While the suddenly shortstop-needy Yankees have interest in acquiring the Diamondbacks’ Nick Ahmed, they’re not eyeing either the Reds’ Zack Cozart or the Tigers’ Jose Iglesias. In the wake of the shoulder injury Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius suffered Saturday, Cincinnati gauged the Bombers’ interest in Cozart, and Detroit did the same with Iglesias. The Yankees turned down both teams’ overtures, reports George A. King III of the New York Post.
It’s unclear what the Reds and Tigers would have wanted in return for their shortstops, neither of whom carry ultra-cheap price tags. Iglesias is set to rake in $4.1MM this year, his penultimate season of team control, while Cozart will collect $5.325MM and then become a free agent next winter. Given that Gregorius could only miss the first month of the season, it likely wouldn’t make sense for the Yankees to add a somewhat expensive stopgap at short.
The rebuilding Reds have been trying to move the 31-year-old Cozart since at least last summer, when a near-trade with the Mariners fell through. Cozart has been a terrific defender since debuting in earnest in 2012 (54 Defensive Runs Saved, 42.2 Ultimate Zone Rating), and he has recently offered respectable production at the plate. Over the previous two seasons, Cozart combined to slash .254/.308/.435 with 25 home runs in 722 plate appearances. It’s somewhat surprising, then, that Cincinnati hasn’t been able to find a taker for Cozart, though many teams are set at shortstop, as FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes. By ridding themselves of Cozart, the Reds would be able to turn to a full-time middle infield consisting of the 22-year-old Jose Peraza and the 23-year-old Dilson Herrera, the latter of whom will begin the season at the Triple-A level.
Unlike the Reds, the Tigers aren’t rebuilding, making it an eye-opener that they’d dangle their starting shortstop prior to Opening Day. Iglesias, 27, has been a roughly average player dating back to his first full season, 2013, having accounted for 5.6 fWAR in 1,359 plate appearances since then. The light-hitting Iglesias is coming off his worst offensive season (.255/.306/.336 in 513 PAs), but he made up for it with his defensive chops (three DRS, 11.6 UZR) en route to a career-high 2.1 fWAR. If it were to deal Iglesias sometime this year, Detroit would presumably hand shortstop to a potentially similar player in prospect Dixon Machado. MLB.com describes the 25-year-old as “a defensive wizard who has improved enough physically and with the bat to be a big league regular.” Offensively, Machado hasn’t lit it up at the Triple-A level, where he has slashed .264/.331/.344 in 1,136 PAs, and has only taken 91 trips to the plate in the majors on account of Iglesias’ presence.
As for the Yankees, barring an Ahmed acquisition or a change of heart on Cozart or Iglesias, they’ll go into Opening Day with one of Starlin Castro, Tyler Wade, Ronald Torreyes, Pete Kozma or Ruben Tejada as Gregorious’ temporary replacement. If it’s Castro, who’s the Yankees’ starting second baseman, other members of the shortstop candidates group or utilityman Rob Refsnyder could fill in at the keystone.
The reds rebuild has not gone as well as some other teams. tough break for them that by the time they decided to sell their players either didn’t want to be moved or there was no market for them.
Their Aroldis Chapman return was ghastly, especially seeing that the Yankees got Torres afterwards. Throw that in with the inability to move Votto, lack of market for Phillips/Cozart and Homer Bailey injury and you have yourself quite a mess for the FO to deal with. Only thing left is to suck for a long time and then be kinda good after that. Sad era for the big red machine.
Have you actually paid attention at all to the Red rebuild? Agreed on the Chapman trade, but it was all they could get after his legal trouble. The return of Rookie Davis isn’t looking too bad though.
They received Peraza, Herrera, Finnegan, and Reed all back from trades. Three of them will be starters this season with and all having all star potential.
Add in reds draft picks, Senzel (last years #2 pick), Winker, Stephenson, and Garret and you have the makings of a really good young core. They currently have a top 10 farm system and will have the #2 pick again this season. To act like the Reds aren’t in good shape and the future isn’t bright just shows how misguided you are. I’d try researching before you post.
I don’t get this overwhelming need that the Reds have with playing Kozart. Dilson is the better option at 2nd even though his ML numbers aren’t great. Kozart has a good glove and that’s about it. It’s not as though they will get much of return to begin with so playing him over young up and coming talent is really just a waste.. Kozart is a bench player no matter which way you cut that cake. Reds would be better with the youth.
