Some news from around the NL East…
- The Nationals have no plans to deal Gio Gonzalez, GM Mike Rizzo tells Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. With an enviable amount of young starting depth on hand, there had been speculation that the Nats could look to deal Gonzalez in order to address other roster needs (MLBTR’s Jeff Todd noted this scenario in his recent Offseason Outlook piece on the Nationals.) Rizzo did hint, however, that Gonzalez’s rotation spot wasn’t set in stone, as the southpaw, Joe Ross, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, A.J. Cole and Austin Voth could all be competing for two starting jobs rather than just the fifth starter role. One would think that if at least two of these young arms perform well in Spring Training, the Nats could revisit the idea of a Gonzalez swap, though the team would be taking a risk in dealing a proven innings-eater. In addition, Rizzo said Washington is always looking to add young pitching as a general principle, given its value within the game.
- Bartolo Colon’s departure is a blow to the Mets both in terms of rotation depth and clubhouse chemistry, though John Harper of the New York Daily News opines that by not re-signing the veteran, the Mets saved some money for more pressing offseason needs. With Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman in the fold and (hopefully) their regular starters all healthy, spending $12.5MM to re-sign Colon would’ve been an expensive luxury. Harper feels the Mets could instead focus their offseason spending on re-signing Yoenis Cespedes, or adding bullpen depth.
- The Marlins’ key offseason focus is pitching, though as MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro notes, the team also wants to improve its roster depth, both on the Major League bench and within the farm system. Jeff Mathis, Jeff Francoeur and Chris Johnson could all return in backup roles, though Frisaro suggests Miami could also look to reunions with ex-Marlins like Emilio Bonifacio, Chris Coghlan or Alejandro De Aza. A higher-level upgrade would be a player like Steve Pearce, who Frisaro notes the Marlins have shown interest in acquiring in previous seasons.
McCutchen for Joe Ross? Fair or who needs to add?
Cutch plus Nick Kingham for Giolito?
I think Washington would have to add. I know Cutch had a down year but he still has the potential to be a superstar. I think they would have to throw in one or two more prospects.
ross isn’t a prospect, he’s a young cost controlled above average starter.
Wash would have to add a lot. The pirates have no incentive to trade Cutch. They can hold and still trade him at the deadline, so they’d have to be blown away to trade to trade the face of the franchise.
Your kidding on the Kingman thing right? Cutch had an off year but you don’t trade him straight up for a prospect let alone add a prospect for a prospect.
doesn’t make sense for the nats. mccutchen is just so bad in center.
maybe target blackmon or Jbj with their pitching depth.
I don’t think the Nats would put McCutchen in center, they’d probably keep Turner there or even play Harper there.
they still have Werth. pretty sure Turner will go back to short though. Espinoza profiles better as a utility guy.
McCutchen for Harvey is closer to fair. If you think Ross is equal to Harvey – well….
Giolito, Pedro Severino and Drew Ward might get it done if the Nats were serious.
Didn’t the Yankees ask for Giolito for Miller? Don’t see them trading him for McCutchen if they refused to include him for Miller.
no way pirates would do that
As Casey Stengel you to say, you never have enough pitching! The Nats should keep them all , Strasberg has had injury problems and they might need at least 7 starters during the season. Look at the Mets last year.
Look at Cleveland, they thought they had extra starters to begin the season everybody wanted them to trade from their depth. By the time the World Series finished they had 2 healthy starters, 2 banged up starters that were recovering from injuries and 2 hurt and not able to play.
On average how many different starters do you think a needs in any one season? I think a team really needs at least 7 starters because at least one is going to get injured at some point and another will have a rough year. That means they need two young guys they can option to the minors.
Wondering if anyone has any stats on this?
I wouldn’t think so – Cutch looked lost-some guys slump because they are not hitting the ball in the holes,Not the case with McCutchen,was even brutal defensively
Curious as to why there hasn’t been a link to Boston and Washington them having a young surplus of arms sox possibly having enough young offense they might be willing to trade bradley. Not saying for gio but maybe a group of young arms.
The glaring error in those comments regarding Gio Gonzalez was referring to him as “a proven innings-eater”. One of the biggest reasons you would want to deal him is because he can’t pitch deep into his outings. In 2016 the Nats had to position him in the #2 slot to start the season, not because he was worthy of being a #2 starter (especially in a stacked rotation, and his stats showed he’s no better than a #5), it was because they needed him in-between their two best innings-eaters, Scherzer and Strasburg, so the relievers would be rested on the day Gio pitched since they knew they would have to go to the bullpen early, and Strasburg had to pitch immediately after Gio so the bullpen would have a day to recover. Dusty Baker actually gave this explanation for why Gio was pitching #2 before they broke camp in FL..
When did Strasburg become an innings-eater? He only has one season of 200+ innings. His previous career high was 183. If anything Stras is the biggest health risk out of the nationals rotation.
He’s certainly not an innings-eater against Atlanta. I feel like he’s left nearly every one of his starts against the Braves before the 6th inning. After briefly looking, he’s pitched into the 7th just 5 times against Atlanta in his career, and only once since the start of 2014. He’s definitely had more than his fair share of nagging injuries or illnesses that have prevented him from being a reliable innings eater.
I think I read somewhere he’s been on the DL nine times already in his career. There’s a reason Boras and him took that $175 million offer from the Nats.