Aug. 23: Billy Hamilton has also been claimed by an unknown club, tweets Murray. Fancred’s Jon Heyman tweets that a trade involving Hamilton is “unlikely,” citing the fact that Hamilton is controlled through next season as the reasoning behind that thinking for the Reds.
The 27-year-old Hamilton is having a miserable season at the plate, hitting .236/.302/.317 through 440 plate appearances and is receiving less playing time than he has at any point in his big league career. But he’s still providing plenty of value on the basepaths and elite defense in center field while playing on an affordable $4.6MM salary. He’d be a great piece for a contending club to add to its bench in September and into the postseason, but the Reds have indicated in the past that they’re not keen on selling off pieces for the 2019 season when they aim to be competitive despite a largely unsettled rotation picture.
Aug. 22, 9:50pm: The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney tweets that the Cubs are not the team that claimed Harvey.
6:57pm: Reds right-hander Matt Harvey has been claimed off revocable trade waivers by an unknown club, per Robert Murray and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (Twitter link). It’s unclear when the claim was placed, but the claiming team would have 48 hours to work out a trade with the Reds. If no deal is reached, the Reds will have the option of either pulling Harvey back off waivers or merely letting him and the remainder of his salary go to the new team.
Harvey, 29, ranked checked in at No. 12 on MLBTR’s latest ranking of the top 20 remaining August trade candidates. He’s made 17 starts in Cincinnati since being flipped there by the Mets in exchange for Devin Mesoraco back in May. He’s had a few hiccups along the way, but Harvey has made significant gains in terms of velocity, swinging-strike rate and his chase rate on pitches out of the zone. Overall, he’s registered a 4.28 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, 1.39 HR/9 and a 43.1 percent ground-ball rate in 90 1/3 innings with the Reds.
Given that Harvey is a free agent at season’s end, there’s little reason to believe he’d be claimed by any non-contending club. Revocable waiver priority is league-specific and ordered from worst record to best record, meaning Harvey would have to go unclaimed by every NL team in order to reach an AL club. The Dodgers represent the first realistic contender that would have the ability to claim Harvey in the National League — assuming that the Pirates, Nats and Giants are too far gone to consider adding pieces.
Harvey isn’t eligible to receive a qualifying offer after changing hands midseason (and wouldn’t be a candidate to receive one anyhow), so there’s plenty of incentive for the Reds to get a deal done. Even if the Cincinnati front office hopes to retain Harvey, there’d still be a strong case to flip him for even a modest minor league return and then try to hammer out a new deal when Harvey reaches the open market.
Brewers?
I think your right. they need it most and have scouted him a bunch
It wouldn’t it be a laugh if it was the Mets.. but they thought the claim was for another Matt Harvey!
Sorry wouldn’t it be a laugh. Old eyes on the computer!
You always think everyone going to the Brewers. Lmao
His last name is Brewcrew he just happens to be a Milwaukee fan.
Dodgers, Scott Boras at Dodgers game last night sitting front row box.or
Nationals
Dodgers should be sellers, not buyers, at this point. They are done. They sure don’t have any use for Harvey. Not much for Hamilton either, now or in the future.
3.5 games out with the best run differential in the national league and they should quit with over a month left?
Always assumed you were actually a Dodgers fan.
I am, and I can see when they are done. Even if they could squeak into the playoffs, which would take a huge improvement in quality of play that will have to come from some now competley hidden place, and the cooperation of the teams ahead of them, they are totally unprepared to go anywhere in the postseason. Fandom does not make me blind to reality. I want this team to be better, but they just weren’t designed that way. They were designed to cost under $197M.
brewers.. to play INF
That was hilarious
on a serious note, the brewers could use a starter
Man I can’t help but laugh every time someone makes a crack about the Brewers acquiring more SS/2B type players.
You’re right. Man is it funny.
Red Sox is my guess
No sure he made it that far. Sox are last on the list to lay a claim I believe?
they sure are
Rodriquez set to make 2nd rehab start, so not long before he’s back. That makes him, Porcello, Price and Sale can rest his shoulder.. If it’s even really hurting half of September until getting close to playoff time and they still have Eovaldi as a #5 type.
Last thing they need is Matt Harvey and all the problems he entails.
Can you read?
