The Nationals don’t expect to go without shortstop Trea Turner for more than two months, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. As such, the report suggests, Washington doesn’t currently intend to pursue a replacement at the position. The Nats do have internal options, of course, in veteran Stephen Drew and youngster Wilmer Difo, who could make for a functional platoon pairing. And the team is still holding a sizable lead in the division, although there’s still time for that to change. Regardless of whether any other position players are ultimately pursued, the biggest need in D.C. remains in the bullpen.
- Elsewhere in the division, the Marlins are lining up to sell barring a sudden turnaround, with their relief corps looking to be an area of focus for rival organizations. Indeed, the Fish have already been contacted by half the teams in baseball about righty David Phelps, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets. That may be due to the fact that the team just pushed to move the salary of shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, perhaps leading other organizations to smell some blood in the water. Surely, though, Miami will wait to allow interest to build to maximize the return on Phelps, who has continued to pitch well after a breakout 2016 season.
- Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. discussed his organization’s approach with the trade deadline coming, as Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. DeWitt said he “never” believes it’s advisable to “go all in for a season and sacrifice the future.” Obviously, that applies now as the Cards find themselves in a somewhat strange position — not playing terribly well and way out of the Wild Card race, but still within range of the division lead. He did say its possible the team could “try to do something with a short-term asset to get a long-term asset” — if, that is, the Cardinals end up being “totally out of the race.” As newly minted president of baseball operations John Mozeliak noted, even if the Cardinals are in the thick of things, it’s not clear to what extent they’ll be buyers. “When I look at the future we have to embrace our farm system,” he said. “For us unless there was this one thing that we felt could change the outcome of our season, then I might look at it a little differently. But we haven’t been able to identify what that one thing might be.”
- Brewers owner Mark Attanasio also commented on his team’s state of affairs, and Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the story. While Milwaukee has surprisingly managed to stay out in front in the NL Central, Attanasio says he has expressed to GM David Stearns and skipper Craig Counsell that “there would be no pressure from me to divert from the plan.” (That, of course, is a reference to the organization’s long-term vision to build a sustainable winner.) Attanasio suggested that Stearns’s sober decisionmaking process has bought him significant operation leeway, though surely that same fact will lead to a calculated approach to the deadline. Still, the owner acknowledged that he’s excited to see his team in first: “I’ll admit my expectations are higher. How could they not be?”
- In a lengthy chat with the media that’s well worth a full read, Phillies president Andy MacPhail addressed the frustrating first half of the year for his organization. (Via CSNPhilly.com.) Generally, he expressed an inclination to continue staying the course, noting that the team is focused on evaluating its internal options and has maintained a mostly open balance sheet for future campaigns. As regards the coming deadline, MacPhail suggested that righty Pat Neshek and outfielder/infielder Howie Kendrick ought to draw significant interest, saying that it will be GM Matt Klentak’s “job” to “find a motivated buyer” for Neshek, in particular. He also said the organization does not see any untouchable players in its system. Klentak’s boss said that the GM “needs to keep a wide spectrum, wide horizon and any opportunity that makes sense for us going forward, he should explore.”
Come back to the Bronx Phelps, anything is better than Clippard
Clippard is figuring it out. Every player goes through a slump
dewitt will do the norm. sit and watch the other teams in the central get better, while he raids the scrap pile.
I’ve been blaming Mo for the lack of effective moves, but the picture’s a bit clearer after reading this article.
DumWitt Jr. might be the real problem here…..He’s obviously a road-block to improvements, and could be the reason for the lack of team unity.
As a long-time Cards fan, this is hard to say………..but……I think the Players generally “want out-of-there…….and would like to be traded to an organization that’s truly dedicated to winning.
This is hilarious.
Why don’t you go find an owner of a team with as much success as the Cards have had under Dewitt and then come back. Guess what, there isn’t any.
Look to the North East young man!
So true
Cards could go after Ozuna for left field and have a true no. 4 hole hitter. This would work out great
Thoughts on who the Astros will target from a starting pitching perspective?
My gut says they’ll check in on Chris Archer, but(due to his ridiculously team friendly contract and the Rays being in contention) will find his asking price far too high.
I assume they’ll push hard for Jose Quintana.
I wish I could be a fly on the wall in Avila’s office. I’d love to hear what kind of offers and inquiries Detroit gets on Verlander/Cabrera with their sizable contracts.
Nobody’s taking on Cabrera. That contract goes on forever. Verlander, if he was having a better season, would be interesting. Only one more season left on his deal.
Verlander has 2 seasons after this one at 28mil per plus an option, so he’s got some control left. He also has a full NTC, but may waive it to go to contender like the Astros.
Oops, sorry. Should have looked it up.
I would imagine that offers are something like this:
“We get Miguel Caberera and $110M; you get someone off the waiver wire…”
“We get Justin Verlander; you get someone off the waiver wire…”
For Verlander..I hope you’re joking!
Verlander is owed $80M total, the highest paid player on most teams, he has 5-10 rights and will surely exploit them.
The Tigers lose more than any other team in MLB by far.
All teams know this; what would the Tigers really expect to get in terms of real trade value offered to them?
Considering the Tigers don’t have to move him at all, and he’s still their top starter-they can ask for whatever they want. You’re talking about him like he’s washed up and a burden to the team. With the right team he’d be an awesome number 2 behind somebody like Kershaw, or Keuchel. His NTC has to be negotiated with the acquiring team, the prospects however are negotiated between the FOs. I imagine JV will fetch at least 1 top prospect in the 5-15 range, and couple of other lesser pieces. If the Tigers eat alot of money though, the prospect return will be higher.
Thanks jhawk these guys act like he’s Bartolo Calon.
So cards and brew crew will sit idle while my cubbies will go all in? Sounds good to me.
Brewers would be wise to “sit idle”. This is year two of their rebuild and to sacrifice the farm system they’ve worked so hard to build up for a shot this year would be counterproductive to what they’re trying to build. Keep enjoying your “dynasty”.
The Brewers didn’t expect to be in this position. They will keep with the course they started and not deviate because they’re 3 games over .500. This season just shows they are on the right path.
Although the Cubs position players are young, their SPs were not acquired the same way as the rest of the team and have a shelf-life. It would seem that that’s when the Brewers plan to have completed their build.
From a Brewers fan perspective I want the Cubs to ‘go all in’. That way they can deplete the farm and mess up their future in the process. Then they will sign some more terrible contracts in the off season like JHay. Sounds good to me.
“For us unless there was this one thing that we felt could change the outcome of our season, then I might look at it a little differently. But we haven’t been able to identify what that one thing might be.”
Wins. The one thing is wins.
Seems to me the “one thing” would be how many games the Cards have lost after the 6th inning? No? It’s not like getting Siegrist back from the D.L. is going to fix that. However, It does look like maybe Cecil is pitching better. If we have such great pitching in the minors then why not let them join the club in the bullpen, that seemed to work for Wainwright and Martinez okay. Any thoughts?
Applause to you Attanasio . . . I’ll bet there are a lot of GM’s who had the kind of public support you’re giving Stearns.
Hey Mo,there is a problem that is EASY to Identify,it’s called a bullpen, and a couple starting pitchers that goes more than 5 innings. Sorry but 5 innings is not a quality start !