Cozart will get moved when the Reds are ready. Herrera is not the solution. He will at best be a utility infielder with limited positional range at best. The future SS will be A Rodriguez, and 2B will remain Peraza. Reds got hosed on the Bruce trade, received damaged goods.
Cozart doesn’t have a good bat? What?
Funny how you say it was all they could get for Chapman I call B.S. ..Cashman just schooled their horrible FO. The Bruce trade was also a joke and how about that Phillips trade. Terrible contracts,signing vagabond players,poor manager on the field,even a clock is right twice a day on your draft examples.
You’re clearly not paying much attention. It was the best they could get for Chapman at the time. They had a deal in place with the Dodgers that winter, but then Chapman got in legal trouble and his value significantly dropped. The Reds should’ve traded him the season prior and would’ve got much more value in return. So it’s partially the Reds fault for trading him at the time they did, but it’s partially Chapman’s fault that hindered the Reds from getting more than they did. Again, Rookie Davis is not trash and could end up being a good #3 or possible #2 in the future.
Not sure how you say the Bruce trade was a joke when they cleared up cap space all while getting rid of an average bat and a declining defense. Herrera just turned 23 years old and has promise, but you want to already go ahead and act like you know what his career has in store.
Sorry but they should of waited till mid season to trade Chapman..and if you look at that Dodger trade it was heavily sided to LA and Chicago. Herrera is a utility player at best per scouts and FO’s and there is no cap in MLB. The Reds ownership have cried small market while pocketing a lot of the penalties payed to them by NY,LA,and other teams over the luxury threshold.
They were playing it safe with Chapman, it could have worked out a lot worse for him with the Commissioner. The other guy was right they should have traded him at the trade deadline the year before. Getting Peraza, and Schebler for Frazier was fantastic! Peraza looks to be an everday 2B that can hit 300, and Schebler is a decent 3rd OF but a great 4th OF. Herrera is a back up in my mind to. All teams that don’t go over the Luxury Threshold receive money. It;s merely a tax on teams that don’t know how to build an organization, only buy them! The Reds also got Suarez for A Simon, and DeSclafani for Latos, Not to mention Duvall and one of our top pitching prospects for Leake in his final controllable year.
You call the Frazier trade fantastic..in what universe. Peraza wasn’t wanted in LA let alone Atlanta for not only a poor work ethic but being a head case. The Dodgers received Trace Thompson plus others..Thompson being a quality player”it was a three team trade the Dodgers got the advantage and the other players you mention are fodder”! The penalties are only shared by small market teams and not everyone..please look it up. This Reds ownership is no better then the Browns or Sixers..at least Tampa and Oakland try to put those dollars to use!
I was wrong, so I did look it up. You were also wrong, no big surprise there. There is zero revenue sharing. Again as I said earlier it is a tax on the organizations who don’t know how to develop a players..
Here is a section from a cincinnati.com article written the other day.
“Each day this spring, Iribarren leads 22-year-old Jose Peraza and 25-year-old Eugenio Suarez in early work. While some players are coming into the clubhouse in the mornings, the trio of Venezuelans is coming in from the batting cages and fields at the team’s complex, having already completed early workouts.”
Seems to have a bad attitude, and poor work ethic, huh.
2016 had a .324 avg 21 steals in 72 games being moved around the diamond until a position was opened for him. He has 2B now, and has been racking in spring training 2017 as well.
Dude where did you find theres now revenue sharing that’s what it’s MLB REVENUE SHARING(just google that term) and it will also go into the term-SMALL MARKET. Organizations who don’t know how to develop players like who the Yankees,Red Sox,Dodgers? That meaning is for teams such as the Reds who wouldn’t be in this boat..and of course that rag would preach such dribble. Look up about Peraza’s tenure with both the Braves and Dodgers and why they didn’t feel he was the answer at second.
*not revenue sharing
Below is a link to a Forbes article on MLB luxury tax penalties. No money goes to another team from the Luxury Tax! There is revenue sharing but it does not come from Luxury Tax.
● Every team in the majors pays in 31% of their net local revenue, and then that money is divided up and equally distributed to every team. Since large-market teams will have much greater local revenues than small market teams, this already puts small market teams in the black.
forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2015/12/03/breaking-do…
If you actually do research on your own this conversation would have been over earlier.
