Baseball’s single trade deadline has passed, but there may yet be player movement on the horizon. Minnesota Twins GM Thad Levine even expects a head-spinner or two in August. With outright waiver claims still on the table, as well as other means of player acquisition, time remains for contenders to add personnel before the August 31 playoff eligibility deadline.
Said Levine on MLB Network Radio, “There will be a few players that change hands between now and the end of August that will leave some fans scratching their head that they were available just on an outright waiver claim.”
Presumably, Levine isn’t talking about the likes of Jonathan Lucroy, Tyler Austin, and Jung Ho Kang, some of the season’s earliest DFA casualties. A couple of intriguing names have hit the market – Brad Brach should catch on somewhere, Tony Sipp has a 2.76 ERA since April 15 – but Levine certainly suggests a sexier brand of ballplayer could find new homes in August.
Even before August trade prohibition there was the occasional outright claim of a large veteran contract. The White Sox claiming of Alex Rios in 2009 is an oft-cited example of this kind of roster action. Chicago was three games behind the Tigers in the AL Central when they relieved the Blue Jays of the five years, $60MM left on Rios’ deal. The Southsiders went just 22-27 from the date of the trade, falling to third place in finishing 79-83. To their credit, Rios did sandwich two productive seasons around a clunker in 2011 before the Sox would move him again in a trade with the Rangers.
Levine’s speculation here comes in part as a response to some disappointment in the new format. For the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, who described this year’s deadline by saying “the life is getting sucked out of the sport,” further August action will be welcome. Writes Rosenthal, “The Astros and Diamondbacks rescued what otherwise might have been The Worst Deadline Day Ever on Wednesday, completing the Zack Greinke blockbuster with just moments to spare before 4 p.m. ET.”
Of course, the single deadline figured to drive more last minute action, so discounting the most impactful moments would certainly temper the results. Fangraphs’ Ben Clemens measured Wednesday as one of the busiest deadline days ever, though the flurry of activity was driven in part by the slow month that preceded it.
Pinpointing waiver claim candidates won’t be easy, as obvious candidates are by definition disqualified from Levine’s characterization, but large contracts on non-contenders would be a give good place to start sleuthing. Purely speculating, Wade Davis, Daniel Murphy, Justin Smoak could qualify, while the Blue Jays’ Randal Grichuk would be a near repeat of the Rios claim. Ultimately, whether Levine proves prescient or bombast likely depends on your level of excitement over “head-scratchers.”
Why doesn’t this site do the weekly blogs anymore? I did enjoy the reads.
The blogs have gotten a lot of hate from the majority of the MLBTR community, including me. More often than not they were run or written by a biased fan or self proclaimed “expert” that, in reality, were more often than not wrong or simply insane in their writing. I’d much rather have the writers here continue to post their original articles rather than spend time sifting through the wasteland that is MLB blogs.
More often than not, it had different fanboys whining about something. You essentially described what a blog is – biased and subjective — and I’m not sure why you’d think a blogger is an “expert”.
He didn’t, that’s why he used quotation marks
These writers don’t always post original articles. Like the blogs, these writers will post their articles based off someone else work(example: the insider & other paid subscriptions )
I agree with you Yankee500.
wow – team-specific sites are run by their respective fans who are somewhat biased. who would have knew!
I just looked at the occasional link in there if the topic was interesting. But I can get dropping the blogs just to avoid the nonsense.
There’s just this thing going on around the internet these days, where personal analysis is presented as fact, and ridiculous, irrational rants can’t be discussed at all because they think saying “in my opinion…” at the start insulates them from any criticism.
Yanks500 I’m with you..the only Yankees blogs I’ve felt worthwhile were nomaas and River Ave blues… both are now defunct…I’ve tried pinstripe alley but that place is an absolute dumpster fire and yanks go yard is utter trash that has to be written by 15 year olds
8ball! Yes! Weekly blogs? Some fun reads.
Ooh I’d love it if the twins got another reliever or starter
Please, oh please DFA Randal Grichuk and hope that some poor fool claims him.
dont think that will happen after he was just extended.
This year’s deadline was fine — you had a bunch of buyers thinking somehow they could extract value at little risk and they played themselves.
