Some highlights from the latest notes piece from Ken Rosenthal of MLB Network and FOX Sports (mostly via his Facebook page, due to FOX’s bizarre decision to go video-only in its web coverage of baseball)…
- The $192MM that the Dodgers spent to retain Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner and Rich Hill this offseason was largely a measure against having to make an aggressive splash at the trade deadline for a second consecutive season, Rosenthal writes. The Dodgers don’t want to part with either top outfield prospect Alex Verdugo or top pitching prospect Walker Buehler, as both could help the team this season (Verdugo in the case of an outfield injury, Buehler as a September callup in the bullpen). If they’re to make a trade involving high-ceiling prospects, the Dodgers prefer to deal from the lower levels of their system, where those high-upside names aren’t quite so close to the Majors. The Dodgers would like to add an impact left-handed reliever, but “[are] wary of overpaying for 15-20 innings of a pitcher who will have zero impact on them winning the division.”
- One tweet from Rosenthal a couple of days ago that flew under our radar: the Dodgers are open to dealing either Brandon Morrow or Sergio Romo to create an opening for the potential addition of a lefty reliever. While Romo’s numbers look decidedly unappealing despite a promising strikeout rate — 6.12 ERA, 11.2 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, 2.5 HR/9 — Morrow has been quietly excellent in an admittedly small sample. Through 15 2/3 innings, Morrow has allowed just four runs on a dozen hits with a gaudy 20-to-2 K/BB ratio. Seemingly healthy once again, Morrow’s average fastball velocity has soared to 97 mph, and he’s earning just the pro-rated portion of a $1.25MM base salary this season. The injury history and limited 2017 sample limit his overall value, but the 32-year-old could be viewed by some as an intriguing pickup.
- The Astros, too, would like to add a left-handed reliever and may find more of a difference-maker in that pursuit than in seeking rotation upgrades, Rosenthal writes in his column. If the Astros don’t land Sonny Gray, they’ll likely at least look at rotation rentals, but they’d have to be convinced that whoever they acquire is an upgrade over Charlie Morton and/or the returning Collin McHugh. A more definitive upgrade would be easily apparent in the ’pen.
- The Mets are willing to include cash in trades of veterans in order to net better prospects in trades, Rosenthal reports. Specifically, he mentions Jay Bruce and Asdrubal Cabrera. New York, for instance, knows it’d be on the hook for the $2MM buyout on Cabrera’s $8.5MM club option either way and would likely be willing to include that sum in a potential trade. They’d also be willing to pay down some of the remaining $5.26MM on Bruce’s salary, recognizing that said sum is a significant amount for many clubs to add at the midway point of a season. Other rentals the Mets have include Curtis Granderson ($6.07MM remaining), Addison Reed ($3.13MM) and Lucas Duda ($2.93MM). It’s worth noting that Rosenthal didn’t specifically mention Granderson, Reed or Duda by name.
- Rosenthal also tweets that one reason the Yankees shifted course and acquired Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle from the White Sox is due to the high asking prices they encountered when seeking rotation upgrades. The Yanks are still on the lookout for starting pitching upgrades — both rental pieces and controllable assets, he adds.
The Astros need to figure out which 5 of all their starters are gonna stay in their rotation before they start dealing for more. Keuchel, McCullers, Morton, peacock, McHugh, Fiers. Do they really need more? I’d be looking for an ace reliever instead if I were them. Especially one that throws left handed. That lefty bullpen arm was their weakness 2 years ago in the playoffs
That’s very hard to do. There’s no telling if Keuchel and McHugh can stay healthy, plus McCullers and Morton too, so they have to plan for chances that one or more are out.
That Peacock can give us a Devensky-like multiple innings in the pen and Fiers able to long-relieve and spot start is why a starter addition still makes sense even if everyone is healthy, which is an iffy proposition at this point.
I think the concern is the #3 starter, if they can find a true ace or #2 that’s better than McCullers or McHugh. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense to make a move. I think Gray or Stroman would be the only guys they’d make a move for.
And all indications are, Peacock is going back to the pen when McHugh returns.
Why would the Dodgers trade Morrow? He’s quietly turned into one of the catches they were looking for when they go trawling for NRI’s during the winter. Romo’s been serviceable of late despite his overall numbers, and Doc’s been using him in in appropriate situations.