Yes those are a few of the teams that heavily rely on high priced free agents. Do you think their payrolls are so high because they are bringing up a steady stream of young controllable talen? No!
Here is a breakdown of the where the Yankees are from. I used mlb.com current depth chart.
LF Gardner NYY
CF Ellsbury BOS
RF Judge NYY
3B Headley SD
SS Gregorius Cin
2B Castro CHC
1B Bird NYY
C Sanchez NYY
DH Holliday COL
SP Tanaka NYY
SP Pineda SEA
SP Sabathia CLE
SP Severino NYY
SP Mitchell NYY
CL Chapman CIN
Less than half of their starters are from their system. I’m sure a lot of their bench players and bullpen are from their farm system, but who cares.
The revenue sharing is part revenue payed in by higher earning teams and payed in by going over the threshold being distributed to identified smaller market teams..Fangraphs. Those teams I mentioned as an example have had a stream of talent coming for years and the two Red Sox Yankees mentioned used FA to enhance their products for WS rings. Like it or not those teams play the financial game at the top the way it’s constructed. They can afford to both sign FA and develop and trade to fill needs. This all started by my questioning the Reds business practices but since you’re a homer nothing will dissuade you..good luck on that rebuild.
I never said that the Reds have run their organization well. They have been lacking in many ways. I was just arguing the arrogant unfactual points that you pulled out of your b#tt, If I had to pick a organization that excels, it would be the Cardinals, and that does hurt to say as they have been rival of the Reds for a while. I assume you didn’t follow the link. It was not the only article that explains Luxury Tax, the blog you got yours off of doesn’t impress me much.
The info below is found on Page 118 of the CBA, and below that will be a link.
H. Uses of Competitive Balance Tax Proceeds
Competitive Balance Tax proceeds collected pursuant to Section B(4)
above shall be used as follows.
(1) The first $2,375,400 of proceeds collected for each Contract
Year shall be used to fund benefits to Players, as provided in the
Major League Baseball Players Benefit Plan Agreements.
(2) 50% of the remaining proceeds collected for each Contract
Year, with accrued interest, shall be used to fund benefits to Players,
as provided in the Major League Baseball Players Benefit Plan
Agreements.
(3) 25% of the remaining proceeds collected for each Contract
Year shall be contributed to the Industry Growth Fund and, with
accrued interest, used for the purposes set out in Article XXV.
(4) 25% of the remaining proceeds collected for each Contract
Year, with accrued interest, shall be used to defray the Clubs’ funding
obligations arising from the Major League Baseball Players
Benefit Plan Agreements.
mlb.mlb.com/pa/pdf/cba_english.pdf
Doesn’t matter what you think they are the standard the Reds will never live up to!
Could be right, I am an eternal optimist. New players, new GM, I am excited for the season!
So you didn’t see what Peraza did when he played last year? Got it, thanks for confirming.
Chapman, and the Bruce deal stunk. I do agree with RedsShine that Rookie Davis could be a nice player. If the Reds moved Votto like you said they’d be setting the team back 3 more years. It would be a very stupid move. The market is weak (surprise) for older middle infielders, and unfortunately Homer and Mesoraco have been injured since signing their contracts. This team is going in the right direction. 2017 78 to 82 wins, 2018 81 to 85, and 19 and 20 they’ll be contenders. It may sound crazy but they have a lot of arms that are maturing NOW. It should be a fun team to watch over the next couple of years.
It’s going to known as the big dead machine before there good again
impressive ability to rhyme, unfortunately not good at prognosticating.
Too bad Stephen Drew signed already.
More like Thank God.
They better not bring him back
Correction: Zack Cozart debuting in 2011, not 2012. His Major League debut was in 2011. His first full MLB season was in 2012.
Hmmm, would they be interested in Erik Gonzalez?
I feel like they should of dangled him 2 years ago instead of last season.
The only trade that would make sense is the Yankees due to their ability to possibility get a wild card spot, and would be an upgrade of didi.
But, they probably won’t get anything for him. Not many people want to give up the farm for something at his position with one year to go. If he was an elite arm… there would be a possibility at the asb.
I’m saying stay tuned, but he will probably stay a red.
End of the year they will give him a q/o.
They will most certainly not give Cozart a QO, even if he is a Red after the season. Very high chance Cozart would accept it and that would slow down the rebuild even more.
Cossart (auto correct) is quality
Teams would want him.
I bet you they will
Reds want that draft pick
Nobody is paying 17 million or giving up a draft pick for him.
