The Diamondbacks, who blew a late lead in Miami last night to drop back even at 52-52, are reportedly “focused intently” on selling, per Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi, who lists Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray, David Peralta, Archie Bradley, Andrew Chafin, Greg Holland, and Jarrod Dyson as names on the proverbial table.
It’s a bit of surprise revelation for the in-the-thick-of-it Snakes, whose +63 run differential is second only to the Cubs among legitimate NL Wild Card contenders. Arizona would need to jump four teams to find itself in the second Wild Card slot – including the 53-51 Giants, who’ve all but announced their intention to make the buyer’s plunge in the coming days – but one could easily envision the club slithering in with a late-season surge.
Still, it may be high time to cash in on the team’s best assets: righty Zack Greinke, who’s still owed over $90MM (including signing-bonus deferrals) on his record-setting deal, is on pace to match or eclipse all but his lights-out 2009 campaign. The 35-year-old’s microscopic 1.15 walk rate is the lowest of his career, and he hasn’t yet been sliced of his once-sharp cheddar, with an average fastball velocity that still hovers barely above the 90 MPH plateau. The club would need to pay down a significant portion of the contract, but high-upside returns may be dangled if the team finds itself amenable.
Lefty Robbie Ray, who hits arbitration for the final time next season at what’ll surely be a below-market rate, is still conducting his high-walk, high-homer, massively-high-strikeout train in ’19, and would be a good fit for any number of contenders – Yankees, A’s, Giants – with strong bullpens and weak rotations.
David Peralta’s value has perhaps been overstated in some circles – he’s an aging corner bat who’s nearly unplayable against lefties, but should net a decent return from a team in need of mid-order lefty thump. Fellow outfielder Jarrod Dyson may be coveted for his late-inning skills – top-scale defense, pinch-runner extraordinaire – but likely won’t return a high-upside piece.
The rest of the pieces won’t be coveted league-wide, but the Snakes could trim an estimated $26-30MM off next season’s payroll by trading all but Greinke from the group. Add Zack, of course, and the team could position themselves at the fore of the offseason free agent market.
Fire Luvello
Obviously with that comment you didn’t not watch baseball.
He is doing pretty good unfixing that issue that Dave Stewart created.
I mean, they weren’t supposed to do much this year but yet they’re still in the race. Must be all his fault
Too expensive for the future hall of famers on the Braves pipeline.
Do you ever have anything to say that isn’t stupid or negative or both?
More wishful thinking coming from writers I think then any actual change in Arizona’s thinking.
Why would the writers care enough to make this up?
Kolby Allard and Touki Toussaint for Greinke, with the D’Backs paying all of the deferrals. They could throw in Alex Jackson.
He’ll cost more than that if AZ is paying that much of his salary. I’d do Greinke, Chafin and a big chunk of cash for Pache but that seems unlikely.
I believe he’s being funny because it’s the Dbacks and we all remember the last swap between those two.
both GMs are likely blacklisted by MLB teams these days
Probably. Different front offices for both teams though. Hazen has actually been pretty decent at trades so far.
if Pache is going back they are paying Greinke’s whole salary
Not to many teams he would
1. Accept to go to
2. Afford or willing to take on any of his money
Let Arizona pay any of the deferred money that accounts for the years he already pitched for them and half of the deferred money owed for the years he would pitch for the Braves, any trade bonus money which I believe is $3 million, whatever is owed the rest of this year & maybe $5 milliion a year for the life of the contract
For all of that they can have their pick of Allard, Wilson or Touki and pick 1 of Dean, Jenista or Tarnock
Or, Greinke, Bradley, Peralta and 62.5 deferred sal and bonus for Pache and Toussaint.
To even bring up Pache is asinine.
Alex Jackson ain’t worth much. Is he an outfielder is he a catcher? The guy that tied the record for homeruns in San Diego as a high schooler all time never lived up to the hype.
With $62.5 in deferrals paid, Greinke still has a only a residual value of about 40, so that would be Wright and Toussaint. Throw in Sousa and Braves could add another pitcher.
Come on AA this the cue to go get Greinke
Stop the nonsense & make the move. Just spend the money you claimed you had all offseason when we were told you could shop in any aisle. The better the prospect they get correlates to the amount of money they take on.
Markakis is a steal
Acuna is a steal
Albies is a steal
Inciarte,Freddie & Julio both on team friendly deals although Freddie is due for an extension
Donaldson & Kuechel have no commitment after this year
McCann/Flowers are cheap
Fried/Soroka/Riley are rookies
Bullpen are not making any money
It’s a joke if this dude doesn’t seize the moment and go out and get the true ACE this team needs
Aren’t the Braves one of the teams on Greinke’s no trade?
It’s been rumored it’s the following teams (via BR from 11/30/18): Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays.
