The Phillies announced that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Juan Nicasio off waivers from the Pirates. Philadelphia designated first baseman/outfielder Brock Stassi for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
It’s a surprising move for the Phils: Nicasio is slated to reach free agency at season’s end; he’s owed another $600K or so through the end of the year; and Philadelphia clearly is not contending in 2017. It also seems unlikely Nicasio will be flipped via trade. (He was already claimed and pulled back from revocable trade waivers, and any deal would likely need to be struck by the end of the day — which represents the deadline for adding outside players with postseason eligibility.)
Perhaps the Phils simply are willing to pay for Nicasio to help win some close ballgames over the final month of the season, though at this point the team is in position to earn the top 2018 draft pick (with the worst record in baseball — which also gave them the top waiver position). It also won’t hurt to have a veteran in the bullpen with so many young pitchers on the rosters.
The cross-state rival Pirates, on the other hand, evidently saw an opportunity to save some payroll in what has turned into a lost season. GM Neal Huntington acknowledged as much, as Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (links to Twitter). Huntington also cited a desire not to “help a direct competitor” as well as to allow other hurlers a chance to pitch in the late innings.
There’s little doubt that many contenders would have liked a shot at adding Nicasio down the stretch. He has thrown sixty excellent innings this year, working to a 2.85 ERA with a 60:18 K/BB ratio. Odds are, Nicasio will step into a late-inning role for the Phillies. So long as he maintains something like his current trajectory, the 30-year-old will likely be in line for a strong, multi-year contract over the winter.
As for Stassi, the 27-year-old struggled in his first taste of the majors this year. Over 90 trips to the plate, he hit just .167/.278/.295 with a pair of long balls. He has also fallen off in the upper minors after two consecutive productive campaigns.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
At least Stassi had that video from the beginning of the season be his career marker.
Steve A., with all respect, this move was as obvious as the nose on your face. The Phils will be auditioning for their ’18 staff this September (expect a Henderson Alvarez call-up in the next 3-4 days). Nicasio is the kind of guy they would look to sign in the off-season. And he’s a freebie, except for affordable salary.
The Phils have no reliever call-up of interest so Nicasio won’t steal innings from a prospect. And it’s thought that Edubray Ramos’ ineffectiveness early was due to overwork last season. Neris was heavily used also. So the Phils learn from their mistakes and add depth that helps now and possibly next year. An easy call for GM Matt Klentak.
Excellent points!
Is your name Karl?
They need arms for this season. They are getting killed in the bullpen
The Pirates are so stupid. They’ve essentially given Nicasio to the Phillies for Benoit.
Why?
Pirates just gave him away??
I’d be angry if I was him. He could have gone to a contender. Now he’s stuck worse than Pittsburgh.
Who’s kidding who? These guys, particularly transient relief pitchers, want to get paid. Nicasio will audition for a set-up role in Philly instead of being buried as the number 7 guy in some contender’s pen. Great move for Nicasio if he likes money.
Horrible move for him. Excelling in a contenders pen will earn him much more than doing anything in Philly.
No idea why the Pirates put him on irrevocable waivers. He was their best setup guy out of the bullpen. Then again, he’s a free agent after this season.
You answered yourself with the free agency. No way ould they pay more than they did this season for him so the let him go now. I do not think either the Pirates or Nicasio thought a non contender would claim him. They are going to use Neverauskus (sp??) in his spot to see if he is ready for it.
Heck of a birthday present for Nicasio.
The Phillies need to continue to lose games, not win. With no long term viability, this move makes little sense to me.
This isn’t just dumb, it qualifies as criminal negligence.
Phillies have a 3.5 game lead on last place. He’s not going to prevent them from getting the top pick in the draft.
Besides, the top pick in baseball isn’t like the top pick in football or basketball. Its much more of a crapshoot in baseball.
But top pick means two things.
1. Most money to spend in the draft
2. You pick 1st every round
…and the 2nd or 3rd pick means you pick 2nd or 3rd in every round. So what?
so the bucs give up a good arm from the pen this year (one of the few) to save 600k. gotta love nutting
Smallest market in MLB is Cincinnati. The Reds have the contracts of Joey Votto and Homer Bailey and face no financial crisis.
