Here are the latest starting pitcher rumors in advance of the winter meetings, courtesy of ESPN’s Jayson Stark.
- Johnny Cueto is the top pitcher on the free agent market, but his earning potential remains unclear. Some insiders are surprised he turned down the six-year, $120MM offer previously extended by the Diamondbacks. As Stark points out, Cueto is sixth among active starters with a 3.30 ERA so he would seemingly justify a serious investment. However, concerns about his health and late-season struggles have executives worried. Per one source, “If you told me that, within 24 hours [of arriving at the meetings], all of the big free-agent starters would be signed except Cueto, I’d believe it.“
- Former Reds starter Mike Leake, 28, is in demand largely because he’s one of the youngest pitchers on the market. He has a history of durability, but that comes with league average production on the mound. However, Leake is also well-above average as a hitter, boosting his value to NL clubs. Stark expects a “stampede” in Leake’s direction during the Winter Meetings. One source believes Leake will be overpaid by an exuberant market.
- The Braves would jump on a Shelby Miller trade if they received the right controllable position player. To date, Atlanta has focused on particularly high value targets like Joc Pederson, A.J. Pollock, and Jorge Soler. As you might guess, few if any teams are eager to trade established, high quality young hitters for pitching. The Braves have shown no sign of backing down on their asking price.
- We’ve heard a lot about the Indians pitching depth – namely Corey Kluber, Danny Salazar, Carlos Carrasco, and Trevor Bauer. Stark and his sources think the club will stand pat this winter. “You’re just shifting around your problems,” said one contact in regard to a hypothetical pitcher-for-hitter swap. The team’s strength is built around their rotation. They may be best served by simply maximizing that advantage.
- With the exception of Chris Archer, the Rays are shopping all of their starting pitchers. That’s par for the course for the Rays who historically have been open to trading anybody to improve the long term outlook of the franchise. Stark specifically mentions Jake Odorizzi and Matt Moore as available, but we can probably presume that Erasmo Ramirez is being floated too.
- Stark offers plenty of more notes in his column including the latest on the Yankees, Padres, and the remaining buyers for pitching.
Rays would be fools for selling low on Moore.
For sure. I was just thinking he would be a good target for a number 2 or 3 in alot of organisations rotations.
I know a (relatively) cheap young talented starter is not something u give up on
Ramirez and Smyly are the ones the Rays seem to be shopping. I haven’t heard anything about Cobb or Odorizzi.
Not if they believe he might never be back to the level he was before surgery. Not everyone makes it back from TJ surgery successfully. Someone might overpay due to name recognition. It’s a gamble, but then again so is every trade and FA signing.
“So if you’re familiar with their work, you shouldn’t be surprised to hear other teams report they’re trying to be “opportunistic” by seeing what kind of offers they can get on the likes of Matt Moore, Jake Odorizzi and pretty much everyone on their staff except Chris Archer. ”
This makes it seem as though the Rays are simply listening on everybody hoping someone will overpay.
How much higher could his stock rise though? Looking at his numbers and the only thing that jumps out at me is the shockingly high BB rate he has…… and his super high FIP for his career….. and his high WHIP……. and his mediocre ERA. Guy seems like a fringe #3 quality pitcher to me, and that is mainly due to his BB rate which severely limits his innings pitched potential. If you can’t pitch 200 innings you aren’t a legitimate 1 or 2 quality SP. He’s averaged 5 and 2/3 an inning pitched per start in his career. Pretty mediocre. On top of being a constant injury concern. So again, how much higher can his stock go? He’s got to get a few years removed at least from his injuries and during that time has to pitch better than what he’s shown for him to be of any true value. I think it might be best for the Rays to trade him now and try to sell his potential to teams…… potential which i am not sold on with a career 4.05 FIP and 4.1BB/9 rate. he’s got to pitch 2 stellar seasons back to back in order to get the high return I think you are assuming he is worth. But he’s only signed through the 2017 season…… so IMO his stock ain’t rising much unless he has a Cy Young caliber 2016. he’s had 1 good year out of what I’ll call 4 seasons. He’s only started 30+ games once and has been injured a good amount the other 3 seasons. If he is to be traded I think his value is as high as it’s going to get because he still has 2 full seasons of team control. The longer you wait the closer he is to free agency. Why wouldn’t teams just wait to sign him as a free agent. It’s only 2 years away for a currently questionable pitcher.
