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Archives for August 2016

Dodgers Approached D-Backs About Zack Greinke Trade

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 11:43pm CDT

The Dodgers approached the division-rival Diamondbacks about a potential Zack Greinke trade after Greinke cleared revocable trade waivers earlier this month, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal’s report is the first mention of the fact that Greinke cleared waivers, although the fact that he did so is in no way surprising. Greinke’s six-year, $206.5MM contract comes with a staggering $34.4MM annual salary, and he’s owed $172.5MM from 2017-21. Talented as he may be, the vast majority of teams wouldn’t consider doling out that type of money for any pitcher, let alone one whose contract runs through his age-37 season.

Talks between the Dodgers and D-backs, according to Rosenthal, didn’t progress very far, and a trade isn’t likely to be revisited this season, as Greinke would no longer be eligible for a new team’s postseason roster now that it is officially Sept. 1 on the east coast. However, Rosenthal suggests that the two sides could revisit talks this winter, adding that the Diamondbacks may become increasingly willing to shed some payroll after a disappointing season that is currently on pace to yield the worst average attendance in franchise history.

Of course, there are plenty of variables that will factor into whether the D-backs are able to line up on a Greinke deal with the Dodgers or with any other club. First and foremost, it’ll depend on who is calling the shots atop Arizona’s baseball operations department. Chief baseball officer Tony La Russa and GM Dave Stewart signed Greinke to his record-setting deal (with owner Ken Kendrick’s approval), but the job security of both of men has been called into question recently due to the D-backs’ wildly disappointing season. A new GM or president of baseball operations could potentially be more inclined to deal Greinke than the incumbent duo.

Beyond that, Greinke’s performance in the 2016 season hasn’t lined up with the dominant results in Los Angeles that elevated his stock to the point that enabled him to demand such a staggering price. While Greinke turned in a pristine 2.30 ERA with 8.3 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 602 2/3 innings over the life of his three-year Dodgers career, he’s pitched to a 4.17 earned run average and missed more than a month due to an oblique injury in his inaugural season with the D-backs. He’s seen incremental decreases in his strikeout and ground-ball rates, while his walk rate has elevated a bit. ERA estimators feel that he’s been better than that 4.17 mark would indicate, but it’d be unwise to ever expect Greinke to replicate his astounding 2015 campaign (1.66 ERA in 222 2/3 innings). Even if a team were to believe that Greinke’s true talent was that of a pitcher who can sustain an ERA in the 2.50 to 3.00 range — and there presumably are such teams — the D-backs would probably still have to include significant financial assistance in order to bring Greinke’s salary down to a more palatable price point.

On top of that, Greinke has a 15-team no-trade clause, giving him some considerable power over a theoretical effort to trade him. While he might welcome a chance to return to the Dodgers or a different contending club, there’s no guarantee that’d be the case. The odds of the D-backs finding an interested trading partner to which Greinke would not or could not block a deal that had the financial means to absorb the majority of an enormous contract and still believed him capable of pitching like a top-tier starter are long. That’s only half of the equation. If the D-backs were to get serious about trading Greinke and could find a willing partner, they’d still have to try to pry prospect value away from the interested team. And, the greater the ask from Arizona, the more of Greinke’s contract a trading partner would ask the D-backs to cover. Finding that balance point would be extremely difficult.

Rosenthal writes that the Dodgers will probably circle back to these talks down the line, and that certainly seems plausible, especially if there is a regime change in the Arizona front office. But, the number of hurdles that stand between the idea of this trade and the actual fruition of the trade is probably too great to realistically expect a deal to ever materialize.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Los Angeles Dodgers Zack Greinke

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Mets Acquire Fernando Salas

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 9:38pm CDT

The Mets announced that they have acquired right-handed reliever Fernando Salas from the Angels in exchange for minor league right-hander Erik Manoah. Justin Ruggiano has been moved to the 60-day disabled list to make room for Salas on the 40-man roster.

Fernando Salas

Salas, 31, has pitched to a 4.47 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 41.6 percent ground-ball rate in 56 1/3 innings of relief for the Angels this season. A free agent at season’s end, he represents a pure rental for the Mets, but a fairly affordable one, as he’s earning $2.4MM in his final season of arbitration eligibility. Salas has $419K of that sum remaining on his salary through season’s end. While his numbers certainly aren’t eye-catching, it’s worth noting that Salas has largely righted the ship after a dreadful month of June and has pitched quite well since early July. While the endpoint here is highly arbitrary in nature, Salas has a 2.60 ERA with an 18-to-7 K/BB ratio and a 48 percent ground-ball rate in his past 17 1/3 innings out of manager Mike Scisoscia’s bullpen.