If you are referring to Billy Hamilton… That’s probably a good guess… in years past the Red Sox have found it very useful to have a burner off the bench that can steal a base late in a game…ie Dave Roberts.. it’s one of the few weapons the current Red Sox team lacks
Go A’s…
Harvey is no better than what Oakland has now. They wouldn’t want him.
cubs?
Brewers wouldn’t let him get to the Cubs I can promise you that.
Why? Harvey doesn’t play infield.
I think Stearns plays Harvey at SS just to hear your joke some more.
Hey ray!
You assume Stearns has a clue as to how to compete for the postseason. He clearly doesn’t.
You’re right he didn’t help build the Astros did he?
Go with that if you want. But he was but a bit player in what the Astros have done. Next you’re tell us the 22nd ranked farm system in baseball is loaded……
This. Stearns put the Milwaukee roster together like a Beer softball league, perhaps took the name Brewers too literally. A bunch of one dimensional, unathletic corner INFers, completely ignoring his starting rotation. Harvey would be a band aid at best. He shoulda tried for Gausman, Hamels, Evoldi, etc… MUCH better options than Harvey.
Stearns wet himself two years in a row at the deadline.
He signed Jhoulys Chacin for 15.5 million. He turned out to be the best of the free agent pitchers from last winter.
The smartest man in the world signed Tyler Chatwood for 38 million and Yu Darvish for 128 million. These were last off-season’s worst pitchers.
You do realize the brewers rotation has been better than the cubs all year right? Better and at far less cost. Not to mention guys like Burnes and Peralta at least show promise down the road and we haven’t had Davies or Nelson all year. The cubs have a bunch of 30+ year old arms on the down swing (hamels, Lester and Darvish) then Q and Hendricks who have been terrible. Just because the brewers rotation doesn’t have the big names is why you continue to bash them. Take a look at Chacin and Anderson’s numbers. Pretty sure they both are better than anyone on the cubs staff.
I’m looking at Anderson. 8-7 with a 3.92 ERA and a 5.27 FIP doesn’t stand out to me. Even Lester and his 8+ ERA since the AS Break still has better numbers than Anderson. And nobody in the Brewers rotation has anything close to what Hamels is providing for the Cubs.
Troll. How about we talk about the chacin signing vs the darvish and chatwood signings. The brewers aren’t the cubs. They can’t just through money at there problems
I don’t know what stats you look at. I understand your bias because your a sorry Brewer fan but the Cubs are ranked #8 in pitching. Really probably more #5 because they got games to play. The Brewers 12. At one time they were as high as 3.
So please save it. Reality will set in soon. Your pitching is burnt n your bull pen taxed. It’s slready showing just like last year only your in denial. By the end of September you be in 3rd place. Bank it. That’s not hating that’s reality. If you want to put real money on it just let me know n out your money were your mouth is.
He’s not a troll. Your just a hater plain and simple. Truth hurt. Get over it and yourself.
lol. geez. he is right. the Cubs and Astros front office are way overrated. these are two teams with massive payrolls who took 10 years to rebuild and then dumped and tons of cash. every year during their rebuilds they were able to buy players just to trade. any teams with that time and money easily could do the same.
None of those pitchers are #1’s and They weren’t going to overpay. Hamels would’ve vetoed any trade to the brewers and I’m sure he has a plan. Only way brewers are trading top prospects is for an ace.
These are stats for starting pitching only from ESPN. Brewers 3.93 ERA (Cubs 4.10), Brewers .232 BAA (Cubs .252), Brewers 596 SO (Cubs 567), Brewers 301 Earned Runs allowed (Cubs 307 in less games), Brewers 261 walks (Cubs 290 again in less games).
Here is a really telling part for you..
Lester, Hendricks, Q, Chatwood, Darvish (Cubs starting 5 to begin the season) = $73M
Guerra, Anderson, Peralta, Chacin, Suter and Davies = $14M.
So the Brewers starters have been better than the Cubs and make 5 times less.
Look at Mikokas’ contract and numbers. Then get back to us about who the best of last season’s free agent pitchers and contracts turned out to be.
I agree Mikolas contract was the best value contract. Especially since he has 3 years of ARB after the 2 years he’s under now. I do think Chacin was 2nd though.
