If first baseman Mark Teixeira and designated hitter Alex Rodriguez don’t turn around their seasons by the July All-Star break, the Yankees should buy the pair out, opines Joel Sherman of the New York Post. While the Yankees still owe them around $45.4MM combined, Sherman notes that the Rockies and Dodgers have taken similar financial hits with the recent buyouts of Jose Reyes and Carl Crawford. The 37-36 Yankees wouldn’t exactly be loaded with capable first basemen without Teixeira, though, as their depth chart shows. Jettisoning A-Rod, who’s signed through 2017, would enable the Yankees to put 39-year-old Carlos Beltran at DH and go with some combination of Aaron Hicks, Rob Refsnyder and prospect Aaron Judge in right field, Sherman contends. It seems doubtful that the Yankees would get rid of either, but the team clearly needs more production from the veteran duo. Teixeira, a pending free agent, is batting a horrendous .176/.271/.259 with three homers in 192 plate appearances – a far cry from the .255/.357/.548 line and 31 HRs he slugged in 462 PAs last year. Notably, Rodriguez is five homers shy of 700, which is another reason the Yankees look unlikely to move on from him. The 40-year-old is slashing a weak .222/.264/.398, however, after posting a .250/.356/.486 line and racking up 33 long balls in 2015.
Here’s more from around the majors:
- Pirates general manager Neal Huntington dismissed the idea of trading five-time All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen earlier this week, but it’s something the team should eventually consider, writes Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The Pirates have a top-end outfield prospect in Austin Meadows, who would step in alongside Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco in the event of a McCutchen trade. Long the face of the Pirates’ franchise, the 29-year-old McCutchen is under team control through 2018 on an eminently reasonable contract. Even after a two-homer game Saturday, though, his normally excellent offensive production hasn’t been there this season. Through 316 PAs this year, the former NL MVP has hit .243/.320/423 – good for a league-average 101 wRC+. Right thumb issues have hampered McCutchen, who’s showing far less control over the strike zone than usual, as FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan detailed Thursday. For his part, McCutchen said Saturday that he isn’t concerned about trade rumors because they’re out of his control (Twitter link via Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune-Review).
- The Rangers inquired about Red Sox knuckleballer Steven Wright during the offseason, Texas president and GM Jon Daniels told Rob Bradford of WEEI on Saturday. “We asked about him this winter and they did not want to move him,” said Daniels. Wright was out of options and coming off a season in which he threw 72 2/3 innings and recorded a 4.09 ERA, 6.44 K/9, 3.34 BB/9 and 43.2 percent ground-ball rate. Nearly all of those numbers have improved this season, especially the 31-year-old’s ERA – which stands at a sparkling 2.18 through 103 frames. Daniels told Bradford that the Rangers “would have tried harder” to land Wright had they known he would be this successful in 2016.
- Mets outfielder Alejandro De Aza has batted an ugly .169/.221/.247 with 29 strikeouts and five walks through 96 trips to the plate, but designating him for assignment isn’t under consideration as of now, a source told Marc Carig of Newsday (Twitter link). De Aza, whom the Mets signed to a $5.75MM deal in the offseason, will be a free agent at year’s end.
Agree the Yanks should cashier thold old and useless Tex plus Rod riquez, also try and move beltran and Sabathia if at all possible for anything that they can get, something unheard of for 40y of Yankee history to get some kind of read on a handful of prospects looking forward.
Boston also had never done this until few years back, both teams would never say never, only times have changed and the dollar can’t buy everything any longer in this game as it did. I’d like to see them be smart about it, tho maybe hang onto Miller and betences. Move Gardner along with the rest if they can and get a jumpstart on the rebuild.
It sounds like you had an enjoyable evening.
LOL
Just an update on this part “Minor MLB transactions”, regarding about pitcher Steve Delabar (mlbtraderumors.com/2016/06/minor-mlb-transactions-…).
Steve Delabar just signed with the NPB Central league team Hiroshima Toyo Carp, on a one-year deal worth an estimated 40 million Yen (387,500 USD)… An announcement was made just last night (JP time), source: jiji.com/jc/article?k=2016062500285&g=bsb and carp.co.jp/news16/s-035.html.
Additional performance incentives included.
What is all this talk with clubs trading the face of their franchise? Mike Trout, Chris Sale, Jose Fernandez, now Andrew McCutchen. There is now way any of those teams trade their players. Let’s hypothetically say a team is open to trading one of their cornerstones, do you know what it would take to get that person? We’re talking 1-2 young stars to begin with, then on top of that, at least 2-3 top prospects, and that’s just to get the ball rolling.
As much as it would be fun, any of these situations are not happening.
It’s all about right situation. I will use the Hanley Ramirez trade as the best example. Everyone knew Hanley was going to be a star so when the Marlins came calling with an offer of Mike Lowell, Beckett and Guillermo Mota; people kind of knew why. Boston desperately wanted to get another ring and knew Beckett and Lowell would get it done. Now Hanley wasn’t the face of the franchise, but he was the future. It would take a lot more to land a Trout or Sale but all it comes down to is right situation anymore.
Sure, if a team offered the entire farm system it would be the right situation for the Angels, White Sox, Marlins (ect.). But at the same time, Hanley Ramirez was not a proven MLB star. He had 2 At-bats before he was traded. Trout, McCutchen, Sale and Fernandez are all proven, young, cost-controlled stars.
That’s why trading young superstars rarely, if ever happen. Why trade a proven commodity for a prospect or prospects, who may not return equal value? Especially considering the age of Trout and others like him, it’s impossible for any team to create a package that would give the Angels, or any other team, equal value in return, and still remain competitive. For example:
Lets say Red Sox offer Moncada, JBJ, Betts, and Devers. That’s a great deal that may be hard for the Angels to turn down. But for the Red Sox, they sacrifice the present and future at every position. These deals are never win/win, that’s why they never happen.
The only possibility of those mentioned is McCutchen. Unlike the other teams, Pittsburgh has to watch it’s payroll. I see Meadows getting a taste of the majors before anything happens, to make sure he is ready. Even then, it would happen in the off season.
Aaron Judge is not ready for the major. He Ks too much. Putting him in the major will hurt his development in the long haul.
On top of De Aza being awful this year, he failed to run out a bunt last night and caused a double play. When Reyes comes up, he should be DFAd not Reynolds.
De Aza should be traded or released. Not running out bunt had TC fuming last night. BTW, Matt Reynolds is not a DFA candidate, he has shown skills as a pinch hitter. Loney has been pleasant surprise as a Duda replacement with a .306 BP and a sturdy glove at 1st.
Can’t say Loney is a surprise because this is what he has been doing throughout his career. Question. When Duda returns do you play Duda to showcase him in a trade to get a solid third baseman and let Loney hold the position until Smith is able to step forward in about a year?