The Royals have already made several additions, but they have engaged with the Blue Jays on a pair of starting pitching targets, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link). Kansas City is discussing both lefty J.A. Happ and righty Marco Estrada with Toronto, which just agreed to send southpaw Francisco Liriano to the Astros.
Happ, 34, is certainly enjoying more success at the moment among the two pitchers under consideration. He owns a 4.15 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 over his 78 frames on the year. Happ isn’t exactly cheap — he’s owed $13MM this year and next — but has been well worth the salary commitment for his production. That additional year of control, though, has led to prior suggestions that Toronto isn’t all that interested in moving him.
As for Estrada, he has been tied to the Royals for some time. While he’s punching out 9.6 batters per nine on strikes, the veteran has stumbled to a 5.43 ERA — though he has also been healthy, with 114 1/3 innings on his ledger. The pending free agent is playing on a $14.5MM salary this year, and the Jays would surely need to hold onto a decent chunk of what’s left (or add an underperforming contract in return) to make a deal.
royals continue to try to get better.. indians continue to be complacent
Are you gonna comment this on every post?
yep! 🙂
Touché
I don’t know if that can be considered getting better, considering who all they’re targeting.
Come on Cleveland – keep up with the Royals and get in on the bidding for some Blue Jays players.
Estrada will definitely be cheaper for the royals. Happ will cost a top 50 prospect IMO
Top 50? Definitely not
No way Happ brings back a top 50.
I Respectfully disagree
Considering the Royals don’t have a Top 100 prospect, that may prove difficult… lol
Top 50 Organizational maybe.
I realize (or at least assume) that this is just exaggeration for effect, but you might be surprised to learn that Happ has been the 27th most valuable pitcher in baseball by fWAR over the last 3 seasons. Ahead of guys like Ray, McHugh, Wacha and Salazar. He’s a very good pitcher (say a solid #2) and is only being paid $13M with just a year and a half left on the contract – AND he’s a LEFTY. He has a *lot* of value right now and I could see a team ponying up a top 50 prospect for him tbh.
Oh yeah – he’s also been more valuable than Sonny Gray over both the last 3 years and the last 2 years.
top 50 are you crazy?
happ likely gets the royals org 5-8 prospect, certainly outside the top 100.
Happ is coming off recent injury, but last year was no fluke. 20-4, 32 starts, 3.18 ERA. For sure he is worth a top 50 prospect. Plus he is a lefty horse who throws up to 94 MPH for strikes.
Last year he had a 3.18 ERA and a FIP of 3.96 but still won 20 games. This year he has an ERA of 4.15 and a FIP of 4.74. Last year was exactly what a fluke looks like.
U cannot fluke an entire year as a starting pitcher, it cannot happen, it is not physically possible to fluke an entire year.
You’re going to be very disappointed if he gets traded. He’ll be lucky to return a backend top 100 guy.
If you look at Happ’s career numbers, it would be more accurate to call last year the fluke than saying this year is. And please don’t ever mention wins when talking about how good a pitcher is ever again.
Greg Maddux 355 wins, Roger Clemens 354 wins, Steve Carlton 329 wins, Nolan Ryan 324 wins, Don Sutton 324 wins, Phil Neikro 318 wins, Tom Glavine 305 wins, Randy Johnson 303 wins. I saw all these guys pitch. Wins matter.
Maddux has 355 wins because he was so good, not the other way around. Of course wins are *correlated* with pitching talent, especially over the course of a career. Nobody would say they aren’t.
However, anyone who would say a single-season win total means anything when comparing one pitcher to another of similar ability is completely ignorant of what the stat means.
I dont think the royals don’t have the prospect capital to land happ. His value is much higher than u think and jays are not giving up on 2018
happ has extra year so adds value not a rental
Exactly…he’s a good guy to have around but let’s not act like he has insane value
Absolutely but he won’t go cheap. starter market will up his price
The Royals don’t exactly have any top prospects to trade away anymore after they went all in to get Cueto and Zoborist in 2015, although it did pay off then. Anyone they trade for will be for cheap because they don’t have anything to give up.
I am a royals fan and a Red Sox fan. So I’d like one of them to take first place, I think if we even get one of them we can get a little better. There 2017 pitching unit however, has lost key players, including Wade Davis and Greg Holland, who were all stars in the 2017 season. There starting pitchers need work. Vargas doesn’t always do good. I thing the pickup of these two will be two key players. There batting has improved since last season. The blue jays however, will be LOSING two key players and fifth place in the al east