With the Mets, Salas figures to work primarily in the seventh inning, as the eighth inning is typically the property of resurgent setup man Addison Reed, while the Mets boast one of baseball’s best closers in the form of right-hander Jeurys Familia. By acquiring Salas tonight, the Mets have ensured that he can be a part of the club’s roster in the event that they make it to the postseason. The deadline for newly acquired players to receive postseason eligibility is midnight EST.

Manoah, 20, was the Mets’ 13th-round pick in the 2014 draft. The Miami-area prep product hasn’t performed particularly well in his pro career to date, pitching to an ERA north of 5.00 in both 2015 and 2016. However, he has shown a penchant for missing bats, racking up 63 strikeouts in 62 innings out of the rotation for the Mets’ short-season Class-A affiliate this year, and he also keeps the ball on the ground quite well, as evidenced by a 50 percent ground-ball rate.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Los Angeles Angels New York Mets Newsstand Transactions Fernando Salas

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Red Sox Promote Yoan Moncada

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 9:25pm CDT

The Red Sox announced on Wednesday evening that they will promote top prospect Yoan Moncada to the Major Leagues on Friday.

The 21-year-old Moncada is widely regarded as one of the top prospects in all of baseball, if not the top prospect. The switch-hitter was one of the most highly sought after international free agents in history when he left Cuba last year, prompting the Red Sox to agree to a $31.5MM bonus — far and away the largest ever for a player that is characterized by an amateur under Major League Baseball’s international prospect rulings. That bonus came with a 100 percent luxury tax, meaning that the Red Sox effectively spent $63MM simply to get Moncada into their farm system. That figure doesn’t account for any of the future salaries that Moncada will begin to earn as he works his way toward arbitration, but the early returns look to have been worth it for Boston.

In 486 plate appearances between Class-A Advanced and Double-A this season, Moncada is batting a scintillating .298/.411/.518 with 15 home runs, 31 doubles, six triples and 45 stolen bases (in 57 attempts). While the majority of his time in the minors has been spent as a second baseman, he recently began seeing some time at the hot corner in Double-A Portland, which is where he figures to fit into the Red Sox’ short- and long-term plans, thanks to the presence of franchise cornerstone Dustin Pedroia at second base.

Moncada ranked No. 1 on the midseason top prospect lists of both Baseball America and MLB.com, while Baseball Prospectus ranked him second and ESPN’s Keith Law rated him fifth (though it’s worth noting that three of the players ahead of Moncada on Law’s Top 50 are now in the Majors).

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Boston Red Sox Newsstand Top Prospect Promotions Transactions Yoan Moncada

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Orioles Acquire Michael Bourn

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 8:58pm CDT

The Orioles announced tonight that they have acquired center fielder Michael Bourn from the Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league outfielder Jason Heinrich. To make room for Bourn on the 40-man roster, Baltimore has transferred outfielder Joey Rickard to the 60-day disabled list.

Michael Bourn

The 33-year-old Bourn becomes the second piece of outfield depth added by Baltimore today, as the O’s also picked up center fielder Drew Stubbs when they claimed him off release waivers from the Rangers. Bourn hasn’t been overly productive on the season overall in Arizona, but he’s had some productive stretches and has been swinging a hot bat as of late. The speedster is hitting .261/.307/.362 in 389 plate appearances with Arizona this season, but his .313/.345/.434 slash and five stolen bases over his past 20 games are more encouraging than his cumulative season stats.

With rosters set to expand tomorrow, Bourn will give the O’s a late-inning option to bring some speed off the bench and perhaps to upgrade the outfield defense over Mark Trumbo or Hyun Soo Kim, neither of whom grades out anywhere close to average with the glove. At 33 years of age and with a recent history of hamstring issues, Bourn isn’t the premium defender and elite baserunner that he once was, but he’s nonetheless graded out as roughly average in center field, per Ultimate Zone Rating, and four runs above average in the eyes of Defensive Runs Saved. As such, he should be a sizable upgrade in terms of run prevention if and when manager Buck Showalter inserts him into the mix late in games with slim leads.