Agree, the Morrow pickup was a good one and has a been kind of a sleeper. I hope they are not looking at him as surplus after Baez. If they could flip him for a top lefty reliever, maybe. Otherwise hang onto him if for no other reason than to avoid overusing Baez.
Agree on this. And despite his general excellence this season, Baez still scares me every time he takes the ball in the 8th.
That sounds a lot like how us Indians fans feel about Bryan Shaw
Me too
Morrow is arguably Dodger’s best reliever after Jansen. Not sure why they’d part with him. When playoff come and match ups become more necessary they will sorely need a better bridge to Jansen.
Baez is the second best without a doubt. He’s the 8th inning guy when a game is close.
He’s made definite improvements this year, including a useful secondary pitch, and he works a lot faster now. Still what you also need to look at is usage. He’s also second only to Jansen in terms of innings pitched. We don’t want the guy to be burned out before the postseason. We saw that last year with Blanton and it wasn’t pretty. Speaking of Jansen, leaning on him for too many 4-out saves carries the same risk.
Isn’t Morrow a rental? Any team selling a Lefty reliever is not going to value him.
Yes, agree with you both. Morrow has brought neded depth to the 7-8th Innings. Notwithstanding that the conventional wisdom has changed on Baez, I still don’t trust him. Morrow actually seems much more composed and consistent in high leverage situations and I can see him being Doc’s first right-handed set up option by October. It just doesn’t make sense to me that the FO would deal Morrow when adding to the bullpen appears to be their highest priority. Why would Detroit or Baltimore be interested in Morrow, if deals for Wilson or Britton are close?
It also seems as if Buehler, Alvarez and Verdugo are damn near untouchable. I’d include Verdugo in a deal for a healthy Britton; but, it remains to be seen if the FO would consider that. The LAD have over 10 outstanding young prospects from low A to AA, that will interest other teams: Brendan Davis, Carlos Rincon, Lux, Sheffield, Johan Mieses, DJ Peters, Omar Estevez, Dennis Santana, Edwin Rios, Scott Barlow, Ibandel Isabel. Most all of these guys are having excellent (some breakout) developmental seasons. I suspect it will be from this pool and Calhoun that we will see a package created that brings in a quality upgrade to the bulllpen.
Baltimore needs SP’s and Morrow once was an ace for Toronto. As good as he’s been in the pen for LA this year, I’m sure he’d also be great as a starter again.
Thanks, that’s a fair point. If trading Morrow is what it takes to land Britton, I’d be good with that.
He was never an ace because he couldn’t stay healthy. Never played full season in Toronto
Morrow is much, much better as an “air it out” reliever at this point.
He’s a free agent at years end doesn’t accomplish much at all.
Two other valuable trade chips who don’t seem to be on the radar are Stewart and Stripling. They’d be starters on many teams right as they stand.
Agree with you on Stripling. Brock is in another category–much closer to Buehler.
To be honest I agree that Morrow has performed extremely well but my question is pretty simple. Morrow has been off injured and hasn’t totaled more than 34 MLB inn since 14. How do you rely on him and expect that he will be healthy? Even in his first year as a reliever his RP work load was semi soft. The stuff is there but he’s already half way to his 15-16 marks in just MLB innings. Idk if you can rely on Morrow to be that guy in the playoffs as you can’t rely on his health or that his workload won’t cause a physical effect. So some of this is common sense. If they can find a big enough package, as he’s a FA at years end, then they might move him. That being said they probably won’t acquire a significant package as for the reasons stated. It’s nice to see Morrow doing what he’s doing but we’ve also seen what gassed RP look like in the playoffs.
Sure, Stewart probably has more room to grow into something special. The point being with all this talk about Dodgers minors players who’d be attractive in a trade, Stewart and Stripling are rarely mentioned. Stewart would be in particular.
For sure Morrow has a complicated medical history (including Type 1 diabetes) but it’s difficult to find anything else that appears to be a chronic issue. When a player has run into a bunch of hard-luck it doesn’t make much sense to predict that he’ll run into another episode purely on some statistical basis. I mean, go find me a doctor who’d say he’s numerically nearly halfway to another injury.
