Show was just the start, his failure to fix it at this years deadline was the cherry on top.
Preller is making someone look like a fool, but it isn’t anyone in the media.
Probably because Dennis Lin writes for the San Diego newspaper.
I am aware of that, and also said that my comment is irrelevant to what they are saying about the Padres in this article.
The Padres and Marlins, two teams that went “all in” but are completely irrelevant with a third of the season left to play, are being picked on because of those two contradictory points.
Because the Padres could have improved their team by simply trading away their potential free agents. Free agents that they had substantial offers for prior to the deadline. Preller blew it by not moving Justin Upton, Ian Kennedy, Will Venable and Benoit for whatever he could get for them. All of the offers he had for Upton were better than a sandwich pick. All of them. If he got a bag of balls and a bag of sunflower seeds for Kennedy and Venable it would have been better than nothing, which is what he will get for them now. Both of them would have brought back valuable prospects, especially if they were packaged. Kennedy was on a 10 game hot streak going into the trading deadline and some team would have taken a chance on him. Its pathetic what Preller has done to the Padres. First by too much action, unneeded action. Then by no action.
Yea…
I agree with the part that he should of traded the 2015 FA. The Mets offered a good deal and a proven prospect. It’s a higher risk taking a 1st round pick ’cause he’ll probably be a bust.
Preller just set the organization up to another fresh start. For once after trying to rebuild this team for many years they actually had a really good farm system. But sadly all those prospects are traded away now and doing work with their new teams. Seems like Byerns was heading to the right direction this whole time.
Tulo hitting well with the Jays over a short time doesn’t mean the Rockies weren’t wise to acquire pitching prospects. I’d like to see what the writer proposes they do for pitching if they don’t develop their own. The Rockies will never likely be able to build a rotation through free agency. No one but back end starters looking for a.major league deal will sign to pitch at elevation.
No…the Rockies haven’t been very good at developing their own…but its exactly what they need to do. It sounds like they also tested the water for a CarGo for Kevin Gausman deal. That would have been smart as well.
I can see the rockies moving CarGo in the offseason
The Rockies can’t develop pitching. Ergo, they shouldn’t have gotten several raw pitching prospects and should have instead tried to go after better, more complete players without taking on the salary of a value-negative has-been shortstop.
OK…they can’t develop starters? That is locked into eternity? More complete players? They essentially had the same contract on the roster and freed themselves for prospects.
Better more complete players? It was half expected they wouldn’t be able to even move Tulo because of the contract and injury history. I really thought maybe..just maybe they’d deal him to Seattle for a James Paxton. I think with Toronto they did what they need to try to do as an organization… Start doubling down on pitching development.
It doesn’t matter how often Kasten & Co. talk about playing the long game in terms of team building and financials, we are always going to hear about how they can’t do what they are doing.
What?
Meaning, the conventional analysis of the Dodgers’ trade deadlines moves was all about how they paid too much for the players they got. What’s been overlooked by almost everybody is they deliberately used cash as leverage to get the players they needed while not giving up key future talent. We keep hearing about how they can’t keep this up, even though the clear and consistent message is they aren’t worried about the short term costs of holding to this plan.
The dodgers are going to lose greinke and another team will outbid for his services.
The Dodgers might lose Greinke, but I seriously doubt that it is because someone “outbid” the Dodgers. I could see Greinke leaving because he wants to be the top guy or he wants to pitch in a smaller city again, but not because the Dodgers didn’t offer enough money.
I think it’s going to come down to the number of years.
He may be a little bitter given what happened between Grienke and his Angels.
He is going to the highest bidder. That seems to be the way it works with him.
That’s how it seems to work with everybody. Cases of players giving up any significant part of their market value to play for a preferred team are rare.
With the Jays catching up to the Yankees rapidly, from 7 back to 1.5 back, I can see Cashman panicking and trading for Upton if he gets that far and taking James Shields contract; has he cleared the waivers? Cashman did nothing at the deadline while the Jays went all in. If/when the Jays pass them in the standings the Yankees will have earlier priority in claiming people including Kimbrel and Upton. Preller could wind up getting rid of Shields contract and getting something decent in return from the Yankees as they sink.
No way Upton gets anywhere close to the Yankees.
Depends how bad they fall and when he’s put out there. They lose a couple more games they’ll be one of the first in contention teams to have priority.
Either way he’s getting claimed knowing he’s going to be somewhat expensive to help the claiming team make a playoff push. Plenty of teams could use his bat in for the push and playoffs.
For his talent he is cheap and its a very low risk move as he is gone in a month and a half. He has to get through the whole National League first. No way he gets out of there. Right now The Yankiees would be the 28th team to see him on waivers out of 29.
Yankees will not get Shields. Red Sox will put in a claim if only to stop him from going there – if some team doesn’t claim him first.
Doubt the Red Sox would do that. He will probably get lit up in the AL East at this point in his career and they don’t need another back of the rotation arm. If somebody claims him, I’m pretty sure the Padres would simply dump his contract onto that team which means he should clear waivers.
I agree with Draven. The Red Sox aren’t competing with the Yanks right now. Boston needs to rebuild and getting a 35 year old pitcher with a huge contract is no way to do that.
Red Sox didn’t do that. Shields passed through waivers. Any team in baseball can trade for him now.
Shields for money and a minor prospect would make too much sense for the Yankees with Piñeda’s availability questionable moving forward.
I think the Rocks need to keep dropping quarters in the pitching slot machine hoping a few hit. They unloaded Tulo’s big contract and maybe one of the pitchers might be good. He’s a fine player—when healthy and his stats are Coors inflated.