Markakis isnt a steal,
Inciarte’s deal isnt really that good right now,
It also makes sense why they maintain their prospect capital because they’re unlikely to add to it in the near future since
A. they arent gonna be sellers for a while
B. They’re not gonna have high draft picks
C. Theyre banned from the INT market
$6 million is not a steal for Markakis are you kidding me ???
They don’t need to be sellers for anything losing 2 mid level prospects is not going to hurt their prospect capital and Duval, O’Day, Kuechel, Guasman & Donaldson can all be walked away from freeing up even more money than what the didn’t spend this offseason
Teheran, Folty & Ender could be moved if had to for minor league pieces to replenish
I agree with you. Markakis is making $4 million, not $6 million, so he is an even bigger steal.
Markakis is a league average hitter, below average defender, and is old. No one wanted to pay him 6M this offseason when he was the same player.
$4 million base salary $2 million to buy him out next year or $6 million option next year
It was established teams offered him more than that this offseason and he turned it down to come back to Atlanta
The problem was those teams were either not considered contenders or he just didn’t want to play for
Braves made it clear they were shopping around and may circle back
That was reported by many ppl
Teheran is a good deal (including next year’s option) with his production. He is on-pace for a career year at an $11MM price tag. Those IPs have really bolstered the rotation this year.
At the time he signed, his deal was considered a steal. He had better offers but wanted to stay in Atlanta. He has even outperformed expectations.
@brixton The one hold up on Markakis is he doesn’t hit a lot of homers. However, his .284/.356/429 slash with great BB/K rate is far from league average, His $6 mil salary is digestible to any team interested.
How hard is it to understand that AA cannot do anything that Liberty Media doesn’t approve of when it comes to adding salary. They absolutely had the money to go after any player until Liberty Media used about 40% of the available funds to pay of their own debt. Learn about your team.
I know bout my team
Liberty Media has nothing to do with the Braves spending
Their books are kept separate and money made has to go back into the team
Terry McGuirk is the tell all be all in regards to Braves finances as part of the deal for Liberty to buy the Braves
The Braves were a throw in for the deal for Time Warner and are important to Liberty Media for tax purposes and MLB stepped in to set up parameters for the best interest of baseball
Mlb could have made them sell but they need the Braves for tax purposes all baseball decisions are made thru Atlanta offices run thru Terry McGuirk
The problem is With the set up is only baseball money can operate the functions of the organization and the TV contract is one of the worst in mlb
I believe the only reason mlb set this all up was because if they woulda forced the team to sell Mark Cuban woulda bout them and the good ol boy network of mlb owners don’t want him a part of there club and couldn’t justify not allowing him to buy the team when they were forcing owners to sell
bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2015/11/13/atlanta-br…
I wonder what it would take, for Greinke to accept a trade back to the Angels? Add another year might work. But would the Angels want to do that?
I think the Angels are better off saving all their FA budget for Gerrit Cole this winter. Trading for Greinke is win now move, but the Angels need 2 veteran pitchers (one being an ace) to elevate themselves into legitimate WS contender. They are not ready yet.
Peralta to the Cards – would help our left handed hitting situation – would also be nice to have someone who can hit for average to go with some of the swing and miss guys on the ball team. We would get him next year too, which would be the last “run” with our aging core … if that’s the direction that the cards chose to go (I hope they let the young guys play personally)
Anybody see that coming?
Chafin could be of interest to a club in need of bullpen help. Possibly Bradley too but not on the basis of his work this year.
I would say Grienke isn’t approaching his 2015 season either.
Twins should trade for Robbie Ray and Shane Greene!
that’s good for the trade market
Braves take on all of Greinkes money, DBacks kick in Peralta to lose the contract
This idea is very smart on the Dbacks part. Even when the numbers say they should have a lot better record they realize selling is whats best for the team. Unlike the Giants whos ownership gets exicted by players going on an unsustainable pace and thinks they are actually contenders
Since the Giants are evidently thinking they are World Series contenders this year, they should consider some of Arizona’s trade pieces. (Sarcasm)
Maybe they will!
Only a 15 team no trade list for Greinke. Not sure if ATL is on the list but if not, there’s nothing he can do about being traded there
Atlanta is on his list
ryeandi That is wrong information, Atlanta is NOT on Greinke’s NTL
Grienke will not be lifting his NTC. You can immediately cross off those teams. He’s happy where he is and he’s Grienke. Brewers are the only team not on his list that makes sense. Hard to see a deal between these clubs coming together.
I wouldn’t be opposed to the Yankees going after Ray if they can’t Stroman. I’m not sure if Frazier would appeal to the Dbacks or not but him and a solid prospect or 2 wouldn’t be too much to offer
Frazier doesn’t make sense for an NL team with his defense.
