The National League Central division race is the only one in baseball with at least three teams within five games of first place. As we watch to see how things shake out down the stretch, here’s the latest:
- There are a few more details available on the strange circumstances that led to the Cardinals acquiring reliever Juan Nicasio from the Phillies earlier today– but without the ability to utilize him in the postseason. A team other than the Cards won the claim for Nicasio when the Pirates put him on trade waivers in August (only to pull him back when no deal was reached), per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Rather, it may actually have been yet another NL Central rival — the Cubs — that had the highest-priority claim on Nicasio last month, per Elizabeth Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — which would mean the Cards bypassed a shot at adding him at that time. In any event, St. Louis did place a successful claim this time around, when the Phillies ran him through trade waivers after acquiring him via outright waivers on the last day of August, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets.
- Javier Baez’s elevated play in the place of the injured Addison Russell has been a boon for the Cubs, writes ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers. Manager Joe Maddon feels that Baez’s status as a part-time player earlier in his career has been to his benefit. “If he had [played 30 games in a row] two years ago, he would have buried himself,” the skipper tells Rogers. “…I don’t think he would have made the same adjustments at the plate. You would have seen a lot more mistakes on defense. … You would not have seen the same baserunning.” Since taking over as the starting shortstop, Baez is hitting .292/.350/.522 with seven homers — albeit with a 28% strikeout rate (par for the course for the free-swinger) and a .366 BABIP (which isn’t entirely sustainable). Eventually, Chicago will have to sort out playing time for both Russell and Baez, though that likely falls into the “good problem to have” category for the Cubs.
- Looking further out into the future for the Cardinals, the team faces a potentially interesting slate of questions — and possibilities — involving its outfield in the coming offseason. As Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, picking and choosing between the many existing options carries plenty of risk, but also perhaps could open some intriguing avenues to shoring up other needs. “The question is balancing future projection on performance relative to playing time,” says president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. “Clearly you’ve seen some exciting things from really everybody involved. But at some point we’re going to have to decide who we think our top three outfielders are.” While players such as Harrison Bader, Jose Martinez, and Magneuris Sierra don’t have much experience, all occupy 40-man spots and are arguably ready for a full shot at the majors. Tyler O’Neill is pushing for his own opportunity and will need to be added to the MLB roster. With high-priced free agent Dexter Fowler and breakout star Tommy Pham seemingly unlikely to go anywhere, that could leave the Cards considering deals involving still-youthful, former top prospects Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty.
I’d take piscotty or grichuk in baltimore. I read that they may consider moving piscotty to a west coast team because his mother is dealing with ALS. From a purely baseball prospective I think the orioles could use a real corner outfielder and let Austin hays get another year in the minors. It’d be nice to have a long term option in a corner so we could shift Mancini and Davis into a 1B/DH role and phase out trumbo in 2019 because no one is taking his contract. Very unlikely but I’d like to see it happen. I wouldn’t think either one of them would cost a whole lot.
perspective* little late on the east coast
*follows this up by incorrectly claiming Randal Grichuk is a lefty*
Grichuk being the lefty and less of a commitment would be the better fit in BAL. Could potentially play Cf in 2019 if we didn’t bring Adam Jones back.
Grichuk bats right handed
and throws right handed
You can have Grichuk.
GRICHUK IS NOT A LEFTY
Lol woops
I like the Nicasio pickup. Hope they end up signing him in the offseason (provided he doesn’t suddenly fall apart).
Don’t worry. Huntington will give away more players for nothing next year.
You’ll have plenty of chances to sign ex pirates.
Not a fan of the fact that Mo is content with any of the Cardinals internal outfield options other than Pham. The Cardinals strive to compete for a championship every season, yet none of their outfield options are playing like established everyday players. I’d say we need to go after some available established pieces. The lineup was a huge letdown this season.
They cant really commit too heavily to other guys considering they already have Fowler and Piscotty locked up, then you have Pham and Grichuk
You must not be paying attention if you think our offense is the problem.
If I wasn’t already fully aware of the local Pittsburgh media’s bizarre and relentless vendetta against the team, I’d be confused as to why the out of contention small market Pirates dumping Juan Nicasio for nothing was scandalous and elicited such a hysterical response while the in contention large market Angels dumping Cameron Maybin for nothing was met with crickets.
Because the Angels got Justin Upton and needed to shed salary to stay under the luxury tax so they got rid of Maybin, who makes significantly more than Nicasio, and hasn’t been able to stay healthy for more than two months at a time.
Angels payroll is $175 million total. Keeping Maybin would not have put them over the luxury tax threshold.
The way I look at it,
The Angels got Upton and $20,000 in exchange for Maybin, Long and a PTBNL. Moves were essentially corresponding.
The Pirates, on the other hand, would have benefitted more by acquiring a prospect like Alvarez in that salary dump than by doing what they did.
But the Angels could have gotten Upton and $20,000 for Long and a PTBNL and kept Maybin and been a better team.
The Pirates had no use for Nicasio whereas the Angels are trying to make the playoffs and Maybin was surely one of their 40 best players.
Why keep Maybin? They have no use for him other than maybe pinch running, and that is what Revere is for.
Also, the Angels did get Upton for Long and a PTBNL
maybin doesn’t make the team better if he never plays, and that would likely be the case seeing that trout, upton and calhoun are all much better options than him
If Pirates really didn’t want Nicasio to go to a NL Central rival….
Since Philly had to run him through waivers again before attempting a trade, Pirates should have just claimed him back, It would have been the perfect ending move to this whole saga and very Huntington-esque.
At that point, however, it really wasn’t worth it. While they screwed up, it would look much worse if they didn’t even manage to get the initially intended salary dump. At a certain point you just need to wash your hands with it.
After seeing Lamet pitch last night, Id trade Pham for Lamet straight up.
Outfield depth is a very very nice problem to have. This team is very very close to being a championship caliber team. Wait a minute. They’ve been a force the last 20 years.
the cardinals will have a logjam in the infield when voyt, and wisdom are ready. jedd can stay, but get rid of greg garcia and matt carpenter.
Baez is the leading candidate for a gold glove at 2nd and SS. He’ll only win one. My guess would be SS.