As an established veteran on a cellar-dwelling team, White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu has come up often as a speculative trade candidate, but the club’s “strongly inclined” to retain him, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. The 31-year-old hasn’t exactly boosted his trade value this season, having hit a career-worst .250/.312/.435 (101 wRC+, compared to 139 from 2014-17) and accounted for a replacement-level WAR across 407 plate appearances. Regardless of whether the White Sox keep Abreu, he’s slated to go through arbitration once more over the winter. In the meantime, he’s on a $13MM salary this season.
More trade-related items as the countdown to the July 31 deadline continues…
- The Brewers’ interest in Royals second baseman/outfielder Whit Merrifield has been known for a while, and Robert Murray of The Athletic (subscription required) explores the possibility of Milwaukee acquiring him. The Brewers haven’t pursued Merrifield as aggressively as they did during the winter, according to Murray, who hears he’d be rather expensive to pry out of Kansas City. Landing Merrifield would require “three higher-end prospects, at least,” an executive told Murray. Milwaukee happens to have a quality farm system, though it’s unlikely to trade its best prospect – second baseman Keston Hiura – suggests Murray, who goes on to run down farmhands the team could deal for Merrifield. The 29-year-old Merrifield has upped his stock during a terrific season in which he has hit .305/.375/.429 with five home runs and 17 steals through 412 PAs. Adding to his appeal, Merrifield’s on a near-minimum salary this season and won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 campaign.
- The Red Sox sent a high-level executive, senior vice president of baseball operations Frank Wren, to scout the Royals–Twins game on Friday, per Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press. It’s unclear which players Wren focused on, though it’s worth pointing out that Boston has shown reported interest in both Merrifield and Royals teammate Mike Moustakas. And with the Twins likely to sell at the deadline, Buster Olney of ESPN doesn’t rule out the Red Sox pursuing second baseman Brian Dozier.
- Along with Baltimore’s closer, Zach Britton, the reliever-needy Dodgers are interested in Orioles setup man Brad Brach, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. The Dodgers have also scouted the Marlins and Rays and “monitored” Athletics closer Blake Treinen, Shaikin adds, though it seems improbable he’ll go anywhere with the A’s making a major push for a playoff spot. Conversely, as a pending free agent on a rebuilding team, the 32-year-old Brach is a good bet to end up in another uniform in the coming weeks. The problem for Baltimore is that Brach is in the midst of his least effective season in a while, with a 4.34 ERA/3.61 FIP and a 4.34 BB/9 in 37 1/3 innings. On the positive side, Brach has struck out upward of nine hitters per nine and generated swinging strikes at a solid clip (13.2 percent).
White Sox not quite in the cellar, sir, though they might be on the staircase thereto.
There’s a *lot* of room in the AL Central cellar.
Actually, it’s quite crowded
Dennis Santana and Edwin Rios for Barraclough and Ziegler
Not enough for the marlins to trade their 2nd best asset.
Theyd probably do verdugo for barraclough straight up.
But other than that the dodgers will need to send more back than santana and rios.
Santana and May for Barraclough and Ziegler and the fish pounce on that deal.
Boston keeps being rumored to all these players. I just wonder what they have in their minors that anyone would want. Dombrowski has pretty much stripped their farm system much like he did in Detroit before he left.
Money as they said they will consider piercing the next penalty threshold. Thus, teams like the Mutts that are focused on costs can lump an expiring but large contract. That said, I also believe other teams aren’t shutting the door and are listening if only to up the price for other teams including the Yankees.
And including the Sox
For pending free agents like Dozier and Moustakas anything a team gets in return is a plus. They also get to dump their salary for the remainder of the year.
Not anything. they would want a A level minor leaguer that has a big plus upside at the very least. Teams are less willing to trade good prospects so that is why there is not as many prospects changing teams.
To be fair, there is an option with Moose so there’s potentially a level of control if in-fact MM wants to make $15 mil next year & of course if said team wants to pick it up as opposed to a buyout of about a million…
They don’t have any minor league talent which they could use in a deal. They’d have to take back bad contracts. That payroll will keep going up and up
That is just patently false! What do think a pending FA like Dozier or Mosutakas is going to command? A mid level prospect will get that deal done! Not many teams are looking to add on rental position players and teams like Minn and KC might as well get something back in return, If they want the player for the future they can always resign him in the offseason.
Could even be less considering the financials. The Mutts got very little back for Familia because they weren’t willing to eat salary. Cabrera is in the same boat.
He does have a mutual option…
Don’t think they won’t trade off the major league roster as well. Sox have some interesting players in lower minors and don’t sleep on Dombrowski being aggressive. They don’t have the “A” prospects but a lot of “B” types.
I think you mean traded overrated players such as Moncada, Basabe, Margot Asuaje and a few others who haven’e reached the majors yet for actually superstars such as Sale.
I’m with BoSox. It is a lot easier to replenish a farm system through the draft and international signings than it is to find all star pitchers in Chris Sale or Kimberly. Dombrowski greatest failing has been trading too much talent for middle relievers but he isn’t the only GM falling into that trap.
Stop, that just isn’t true. Don’t complain about the farm system unless you’d like to give back Sale and Kimbrel. And the state of the farm system has more to do with Cherington than it does Dombrowski.
