With the Orioles looking to add multiple starters this offseason, they “most definitely will be keen observers” of impending free agent Alex Cobb’s market, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. However, the soon-to-be former Rays right-hander is likely to price himself out of Baltimore’s range, according to Kubatko. Meanwhile, Orioles left-hander Wade Miley is hoping to return to the National League after the team declines his $12MM option in favor of a $500K buyout, Kubato hears. The majority of Miley’s success has come in the NL, where he began his career with the Diamondbacks and pitched from 2011-14.
A bit more from the American League…
- Rangers infielder/outfielder Jurickson Profar could draw offseason trade interest from the Reds, Padres and other teams, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News observes. The Reds scouted Profar “at length” when he was at Triple-A this season, per Grant, who notes that Padres general manager and ex-Rangers executive A.J. Preller is already familiar with the former top prospect. The switch-hitting Profar, 24, spent most of 2017 in the minors, where he hit .287/.383/.428 in 383 plate appearances. He has been far less successful across 718 career major league PAs, having batted .229/.309/.329. Thanks to his underwhelming performance with the Rangers and his out-of-options status, Profar looks like a strong trade candidate heading into the winter.
- The Yankees may hire a new head of player development before finding ousted manager Joe Girardi’s replacement, George A. King III of the New York Post relays. The club has been on the hunt for a new player development boss since Gary Denbo departed to take a job with the Marlins on Oct. 9. Thus far, New York has interviewed four in-house candidates to succeed Denbo – Kevin Reese (director of professional scouting), Eric Schmitt (director of minor league operations), John Kremer (director of performance science) and Carlos Mendoza (field coordinators) – King reports.
I’d welcome Jurickson Profar to the Reds. I’d much rather see him acquire in a trade than see $17m+ spent on aging Zack Cozart. Peraza would then back up if Profar spends more time on the DL.
Profar had pretty good numbers in his ~130 games in AAA over the past couple of years. He even walked about as much as he struck out. The linked article says the Reds scouted him extensively. I wish I could learn more about the status of his shoulder.
Is there some kinda reasonably up-to-date scouting report of Profar somewhere, that isn’t years old from when he was the top prospect in baseball?
Reds fan who lives in the DFW area….no way would I run any deal for Profar….including a used second base, and a bag of batting practice baseballs from 1977. Kid is intriguing…but injury prone.
Injury prone? He’s had the one shoulder injury over the last 2-3 years. I didn’t know players were supposed to be immune to injuries these days.
Was a top prospect back in 2013, had two shoulder injuries that kept him out 14-15. Struggled at the plate and had no position for the last two seasons, he’s a better right handed batter than left handed, although has more power from the left hand side. He’s an excellent defender at SS and 2B. Walks a good amount, and doesn’t strike out a ton. Not the fastest base runner, but he’s got life in the bat.
His career K% is 20, and BB% is 9, that is below average.
Below average? What? No it isn’t.
The league in 2017 walked 8.5%, struck out 21.6%
Profar is stronger in both categories.
Let’s not make an arguments over his major league performance. It’s poor. That’s not the point though, he’s yet to get a real crack and has some former elite pedigree. There’s upside to him but he’s very risky. He’ll be heavily discounted. Probably for an organization top 15 at best.
And that would be from a relatively mild farm system. Texas fans won’t be happy with the return but it’s the only move at this point. Maybe rangers fans find a Zach lee for Chris Taylor or vice Versa.
Yep. The alternative is for teams to just wait until the regular season starts and the Rangers are forced to expose him to waivers as he is out of options.
Don’t think it’ll get to that point. Somebody will be intrigued enough to give up something. It’s not going to be great but he’s worth something. I’d say waivers are very unlikely.
I think Ranger fans would be happy with any young player that has a few good tools. A swap of talented guys that could use a change of scenery makes sense. I think Profar could surprise if he ever gets a shot to play every day
Ruddy Giron and Christian Friedrich.
Profar would be intriguing to compete with Peraza. Profar has a much better skill set if he can put it together. I’m not very high on peraza and that’d give him some good competition but not automatically relegate him to the pine. We’ll see.
Cobb’s going to the Cubs.
I’d think the Cubs would go after bigger fish, like Tanaka.
They said they probably won’t go after higher end guys
I’d rather the Reds trade for Profar than give Cozart contract for 2-3 years. I wouldn’t give up a lot for Profar and I sure wouldn’t get in any kind of bidding war either. Could be nice bounce back player since he’s still so young.
The O’s can’t continuously let good pitchers get away because he is “out of their price range.” They see what being cheap with pitching has gotten them. If they want to succeed they need to start spending some money on pitching.
With arbitration raises, and some small raises to a few salaries, it will cost the O’s about 27 million. Which will leave a little over 39 million left to spend for free agents. They won’t spend big money on pitching, but instead go after middle to back end guys. I think their biggest signing will be a corner outfielder, maybe they’ll spend to get Martinez, but probably not and will settle for Either, or Cabrera on a 1 year deal.
