The Rangers acquisition of Cole Hamels was sold as a move for the 2016 season. However, the acquisition of Mike Napoli is a declaration that the Rangers want to win this season, writes Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The Rangers have surged since the trade deadline. They’re now 4.5 games back in the AL West and 3.5 games behind the second Wild Card slot. Texas will use Napoli as a platoon bat against left-handed pitching. Despite poor overall numbers, Napoli still has a .229/.345/.500 slash against southpaws this season. The Rangers will cover about $1.5MM of his remaining salary with the Red Sox chipping in with the balance ($3.7MM). He’s a free agent after the season.
- The Astros will use recently acquired left-handed reliever Oliver Perez in a lefty specialist role, writes Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. Perez will serve as a weapon against the tough lefties in the division like Prince Fielder and Robinson Cano. He’ll also free Tony Sipp to return to a full inning role. Houston will have to clear a 25-man roster spot for Perez prior to tomorrow’s game. In my opinion, one of Chad Qualls, Josh Fields, or Will Harris will be the odd man out. All three have pitched well this season.
- The Padres confused many by standing pat at the trade deadline, but they may be following the same path as the Blue Jays, suggests Grant Brisbee of SB Nation. Per Brisbee, GM A.J. Preller supposedly had a couple deals in place that were scuttled by non-baseball decision makers. Preller drew the most flak for failing to trade Justin Upton – a free agent after the season. Another popular trade candidate, Craig Kimbrel, will at least provide value to future Padres rosters. Returning to the lesson of the Blue Jays, they underwent a similar transformation prior to the 2013 season. When things fell apart that season, they didn’t conduct a Marlins-style fire sale. Instead, they tinkered their way to the current offensive juggernaut. Brisbee suggests that Preller has similar plans for San Diego.
- The Marlins plan to focus on starting pitching over the offseason, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The club would like to add two starters, although they’ll have to overcome their usual financial constraints. As was reported earlier, manager Dan Jennings is expected to return to the front office over the offseason. A couple old Marlins staffers – Ozzie Guillen and Larry Beinfest – will finally come off the books after this season.
Even if the Padres feel like they don’t need to tear down and rebuild, they blew this deadline by not trading Upton, Kennedy, Venable and Benoit. This current team is going nowhere and they missed an opportunity to start rebuilding their poor farm system by moving the soon to be free agents above. They also would have potentially saved $10+ million by moving those players. Just poor decisions even if they think the returning players are a core to build around.
fortunately 3 of 4 would pass waivers most likely.
2nd thought venable prolly gets claimed. so 2 of 4.
A lot get claimed.
benoit is 4.2 mil for 2 months or 10.2 for next year as well. ian kennedy is like 3.2 for a guy with a 4.49 e.r.a. pretty sure they pass waivers…
Their farm system was not poor 9 months ago.
They elected to go all in this year. As of tonight (8/9/15) they are in 4th place, 10.5 games out; and they are 4 teams away from a wild card spot – 10 games out of that. They have a clubhouse of players that either know they were shopped (and may still be being shopped) or that the GM is looking to replace them.
They need to hire a veteran, successful, credentialed FO man like a Dave Dombrowski to restore some order there, because it sure seems like that franchise is spinning out of control. And if the ownership and non-baseball people are in the mix, well all I can say is……
There is a best seller that can be written if a reporter can get parties to talk about what has gone on with the Padres in the past 9 months. It has to be a fascinating set of stories.
The last player drafted by the Padres, developed by the Padres, and made an all star as a Padres was Jake Peavy back in 2007. You could argue Chase Headley back during his MVP run should have been, but fact remains the farm hasn’t produced elite even well above average talent in years.
What good is an excellent farm that yields nothing? That’s like having an actual farm with premium fields and not growing anything.
Minor league numbers don’t win MLB games. They were great at developing mostly minor league depth or average MLB players.
What you bring up is a good point…….
How are farm systems judged – by wins or by quality prospects developed?
One gentlemen above stated the farm system is currently poor. My point is that had they kept the players they traded away, it would not be. The Grantland ‘Teardown Artist’ story that was noted here just after it was published around July 15 detailed how well the prospects that were traded off have been doing – at the major league level.
I find the situation fascinating. Within 9 months a new GM comes in, empties the depth of the farm system to try to compete in 2015, then at the trade deadline wants to do a 180, but now I read that someone(s) that are “non-baseball” people stop trades he’s set up. Who knows if that’s true. Obviously there’s a story as to what is going on there. I am not being sarcastic in suggesting that it could well be the sort of thing that people find interesting were a book written about it or a 2 hour documentary done.
