Padres GM A.J. Preller discussed his team’s surprising acquisition of Chase Headley with reporters (including MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell), and the possibility exists that Headley will be flipped before Opening Day. “I talked to Chase this morning and explained to him that we’re going to look at the situation and figure out if there’s space for everybody, was very honest, telling him we’re going to talk to other clubs as well,” Preller said. Headley’s addition has also created a glut within San Diego’s infield, and Preller said that he has already received calls from teams about Yangervis Solarte, Cory Spangenberg, and Carlos Asuaje.
Some other rumblings from around the NL West…
- The Dodgers are still in “active dialogue” with Yu Darvish, GM Farhan Zaidi told MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick and other reporters. Andrew Friedman said yesterday that the team was more focused on relievers than starters due to the number of depth rotation options already in the organization, though with Darvish’s market yet to fully develop, it only makes sense that L.A. would continue to check in with the ace righty. In regards to the Dodgers’ bullpen search, Zaidi noted that the team is looking for value additions rather than at the top of the market.
- Rockies GM Jeff Bridich poured cold water on some speculation surrounding his team, telling Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (all Twitter links) and other reporters that the Rox aren’t involved in trade talks for Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna. Bridich also said that the club doesn’t have the payroll capability to shop at the very top of the free agent market for players like J.D. Martinez or Eric Hosmer. One player Colorado is involved with is Wade Davis, as Bridich confirmed that the team is still talking to the free agent closer.
- The Padres’ rather surprising pursuit of Hosmer has drawn headlines, though Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller tweets that San Diego is more focused on either signing Zack Cozart or acquiring Freddy Galvis from the Phillies during the Winter Meetings. Either infielder would address a more pressing need at shortstop. Preller said (hat tip to Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune) that the Padres have a list of eight or nine shortstop options that they feel could be acquired. Lin also hears from some rival officials that the Padres would possibly be open to dealing a young pitcher in exchange for a shortstop.
Do not trade for 1 year of Galvis.
Pay up for Cozart, flip Headley and eat $3 mil of his contract. Meaning we got Mitchell for $3 mil and if he pitches 180+ innings of sub 4.50, then we got a steal, plus the prospects for Headley
I really think it’s time Mitchell gets a spot in the bullpen. I think his stuff would play much better there.
Wherever he doesn’t need to catch a ball, he’d play better
Take it from me he stinks. Bad command and he misses 0 bats. Nothing but a good 4 seam fastsball. He was horrible out of the pen btw
Balsley will likely Tyson Ross/Brad Hand/Drew Pomeranz him into a much better pitcher than he is currently known to be.
Balsley should Tyson Ross Tyson Ross again while he is at it. Should be able to get him for cheap.
100% on board for that reunion. Not like there are many better cheap options out there.
The whole problem with Mitchell has been the Yankees moving him to the pen once he is called up after being a starter in the minors.
For 13 million there’s one year of Zach Cozart…
Dodgers should offer darvish 5 yrs 90 mil
If they though that would actually get it done, it would have been already offered up.
As a starting point, the report says the market hasn’t really been there for darvish so might as well to buy low
You do realize his projected contract is 6y-160 ?
While I’ll say that any team giving him that is crazy, expecting him to take under 20 is just as crazy.
I understand that, but I think the reason the dodgers are still talking to him is because an offer that high hasn’t come up yet
There are still 3.5 months for the market to develop before Opening Day.
Let’s be Real here……..Nobody wants to wait until “Opening Day” to sign a pitcher.
We’re 60 days from Pitchers & Catchers reporting. That’s the true time frame for a deal to get done. (preferably 45 days or less)
Of course it’s gonna happen much sooner than Opening Day for a pitcher of his caliber. Just saying Darvish is not in a hurry to sign a lowball contract.
No chance Darcy’s accept $18mm AAV
That’s like a slap in the face! Not even 20M per year?! Not gonna happen
More like 5/125
Difficult to imagine the Dodgers bringing back Darvish at any price. Hope I don’t have to explain why.
Because you are shortsighted and have small sample size fever?
Darvish is the best pitcher on the FA market hands down. He is better than any starter on the Dodgers staff not named Kershaw.