Something for Pirates fans to think about.
and the Reds are pretty much crippled by those financial commitments. The Pirates have plenty of money invested, just not all to one player.
Nicasio was a wasted cost if they didnt believe they were gonna resign him, so who cares if they let him go. Better draft position
The Reds are bad and will be for the foreseeable future because they have no choice but to fill out the roster with cheap players.
Not exactly the franchise to emulate.
And the Reds compete with the Bengals for fan money, not the Steelers and Penguins.
I think this is a good move, It give them exclusive negotiation rights with him through the end of the year and more importantly it gives them a sneak peek if he can be a quality veteran leader for the young guys in the bullpen. If he can, then they know and can resign him. If he cannot, they aren’t wasting a 3 year contract on the guy.
Exactly. They get to test drive him for a few months, but more importantly, sell him on the team and city, etc. Let him form personal relationships with his teammates and coaches.
Suddenly, the Phillies go from no chance to sign Nicasio in the winter to as good a chance as anyone.
And it costs them nothing. Good move for the Phils.
Well, it costs them just over $600k, but I agree it’s a good move.
“exclusive negotiation rights with him ……. sneak peek ”
Your brains are more scrambled than Tommy Joseph. The Phillies need a staff of innings eaters who can carry an ERA in double figures.
2018 Phillies season is all about securing the first pick in the 2019 MLB Draft.
2019 begins the winning of the division.
2019 Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are wearing Phillies uniforms and the Phillies have the first pick in the MLB Draft. That is what a successful rebuild looks like.
2018 is about progression in the young player. Why the hell would Harper or Machado sign with the worst team in baseball? You need progress to get good players to sign.
If you would recall… the biggest bidder on Pujols and CJ Wilson when the Angels signed them, was actually the Marlins. Jon Cueto rejected 10M more than the GIants from the D’Backs because he didnt want to lose
I would think the cueto deal is more likely that he would prefer to pitch in a pitcher’s park than a hitter’s park – the giants are pretty good at signing pitchers, it is the hitters that run away from AT&T and it has been probably one of the biggest long term issues with the Giants, they don’t really develop power and can’t sign it either unless it is a guy at the end of his career – it means you need to rely on pitching and defense –
Lol while I admire your optimism, a good rebuild can’t depend on signing the two best free agents to hit the market in over a decade.
I understand the desire for the 1st pick in next year’s draft, but anyone who roots for their team to lose has little right to call themselves a fan, and if you think management is trying to lose then you’ve never been around a major leaguer in your life.
These guys want to win, from the top to the bottom. There’s more on the line than just the first pick in next year’s draft. They’re trying to sell their fan base tickets still, and regressing on last year’s win total has a lot of fans in philly nervous. This team needs to win some ball games in September in order to bring people to the park next April, and as a paying fan I’d much rather watch Nicasio lock down a win in September than watch our own blow yet another lead. I’m just astounded st the people who think the Phillies NOT having the worst record in baseball would be a BAD thing.
as a fan of them I am rooting for the giants to play well and lose right now because honestly, the last year has been exhaustingly bad – I still cheer when they win but there have been so many years of low picks and no picks that having a first overall pick would be amazing for a change – and really the only thing they are playing for is to be the not worst team – I don’t even see them moving up to the 3rd worst team with what is being fielded right now…
I bet you 10$ machado and Harper both don’t sign in Philly in 2019.
You got it, hiflew. I like about 1 move in 5 that Klentak makes and this is that 1.
I often make remarks along the lines of (the Pirates having) “the dumbest fan base in the league” and the “worst local media in baseball” and I contend that the fans are mushroom managed (kept in the dark and fed BS) by said media.
Usually this is in response to them breaking out the “Nutting’s wallet” narrative for baseball moves they either fail to understand or twist to their own agenda.
But, here is a move that is ABSOLUTELY 100% the Pirates being cheap, stupid and short sighted. No other way to explain it. And the Pirates deserve to be BASHED for it. And there is no way anyone can defend it.
But somehow even with a slam dunk story line for their pre-existing narrative, the media here bungles it and misinforms the fans and it illustrates some of what I talk about…
For the past two days, the local sports station (on multiple shows) has talked about the move as if the Pirates had the choice of trading him for something or trading him for nothing and (for no apparent reason) just chose to trade him for nothing.