Through team options he can be controlled for 4 years.
He is still only 26 despite having 400 ML innings and a TJ surgery under his belt. If he is healthy next year, which seems like if you watched his last few starts of 2015, you are talking about a LH starter with two plus pitches in his FB and Curve.
Moores command has always been below average even when he was the top pitching prospect in the game. Though back then he had a 98 MPH heater and an even sharper curve.
Right now Moore is, including options, on a 4 year 31 million dollar deal which is a good value even if he is only the 175 inning, 3.75 FIP pitcher you say is so mediocre. By the way Moore was a little better than “mediocre” when he was healthy.
Snell available?
Why would the rays sell a prospect like snell
They wouldn’t trade Snell or Guerreri. Not unless they were blown away by a deal.
Archer, Longoria, Kiermaier and Snell are the only untouchables in the organization according to Marc Topkin
I dont think rays would sell low on matt Moore unless they got an offer they couldn’t refuse
Rays arent trading Moore because his value is the lowest it has ever been because of the surgery. Same thing with Cobb. Stark just writes what will get clicks.
As a Pads fan – I’d love to eat some money on Shields and trade him, and also trade Ross and Kemp together. Put Myers in one corner OF spot, Renfroe in the other (assuming he’s ready) and sign Chris Carter to play 1B. BUT if all of that were to happen, then who the heck is going to throw the ball? I can’t take another year of Despaigne in the rotation.
You’re either going to take back a bad contract or basically get nothing in return.
So trade Ross and Shields but say who will throw the ball??? What the heck lol
I don’t think the padres will trade both, maybe the trade shields to get rid of his salary. then they still have cashner and ross.
I think they ought to give shields another season, just one down year isnt the end of the world. He was very good in 2014 for kansas.
Shields was good with the royals because he had a great defense behind him, if he has that then his numbers will be better
So then why was he good with Tampa? Shields had an off year and it still wasn’t THAT bad. Chalk it up to adjusting to a new league. He might have lost it, everyone does eventually, but I need to see more to believe that he has already.
I agree. He was far from being a bad pitcher. He was a #1 performing like a #2
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to put Myers at first. A lower impact position especially with his injury issues.
Cueto should of tooken that $120m and who ever signs him for more than that is nuts with his elbow issues and par second half last year.
Should of tooken?
More urgent way of taking.For example should take,should have taken and should of tooken.So a big mistake by Cueto
In the case of Pederson and Soler I challenge the use of the term “established, high quality young hitters”. Neither has established themselves as mlb standouts.
Agreed. Everyone keeps acting like Miller should be traded for scraps like we have to deal him or something and should take what we can get.
Heck we’ll just keep him then. He still fits in this teams long term goals if we keep him.
Pederson and Soler’s potential is still greater than Miller’s. Not saying the Braves should trade Miller for scraps but Pederson has shown All-Star potential. His BA was low but he hit good enough in the minors to believe that will improve. If he can get his BA to at least .260, he’ll be a stud with his power.
I think you’re undervaluing what Miller has done and his market value vs the POTENTIAL of what Pederson and Soler MIGHT be. We’ve just seen former top prospects such as Trumbo, Chris Carter and Middlebrooks get cut or traded for almost nothing because they failed to excel past their initial success.
We also just saw a less impressive starter like Samardzjia sign for 5/$90 mil. Even in arbitration, Miller probably won’t earn more that 3/$50 over his arbitration years and should absolutely out perform Samardzjia across the board in all “real” statistics.
Trading Miller and NOT receiving either a more proven young mlb player or a package of top prospects a couple of years away would be a mistake. They either need to have a sure thing or enough prospects so that the likeliness of grooming a star are increased.
#JustKeepShelby
I don’t understand the Leake love. All that money for someone who really is a 4th starter without much upside.