Apparently I really do need to explain it.
latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-winter-me…
I agree Dod-yers should keep Darvish. An Astro player just said Darvish was tipping his pitches in the WS. makes sense now. they treated him like he was tossing bp
I just think that if there is a person smart enough to dissect that on Yu, then LAD should find a person smarter to correct these issues and turn Darvish’ future around bringing him back
Read the LA Times story I linked above. Bottom line, the Dodgers had a strong idea something was going on, but they were unable to pinpoint the flaw and correct it, and it isn’t like the Dodgers don’t have one of the game’s top pitching coaches in Rick Honeycutt. No if Darvish did appear again in a Dodger uniform he’d become major boo-bait for the hometown crowd, and justifiably so.
Since darvish’s injury, he is not the same pitcher. He is no longer a #1, he is a #3.
Still feel Headley would be a great option to bridge the gap to Austin Riley if he is still available I hope AA gets him.
Maybe Mauricio Cabrera could get that done.
Still don’t know how we didn’t jump at getting him for that salary dump anyway.
If not him than maybe Prado but Marlins gotta eat some of the contract.
I’m thinking just roll with Adonis and call up Austin at some point during the season.
Marlins will probably eat 1/3 of that contract without blinking.
If that works…..they should talk…!!!
LOL
Do NOT trade controllable talent (even marginal controllable talent) for Freddy Galvis. How are the Padres better off with Galvis than they are by just re-signing Erick Aybar?
Exactly. I don’t understand why they don’t just stick to what’s been sufficient for the past couple of years, especially since they’re not contending anyway.
The fact that they’re also willing to deal a young pitcher is also a little concerning. Those are the types of players they should be acquiring, not giving away.
Just heard that Preller is trying to aquire Jason Heyward
are you kidding?
Where did you hear that?
Just a troll
Cubs hoping someone would take that guy but no one will
Cubs offer Heyward and $90MM in salary relief for a box of never-worn Héctor Olivera Padres jerseys and they’ve got themselves a deal!!
Jeter level trolling
I have an idea of what Preller is planning on doing and I’m not a big fan of it. If we’re not planning on winning then we should focus on losing to get better draft picks and keep trying to rebuild before we become contenders. The Padres have Austin Hedges as their starting catcher with Rocky Gale and Luis Torrens fighting for the backup spot. None of those players are good with the bat, but both Hedges and Torrens showed to be strong defensive players. With both Hedges and Torrens being such young talented catchers, it would be good to have a veteran catcher with past and present success defensively (such as AJ Ellis or former Padre Rene Rivera) to be a mentor not only for Hedges and Torrens, but also the team in general. Many former teamates have praised Ellis for his glove work and for being a leader on and off the field and that’s something the Padres need with their rebuilding team. With both Hedges and Ellis (and possibly Torrens or Gale as a number three backstop) as catchers, the Padres would be good defensively on the 2 spot which would also give more confidence on the pitchers.
Wil Myers is a no doubter starting at first, so Friars shouldn’t focus on pursuing Eric Homser. They would be paying for his success on 2017, not on how he’ll perform in the future. He’s very inconsistent and odds are that he won’t be able to duplicate his success from last year considering that he’ll be playing half the season at Petco Park. Carlos Asuje and Yangervis Solarte are fighting for a starting job at second and Cory Spangenberg earned a spot at third with his bat, but now the Padres trades for Chase Headley, so someone has to be traded. If the Padres end up trading Solarte, they would be losing a huge piece of the puzzle. He’s a team leader, the most consistent player in the team and he has a team friendly contract.
At this moment the closest player in their farm system to be expected to be their every day player at shortstop (the earliest) is Fernando Tatis Jr. in 2019. They currently don’t have any clear candidates in the majors as a possible started at short. The names I’ve heard the most as possible candidates at shortstop are FA Zack Cozart, Alcides Escobar and JJ Hardy. Zach Cozart is expected to sign a three year deal worth approximately $42 million. The main reason I see the Padres signing him is to trade him in the future for prospects if he keeps succeeding like he did in 2017. Another reason would be to solve the problem of not sticking with one shortstop for more than a year since 2008 (Khalil Green). If he performs well and the Padres end up keeping him it would give the prospects more time in the minors to improve and prevent them from being rushed to the majors. It’s a risky move to sign someone for a good amount of money who’s barely coming out of a breakout year at the age of 32 and expect him to perform anywhere close to that until the age of 35. Alcides Escobar seems like the best candidate, all of them are not the best defensively, so we can put that out of the way. Escobar is the youngest and most consistent out of the three and if for some reason he doesn’t perform as expected he still would be worth around half of Cozarts contract. JJ Hardy would be the cheapest (and oldest) shortstop out of the three and he would sign anywhere who would give him starting role at shortstop, so he would be the last option if we can’t sign Cozart or Escobar. Save your money and wait for a better option in either FA or the trade market.