Although I was condemned for this proposal two weeks ago, I still feel like Santana, Diplan and Orf for Merrifield is a good trade for both sides.
The Royals have NO USE for Orf and probably not Santana either. If you look at what the Royals are doing….they are trying to acquire YOUNG projectable players. They dont want older AAAA players. They wnat 17-22 year olds that will become ML players in the 3-5 years when they figure to competea again.
Of course as soon as I say that…the Royals acquire Brian Goodwin a 27 old OF’r. I think this means Paulo Orlando gets his walking papers.
Haha, sorry that was a funny coincidence. I agree Orf is more of a AAAA player, but Santana is not a AAAA player. He is perfect for a team like the royals who can give him more patience at the ML level and allow him to develop. He is still controllable for 5 years and is only 25. If a team thinks their rebuild will take longer than 5 years, then they are not rebuilding correctly. Switching out Orf for a player like Trevor Morrison would be fine too.
Never know. KC could be working on other trades that in the end might better explain this move.
At this point the Royals should acquire quantity too, you can also flip those players if they have a jump in stock.
Perkins & especially Guiterez ain’t exactly spring chickens Dude…
Wasnt enough then. Still not enough now.
Santana would be a good starting point, but the secondary pieces would need to be better.
The reason why I was condemned was because people thought it was too much lol.. Diplan is a pretty decent secondary piece. Brewers #11 prospect according to mlb.com and has put up good numbers in AA at 21 yo
So trade for merrifield who has multiple years left on his contract and basically block Huira their top prospect who plays 2B who’s been raking this year btw. If your going to do that trade then just trade Hiura
4.34 ERA? Oh heck no!
The Brewers like Whit, but can’t believe the Royals want good players back for him. They plan to look elsewhere
These posts are getting kind of sickening man. You act like the Yelich trade never happened.
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that ray_derek murdered 4 handicapped children in the 90s. He also hates music.
Marifield and moustakas for anyone but huira and burnes. Huira is only in play for degrom in my eyes
Why would the Brewers want Moustakas?
Note seeing why the brewers would want merrifield when Hiura will be up next year I’d see them more interested in Dozier or Escobar from Minnesota
It gives them more flexibility to trade Hiura for an ace this off season. Also Merrifield can play multiple positions
Burnes and Hader would absolutely kill it in the rotation, but they would rather roll along with suter, Davies and a couple journeymen, miley Chacin and Guerra
What does this have to do with my comment? Also Davies hasn’t pitched in over a month… Chacin and Guerra have been fantastic this season. Hader and Burnes are providing excellent value in the pen. As the saying goes, if it aint broke, don’t fix it.
White Sox should have traded Jose Abreu last year. Paying $13MM this year for a player that leaves at the end of 2020. Just sad.
He leaves at the end of 2019, which makes keeping him a bad decision.
Rebuilding teams should not be passing up opportunities to make the future better at the expense of the present.
Do you know of one trade that the Sox turned down for Abreu? How can you say they should of traded him, if you don’t know what was offered?
Well Brad who should they have traded him to and for what?
Billy Bean will demand a lot of if they want Treinen… The guy is just a start for the A’s right now. BTW. Blake is controllable for two more years so there you have it…
The Brewers top prospect is a 2nd basemen who has a realistic chance to open up next season starting, yet they’re looking outside the organization for a 2B this year and multiple years down the road, thus blocking Huira. The Brewers it seems have no confidence in their top prospects
Merrifield plays multiple positions and they might be trying to trade Hiura for an ace. Stearns said he’s looking at all options to improve this team, this would be an option.
Brewers also need to improve shortstop position. Merrifield’s flexibility would help to solve that spot both now and in the future.
He won’t start the season. He’ll either come up mid summer or September
I’m going with maybe the Brewers don’t really believe he’s a 2b and see him more as a LF as many scouts have. If that’s their sentiment then it makes a ton of sense.
Abreu to Cardinals for Jose Martinez, Carson Kelly and and a couple minor league players.
The White Sox have no need for Jose Martinez.
They will when they trade Abreu he can DH and play first.
No they won’t. Martinez already has burned through three years of service time. By the time the White Sox are ready to compete, Martinez will be 33-34 years old and entering the expensive years of the arbitration process. All that really does is kick the can on Abreu for two years, which doesn’t really help.
An AL team that is already competitive (maybe Houston?) is a better fit for Martinez.
I agree. You wanna throw Alex Reyes in the mix, then you have a deal. Reyes’s ceiling is as high as they come, but talk about guy that’s an injury risk… maybe O’Neil, but to get a player of Abreu’s caliber would demand a top notch prospect. Don’t be fooled by his first half numbers. Abreu is a stud!
Brach was just lit up today by Toronto. Hoping LAD do not settle and buy low on a guy who, at best, is pretty high risk at this point.
Jose Abreu is the ultimate professional and his extended stats show he’s due for a big 2nd half. He’s one of the most consistent players in the game and they say he’s a great club house guy. If the White Sox could get a blockbuster in Colorado for Brendan Rodgers and or Ryan McMahon I think they have to pull the trigger. I don’t see Abreu getting moved until the last minute, If at all. He’ll probably get moved next year.
The Sox were looking at several players But their main focus was on Salvador Perez Catcher.