“Even if you only get back an A-ball player, it’s better than nothing.”
So, they either have no idea how August trades work and that Nicasio was already put on revocable waivers and blocked and could no longer be traded or they did know and pretended to not know just to bash the team a bit harder….and as a result, the “fans” hear that and think “the Pirates are so cheap and/or stupid that they’d rather get nothing than something” when it’s just not true.
So, AGAIN, the Pirates deserve to be bashed and bashed hard for this pathetic and cheap move, BUT they should be bashed for what actually happened instead of what didn’t happen because it could not have happened because that’s not how the rules work but the media either doesn’t know that or doesn’t inform the fans.
If they had no intention of bringing Nicasio back for 2018 for a contract probably clearing $5 million, then this move makes sense. The can test drive. Neverauskus in his spot to set up for the rest of the season.
Maybe they’ll quick flip him in a couple hours. Phils won’t care where they send him.
And I was so ready to bust apart bell trolls again. But, finally saw stupidity for what it is, stupidity.
I’m going to take a different focus as well. First off let’s call this what it is, a salary dump. Now, once again I’m going to call it what it will be, lining Nutting’s pocket. I wouldn’t say that if the pirates would use the money again down the road, but little savings spurts like these never seem to come back for future use.
Also here is a different approach as well. I’m not going to blame Nutting for anything else but the one solo fault that is his undisputed.
Nutting will not hold anyone accountable and will continue to not do so. At this point no one can deny, the system is massively flawed and heads should and must roll.
Two ways this could be fixed. Throw money at it (not going to happen) or use prospects to strengthen the team when the time is right and go wholesale when it’s time to bail.
The fact is we can’t fix ownership so it’s time to get a management team that knows how to use assets to there fullest ability.
We currently have a GM that is under constant fear of moving the next big thing in a trade so he keeps all prospects closer then a hobbit with a golden ring.
Facts are we need a management team that knows when to buy low and sell high. To know when to push the chips all in with no doubts and know that it doesn’t matter because he is going to sell it all next year for the next building blocks over the next couple of years. PLUS, to have a management team under that GM that knows how to scout and build that next wave of players so it takes 3-5 years instead of 15-20 years.
Facts are, I’m calling out Nutting and ownership still, but not for money.
No this time to have the balls to find a GM and management team that knows how to play the game they want them to play.
Basically, I dare Nutting to let the heads roll and hold people accountable. No excuses accepted.
I see reality for what it is, reality. This time, it happens to be stupidity.
But, you (and others) said the same things after they made the Melancon for Rivero trade AKA the BEST trade in recent baseball history.
It’s your broken clock moment. Enjoy it.
But if Nutting is as bad an owner as you say (and he might well be) you can’t bash Huntingdon, the math doesn’t add up. A bad GM can’t win 98 games working for a bad owner. Just cannot happen. Huntingdon and Searage are the only reason the Pirates have a chance to compete.
Not the right GM for the way the pirates ownership runs the team.
Need a gambling GM that knows how to read the situation and use prospects to strengthen a strong team, knowing that he’ll get prospects back in a year or two when selling out to rebuild again.
Basically a GM that knows how to work with highs and lows.
The Pirates can’t go all in because their lousy fair weather fans will NOT support them for a rebuild.
Anything less than 98 wins and they whine like spoiled little *****es.
“The rich guy needs to spend more money from his own pocket because I DESERVE a championship and if he doesn’t do it, it’s because he’s cheap and EVIL and I will stop buy tickets until they spend MORE*”
So, the Pirates are operating the way they must given their low revenues and their lousy fan base.
*BTW, I love that Pirates fans and media have BRAGGED (yes, bragged) about how the Pirates attendance has dropped. Then when a business faced with lower revenues cuts expenses, they are SHOCKED. Economic illiterates.
what you said makes sense those few years they were up they needed the one or two more players to Win the division instead of the wildcard
hey, if it helps the giants to win the first overall pick I am for it.
Man, how quickly I forgot all about brock stassi. I think that’s a good thing? I’m not sure anymore, it’s been almost a worse season than I expected.