Lol,Oh the pain of a small market team
These comments are so damn funny to read! Brewers fans my god!
This is literally the best comment I have ever read on this site! Someone is actually honestly bashing the the last two World Series winning front offices? Seriously?
Ignoring the genius trades like how the Cubs acquired Hendricks, Strop, Rizzo and Arrieta? Focusing only on free agent acquisitions which are never a guarantee anyway?
We’re used to White Sox fans having ugly stepsister syndrome I had no idea Brewers fans were so affected too. Good stuff guys this is hilarious to read!!
Mike drop lol
This is word for word off of ESPN’s analysis of starting pitching for the contenders:
“Somehow, the Brewers are occupying the second NL wild-card spot despite a low-wattage rotation that ranks no better than ninth in the league in ERA, FIP or WAR. Given that none of their starters projects to provide more than 0.3 WAR the rest of the way, Milwaukee may well regret its failure to upgrade at the deadline. Hamels, Happ, Eovaldi — any of them would have provided some improvement.”
I’m out.
I agree free agent acquisitions are never a guarantee. However, Theo is batting a solid .000 with his FA adds with the Cubs if you take salary into account. I know the “cubs don’t care about money” but that doesn’t make paying Darvish $150M and Heyward $180M good deals.
This! Hahaha
You’re right. John Lester was a complete waste of salary. Ben Zobrist? World Series MVP means nothing.
Enjoy being second place in your own market.
Hopefully cards wouldn’t let him go to brewers. Claim him and offer nothing. They pull him back or we get him for nothing. Either block out competition.
Cardinals have a better record than the Brewers. Crew would get the first shot.
That must hurt to say brewcrew08, considering you said the cardinals were done
Cards81 I can admit defeat on this. Didn’t think the Cards would make a run but they did. Props to them.
Depends on when claim was made. Before Tuesday night around midnight central time, brewers were ahead of cards.
Ok brewcrew08…I’ll stop giving you crap over it lol still a long way to go…and it’s not about the wild card…it’s aboit the division now…I bet Cubs fans never thought they would be scoreboard watching in August lol
Exactly Cards81 lol. I’m sure Cubs fans thought going into the year they would win 105 and take the division by 10-15+ games lol. Shaping up for a great last 30 games though that’s for sure!
Yeah but they let Murphy. Lmao
Even the sports writers couldn’t figure out why anyone in the NL Central let that happen. Then again nothing surprises me with the NL Central
Can’t believe Brewers let Murphy go to Cubs
that was my guess..
Please be the Angels. Pleasseee.
Not getting out of the NL.
Look at the Brewers, even as a blocking move.
Why would the Angels claim him?
Mariners for sure. They had previous interest in him before the non-waiver deadline and with Paxton on the shelf, Felix and Marco struggling they need all the arms they can get.
Probably an NL team got him first
They may have, but I do not think he gets by the Brewers.
Mariners 100%
So many more NL teams need arms. Doubt he even gets to the AL teams
I will be so mad if the Reds pull him back because they weren’t able to make a deal. Letting him go for nothing is better than letting someone who won’t be around next year take starts from the young pups.
100%%%%%
Just lick Zack last year.
DW sometimes is not that smart.
(may be Bob or Walt also)
It’s Bob. He’s a clown who won’t let his baseball people make baseball moves. He blocked trades involving Hamilton at this year’s deadline. Will extend Scooter without a second thought, despite then having approximately 75 top infield prospects
Thank you! nice to see I’m not the only one who knows this. Jockety gave clues for years on what was happening…
that is crazy. you Bob Bashers are really sad. I’m guessing you don’t really know that much about the Reds. first of all it’s a business and you have to sell jerseys and bring in some fans. keeping a guy like Billy Hamilton around didn’t cost much money and brought excitement. plus the man is a gift to the city. they operate the team as a regional investment with zero money coming out to owners.. they responsible for MLB Urban Youth Academy in the entire budget Cincinnati public schools baseball programs..
That is the kinda stuff that earns my respect
Again can u make a poll and let us guess who.
Let’s see, Who did the Reds just get done playing?
My guess is the Rockies. The Reds might not want to trade in division, due to rivalries, so Colorado is safe.
The Reds don’t have a choice on where to send him.
