The Blue Jays have shown interest in outfielder Angel Pagan, one of the best free agents left on the market, but it’s unlikely he’ll end up in Toronto, according to Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. The club is content to stick with Steve Pearce, Melvin Upton Jr., Ezequiel Carrera and Dalton Pompey as its left field options and doesn’t want to disrupt their competition by adding Pagan to the mix on a major league contract, per Chisholm.
More from the AL East:
- The Rays have so far gotten the worst end of the three-team, 11-player deal from 2014 that saw them send then-outfielder and now-first baseman Wil Myers to the Padres and acquire outfielder Steven Souza from the Nationals, who picked up Trea Turner and Joe Ross from the Friars. Unlike Myers and Turner (and arguably Ross), Souza hasn’t established himself as a cornerstone player for his club. That means first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers could be the Rays’ best hope to salvage the trade, observes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The team’s front office has long been bullish on the ex-Padres prospect, with president of baseball operations Matt Silverman telling Topkin: “Our staff had raved about him after seeing him that season. We’re thrilled we were able to acquire him. You don’t see many prettier swings.” Bauers used that swing to slash .274/.370/.420 in 581 Double-A plate appearances last season, and he now ranks as a top 80 prospect in the opinions of Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. The Rays expect the 21-year-old to continue impressing. “His maturation and ability to handle the game at a young age is fascinating to me,” said farm director Mitch Lukevics. “Generally that’s not the case.”
- Dating back to last summer, the Red Sox have lost high-level prospects like Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Anderson Espinoza in trades, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski isn’t ruling out further deals, he told Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. At the same time, Dombrowski is aware that “you have to quit trading young guys” sometime. With the Red Sox’s collection of “good young players” in the big leagues and the minors, Dombrowski believes the team has the “foundation to be good for a long time.”
- Orioles closer Zach Britton had been feeling discomfort in his left side since Feb. 21, but that’s no longer the case, writes Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com. The star left-hander will throw off a half mound Monday and a full mound Wednesday, and if he doesn’t experience a setback, he’ll make his Grapefruit League debut later in the week.
I still don’t understand that trade from Padres and Rays end of it.
Padres wanted to contend and Myers fit there timeline better in their opinion. In hindsight, not a very good idea
Myers was supposed to be much better than he is, and the other pieces they acquired at the time weren’t supposed to suck as bad as they did.
I think maybe Preller didn’t like the farm system very much and ownership wanted to contend,, so he moved most of the prospects in a quixotic attempt to contend. But the roster construction was absurd – Myers in center? Still no shortstop. A bunch of right-handed power with no defense. The outcome was predictable – the Padres actually lost more games in 2015 than they did in 2014.
Obviously Turner is going to be a star. Joe Ross is probably going to be good. Max Fried looks like a legit TOR starter right now. Grandal is one of the best catchers in baseball. Padres are spending like 50 million dollars this year for players not on the team (Oliveras, Kemp, Upton Jr., Shields) but the farm is pretty strong. It was a lousy plan at the time but I think the team can recover.
Yeah it’s probably what helped land Preller the job in the first place: filling the owner’s heads with the idea of contending, increasing ticket sales, bringing in more money, etc. Hopefully now that they are starting on a clean slate, Preller can properly build the team up in his own way.
Didnt fried get tj ?
Not sure why the opinion of Myers seems low from commenters; probably only Goldschmidt has a better combination of speed and power as a first baseman. Regardless of where he was going to play, to get a guy who two years earlier was the top prospect in baseball in exchange primarily for a couple of top 25 prospects…nothing dumb about that. The Rays, though…no idea what they were thinking.
Who cares if he has the second best combination of speed and power for a first basemen? Players are evaluated overall. Overall, he’s a backend top 10 first basemen if he can stay healthy. Is that a low opinion?
And why does it matter where he was rated two years prior? He’d shown that he was gonna continue to have swing and miss issues, which had been present in his game for a long time.
Actually he is the top of them
3 errors at first
Less error than Rizzo and they all happened the last 2 weeks of the season.
He should of won the gold glove not rizzo
Myers triple slash was 259/336/461 last season. That’s nothing special. The steals and defense are nice but he’s no Goldschmidt. He’s a good player, not a great one, and a perennial injury risk.
Factor in the fkn ball flies in az. Factor In he was hitting 290 ish up until kemp was traded and had no protection behind him
Myers is alright, but he’s nowhere near Goldschmidt’s level. Only time will tell if he can continue improving on his production. Until then, the Nationals came out looking the best from this trade.
Dito
Looking at BA’s list, 5 of the top 24 have a Red Sox pedigree. Impressive. The hitters get a lot of attention, but I expect to see the Padres Anderson Espinozo rise to the top of those listed. And further down the list is still Michael Kopech. Already graduated, Mookie Betts and Xander Boegarts… Boston and the Cubs have been in a class alone when it comes to young player acquisitions.