Right because every outfielder in the NL is a gold glove player..
Frazier has always been considered a good defensive OF and was once viewed as a CF. The narrative that he’s not a good defensive OF because he’s struggled this season is ridiculous
Gosh, I would love the braves to grab some of these guys
Missing from list is Jones,Lamb,Escobar and so on.
I don’t see Escobar going anywhere. He’s in the same boat as Marte and Kelly as their building blocks going forward. Lamb probably doesn’t have much value until he proves he’s healthy and can come close to his 16-17 production. Jones will probably be moved, but won’t bring much back
Greinke lifts NTC and goes to Yanks.
@dobsonel Greinke would never agree to a trade to NY and I don’t think the Yanks would even pursue him anyway. HIs anxiety has been talked about plenty of times. I don’t think either side sees NY as a good fit for him.
His anxiety has been speculated many times. An anxiety issue 10 years ago. No one has any idea of the truth other than Greinke. Show me the interview or article that actually factualizes this issue and I’ll believe it. Until then, he’s dominated in every city he’s pitched in included LA so I’m sure he can handle it.
Don’t compare LA sports media to NY/Boston/Philly sports media
It’s a different world
2006 he left Royals spring training and said he was never going back
He got with a sports psychologist who diagnosed him with Social Anxiety
When traded to the Brewers he said he couldn’t wait to get to free agency because than he would be able to choose and set parameters in his professional life and have the ability to play in a place he will be comfortable
He said he enjoys the laid back west coast and believes the east coast is to crazy for him
He also said he grew up a Braves fan and would love an opportunity to play for his childhood team
It’s also an overrated argument. If you’re good the press loves you. If you suck they don’t.
Can you post a link to these statements?
Also, I don’t know if Atlanta would take on that contract.
@dobsonel
Greinke isn’t going to come out and publicly say he’s scared to play in NYC. However, every single time Greinke was either a FA or being shopped in trades the Yanks were mentioned. At no time has either side Greinke nor the Yanks made comments to suggest that they were interested in coming together.
But here’s an article about the subject:
Though he knew he wanted out of Kansas City, which has a promising future but looks like it will have a brutal present, [Zack Greinke] wasn’t sure where he wanted to be.
He told friends he didn’t think he could play in Boston or New York. But when he and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met clandestinely in Orlando (Greinke’s hometown) at an off-site location during the winter meetings, Greinke’s desperation not to endure yet another losing season in Kansas City was such that he is said to have tried to convince Cashman that he wanted to come to New York. And that he could actually thrive in New York.
However, people who were briefed on that meeting said Cashman ultimately decided that Greinke’s first thought about New York was probably correct — that it wasn’t the best spot for him.
Greinke told people the day he accepted his Cy Young Award in New York City that he didn’t think he could ever live in New York, and kept telling friends the same. But as the days dwindled this winter, he made his surprise plea to Cashman to make him a Yankee.
What’s this from? It’s interesting.
For the record Cashman never publicly says which player he is interested in. Nobody saw the Edwin trade coming. For about 4 months a lot of people on this forum claimed Stanton to the Yanks would never happen. Nobody saw the first Chapman trade happening either if I remember correctly.
bleacherreport.com/articles/624846-greinke-tried-t…
I would peg Ray to be moved at 100%. I would peg Greinke to be moved at 1% (I would guess he will be moved in the offseason). I will guess Dyson & Jones are moved and Peralta is not (D’Backs seem to value him more than the rest of the league). Some of their bullpen is probably moved as well.
I have believed for some time Peralta may be on the Red Bird radar. Platoon with Martinez. Cards and Snakes have dealt big time lately. Ray could be part of a blockbuster, but the Cards have to be willing to part with plenty, but they didn’t hesitate for Goldy.
Sounds good to me ! What would it take for Ray and Peralta ? Montero, arozerona, and a third ?
Arozarena likely. Maybe even Garcia or O’Neill. Fernandez perhaps, Mayers and Reyes could be part of the discussion, but I would hate to lose Reyes.
Could well be getting some influence from Goldy. Escobar another option. But I hope they don’t include Chafin. I would like to see them go elsewhere for another lefty.
I have a feeling this deal may go down. And probably by tomorrow. Ray is scheduled to pitch tomorrow. So if the deal is completed before then Ray could open the series against the Cubbies, pushing back Waino, if he isn’t skipped, then Mikolas, giving Flaherty more rest. I realize this is speculation, but the Cards have recently dealt with Arizona, Goldschmidt knows these guys, the trio St. Louis sent this winter know the other Memphis guys, two of the Cards’ three holes would be filled, and the team’s recent push is forcing Mo’s hand.
Greinke needs to be on the Athletics like, yesterday. If they get an ace, they might win it all.