Heinrich, 20, was the Orioles’ fifth-round pick in the 2015 draft. The Florida high school product and Alaska native has spent the season with Baltimore’s Low-A affiliate, batting .231/.301/.347 in 163 plate appearances and is a .251/.331/.365 hitter in a total of 341 plate appearances since being drafted last year. Heading into last year’s draft, Baseball America rated Heinrich as the No. 188 prospect available, writing that the right-handed hitter stood out for his plus raw power to the pull side and impressive bat speed. He profiles as either a right fielder or a first baseman in the long term, per BA.

FOX’s Ken Rosenthal first reported earlier this afternoon that the Orioles were trying to acquire Bourn, while USA Today’s Bob Nightengale called the deal close and FanRag’s Jon Heyman said the two sides had a principle agreement with only final details to be worked out.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Baltimore Orioles Newsstand Transactions Michael Bourn

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Coco Crisp’s 2017 Option Won’t Vest

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 8:37pm CDT

Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti tells Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he had an honest, upfront discussion with Coco Crisp prior to yesterday’s trade to explain that he wouldn’t receive enough playing time in Cleveland for his option to vest if the deal went through.

“We were pretty candid with Coco about that,” said Antonetti. “…The way he’ll likely be used here and the way he’ll integrate into our team, he won’t get enough plate appearances or games to have that vest. Coco was good with that, he understood.”

Crisp would’ve needed to appear in a hefty 28 of the Indians’ 31 remaining games or to tally another 116 plate appearances (3.74 per game) for the option to vest, so it never seemed all that likely that he’d see next year’s $13MM salary automatically trigger. But, Crisp had publicly expressed some displeasure over the fact that he was losing playing time in Oakland, likely to prevent the option from triggering, so Antonetti’s candor was probably appreciated by the veteran outfielder.

Cleveland, of course, could technically still pick up the $13MM option, but it seems far likelier that they’ll elect to pay Crisp a $750K buyout instead. The 36-year-old switch-hitter was a plus contributor at the plate with Oakland from 2010-14, batting .261/.329/.406 in 558 games. However, he’s struggled over the past two seasons, missing the majority of the 2015 campaign with a neck injury and hitting .234/.299/.399 in 434 plate appearances this season. He’s still performing fairly well as a left-handed hitter, though, as he’s batted .239/.307/.419 from that side of the dish. That type of production will come in handy should the Indians hold onto their division lead and make it to the postseason, as Abraham Almonte will not be eligible for the playoffs due the 80-game suspension he served for a failed PED test earlier this year. That, according to Antonetti, was a significant factor in the team’s thinking when deciding to make the trade.

Crisp, then, will have occasional at-bats in the month of August and what both he and the Indians will hope to be a substantial number of postseason at-bats that he can use to boost some of his free agent stock. He figures to enter into a left-field market that is headlined by Yoenis Cespedes and also features Michael Saunders, Ian Desmond (depending on how he markets himself this winter) and Angel Pagan, among others.

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Cleveland Guardians Coco Crisp

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MLBTR Chat Transcript

By Jason Martinez | August 31, 2016 at 6:23pm CDT

Click here to view today’s MLBTR Chat Transcript With Jason Martinez

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MLBTR Chats

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Dodgers Likely To Pull Back Yasiel Puig From Waivers

By Jeff Todd | August 31, 2016 at 6:20pm CDT

6:20pm: Heyman clarifies that the deadline to reach a Puig trade is technically tomorrow afternoon, but a trade is “very unlikely” at this juncture (Twitter link). FOX’s Ken Rosenthal explains that if any trade is going to happen, it’d have to be wrapped up before midnight EST tonight, as the Dodgers are only interested in moving Puig for a player that could help their big league roster in this year’s playoffs (links to Twitter). At least three teams tried to claim Puig, writes Heyman, suggesting that there will be a market for him in the offseason.

1:23pm: The Dodgers will pull back outfielder Yasiel Puig after he was claimed on revocable waivers, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). His rights had been claimed by an unknown organization, which left Los Angeles with the ability either to negotiate a trade, allow that team to assume the contract, or instead revoke the claim and retain Puig’s rights.

L.A. was never expected to reach a deal involving Puig this month, and ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden confirmed earlier today that no swap was likely (via Twitter). Los Angeles will instead reconsider a deal in the winter, though there is at least some reason to believe that Puig could play a role at the major league level down the stretch.