Exactly, they will have around $40 million to spend. That is plenty to get them 2 good or better SP and another back end starter. The offense and defensive doesn’t need much help but they will probably try to sign a lefty OFer or 2 with speed.
Maybe go for Martinez but settle on ethier? We’re not going for Martinez but that’s a pretty steep drop off. Theres a whole other tier of FA’s in the middle. Cargo, Grandy, Bruce could all be options. Melky is a DH at this point we don’t need another one of those. I think it’ll either be cargo or grandy because they’ll be looking for short term deals and can at least play a passable OF in cargo’s case. I agree the orioles need to open up the wallet for a long term deal but I’m not sure Cobb is the guy to do it for. Last season was the most innings he’s ever thrown (179) by a good bit. I think there could be some durability issues there. Lynn is also only a year removed from TJ which pretty much throws him out. Both have their question marks as well. I’d prefer us looking at multiple short term guys. Sign 3 of cashner, chatwood, Garcia, fister, maybe even Tillman, etc. I’m not sure signing Lynn or Cobb is a worthwhile investment right now with the way I expect their prices to go up in FA.
The O’s most definitely will NOT target a corner outfielder. It’s their biggest strength, both at the major league level and organizationally. They have no need to sign any free agent position players. ALL of their money should be spent on rotation upgrades.
How is corner outfield our biggest strength? 3B and 2B are our biggest strengths by a long shot. Mancini is penciled in in left and jones in CF. we have no guarantee for RF at the moment. It makes perfect sense to sign a guy on a one year deal in the event hays isn’t ready. I don’t think he is ready if we want to have a shot this year. There’s nothing wrong with him not being ready to be a starting right fielder. But it isn’t a position where we are so stacked we shouldn’t look at one. It’s hard to draw anything from a 60PA sample size but he wasn’t exactly starter material at this point. He’s young and struggles are to be expected. That’s okay but not for a team that’s trying to win right now. I expect him to be a quality starter, but let’s see him tear up AAA first or at least spring training.
The O’s money isn’t even their problem, it’s their ridiculous medical staff not letting perfectly healthy players pass their physical, which is apparently not the same physical the other 29 teams are ok with giving.
It’s not really the medical staff. It’s just an excuse for Angelos not to spend.
They’re almost always right when they say players failed their physical. Most recently look at Gallardo and Balfour.
Those are the ones we have heard about
We whiffed on fowler. But the gallardo and Balfour did look legitimate. But, if it’s a serious deterrent for guys to look at Baltimore first it isn’t worth it. Hard to know if it’s hurt us because we haven’t been very active on the open market in recent years.
Fowler had nothing to do with Medical. He took a shorter deal for less money with the Cubs because he wanted to play for the Cubs.
You’re a fool who doesn’t know what he is talking about. EVERY player who has failed a physical for the Orioles went on to sign contracts with other teams that the other team regretted.
Don’t throw out every player. Fowler signed a one year deal to not play with us and that worked out very well. His next contract is irrelevant. We would’ve loved to have him for the offer we had on the table. Our physical is probably a little over blown but it also probably has to do with us looking Into the scrap heap for potential bargains all the time. We don’t exactly offer contracts to guys who would be considered anywhere close to a sure thing. I mean we still offered gallardo a deal with too much money, not to mention the 1st rounder.
Fowler never took a physical with the Orioles.
nbcsports.com/washington/baltimore-orioles/how-wou…
He never got past the money stages of negotiation with the Orioles.
I wonder with Dickey’s option not being picked up and maybe Markakis being moved I wonder if the Braves will have any interest in signing Cobb.
Profar + to the reds for Billy Hamilton.. makes a lot of sense
Oh man, more “Profar to the Padres” rumors. Wait until Ryan hears about this, haha!
It’s really only annoying when people suggest that we give up something of actual value, like Brad Hand or Michel Baez (actual trade proposals I have seen on here in the past)
I feel you. I hate it when fans don’t undersell their fave teams returns in trade proposals. If it doesn’t sound like 40-60 with your fave team getting the shorter stick, then it’s way less going to happen. I see a lot of fans posting like 80-20 deals online and it’s like, that’s not moving the conversation at all, you’re just wasting everyone’s time. Bottom line: if Preller is hitting MLB teams with massive hauls for Hand, then no, Profar isn’t going to get it done. Gallo and Profar for Hand might get a look, because that fits Preller’s “haul” he requested in real life, so we should be starting there.