I wish I could up-vote this more. I was just about to say the same thing.
The only one that would have netted anything was Upton.
All Beniot, Kennedy, Venable would have netted was low A players struggling; they weren’t getting anything worthwhile trading them..
Keeping them essentially saved them from doing paperwork to release the guys they acquired via trades as well as not having to worry about hurting other guys playing time currently there.
If the offer was decent enough they would have traded them. Instead of getting a low a player hitting .217 or pitching to an era 5+ might as well ride the season out.
Even if they received nothing back for those players, which I don’t agree with, the salary relief alone would have made trading them worthwhile. Right now they look like the worst run team in MLB. At least we’re talking about them right?
Venable, Kennedy, and Upton are free agents after this season. Salary relief isn’t something that trading them would have impacted any better had they kept them going forward.
As for Benoit- if they trade Kimbrel this month or during the winter meetings then it’s not secret why the kept Benoit for next season.
Also, they weren’t getting anything above A ball players for those 3. Maybe a guy who just cracked double A and is struggling hard.
Just look at what they got for Chris Denorfia (rental platoon outfielder) last season- Abraham Almonte who struggled in the big leagues and stephen kohlscheen who was a double A triple A pitcher doing ok in the minors at age 25.
“Just poor decisions even if they think the returning players are a core to build around.”
Yes. They traded several of the potential building blocks. It’s possible Myers will amount to something if he can stay healthy, but I see few comparisons with the Jays’ offensive capabilities. Plus, acquiring OF bats who aren’t great defenders in that ballpark is baffling.
I thought the Astros created a roster spot for Perez by putting Deduno on the 60-day DL as mentioned in a previous post.
That move cleared room on the 40 man roster, but Deduno wasn’t on the 25 man roster.
BTW, I would think(and hope) that Qualls would be the odd man out of those three. Harris and Fields have been much better this season.
Astros won’t be getting rid of Fields, Qualls, or Harris. Seems like a baffling opinion of the writer. These are core pieces of the pen. They will simply option Wojciechowski.
Your Josh Fields link leads to the wrong Josh Fields.
Astros won’t be getting rid of Fields, Qualls, or Harris. Seems like a baffling opinion of the writer. These are core pieces of the pen. They will simply option Wojciechowski.
Agreed.. The weekend writers for mlbtr seem to offer little in the way of speculations that make sense..
prolly, but it’s not like qualls is dominant. surprised they didnt upgrade bullpen even more
difference between the jays and the padres is the jays don’t have two very good teams in their division.
I would say Qualls is out of the Houston bullpenn. BTW, you referenced the wrong Josh Fields ánd the wrong Dan Jennings.
I have a hard time comparing the Padres to the BJ’s. The BJ’s acquired long term contracts. Padres acquired several rentals. Hard to stick to a plan and just tinker when the main players acquired have already left. That’s not to say its unfixable. They just cant copy Toronto.
The only ‘main player’ thats leaving is Upton. Venable can be replaced by a FA, Kennedy is their 4th starter, and they have an extra year on Benoit’s deal so that didn’t have to move them.
They acquired Myers, Kemp, Middlebrooks, Norris. with Norris and Middlebrooks being FA after the 2018 season and Myers after the 2019.
They also can move Myers to LF and try Travis Jankowski who’s been tearing it up the past 2 years at AAA in CF or make a run at someone like Drew Stubbs or try to trade for Peter Bourjous over winter to patrol center.
Their 2016 rotation looks like Shields, Ross, Cashner, Despaigne, and could make a run at JA Happ, Kyle Kendrick, Mike Pelfrey, or just call up Erlin, Kelly, Rea.
As for SS they can try to sign Cliff Pennington to a 2-3 year deal as a short term fix while guys develop or try out Diego Goris who’s in AAA
Two thoughts tonight:
Mike Napoli : What an Idiot!!!!!
A J Preller: Rock Star GM!!!!!! Again, What an Idiot!!!!
You mention that a non-baseball person or persons in the Fo scuttled the trades of impending free agents. If that is the case then Preller is not long for the FO. If the GM cant make baseball decisions then the franchise is sunk. Its over.
The Blue Jays sold off 3 pending free agents that gave them some of the prospects to make the run they are on now. Bisbee missed that.