If no QO for Cozart then this is what the Reds need to do: Tell all 29 other GM’s that Cozart is going to be traded within the next 24 hours and to send in their final offers then take whichever one they like the best. Something is better than nothing.
Cozart had 2.0 WAR last year, Gregorius had 2.2, Cozart would be a downgrade not an upgrade.
An upgrade over didi? There’s not many shortstops that hit 20hrs with a pretty good average and elite defense. Yeah his numbers don’t show elite defense but managers and players that watch him play everyday agree he’s a special defender. The Yankees have a SS for the next 5-7 yrs.
And his name is Gleyber Torres!!!!
Cozart debuted in 2011
Iglesias is under control for 2018
You’re right. Thanks. Sorry for the error. It’s fixed.
could always get Kelly Johnson to buoy second base and flip Castro to shortstop until Gregorius returns.
Whose minor league organization has Darwin Barney right now? Why not just try to get him to play SS-2b for cpl months until DiDi gets back. It’s not like barney can hit any worse than Ahmed and barney was always one of the best middle glove guys in the game, just couldn’t hit.
He’ll be the jays backup infielder this year
Mike Aviles is still unsigned.
There’s a reason for that. He’s Mike Aviles.
The yankees best course of action is to go internal with Didi’s replacement as long as DiDi will be back by May.
If for whatever circumstances this is a replay on the Tex injury of the recent past which initially was reported to be a couple of weeks and turned into most of the season, then that’s a different issue.
If in fact DiDi is shelved for the season, the yanks may need to seriously re-consider if he is the future answer at SS given his strongest attribute is his arm, and may indeed need to re-think their options which might open the avenue for a trade.
His range and hands are his strongest attribute not to mention he can hit 20 HR. A lot of players have really strong arms now, it’s not something that sets you apart unless your machado. There’s no structural damage, it’s a scap problem so if your familiar with the parts of the throwing arm, it’s easy to see the yanks are being extra cautious to make sure it heals 100% and doesn’t linger. Didi will be fine if the reports are right about his injury
The Yankees are loaded with capable replacements and 3 budding top prospects with Taylor Wade, Glyber Torres and Jorge Mateo! They should leave Castro at 2nd!
And none of those three are ready!!!
Ruben Tejada and Starlin Castro would look so adorable in the field together.
The Reds need organizational help
They did get a new GM, We’ll see how it goes, but he seems to be a more capable GM than Jockerty was.
I smell a Tejada reunion with a vocal NY fan base coming up. I wonder what it will be like being disliked so much in all 5 boroughs?
Everyone has left out Wade in this conversation. The yanks need to c if Wade can play in the Majors. If he can he’s a real good utility man for the next 8 years. Or a good piece to flip for the rotation once Torres is ready. They experimented with him in the outfield. Can b the yanks cheaper younger version on Zobrist if he can hit in the majors.
Jocketty was a good GM in his day. Too bad he stayed beyond his day. He did a lot for Cards. Edmonds for Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy and then Rolen for practically nothing set them up for years. He should have retired with an excellent resume but it tough to admit it is your time to go.
The Reds are acting like desperate opportunists. The Yankees won’t make any big trades, with Torres near-ready. A stopgap deal, at most.
Brendan Ryan should be available. lol
I think that Cashman is using the Gregorius injury to see if there is an opportunity for a bigger trade that includes an SP for the Yankees and moving Gardner, Ellsbury, Headley, or some other pieces. The Yankees have a lot of decisions to make at the end of the year with the 40 man roster so I expect they pull off a number of trades this season.
As for filling in for Didi, the Yankees have a lot of internal options, but unless they can put Austin on the 60 day DL some of those options require moving someone from the 40 man roster.
Nobody I repeat Nobody wants Ellsbury or Headley.
this is legit fake news, the Yankees have so many internal options and Didi is only expected to miss a month with no structural damage. They have no real interest in these players unless Didi is found to need something like season-ending shoulder surgery.
What a load of rubbish. The Yankees and other teams are interested in Ahmed because of “reports”. What reports are those? Well, if you click through all the links, you find that the reports come from an obscure Arizona fan website where the originating author provides NO DATA AT ALL to support the claim.
Nick Piecoro, who reported the Yankees’ and Rays’ interest in Ahmed, covers the Diamondbacks for the Arizona Republic. That’s not “an obscure Arizona fan website.”