He’s a free agent at the end of the year. They could care less about being in the same division.
Milwaukee as long as a deal gets done
Brewers along with a Bat or Bullpen Piece like Closer.
Guessing Brewers or a team like the d-backs to block him from going to Milwaukee.
Arizona has a better win% than the Brewers. Brewers would get a shot before DBacks would.
But the Rockies do not. So he could head there instead.
Meta
Yes Meta!!!!
World Peace?
Someone in the national league!
I would think so.
Too many teams need arms.
Looking at the Brewers and Cards
Longer shot the cubs.
This the Brewers claim to block anyone else
The order depends on when the claim was put in which the article doesn`t state. If it was yesterday for example…..amongst contender it would go in reverse order starting with the Dodgers, then Cardinals, Phillies, and Rockies were tied, then Brewers, Then D-Backs, Braves, and Cubs.
If today, the order flipped again of the WC teams.
I’m 100 percent positive it’s the Brewers or the Cards. Cause the Cubs need him the most.
There is no way the Brewers are smart enough to block the Cubs as a strategy move.
So you’re 100% positive it’s either or. Wouldn’t that be 50/50??
No I’m 100 percent positive it’s the Brewers or the Cards
Hamels
Lester
Hendricks
Montgomery when off DL
Quintana
Cubs could use but fine without only use 4 started in playoffs .
please don’t be Milwaukee
Why not? He’s not doing bad. He’s been to the post season and could help that rotation limit their innings.
If the A’s get him then DiPoto is officially horrendous at his job.
Dodgers – bullpen.
I think you’re right
Gonna guess someone claimed just to block someone else from getting him. Unless Reds just let the team have him I don’t see him going any where
Cubs
I would be one bit surprised if it’s the Phillies; Pivetta is struggling in the 5 slot.
I was thinking PHI too. It’s almost assured that it’s whomever had the worst record at the time of the waiver.
Orioles. I bet it’s the Orioles.
Harvey isn’t good anymore so I don’t care where he goes
This
Please not cardinals. We have c-mart and weaver in pen,wacha coming back soon, and plenty of young arms and some bullpen pieces coming back. Buuut mo does like low hanging fruit with a chance of better rebound next year at low cost.
i forgot about wacha…you guys are getting players back at the right time.
The nationals. They have decided to make another run at the division.
cubs
Harvey claimed by Cubs to replace Darvish
Cole Hamels replaced Darvish and he’s been GREAT so far. Harvey is a lemon, garbage. I hope the Cubs didn’t get him. The Cubs SP is good to go, you rarely use a 4th SP in the postseason… NEVER a 5th.
you realize hamels has faced: Pitt,KC,WSH and than Pitt. Lets not act like he is unstoppable. Pitching is good to go? LOL
Yeah, Hamels has been good, but hasn’t faced real great comp. Also…no pitching staff, ever, is good to go. You can always improve and prepare in case of injuries.
He has faced mlb hitters. They are all good when they make it to the bigs.
Do we really need to explain that there are different talent levels in the bigs..? Yes they are all good enough to get to the MLB. That doesn’t mean facing the Royals is the same as facing the Red Sox or Yankees for example.
My son’s little league team. They need to win this thing for all the parents.
It was the Mets.
Rockies or Brewers
Brewers make sense. They’ve needed another starter for awhile. After that, the Cubs makes sense as a replacement for Darvish. The Rockies could use some depth in their rotation. If he got past the NL teams, Houston makes some sense as a replacement for McCullers. The Athletics have been acquiring pitchers like crazy, so it wouldn’t been out of the realm of possibility that they claimed him.
“Astros … “
If the Brewers trade for Yelich, sign Cain, trade for Moustakas and trade for Schoop, but only address their pitching by waiver claiming a hollowed out Matt Harvey…? Not good.
It might be better than no matt harvey at all.
No, they are in the position where even a bad Harvey is a good get for them.
Sad, but true.
Team building is different than asset valuation. Many people fail to understand this. Evidently, some of them are GM’s.
It’s probably the Braves.
Billy Hamilton was claimed by an unknown team as well.
As a Braves fan, can I just say how awesome it feels to have a record good enough to be next-to-last in the NL waiver order?
Yes you can. In fact, you just did!