No I wasn’t pointing that out. I was also wasn’t intimating that he was going to get traded or that he was going to get hurt. Nor was I intimating that numerically the number of inn were going to lead to an injury. Physical effect was referred to as an effect on his actual stuff. What I’d did say is if they got a significant package they would probably churn to use in another package. What I also did say was that he’s hasn’t thrown significant innings and down the stretch does he shown signs of being gassed. Can you rely on that? Can you go into the playoffs and be comfortable that Morrow is going to be able to repeat performance after extending longer than and deeper into the year? I like Morrow I do, but I think it’s pretty clear that Blanton was gassed as he was extended. A different story but Maeda and Urias were gassed. If he had been extended in previous years and durable last year, like Blanton showed in 15, I can buy it. We might be misunderstanding one another or getting at different points, but I’m just asking a simple question that’s sort of unbiased. In a perfect world yeah you love Morrow to be able to air it out from now until the playoffs, but previous track record seems to be hard to bet on.
To be completely honest, in baseball you can actually rely on… almost nothing.
It wasn’t clear what point you were making but it appears now you’re using his many abbreviated seasons to suggest that he hasn’t got the stamina (?) to go maybe 50-60 innings in a healthy one. If that was your point, perhaps we can just agree that this is a theory and leave it at that.
As for Blanton, yes he was gassed by the playoffs but he’d been used in virtually half the Dodgers’ games because Roberts didn’t have better options and the FO didn’t go out and deal for any. I just hope they’ve learned that lesson so maybe by this postseason the bullpen will be tanned ready and rested.
I think the difference between this year and last are the needs. Last year they needed an abundance of help. There is a need here and there, but overall it’s just a superior team. Health being equal it’s just a more sound team.
I think we agree on a couple points. The first being that Morrow could be traded in an effort to upgrade. It would involve some roster churning form, but I can see it occurring with this FO. That possibility probably won’t come to fruition, but in theory it could happen.
The second: Morrow could be an important part of this pen. I just don’t believe it should be a major reliant piece. In obtaining an 8 in guy or second closer you push everyone down, while also addressing that LH RP. It doesn’t even have to be LH as long as it’s a proven track record of getting LH out. I guess all I was trying to point out is what happens when a guy gets into that upper range of usage when it hasn’t been there for a while.
All true, and while we are at it: Morrow is on a one-year contract. This pretty severely limits his value in a trade unless the Dodgers are dealing with a contender, which seems pretty unlikely. So it is a long shot to think of him as a trade chip and more reasonable to treat him as a piece of the puzzle for the Dodgers. Whatever they do I’d like to see the back of Avilan and I don’t have much confidence in Fields either.
Romo? SERVICEABLE? What games you been watching? When he does get into the game it’s because the dodgers have a 5 run lead and he still stinks it up without any pressure. That dude is a bum. Now Morrow I agree but they have a lot of depth with right handed relief.
That’s easy
1. Keuchal
2. Mccullers
3. McHugh
4. Peacock
5. Fiers
Move Morton to the pen with Musgrove
You make a trade from any starting pitcher you move McHugh or fiers to the bullpen and Musgrove has to be apart of the deal.
Morton would be an awesome Insurance policy for Injurys. Don’t move peacock to the pen he has played very well this year. Mchugh is your wildcard
Morton isn’t going to the pen. When healthy he has been a high quality starter that can stretch innings. Agree that McHugh is the wildcard. We will likely give a DL rest to Lance to make room for Keuchel.
Only because you don’t know how he’ll bounce back from injury. However McHugh is one of the best pitchers in the AL when he is on.
Peacock will go to the pen, not Morton.
I would say all out for Wilson and Britton.
Astros need that SP badly to front the rotation but only 3 names to over pay for and that’s DeGrom, Fulmer and Archer
there’s a guy called darvish who would be an awesome 3 if available.
You spelt deGrom wrong.
It’s “spelled” not spelt
Maybe he’s British (or was referring to a type of wheat).
It’s spelt not spelled
This is Baseball rumors, not English class. We know what he meant. >___>
At this point I would say stand pat because with the Marlins getting ready to be sold Stanton will likely become available. The Astros and Marlins have had discussions regarding Stanton before and after his extension and if Houston retains it’s depth now it could get a deal done.
Imagine a lineup with Altuve, Stanton, Springer, Correa, McCann and Reddick as the first six you have to face. If the Astros mange to keep Fisher or Teoscar Hernandez and Bregman that’s probably the first lineup in forever that could challenge the 27 Yankees team runs record.