I wish there was a site that gave trade values on players based on other similar players traded throughout historys WAR, salary and injury history. There has to be a science to it so we all can understand player value better, right? Then again there’s always outliers and odd occurrences (like Piscotty going to the Giants or A’s this offseason for basically nothing due to his sick mother – the market is limited to 2 teams, so, the Cards are probably going to have to eat money or just let him go for not a lot in return) so this game is almost never going to be consistent to begin with. But we as fans can understand this a bit better than saying “My teams blocked, out of favor or failing prospects for a guy who was an all-star this past season”, which isn’t a thing we need to post here.
That’s true, they can get pretty out of hand. At least now there’s another team involved (reds) so that maybe some of the press can be taken off of the Padres as his potential destination.
It’s pretty easy the Padres need a SS who can get 500+at bats and is good defensively. Solarte+Maton for profar would be a good trade
Lol Profar wouldn’t be enough to get Solarte alone. Both have 3 years of control and Solarte is better.
solarte is also slower and older. im a pads fan and Solarte has no real spot. we have solarte/spangenberg at 3rd. asuaje/solarte at 2nd. we were actually using solarte at SS a bit because the lack of mlb ready options.
profars a FA til 2020so we have a chance to get a cheap extension or just use him until Tatis JR/Urias/others are ready. i prefer speed and defense. solarte is just too slow and getting older. but hes good trade bait for any club so maybe Profar+lottery ticket 18 yr old prospect for Solarte+uninspiring bullpen arm spunds fair to both sides
Look idiot, Solarte is better than Profar, has been the last 3 years, will be the next 3 years and they have the same amount of control left. You NEVER trade for a guy because you “have a chance to get a cheap extension.” EVER! You trade for what you are getting and what you get with Solarte is eons better than what you get with Profar. Profar isn’t even close to enough for Solarte.
Dream on John Doe. That is way too much to trade for Profar
You may very well be right, but when beating a dead horse by calling the other guy an “idiot,” you lose me.
Not really a dead horse when people still make idiotic trade proposals for Profar to the Padres
Easy dude, it’s not personal. It’s a baseball rumor. Bad ideas are plentiful here.
Idiot that’s pot calling kettle black
Short bus
Profar’s trade value right now is one prospect from a teams top 10-15 list and an 18 year old lottery ticket. No way he brings back a quality major leaguer like Solarte as well as a MLB reliever lol, that’s delusional.
Solarte is not quality
Nor are your comments
NO it wouldn’t
Profar has struggled
A good trade to get him would be like jank or Cesar (i know that’s a spelling issue)
Even Jank is way too much. He was worth 2.1 WAR in 2016 and if he continues to struggle, he’s got minor league options. Just send him down. The Padres aren’t under any urgency to make a move with him like the Rangers are on Profar. And Profar’s best season was 0.4 WAR.
AGREED
Yeah but I doubt jankowski’s repeating that. Id say best case he carves out a Craig gentry career. k’s way too much for a slap hitter. He’ll have some base stealing and d value for the next 3-4 years til he slows down.
Still more valuable than Profar in every way
Jank worth 2.1 WAR guy driven in 5 runs at Petco career can’t hit water from boat and you’re on 2016 WAR then again it’s expected
Can you count to potato?
Texas has no use for Solarte
And the Padres have no use for Profar
@westcoastryan, I am patiently waiting with a huge grin on my face knowing that you are probably fuming about another Profar to the Padres proposal. Lol but in all seriousness this is getting worse than the Pablo Sandoval rumors to the Padres. If Preller wanted Profar, he would be a Padre by now. People use the Texas connection for AJ Preller way too much, like he can just pluck guys away from their organization because he used to work there. He actually has only traded with Texas once sending Wil Venable there a few years back.
Well you admit that you agree with me so I don’t see what your deal is with me. My main issues with the Profar rumors are threefold.
1. Idk if this is just me, but I get the feeling that it isn’t. I hate when the same rumor keeps getting pushed for MONTHS (YEARS in Profar’s case) and never happens. Either make it happen or stfu.
2. People have an overinflated sense of Profar’s trade value.
3. Under his current contract, Profar would not be with the Padres long enough to contribute to an actual good Padres team if we trade for him. As such, it makes little sense to trade someone who would be around long enough to contribute for him.
I feel like the “Profar to Padres” schtick is just something that sports writers like to throw out every now and again when they have nothing else to write about and need to put a story out there.
It’s like in grade school when you can’t figure out anything creative to do for your science project, so you just go back to the old baking soda and vinegar volcano.
Still beating dead horse
Still have extra chromosome
Wouldn’t Cobb have to pass a physical if he signed with the Os?
Suck it up. Padres are likely destination and Preller is gonna give his old boss one guy up front and a PTBNL. Two fer coming up.
Yeah, Christian Friedrich and Ruddy Giron
Hahaha
One way to make Ryan crazy
I wonder if Billy Hamilton and Profar end up switching teams. Not saying it’s a straight up trade, but the Rangers need a CF & they’ve been interested in Hamilton for a while.