Within his latest Inside Baseball column, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that displaced Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro has joined Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez as struggling former stars that have cleared waivers. (The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo first reported that Ramirez and Sandoval cleared waivers.) The Cubs had a few trade discussions pertaining to Castro prior to the July 31 non-waiver deadline, per Heyman, and they’ll likely revisit trade talks this winter. As for Sandoval, Heyman hears that there are not active discussions at the moment, although one can easily imagine new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski exploring ways to shed that sizable commitment this offseason.
Some more highlights from Heyman’s latest column…
- Indians president Mark Shapiro has been given permission to meet with the Blue Jays about their opening, per the report. The veteran Cleveland executive is “believed” to sit atop Toronto’s wish list, and Heyman says there’s an increasing expectation that he’ll end up moving over to the Jays.
- Chris Davis is in line for a significant payday this offseason, but the Orioles aren’t likely to be the ones writing the check. Heyman hears that two years ago, following Davis’ brilliant 53-homer campaign, agent Scott Boras was eyeing Joey Votto’s 10-year, $225MM contract as a comp. Granted, Davis’ reduced production since that time has almost certainly lowered the asking price, but I personally agree with the assessment of MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes in his latest Free Agent Power Rankings: Davis is in line for a nine-figure contract, which seems beyond Baltimore’s traditional comfort levels.
- Though some were surprised to see Brett Anderson land a $10MM guarantee from the Dodgers due to his injury history, Heyman hears that the Dodgers may be considering an even more surprising move: extending a qualifying offer to the injury-prone hurler. Anderson, in my eyes, would be a risky candidate for such an offer, but there’s reason enough that the Dodgers could make that call. For one, the team can afford a $16MM investment in an injury-prone pitcher, and Anderson’s worth close to that kind of cash when healthy. Secondly, Anderson’s coming off one of the lone healthy seasons of his career and may see this as his best chance to cash in on a multi-year deal. He could see the only downside as another one-year deal worth $10MM+, meaning he’d be risking around $6MM for a chance at quite a bit more.
- The Brewers are expected to take “well into next month” in their search for a new general manager and are interested in pursuing non-traditional candidates. We’ve heard several possibilities batted around, and Heyman says he’s heard at least some chatter about Athletics assistant GM Dan Kantrovitz and Red Sox special assistant Jerry Dipoto.
- While the Phillies could have their own front office changes to make, Heyman says it’s still possible that Ruben Amaro Jr. could not only stay in the organization in some capacity, but keep the GM chair.
- In a separate piece, Heyman also takes an interesting look at the thirty best deals made over the last year. There’s certainly a good case to be made for his top choice: the Blue Jays’ acquisition of Josh Donaldson.
The Dodgers offering Brett Anderson or even Howie Kendrick a QO is a no-brainer…this is a 300M$ a year club – they can afford to take those gambles.
The only real risk in extending a QO is that the player accepts it and blocks other options.
Team that gives Davis over 100m will regret is as soon as (or sooner) than Texas has for giving another Boras guy.. Choo that 140m deal. Davis has too poor of swing mechanics and is far too much “all or nothing” to my liking to warrant that much.. Yet.. P.T. Barnum’s famous saying happens all to often in this game:
“There is one born every day” and some GM will probably get caught up in the hype, break down and fall for the HR flash…
Anderson would be silly to not accept a Q.O.
They said the same thing about Cuddyer…the fact is players like security – not one year deals.
A local Phillies radio host made a far point recently.
Amaro has done extremely well as GM the last 2 years. The problem with resigning him is not the baseball side of things, but the public relations side of things. Fans would go crazy if the Phillies resigned Amaro even for another year.
Hes rebuild the farm into a top 10 farm, made well with multiple low-risk high reward acquisitions including Frenchy, Odubel Herrera, Jeanmar Gomez, Andres Blanco and Aaron Harang, and cleared up a ton of salary. They only have 4 players owed more than 5M for next year.
With all of that said, they didn’t bring in Andy McPhail in maintain status quo. Expect a new GM, and probably a new manager. Mackinin took a big hit with his bullpen management yesterday. Put the closer Ken Giles in to throw 2 1/3rd innings in a meaningless game when you still had 3 relievers left.
I don’t think Amaro has done “extremely well” at all. The returns he got for Byrd, Papelbon, Rollins, and Hamels were good, but he didn’t fleece anybody. He got what anyone could have got. He must go.
Agreed. Amaro is the reason the Phillies are where they are right now.
Amaro is responsible to some degree but what about the owner who tells him to go for it? I’m not a fan of Amaro but he’s deserving of all the blame to the current state of the Phillies.
Davis might be in line for a nine figure payday–if you consider how Boras presents he will have all sorts of stats showing Davis as a premier power hitter at a time when power is in short supply. Right now, people look at the Cruz signing as a comparative bargain. That said, I think a long term investment in him is highly risky.
Davis is in line for a nine-figure contract, which seems beyond Baltimore’s traditional comfort levels.
That is just nuts. He is so hot and cold…I don’t have time for this really.
He can go and play for someone else next year if that how he feels.
Plus, if the Phillies are interested, I am interested in trading Duquette and Showalter to them. I think its a wonderful idea and I would only ask for Maikel Franco and for the Phillies to eat the JJ Hardy Contract to make it happen.
So you want a rebuilding team to give up their best young player in order to eat a bad contract and pick up an overrated GM and a manager?
The overrated GM and manager made it to the AL Championship Series last year.
Out was that an outlier?
Managers are overrated as a whole. If you put Showalter on the Phillies right now, they’re still a 90+ lose team.
That overrated GM was handed the core of his roster.
Davis, Tillman, Jones, Wieters, Hardy, Hardy and Showalter were all prior to Duquette. His biggest additions were Nelson Cruz (got to give him credit for that that) and.. Andrew Miller? Ubaldo? Both who he overpaid for.
Overpaying in prospects (Miller) and giving out large contracts (Ubaldo) is what put the Phillies in this place anyways.
Assuming Anderson can see out the rest of the season healthy, he’s definitely going to get multi-year offers on the open market. Good position for the Dodgers, and Anderson, to be in.
Please ,Tell me Rabbi Jesus that Ruin Tomorrow will not be back in the Phillies GM Chair !
Here we go again with the “injury prone” thing. Because Anderson is liable to break a foot or a finger again, right? Don’t stand too close to him, it might be contagious.
Looking at his time on the DL, it doesn’t appear to be a fluke thing.
Okay Doc, how are a broken finger, fractured foot, and herniated disc medically related? I await your informative answer.
The Dodgers spend like drunken sailors on leave.
They should give this guy a $225M contract so they don’t have to bother with negotiating with him for another 5 years.
Absolute NO to Amaro returning as GM. Need a GM with alot less attitude and alot more smarts with contracts