If they’re selling then they should definitely move Chafin for anything they can get – especially because next year’s new rule where P have to face a minimum of 3 batters… LOOGY’s like Chafin are going to lose their roles! So if a contender is willing to give something up for him now – the DBacks should jump at that opportunity!
Greinke has quietly been one of there very best pitchers in baseball. Arizona isn’t going to trade him for just salary relief he could be a game changer for the Braves. He won’t go the Yankees so you Yankee fans that think they should get him it won’t happen.
Again, pure speculation. There is no documentation or interview where he ever said he’d never pitch in NY.
I think based on his history, the Yankees might not want to take the chance. NY is a tough place to play.
His history shows dominance in every city. Nothing more nothing less. This is a future HOFer that is the best available pitcher on the market by far.
I seriously doubt he goes to NY.
Yeah I’m sure after dominating LA that he would struggle in NY.
I agree it’s a long shot. I just don’t agree it’s impossible. And I don’t believe it would be because of anxiety. An issue he apparently learned to handle 10 years ago.
We really don’t know one way or another. He might be completely over it, or he might be dealing with it every day.
Insufficient data.
Yes agreed.
Or he might be playing in Arizona. He also played in a laid back city in LA and Kansas City. There is a reason his rumored rumored no trade list is very east coast heavy he isn’t going to NY sorry Yankee fans not happening.
We will know by Wednesday.
Funny thing is I don’t see the Mets on that list
Last time I looked that’s nyc and they are the my media whipping boys
Twins should be all over Ray and Greinke. Ray because a lefty starter would be preferable. Greinke because they have little on the ledger for future years so they can afford his contract at a lesser prospect cost.
Not even convinced yanks need to be a buyer after last wk – maybe just wait til next yr…
Awww Hell… they should just go full on Marlins and sell everybody. Maybe they’ll contend in 2050.
The Angels should trade Johnny Hellweg, Ariel Pena and Jean Segura strait up for Zack Greinke. oh never mind I’m still living in 2013.
^2012
Yanks should be all over Greinke and Robbie Ray. Grienke is a big name big game pitcher and Ray is a strikeout guy. They will pick up salary but they can.. we need a true ace. Greinke is available. Pull the trigger Cash. And let the other teams worry
Greinke is not waiving his ntc to go to New York. No chance stop even thinking that he would.
If he doesn’t want a ring.. he can stay where he is.. but if he wants a chance to win a World Series and a ticket to the HoF he comes to NY and completes his career
There are 4 or 5 teams that might trade for Greinke, who are Not on his no trade list. There are another 4 to 5 teams that might trade for Greinke that Are on his no trade list, but remember no trade lists are merely leverage for the player and his agent, they are not prohibitions against being traded there in most cases. So, there are 8 to 10 teams who might trade for Greinke. Let the bidding begin. Bid with a combination of multiple high prospects, most of whom are major league ready, and young, controllable major league talent. Oh, and expect to pay all $70M of Greinke’s cheap salary for 2 years
THIS!
Normally I totally agree with that but this guy is a different cat he likes calm he seems to thrive on it. If it was Madison Bum that was going to be traded I would agree he would it as leverage but not Greinke. I truly believe he wants no part of the media circus in NY or Boston he just wouldn’t be comfortable there. For you people that say he was in LA that isn’t even close to the same thing. LA is so laid back doesn’t even come close to the scrutiny you get on the east coast. No chance he waives his NTC for that.
He won’t require any high prospects unless AZ pays the entire contract and even then, it’s not gonna be the cream of the crop guys.
DTD if Arizona paid the entire contract they would get they would be justified asking and would receive the best prospects a team has.
Zach Greinke for nothing is well worth a top prospect at least. His only negative is his contract.
As long as the deferred money for the years he already pitched for the DBacks is covered I would have no problem with Atlanta taking on his salary
But not for any of our Top 5 prospects
Possibly be willing to move Riley but then DBacks would have to take some salary back too
Riley, Guasman, O’Day & Allard for Greinke, trade kicker cost and commitment from Greinke he is not opting out after this year
I really think that he will be Brave before it’s all said and done if Arizona is really willing to trade him especially if they pay some of his freight. Make no mistake he is the best pitcher available especially for a run this year.
Greinke could well become a Brave. The Braves have both the prospects and the payroll flexibility. It would all come down to 1) if Greinke is on the market, 2) how interested AA is and 3) how much the D’Backs and Braves would leverage the propects/payroll dynamic.
I would like to see the Reds get Greinke, We could use him as a top starter along with Castillo, To be fair, I would like to see the Diamondbacks pay down some of his salary and I would be willing to send either Trammel or Johnathan India depending on how much they pay down I would send both and then maybe a couple of Double AA players as a package, But since I’m a Reds fan and our FO sucks bad, This is just a dream.