And Boston’s guys are all still Theo’s guys, so it’s really just Theo Epstein.
Huh? Most of these guys were drafted after 2011….I think Seo left in 2010….. Cherrington drafted most of these guys
**Theo
Don’t forget Theo’s other guys, Wily Mo Pena, Carl Crawford, Hansen and slew of other crap that never panned out.
Goblins is right. Clearly Theo Epstein isn’t as great as people say because he too has missed on players acquisitions.
Who hasn’t? Theo is still far and away the best baseball executive.
Haha sure he is not as great as everyone says … haha. HOF executive already. Sounds like some are a bit jealous …
Except for Benentendi, it’s true. Epstein didn’t have to deal with the previous strangling CBA which limited bonuses to draft picks and could give out huge ones to all those kids now on the 25 man, like betts (5th)rd of 750k, and 4 1st round picks (Swihart, Barnes, JBJ, Owens) all getting 1m+
A few years ago the Royals minor league output was tops and they turned that into two WS appearances and a title. Cubs did the same with a title..yet to see the Red Sox do anything.
I remember Bogaerts shining in the World Series in 2013.
My point was that the majority core of the team came from those teams great farm output.
The World Series Boston won? In 2013?
Middlebrooks, bogaerts, ellsbury, pedroia, lester, doubront, tazawa, workman, nava, and buccholz were all produced by sox farm system. Not to mention the guys who helped them get there that year (jbj, iglesias, lavarnway, daniel bard, drake britton)
If you’re trying to make a point, you first need to get your facts straight.
If they never made that trade the Padres would have their SS as well as a good young rotation arm so all they would be missing would be a 1st baseman and they could have easily made a trade for one. But a smart trade with out giving up anyone of great value or sign one on the FA market
“That means first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers could be the Rays’ best hope to salvage the trade” … I hate this kind of thinking. Nothing salvages what was a bad trade in the first place. If a team struck a bad trade because they didn’t get enough, nothing really changes that. A good outcome doesn’t mean it was a good decision. A B-minus prospect who turns out to be a better player than anyone expected doesn’t mean the original deal becomes any better than it was the day it was struck, and people should recognize that.
No, the results drive the trade value.
And who decides what is a “B- prospect”? Baseball America? Fangraphs? People on the internet? Baseball America, etc. are very informative and good at what they do but many times the value that MLB organizations place on players is far different than what minor league publications put on them.
Players aren’t placed in trades by accident… if a player is involved in a major trade somewhere, there’s a very good chance that a scout or front office person went to bat for that player. So if a “B- prospect” turns into a good player, it could be a happy accident or it could be a case of a really good set of eyes making a sound decision on that player.
I know from talking to scouts that when Jacob deGrom was on his way up, he was not highly regarded in many publications, yet teams were always asking him in trades. They were also willing to give up decent talent for him. He was a “B- prospect” but was much more highly regarded by certain teams. (His own team included, they decided to keep him.)
That trade was obviously not a good one as they blew it on Turner, but to say a 21 year old kid is no longer a relevant part of the trade because a dude at Baseball Prospectus said he was a “B- prospect” at that time is ridiculous.
I’m still pissed at DD for that Pomeranz-for-Espinosa trade. Pomeranz is the definition of a NL pitcher, he is not made for the AL East. Look how it ended up so far. Exactly what I thought would happen
I wish that statement wasn’t dead on balls accurate
Looking forward to seeing Britton out there this season. I’m curious as to what kind of year he’s going to have. My own senses tell me that he can’t possibly come close to 2016 numbers.
Yes but as a Dodgers fan I’m hoping he shatters Gagne’s record. I think he’s 37 saves away.
The Blue Jays are “interested” in Angel Pagan but don’t want to sign him. Doesn’t that mean that they are not interested? Boston didn’t “lose” those players in trade, they chose to give them up for players that they thought would be better for them. That’s a vast difference. It’s much too early to tell who won those trades, so to even imply that Boston lost is unfair.
to reply to your question of the blue jays and pagan, the jays have been interested for while, im guessing the stickler which wasnt mentioned in the article is ” minor league deal”…probably not what pagan wants, but the jays can afford to be ” thrifty” in this particular situation…pearce carrera platoon in lf is my fave option right now as i think carerra is more consistent in small ball hitting…which compliments pearce and morales on the left side of the plate
Carrera sucks! Just let Pompey play LF
I’d like to know how the Nats managed to pull off Trea Turner and Joe Ross for Steven Souza and Travis Ott. That trade looked like a HUGE win for them even at the time and that was before Turner and Ross truly broke out.
The Nats obviously scouted well, better than the Rays. The Padres knew what they were getting but might not have known how much they gave up. Kidna like the Jays trading Darnaud and Syndergaurd for Dickey and toley.