The Mariners. Their starting rotation needs healthy bodies.
Dodgers for sure
How are they going to trade him if they don’t know who claimed him?
I’m pretty sure they know by now
We can nail this down to process of elimination:
1) NOT making it to the AL, since an NL team will put in a claim if only to block a rival. So that’s 15 right there we can discount.
2) NOT making it past the Brewers, so that’s another 3-4 teams we can eliminate (D’Backs, Cubs, Braves and than possibly the Phillies depending on when the claim happened). So that’s almost 66% of the teams we can thereby eliminate.
My best guess on who put in the claim from most likely to least likely:
1) Brewers
2) Rockies
3) Phillies
4) Nationals
5) Cardinals.
I think you could narrow that list even more. Cardinals have Carlos Martinez back, Michael Wacha will be back soon, Luke Weaver was moved to the pen, and Tyson Ross has been working long relief since his acquisition. Nationals seem to have waved their flag with Murphy and Adams being dealt. The Brewers might put in a claim so they can get some depth for September. The Rockies are highly likely with their high priced bullpen hemorrhaging runs. The most likely to me is Philadelphia. I looked it up and Harvey pitches well at Citizens Park. As an NL East rival to the Mets, The Phillies have obviously scouted him in every possible way ao they probably know the best risk/reward on him.
CMart is only pitching in the pen in a relief role. Wacha hasn`t pitched since early June. Weaver is now in the pen as you stated. Tyson Ross made one start and long relief other wise.
It is still possible the Cardinals made the claim for further veteran SP depth. It would depend on what the order of standings were at the time of the claim. The Cardinals are making the push and with all of the young arms never really having pitched deep into Sept, let alone October it is very possible they did.
Cubs team ERA – 3.73 ( 8th of 30 teams)
Brewers team ERA – 3.86 (12th of 30 teams)
That’s because Brewers bullpen is good, now look up starting ERA.
According to ESPN Brewers starters have a 3.93 ERA and Cubs starters have a 4.10. Now that’s ESPN so who knows if its actually right or not lol
Oh boy BrewCtew you can sleep st night now. Only you pitch 9innings not 5.
So if my pen is great n lights out my starters can be a bit worse.
You still go 9 innings BrewCtew.
This why 2015 Royals won the WS. Their SP was a lot worse than the Cubs.
Silly Brewer fan thinks he’s an expert all of a sudden cause the Brewers have 2 second place finishes. How many WS?
How many Pennants?
Dodgers can’t win a game to save their life, but they will sure block a trade so teams who are actually playoff caliber cannot add a piece.
Oh well, time to spend another 200 million to have a good team LA…that’s what ya’ll forgot to do last winter.
Remember that time that the Padres won the world series…………..? Yeah, neither does anyone else. Keep trashing teams to make yourself feel better, doofus!
It’s ok I’d be scared too if my favorite team was in the Padres division for the next decade…:'( lol
So it ain’t the cubs that got Harvey. must be Milwaukee
Yankees please get Billy please please please
No way he made it all the way to the Yanks.
Hamilton would make a great bench piece for the Yankees this year. And a solid 4th OFer for next season. And Gives them the flexibility to trade Hicks in a package for a starter.
Harvey and Hamilton to Yankees as a 2 player trade deal
Why would the Reds hold onto Billy Hamilton, he is nothing more then a bench player who can come in and pinch run in late innings? Do the reds really think there is more upside to this guy still? He is who he is at this point, trade him for a lottery ticket before they get nothing at all.
Reds hold on to their player way to long,
Oh he’s also the best Centerfielder in the League … there’s that
That’s debatable
Brewers were the likeliest suspect to be awarded the claim on Harvey.
With a year left, Hamilton probably got claimed by a team out of contention. That’s likely to go nowhere.
The writer is very subjective of the line .236/.302/.317 … some players it’s miserable some players it’s good
Harvey going back to the Mets cause why not
The Reds should move Hamilton, if to just clear the salary.
He is great defensively and on the bases, but a liabilitu at bat.
He is a glorified Leonys Martin type.
Leonys Martin and Billy Hamilton both play CF. very well. After that, I see nothing in common. I’m a supporter of Leonys Martin. Read up on him. This is one person who deserves a break.