Nice to see Oakland asking a ton for Gray & Alonso, they don’t have to move either, Alonso could be extended and Gray’s value isn’t going to decline between now and July 2018, especially if he keeps pitching as well as he has been..
really? Alonso can be signed after the year even if traded and Gray certainly loses value next summer vs this summer. 1. he won’t have any term so the package goes down and
2. he isn’t a model for health so you risk something happening. he isn’t going to pitch much better than he is now so why wait?
Gray had never had any issues with injuries before 2016, but in July 2017 he’s not “a model for health”? That’s being extremely over the top.
His recent injury history has certainly hurt his trade value.
Alonso value will never be higher with his fluke year
That’s why they want to move him.
Just say no to Alonso
After that JD trade I’m really not trusting these rumors in terms of validity…he was supposed to have like 5-6 teams after him but ended up taking close to nothing…would Houston give up Derek Fisher or Forrest Whitley for 1.5 years of Justin Wilson? Or are we gonna end up with another pile of trash?
That’s why it’s called Trade “Rumors”, not Trade Fact. If you can come up with better info, maybe you should start your own site.
I would be very surprised to see Detroit get a 55 grade prospect back for 1.5 years of Justin Wilson. Recent history hasn’t shown teams willing to trade that amount of prospect capital for good, not great relievers with minimal control. I still think you’ll see a return more along the lines of what AZ gave up for JD, a 50 FV, 45 FV and 40 FV prospect package.
Watch the trade market for what other corner OFs go for. I won’t be surprised if no more get traded. The other teams Detroit talked to didn’t really have a NEED for an OF. Supply and demand. Now, there is Lots of demand for Lefty Relievers, and Wilson is not a rental.
Michael Fulmer and Justin Wilson to HOU for Francis Martes, Joe Musgrove, Daz Cameron and two mid- to low-level prospects
If the Astros want both you can bet Fisher has to be in that deal along with martes. Martes Musgrove and Cameron wouldn’t even net fulmer
Fulmer is Tigers Opening Day pitcher for the next five years.
That’s not getting done without adding Fisher and Perez, at the very least, to your list.
It would take much more from the Astros to acquire Fulmer and Wilson.
Any deal for Fulmer would start with Tucker and 2 of Perez/Martes/Whitley before adding some lower ranked, but still interesting prospects.
I’d do that trade if I’m Houston, but if I’m Detroit I’m laughing at that offer.
Fulmer has more control than anyone.
Tucker would have to be in that deal, but Houston has said he’s not available.
I think Houston matches up best with Oakland and Toronto in terms of being able to give 5 or 6 legit players that are ready or ready within the next year.
Fulmer is the Opening Day starter for DET for the next 5+ yrs, the kid is a stud.
So, if the Dodgers are going to make a deal for a premium player, it will most likely be Alvarez and/or Calhoun as the headliners, along with some next-tier players (Oaks, Sborz, Sheffield, etc.) to round it out.
If they go after a reliever with some future control, then this would seem to be a fair price to pay. But I guess we’ll see.
I like what Cashman did, he extended his pen, and added at short term fix for first or third. The only thing left to do is get another controllable starter if possible. The big thing with this trade is he was going to have a problem in the winter protecting all of these prospects, so he upgrade and solves that problem a little.None of the players he traded was in their long term profile right now, and it gives them a better chance of making the playoffs this year. In the playoffs they would have one of the best bullpens which is important. Once they get Hicks back they will be at full strength for the stretch run.
Agreed. I like Rutherford, but he is still years away from the majors and the Yankees have a surplus of outfielders. Hopefully Frazier fits in with the Yankees, but if not they still did well by getting Robertson & Kahnle.
The Yanks still have pieces like Mateo and Andujar to go out and get a starter like a Sonny Gray that’s why it was great that Cashman didn’t include any of those guys in this deal with the White Sox. I personally think Cashman will build a package around Mateo to get Gray from Oakland but we will see.
I don’t think trading Mateo is the way to go! He is doing great he is are future CF with lots of speed it’s been along time since we had a lead off hitter that can steal 50 + bases keep Mateo
Also why give up on andujar he can up and showed potential if you trade him who is are 3rd base for the future? Headley sucks Todd is a rental
If they were to trade Andujar for Gray, I wouldn’t consider that giving up on him. They’d be dealing from their prospect coffers to add to an area of glaring weakness (their starting rotation of course), and an area that after this season could get weaker (Sabathia is a free agent, Pineda is done and Tanaka can opt out, even though he might not after the disaster of a year he’s having). Considering how much money they have coming off the books after this season and next season, I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to give Manny Machado trucks worth of money to be their 3B of the future (it’s almost a guarantee that they’re going to try to sign either Machado or Harper after next season, and considering their OF personnel at the major league level and their minor league system, going hard after a 3B instead of Harper makes a ton of sense).
