Here are a few interesting recent notes from the American League …
- While the era of value-conscious roster building hasn’t yet resulted in the desired number of World Championships, the Yankees have had plenty of success. And whatever one may say about the overall strategy, it’s hard to argue with most of the trades engineered by GM Brian Cashman, Ken Dadvidoff of the New York Post argues. Even if the players acquired by the Yanks haven’t always panned out as hoped, the club has not had much cause for regretting the young talent it parted with. It’s worth noting that there is one other deal that may have cost the Yanks dearly: the November 2017 trade of Caleb Smith and Garrett Cooper to the Marlins, which was seen at the time as little more than a roster clean-out. The player the Yankees added in that deal, young pitcher Mike King, emerged after the swap. But he has been slowed by elbow issues, while Smith and Cooper have emerged as quality MLB performers this year.*
- We’ve known for a while that Jesus Luzardo would be on the move back toward the majors for the Athletics, but it remained to be seen how he’d look after a lengthy absence for shoulder problems. The youngster has only increased the excitement with his performance. He ran up nine strikeouts in four innings in his latest High-A appearance and earned a bump back up to Triple-A, as Martin Gallegos of MLB.com tweets. It’s still possible the 21-year-old could be held down for a while after he’s deemed at full health, but the A’s are surely also anxious to get him onto the MLB roster. There’s no word yet whether fellow rehabbing southpaw pitching prospect A.J. Puk will also move up to the highest level of the minors.
- Veteran K.C. Star scribe Sam Mellinger delivered a realistic assessment of the Royals’ immediate outlook. The club signaled in mid-May that it believed it might be competitive for a Wild Card. GM Dayton Moore says he legitimately “expected more wins.” But as Mellinger explains, there’s an undeniable disconnect between expectations — particularly, those projected publicly — and the results on the field. There have been some notable successes, but the Royals have in the aggregate been nearly as bad as an unabashedly rebuilding Orioles club. Mellinger is careful to note that Moore and his top lieutenants aren’t at immediate risk of being replaced, particularly given their incredible achievements in recent years. It’s an interesting look at the state of a uniquely situated organization. Mellinger also notes that righties Jakob Junis and Scott Barlow have drawn some trade inquiries, though neither has been consistently effective this year and both have plenty of cheap control remaining.
*The initial version of this post mistakenly stated that King had undergone Tommy John surgery. We regret the error.
You forgot to mention that Luzardo has been promoted to Triple-A after his latest outing.
“…and earned a bump back up to Triple-A.”
Cooper wouldn’t have survived on the yankees roster past the end of the 2018 campaign and, Smith might have been cut as well. theyre doing perfectly fine withought those two, and both will probably come bacl down to earth in Miami soon.
Excellent point. Both players were out of options and had not established themselves as decent ML players. They probably would not have had the chance to do so had they stayed with the Yankees. In cases such as this, trading for a player of lesser value may be a better move than losing the player for nothing.
In order to understand Cashman’s moves, you really have to look at the bigger picture of options as well as 40 man roster considerations. Cashman has been great at assessing a prospect’s value in light of those considerations.
I really don’t know why any GM would make a trade with Cashman, other than just a pure salary dump. Cashman seems to win about 90% of trades.
If the Royals think they will get a Wild Card spot, then the Orioles must be World Series bound. Still can’t believe Dayton didn’t sell in 2017, would’ve gotten a haul.
He was talking about what the Royals were thinking when the season started, not what they were actually thinking in Mid-May.
But still
Actually I think Moore had hopes for a possible wild card in very early April. Perhaps he had his calendar on the wrong year. I could MAYBE see a wild card in 2021. This of course depends on if we have one of our pitching prospects from 2018 on the roster already, such as lynch or Singer.
A guy can dream, can’t he?
Remember, the Royals held the 2nd wild card spot on the day of the trade deadline.
I think we were only one and a half games out of the wildcard. Then after that really bad trade with the Padres, Salvy got hurt and it kind of spiraled out of control from there. There was only maybe a 5% chance of making the wild card after he got hurt
Yea but the mets farm system is 1000% better than the yankees as well as lights out pitching. Plus we actually made it to the world series this decade.
…and Yankees have more wins in the last decade of world series. try again buddy.
no one cares about teams that are over 20 years. The mets own the yankees this decade.
The Mets are the Meg Griffin of baseball
The Mets are performing as expected….a sub .500 team that won’t even make the playoffs again this year.
This is the best description of the Mets that I have ever seen. Spot on. The letters also nearly line up – Mets/Megs
Well technically a decade is 10 years and the Yankees won the WS in 2009 and it’s 2019 so…….
id assume he means the 2010’s
@DarkSide830 I know I just wanted to be that guy
Yes, a decade is ten years Clayton so 2009 to 2018 would be a ten year period. Just saying.
Your life must be really boring repeating the same ridiculous thing just get a reaction from Yankees fans.
Good luck with it.
Same things? You mean the truth
Don’t you get tied of posting the same tired retread post each and every time MLB Traderumors mentions the Yankees?
Really stinks being so jealous doesn’t it!
Exactly
The truth is the Mets made it to the WS and lost.
And they faced the Yankees in the WS they …. wait for it…. lost.
They haven’t won a WS since 1986!
2 vs 27!
I guess that’s why all you have left is to go around trolling Yankees fans
A Mets fan. I’m so sorry. Hopefully your kids dont make the same mistake
Yankees just graduated a handful of all star caliber players in the last 1-2 years. How many have the Mets produced? Mets farm system is only better on paper, if at all.
Are you really bragging about a lost WS? Pretty sad when your team is so bad that you have to brag about a WS they lost 4-1. Embarrassing. Yep they got their. They lost. And judging by the current state of the team, they won’t be back for a while.
Another cheap Sonny Gray 2.0 move incoming