The organization that won the waiver claim on Puig was primarily looking to play a “blocking” role rather than trying to strike a deal, per Bowden’s report. Of course, working out a swap for the talented but questionably reliable 25-year-old never figured to be easy.

If a team does ultimately make a move for Puig, he’ll represent a fascinating upside play. The overall package includes a strong established ceiling, a recent downturn, off-field issues, and three years of control at reasonable but still substantial rates.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Yasiel Puig

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Orioles, D-Backs Finalizing Michael Bourn Trade

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 5:40pm CDT

5:40pm: Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports tweets that the two sides have reached an agreement, in principle, and are hammering out the final details at the moment.

5:33pm: The Orioles just added a center-field capable outfielder when they claimed Drew Stubbs off release waivers from the Rangers, but they’re also trying to trade for D-backs center fielder Michael Bourn, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Diamondbacks are “close” to trading Bourn to Baltimore. It’s not clear whether the O’s placed a claim on Bourn or whether the veteran speedster has already cleared waivers, but Baltimore has until midnight EST tonight to reach an agreement with Arizona, as players acquired on or after Sept. 1 aren’t eligible for their new team’s postseason roster.

The 33-year-old Bourn was signed by Arizona earlier this season when the D-backs lost A.J. Pollock for the majority of the year (due to an elbow fracture). He’s had some stretches of productivity, but overall Bourn has delivered a lackluster .261/.307/.362 batting line in 389 plate appearances. Defensive Runs Saved still feels that Bourn has been worth four runs in center field this season, however, and Bourn remains an above-average contributor on the bases. He’s swiped 13 bags in 18 attempts and has been 1.7 runs above average with his overall baserunning contributions, per Fangraphs. The O’s likely view him as a late-inning option to enter games as a defensive and/or baserunning upgrade.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Baltimore Orioles Michael Bourn

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Yankees Acquire Eric Young Jr. From Brewers

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 4:51pm CDT

The Yankees announced that they’ve acquired outfielder Eric Young Jr. from the Brewers in exchange for cash considerations and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Young, 31, is a veteran of seven big league seasons and is known for his standout speed. He’s a career .247/.314/.328 hitter in 1683 big league plate appearances and has 144 steals in 179 attempts over the course of 557 Major League contests (an 80.4 percent success rate). This season, he’s spent the entire year with Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs, batting .263/.338/.339 with 23 steals in 29 attempts over the life of 116 games. He’ll give the Yankees an option as a pinch-runner off the bench late in games in September as the club hopes to remain afloat in the race for the second American League Wild Card spot. New York is currently 3.5 games behind the division-rival Orioles for that spot, but they’d have to leapfrog the Royals, Astros and Tigers in addition to Baltimore in order to secure a postseason berth.

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Milwaukee Brewers New York Yankees Transactions Eric Young, Jr.

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Orioles Claim Drew Stubbs Off Release Waivers, Designate Kyle Lobstein

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 4:20pm CDT

The Orioles announced on Wednesday that they’ve claimed outfielder Drew Stubbs off release waivers from the Rangers. While players that are claimed off release waivers have the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, Stubbs will join the Orioles on Friday and thus be eligible for the club’s postseason roster, as he was acquired prior to Sept. 1. In order to clear a spot for Stubbs on the 40-man roster, the Orioles have designated left-hander Kyle Lobstein for assignment just hours after acquiring him from the Pirates.

Stubbs, 31, will give Baltimore a right-handed-hitting reserve that can play all three outfield spots and brings some speed and a bit of power to the table. Stubbs is a career .244/.314/.396 hitter and has handled lefties pretty well throughout his career, slashing .275/.349/.449 when holding the platoon advantage.

As for Lobstein, while it’s certainly not common to see a player designated for assignment just hours after he was originally acquired, he can technically be eligible for the club’s postseason roster if he clears waivers and remains in the organization, as he was acquired prior to Sept. 1 himself. The 27-year-old soft-tosser spent the season with Pittsburgh and pitched to a 3.96 ERA with a 15-to-12 K/BB ratio and a 50 percent ground-ball rate in 25 innings. While his sample of work against opposing lefties was an admittedly small 29 plate appearances, Lobstein yielded a laughable .083/.241/.083 slash line to same-handed opponents this season and has held lefties to a .209/.295/.284 slash line in part of three big league seasons.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that Baltimore had claimed Stubbs (Twitter link).

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Baltimore Orioles Texas Rangers Transactions Drew Stubbs Kyle Lobstein

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