Mariners catcher Jesus Sucre suffered a fractured fibula this weekend playing in the Venezuelan Winter League, the Mariners confirmed to Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. (Venezuelan journalist Marcos Grunfeld first reported the injury.) The 27-year-old Sucre received a career-high 142 plate appearances last season, serving as a backup catcher in Seattle. The offseason additions of Chris Iannetta and Steve Clevenger make it unlikely that Sucre would’ve broken camp with the Mariners, but the fact that he may miss the beginning of Spring Training, per Dutton, clouds his role with the club even further. Sucre is a lifetime .178/.206/.229 hitter in 235 plate appearances at the Major League level. While his bat is light, Sucre has caught 40 percent of potential base-stealers in his big league career and rated as a well above-average pitch framer in 2015.
Here’s more from the AL West…
- Despite a number of executives recently speculating to MLB Network’s Peter Gammons that the Astros could be a landing spot for Yoenis Cespedes, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle spoke to a source that made a Cespedes/Houston match unlikely. A separate source confirmed to Drellich that Cespedes is still seeking a very lucrative long-term deal, and as he notes, there’s no precedent of current Astros ownership green-lighting a $100MM+ contract. Drellich hears that the Astros, for instance, never pursued Chris Davis despite the possible need of a first baseman. GM Jeff Luhnow wouldn’t rule out further moves for his club this offseason, but he also didn’t sound to be aggressively seeking any upgrades. “We’re monitoring the players that are available and trying to figure out if there’s a fit, and when I say available, I don’t mean only via free agency. There’s discussions with other teams about trade possibilities as well.”
- If the Rangers make another move to add to their rotation, it’d likely be a depth piece, GM Jon Daniels told reporters, including Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News, earlier today. “If we do anything else where the rotation is concerned, it would be more along the lines of depth,” said Daniels. “There have been physical issues with some of our guys, and we’re cognizant of that.” As Fraley notes, Texas has four locks for the rotation in the form of Cole Hamels, Derek Holland, Martin Perez and the recently re-signed Colby Lewis. Ace Yu Darvish won’t be back until mid-May, at the earliest, Fraley writes, so the Rangers could pursue a possible piece to fill his rotation spot until then. Of course, Texas also has Chi Chi Gonzalez and Nick Martinez as depth options on the 40-man roster, in addition to non-roster invitees A.J. Griffin and Cesar Ramos (who will be stretched from reliever to starter this spring, the club revealed when announcing his signing).
Rangers trade for lucroy
I think the blue jays lineup lineup with houston very well in regards for a trade.
Im thinking since the jays need relief help and houston needs a 1B, why not do a deal like,
1B Chris Colabello for RP Tony Sipp, with houston sending back some cash.
Why would they trade sipp if they just signed him back
Singleton is a placeholder for Reed. Sipp can’t be traded to June so that probably won’t happen.
Houston cannot trade sipp until June because they just signed him as a FA. Also they value sipp very highly so I don’t think they’d make that trade
I should mention as well, Toronto doesnt necessarily need relief help, but another lefty in the pen would be beneficial. Houston already has Giles, Neshek, Gregerson, Harris and Fields. This would give toronto some more felixibility in regards on what to do with sanchez and osuna as well.
All those you listed are RHP’s. Why Houston trade the only/best lefty they have?
Jesus Sucre might be a negative WAR player, but he has a 3 WAR name.
Sucre just got hurt. Out for at least 6 weeks
Sweet Jesus!
I would really like to see the Rangers go after Tim Lincecum, Mike Minor, and/or Cliff Lee. Not sure what the market for Lincecum is, but if any one of these pitchers could be had for incentive rich laden deals based off of performance, I would be one happy fan!
They’re not getting Lee. Lincecum will probably get a big league deal, so he seems unlikely. Idk about Minor, but I figure if they add anybody, it’ll be a JeromeWilliams/WandyRodriguez/AaronHarang type.
Is there any doubt whatsoever that Lincecum will get a major league deal? He’ll probably get a fairly large one. Dude’s still young and there aren’t very many two-time CY winners around. Even as a reliever.
Greg Maddux is available I suppose. But Lincecum is 32 and his ERA the last four years is around 4.7. He was, like Maddux a great pitcher at one time but that time has passed. I can’t imagine why anyone would give him a fairly large ML deal.
I can see rangers signing one of those pitchers to like a small/ one year deal. They really need to trade someone or do something to get more money. So we can actually get what we want
Mazzara and Martinez for Lucroy? Yes no? Would that meet milwaukees price for him or would that be to much, I don’t keep up with the Rangers farm system so idk who else Milwaukee would want besides Mazzara
I’m not a Rangers fan but I’d have to say no way that they move Mazzara in any deal
Not sure why this page constantly thinks Nick Martinez and Chi Chi Gonzalez are viable pitching options. They were two of the worst pitchers in baseball last season. Holland and Perez were also carried by unsustainable BABIP. The Rangers staff has major questions, in a division with some big bats.
Why didn’t you mention that they were both major surgeries? Their rotation will be fine.
hard to find a staff in baseball that DOESN’T have major questions. Holland and Perez were coming off injuries last year. Both showed they still have some good stuff but were inconsistent. Martinez & Rodriguez was both rookies who had some good and bad moments. Texas has to hope one or both will improve because that’s the best way to get better—-with home grown talent. I wouldn’t give Lee or Linecum ML deals….just invitations to come to Arizona to make the team. Colby pitched great last year on five days rest. The Rangers need to find a way to make him just pitch once a week.
Maybe the execs were speculating because Houston has the money. Thing is Houston isn’t going to use that money on something they don’t need. I think they would rather take 100 million and try and lock up Kuechel and Springer…