Here’s the latest from around the NL West…
- There’s a good chance Jose Reyes has played his last game for the Rockies, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes as part of a reader mailbag piece. Saunders postulates that the team will wait until Reyes completes his probable suspension under MLB’s domestic violence policy and then release him outright. The suspension will erase some of the $46.25MM still owed to Reyes through the 2017 season (counting the $4MM buyout of his club option for 2018) and Saunders believes the Rockies will simply then eat the rest of the money in order to sever ties with the troubled shortstop.
- Of the veteran Padres most often cited in trade rumors, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune opines that catcher Derek Norris is the most likely to be dealt. Following Norris are, in order, Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross, James Shields and Matt Kemp. Sanders covers several other Padres topics as part of this online chat with Union-Tribune readers.
- With Mac Williamson not getting regular at-bats while sitting on the Giants bench, Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle thinks the team could make another roster move this week to recall a shortstop and more directly fill the spot of injured infielder Ehire Adrianza. The Giants didn’t want to be “hasty” with a 40-man roster spot to address Adrianza’s loss, though if Ian Gardeck is shifted to the 60-man DL, the team could add an experienced shortstop like Hak-Ju Lee and send Williamson back to everyday duty at Triple-A.
- The Diamondbacks could be in for a few days’ worth of roster shuffles after using nine pitchers in Saturday’s 14-inning loss to the Padres, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes. “It could be one of those things where this whole week is flip-flopping people. [We] might have to go down to 12 position players, too, at some point,” manager Chip Hale said. Shelby Miller had to leave Saturday’s start after just 1 2/3 innings under odd circumstances, as he twice banged his throwing hand against the mound and scraped his knuckles after extending his follow-through on pitches. The D’Backs entered Sunday’s action with a league-high 47 1/3 bullpen innings, though Patrick Corbin gave the staff some breathing room by tossing 6 2/3 frames in today’s win.
Reyes’ situation would make a Rockies fan wish it were like the NFL w/the non-guaranteed contracts. This dude will get the money, and not do the time. He doesn’t have to do anything in MLB again and he’ll get his money.
Yeah, these long term mega contracts are making less and less sense. They won’t end anytime soon, but these contracts more times than not come back to haunt teams.
Would be great if MLB had a salary cap like other three major sports do.
It would be tough for MLB to put a salary cap in place. Realistically speaking, most teams do that already on their own, choosing to decide how much payroll they’re willing to take on. Bad contracts are bad contracts, and, unfortunately, like bad trades, a part of the game. As long as owners/GMs continue to ‘green light ‘ both, they will continue to happen.
Why would it be great–to enhance owner’s profits? Do you think ticket prices, beer, hot dogs, parking, will come down? Do you think they will stop asking for taxpayer subsidies? Will your cable bill come down? I don’t think so. Athletes have short earning spans, and are one moment away from career altering and sometimes career-ending injury. I don’t begrudge them their money, as long as they put out the effort.
Cause then the Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees would have to worry about the tail end of contracts and not be able to hoard *most* of the best free agents. That way smaller market teams will likely have a stronger chance to hang on to their superstars
I agree… Great post!
The non-guaranteed contract gives all the power to the team. I’m glad MLB has a strong player’s union that actually fights for its players.
Did you mean 60 day DL instead of 60 man?
Releasing Reyes doesn’t make much sense. If the Rockies are indeed prepared to pay his entire salary then surely they could get a least a couple of warm bodies in return for somebody willing to take him on for no cost.
Could be tough depending on what details come to light and how committed the FO is to distancing their organization from the domestic violence issue.
Then again, the relative calm around Chapman since MLB suspended him suggests there may still be a place in the game for Reyes.
Sure but the premise of the article is the Rockies don’t even release Reyes until he serves out a suspension, so under that scenario the details are as out in the open as they will ever be by the time he becomes available for trade. The article contains the blindly illogical statement that the Rockies will be willing to eat the balance of his contract, but that his contract stands in the way of trading him. Something wrong with that picture.
And, pray tell, what team do you see being willing to take on a SS, that can’t really play SS anymore, and give anything up for the privilege? I would think his situation will depend on how well Story continues to play.
Reyes is just not good enough anymore. He might be a utility guy at this point, but he really can’t start at shortstop. He played second base at one point, so maybe he could handle that for a bit, but the bat doesn’t really carry him anywhere else. Plus, the off-field issues…he’s a sunk cost. Teams are starting to understand this now and are willing to eat money because they have to pay it anyway. Michael Morse is one recent example, Michael Bourn as well,
His 2015 batting line was .274/.310/.378/.688. Not a lot below his career production level, and certainly good enough for him to be useful on a major league team in a utility role. For free or close to free, I’d expect someone to take him, personal troubles and all.
If both COL and ATL chose not to sever ties completely with their alleged offenders and COL made it an even money exchange, would a Reyes-for-Olivera trade make sense?
The Rockies owner cultivates the evangelical crowd, thus the overreaction to the Todd Helton DUI, and why they would be willing to eat Reyes contract. They are not interested, even if Olivera were an All-Star Gold Glove centerfielder playing for pre-arb salaries. Incidentally, Olivera is not very good at hitting or fielding and is owed more than ten million annually.
Norris will be traded soon enough, once they decide to hand over the reigns at shortstop to Hedges, but it would be nice if he could start hitting again. Cashner has to be traded at the deadline, Ross should have been traded already, trading Shields would be complicated because of the opt out and no one is interested in Kemp.
While Hedges has lots of talents, I think asking him to learn shortstop at this point might be a bit much!
I think watching Norris play SS would be fun.
lol. rimshot please!
I would think that the giants would be more interested in either gillespe or pena before lee (arroyo would be great but they want him to be an everyday guy somewhere)- gillespe had a great spring and was a regular guy for the ChiSox last year so I would think he would be at the top of the list
Thank you, Mr. Obvious at the UT. Norris makes the least money of the players mentioned and was ranked pretty highly among catchers over the past 2 seasons. 7th in WAR in 2014-2015 and 5th in 2015.
Kemp had another disappointing season during his decline over the past few. He is owed a ridiculous amount of money and will be almost impossible to trade unless he picks it up and hits much better in the first half this year than he did last year as a whole.
Norris being cheap and having a high WAR also would be good reasons to keep him, however, if Hedges wasn’t about to make him expendable in a few months.