Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti joined ESPN’s Buster Olney on his podcast on Tuesday (audio link) and discussed a number of topics, including the recent suspension of Marlon Byrd, the breakout of super utilityman Jose Ramirez, Michael Brantley’s shoulder rehab, the upcoming amateur draft and the club’s financial flexibility as the trade deadline approaches. “I don’t expect that we’ll be limited,” said Antonetti. “In fact, the years in which we’ve been in contention, ownership’s always been great about providing us the resources that we would need to improve the team. I think that we’ll still always have to be cognizant of contracts that we take on, but if there’s the right player out there on the right deal, and the talent return is the right value for us, then I’m confident we’ll be able to improve the team.” Many expect Cleveland to be on the hunt for outfield help with Byrd and Abraham Almonte suspended due to failed PED tests and Brantley’s return still undetermined.
Elsewhere in the AL Central…
- The White Sox aren’t planning to simply sit back idly after acquiring James Shields from the Padres, writes Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago. The amount of money that San Diego kicked in to cover the cost of Shields’ contract has the White Sox positioned to add “at least two more important cogs for a playoff push,” per Levine. Chief among the Sox’ needs at this point are a left-handed bat and a left-handed setup man for the bullpen. Levine lists Jay Bruce as a player of interest, though he notes that when the Sox spoke to the Reds about Bruce in Spring Training, Cincinnati was “adamant” that the Sox would have to cover at least $11MM of the $12.5MM that Bruce is earning in 2016. Beyond that, Levine writes that the chances of the South Siders parting with top prospects Tim Anderson and Carson Fulmer in any trade this season, regardless of target, are “close to zero.” For those interested in some names that could be available as targets for the Sox, MLBTR’s Jeff Todd penned an updated list of the game’s top trade candidates earlier today.
- In other White Sox news, the team will skip the next start of left-hander Carlos Rodon due to discomfort in his neck which eventually extended into his arm, per CSN Chicago’s Dan Hayes (links to Twitter). The Sox had Rodon undergo an MRI as a precaution, but the test revealed no problems. GM Rick Hahn tells Hayes that Rodon wasn’t happy to be skipped, and Hayes notes that the problem appears to be short term in nature, as Rodon has been cleared to return to the mound. Miguel Gonzalez will start in his place on Thursday, and Rodon will rejoin the rotation following that.
- Byron Buxton chatted with Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press about his recent demotion and the way in which it allowed him to refocus and reevaluate his approach at the plate. As Berardino notes, Buxton has hits in all six games since returning from Triple-A Rochester, including multi-hit games in his past three contests. Buxton batted .336/.403/.603 in his 29 games with Rochester and credited Triple-A hitting coach Chad Allen for helping him to restore his confidence at the plate. While the six games since his return are obviously too small a sample from which to glean any form of definitive insight, it’s also the best stretch of games he’s delivered this season.
Regarding Bruce, with his good season the amount of money another team needs to eat has gone down, but the caliber of player(s) traded in return has only gone up since spring training.
I would hope, they were going to take prospects from the angels system in spring training.
Who are the white sox planning on getting if they don’t want to include those two guys? Sounds like a pretty marginal player
RHP Spencer Adams has value. He’s pitching well for a 20-year-old in High-A.. After that, the drop off is rather significant.
It is rare that teams trade their top prospect anymore, so not really.
It is an interesting trend. With amateur talent acquisition becoming more and more restricted teams are limited in their ability to replenish their farm systems, so they are less likely to deal from it.
Additionally the young players (should they succeed) offer a team so much surplus value for their first 6(or 7) seasons that it’s pretty hard to part with. Add into that equation that players seem to be declining at a younger age than they did a decade ago, it starts to make sense why teams are more hesitant to deal younger players.
Rare? Blue Jays gave up their top prospect for Price just last year
And the g.m. skipped town after. This is basically the last year of their window.
He only skipped town because he wasn’t given full control which most gms would do after he won executive of the year. Premier players will always get your best prospects. Gray, Lucroy should all get the top prospects if they are traded. It’s not really rare at all. It happens every year and will happen again this year. The year before that Jeff S got the A’s best prospect. All depends on who becomes available
Not really, there’s still a young core of guys plus multiple years of Donaldson and tulo
Bautista, encarnacion, Saunders are gone. That’s basically their 3 of their 4 best hitters. Martin, tulo, estrada, happ are on the wrong side of 30, and their innings eater in dickey is gone with no talent big league ready other than pompey. This is absolutely their last year of contention especially with the payroll constraints.
They need a dh right? If they can still take on $, Jay Bruce could dh for them and he’d probably be relatively cheap if they took on all the money. If he didn’t have to play defense he’d be far more useful
They should upgrade in c.f. first. Blackmon or jon jay make sense. Make austin Jackson the 4th outfielder. The pads actually have all their needs. Jon jay, brett wallace, Fernando Rodney. I don’t think even including all those guys they would have to give up fulmer or Anderson.
Regarding the w sox, it won’t matter who they pick up with this coaching staff. The track record over the last three – fours is unacceptable except on the south side of Chicago. The front office is as much to blame for not being able to put a TEAM together and hiring Ventura. This is what you get when you hire a yes man.
Just putting this out there maybe the WhiteSox could look at lefty Sean Burnett he’s 100% healthy and been pretty much lights out I just hope a team can pick him up and put him back in the majors. Just a thought
I think the Sox must get rid of the problem at the head of the table in Ventura before this team improves anymore. Hahn can make all of the trades he wants, but it is spitting into the wind when you have an aimless manager that sucks the life out of a room with his questionable decisions
Head of the table is owner Jerry reinsdorff. As long as he own the white sox and Bulls will be awful. New ownership would really help both organizations clean house. White sox have some valuable pieces that could return a ton of prospects. I’m not trading sale, Quintana, or abreu unless I’m getting 4 to 5 major prospects in return. All three have friendly contracts, if any of them were a FA your prolly looking at $110MM at the very least. Sale could demand $200MM, Quintana $115MM, Abreu $125MM. Just my opinion and I’m sure others won’t agree. Point is the white sox have some talent here and they need to clean house (owner change, VP, and the Manager.) rebuild the farm, even if that takes 6 to 8 years. I’m tired of watching this garbage every year.