For outfield we already have Manuel Margot, Hunter Renfroe, Jose Pirela and Travis Jankawski all fighting for a starting job in the outfield, plus other bench players. So there’s no need on trying to sign another outfielder, this is just something I would like to see happening. With such a young talented outfield, it would be a smart move to sign someone that’s cheat and past his prime, but had great success with his glove, bat and even baserunning that could be a good left handed bat off the bench and even be a mentor for everyone. I’m talking about future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki. If the Padres were to sign the icon, (not ony would he sell a lot of tickets and jerseys) he would actually be considered a decent player (Padres standards) even at his age and have a legitimate chance to fight for a starting job in the outfield (or share with Hunter Renfroe, a right handed hitter that struggles with right handed pitchers), while other teams would most likely sign him to a minor league contract. The last time the Padres had a Japanese player was in 2008 (Second Baseman Tadahito Iguchi), so it would also be good to have a team with more cultural diversity.
Pitching is a more difficult topic, mainly because there’s a lot of options out there. The Padres have Clayton Richard, Luis Perdomo and Dineslon Lamet with the fourth and fifth spot open for grabs. I won’t get into much detail, I’ll just name my top 5 candidates. The top things I’m assuming the Padres are looking for in a starter is someone who could eat up innings, cheap, one year rentals, not too old, had success in the past. Maybe someone that’s interested in having a starting job and have a rebound year at a pitchers park so they could be a trade chip to a contending team and build up their value in the next FA. My top five (not in order) is Jhoulys Cachin (30), Tyler, Chatwood (28), Yovani Gallardo (32) Miles Mikolas (29) and Chris Tillman (30).
(P.S. I made this list a while ago, so I know Tyler Chatwood and Miles Mikolas both signed with teams already)
The same rules apply to to the relief pitching. I’ll say my top two left handed and top two right handed pitchers. For right handed it would be: Trevor Rosenthal (28) and Trevor Cahill (30). For left handed: Kevin Siegrist (28) and Robbie Ross (29)
The whole point is for the Padres to have a bad record next year to have a good draft pick, but also not have any negative effect on the players and to be able to find a hidden gem in FA to trade them and get more prospects. A season for the young players to grow mentally to content in the future.
I know that the Padres are not normally a topic of discussion but some of these posts are irritating in length. Know one does not have to read them but get drawn in looking for interesting info. It was not forthcoming.
TLDR
1. Solarte will not be around or useful to the Padres when the rebuild is done in 2020. Makes sense to trade him now while his value is high and he is on a cheap contract.
2. Luis Urias will start the year at triple a. Depending how he does he could be called up mid season and played at 3B. Headley is purely a 1 year rental Padres are hoping can put together enough value come the deadline to flip. In the event Urias is not ready they do have Villanueva to give an extended look at 3B come August and September.
3. Padres should sell high on Spangenberg as a super utility player who’s capable of playing 3rd, 2nd, LF, RF, SS possibly.
4. Padres should not go after Hosmer. Sign Matt Adams to a 2 year deal with 3rd year club option/ buy out. When we play against LHP put Myers at 1st and Pirela in LF. Pirela will be a utility guy capable of playing LF, RF, and 2B.
5. They should sign Cozart.
If I were Boras I would not be happy about having Headley and Fraizer out there/available. It’s not that either is anywhere near as good as Moose and Hosmer, but you don’t want teams thinking “competent 3B/IB I can get on short money….do I really want to spend multiples of the price and years?” Neither Hosmer nor Moore is a franchise-altering player.
Eww Garbage should not pitch for the Dodgers
What are the 8-9 SS options the Padres hope to acquire? I really don’t see that many:
PHI Freddie Galvis
DET Jose Iglesias
F/A Zach Cozart
F/A Alcides Escobar
F/A JJ Hardy
F/A Ryan Goins
That’s 6. Throw Aybar and Hechavarria into that mix and you got 8. They should really look to free agency instead of the trade market tho.
Goins would be a good bet for the Pads. He can pick it up and he has some pop.
No clue what the asking price would be on Solarte, but he could be a nice pickup for the Dodgers — who could probably use a LH-hitting 2B. I mean, I like Chase Utley and all, but I think it’s time for him to ride the pine as a bench coach or something similar.