You guys must be forgetting that Gleyber Torres will be playing either 2nd or 3rd and Castro will play the other next year. Frazier is a rental, that I’m sure they had to take to get Kahnle in the deal. Hopefully they catch lightning in a bottle with him.
Rutherford is a nice prospect but dealt from a position of strength by the Yanks. They have Clint Frazier, Fowler, Judge and Hicks and all are long term options tied up for years. All except Fowler have shown the ability to play at the Major league level.
Hopefully they can use Mateo to get a quality starter and try to attach Ellsbury, Gardner or Headley in the deal. Pay down their salary and dump some dead weight.
Also, they’d be crazy to spend the amount of money they would have to to get Machado or Harper when they have players that can out produce them that are younger, controllable and a fraction of the cost.
That’s exactly what I think. I was a good move to try to fix the bullpen
Morrow is a stud. I hope the Dodgers keep him around. Romo on the other hand, buh bye!
Morrow is always one pitch away from a long stint on the DL. I’d move him if it’s a good return.
Can’t that be said about every pitcher?
I’d like to keep Morrow, but Friedman and his team have made excellent decisions so I trust them to continue doing so. We could easily replace Morrow with Stewart. May we even see a Buehler sighting in the majors?!
Still confused how last year the Yankees tried to get so many prospects and than they trade Rutherford. I thought they were going to be patient until 2019 when that insane free agent class comes out
I think they like Florial better!
I do like Blake Rutherford, but he is a ways off (I’d take the under as far as him being a likely regular in 2019, for instance). & I don’t think he alone was going to stop this deal from happening when considering New York’s ample OF depth in addition to his likely distant ETA.
I think this was a solid get for the White Sox though. Rutherford is more than a little reminiscent of Christian Yelich imo. Even Ian Clarkin has some real potential, though there is a very strong bullpen outcome with him.
They can’t keep them all, some will be exposed in the rule 5 draft. They dealt from an area of strength with Frazier in place and hopefully Fowler makes a full recovery
i think the Yanks and Cashman might look to move Betances for a controllable starter like Walker Buehler.
Wouldn’t that run contrary to the trade last night which was ostensibly made to facilitate contending this year & next though?
There are obviously exceptions (think Yoenis Cespedes in 2014), but most contenders don’t subtract key contributors from their current incarnations in-season.
I think they have too many relief pitchers at this point. Chapman 9th, Betances, 8th, Robertson, 8th, Warren, Green, and Kahnle 7th, Betances could get them a good starting pitcher which is what they need, Maybe, to a team that will be in the playoffs like the D-Backs or the Cards for Weaver.
No way we trade our #1 prospect Buehler for Betances, maybe Brock Stewart
You’re right on the mark DodgerBlue….no way that deal happens.
Glad to see morrow found success in LA
The Mets should be willing to do whatever they can to get rid of Cabrera.
Rumor is Boston.
We are all praying it is true.
It’s time for Rosario.
To sum up 90% of the posts on here: We want your good stuff, but will not trade you our good stuff.
DING DING DING WINNER GIVE THIS MAN A PRIZE
Tis how it is, how it was & likely will remain.
The Astros 13:
Keuckel
McCullers
Morton
Peacock
Fiers
McHugh
Harris (DL)
Gregerson
Devenski
Feliz
Musgrove
Giles
Martes
Sipp
The interesting thing for Astros pitching will be what we do to make room for more arms. Martes/musgrove could be traded. Sipp should be replaced.
I want Jay Bruce to join the Giants– he hits very well at AT&T!!
As a Dodger fan, I am praying that the Giant FO agrees with you.
Hahahaha
Jays stats aren’t that bad, at the same time I don’t see the Giants as buyers, they will sell,sell,sell!
I love that MLBTR is 100% written content. Thanks for that.
So many sites have gone to being mostly video clips sites…I’m not going to watch a 5 minute video to get the same story I can read in 40 seconds.
I totally agree with you. What Fox is doing with their coverage is simply bizarre.