Or sellers setting bars too high for their trade chips
This trade deadline was horrible
I think they should push the date back to August 15th
agree 100%
Then the same happens at August 15 tho
I think the point is that by pushing it back, even a couple weeks, gives bubble playoff teams more clarity of where they stand rather than holding off on being sellers. A losing streak in even just a couple of weeks could decrease a teams odds of making the playoffs drastically.
This trade deadline was one of the best ever. Keep it please
No Trade Deadline meaning Trades all year round or at least to Midnight.
I like the new hard deadline. Puts it in line with the other major professional sports in that there will still be at least a third of the season left to play. Imagine how bent out of shape Rosenthal would be if MLB had a soccer-type of player movement, where teams could only acquire players during a one-month window in the middle of the season.
Come on Orioles, a Brach reunion would be good for us. Especially at that salary.
Except… they are rebuilding
Can a player be traded after he is DFA?
Yes, but he would not be playoff eligible.
Not with the new rules
The new rules make it so that players cannot be traded anymore at this point in the season. They can be claimed, or they can be released and signed by a different team. Players acquired by those means will be playoff eligible if rostered before August 31 deadline.
“For the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, who described this year’s deadline as “the life getting sucked out of the sport,””
Dude.
Of course Rosenthal would say that. One less deadline means less stories he can break. Im not a big hater of his, but i think there are bigger problems “sucking the life out of the sport”
I think he said that this was the latest example of the life getting sucked out of the sport, not the most pressing issue. I read the article, and that was the impression I came away with. It was certainly implied if not written like that word for word.
I tend to agree in this case. Rosenthal really overvalues how much ordinary baseball fans really care about the deadline. There are weridos like us who follow this site who really care but the vast majority will never notice that the deadline changed this year and the rest of us will be used to it by next year
Kinda off topic but I think MLB should just use a single deadline for all eligibility: August 31. July 31 is too early for trades, and then there’s still all these other convoluted ways to acquire players.
Making everything 8/31 is easier and simpler and gives teams more time to evaluate themselves. Other sports have earlier deadlines but other sports also have more playoff spots available. Baseball teams have to work harder which means they need more time.
No
The Pirates were CRUCIFIED for outrighting Juan Nicasio two years ago.
I guess lots of teams need to buy new ski lifts.
Omg please take Grichuk…someone please
Ain’t nobody taking on Wade Davis on that deal with the way he is pitching. McGee and Shaw could be two of the likeliest candidates, though.
McGee and Shaw have not been THAT bad this year, especially McGee. I mean they are not All Stars by any means, but they have been serviceable middle relievers. Davis has been that bad. I’d hate to see the Rockies lose him for nothing, but I don’t think he is ever going to rebuild his value even a little in Denver. It’s divorce time.
Isn’t Davis only doing bad at Coors? I could be wrong but I think he’s only given up one earned run in away games this season…
Just checked, Davis at Coors 18.1 innings pitched 24R/23ER, away 13.1 IP 1R/1ER
Rosenthal is far and away the best baseball writer around, but he is dead wrong on his assessment of the deadline
jp morosi isn’t too bad.
Rosenthal is not even close to Jayson Stark.
The typical fan barely realizes there is a hard trade deadline. Writers and those of us who read MLB Trade Rumors, of course, do. The games is played between the foul lines which we tend to forget while waiting for trade action to make our super teams for post season.
It very much takes two sides to make a trade and despite face saving interviews we have no idea what players were offered or rejected in trade talks. I personally suspect that some GM’s expected the demands to come down from sellers and didn’t really have a plan B when they didn’t.
Or didn’t feel like it was worth it at all
too bad the tigers can’t get rid of cabby’s fat azz and fat azz contract! maybe DD and the Bosox will take him? he’s gutting them anyway.theyll be old and non competitive before long just like he did here in Detroit.
I thought this deadline was going to go to Threat Level Midnight but instead it went down on the carpet like Kevin’s homemade chili. I don’t begrudge Rosenthal’s sentiment because Baseball is changing and most executives are more concerned with keeping their seat in the Office than filling the seats in the park. The preoccupation with control is marginalizing risk and diminishing the end product across many businesses right now, as it should, for control is subsidized by fear and nothing clings to timidity more than mediocrity.
Why would teams get rid of people on outright waivers? Just to save a few hundred thousand? If there’s roster space, we wouldn’t they stay?
If they don’t intend on playing or keeping a player, why let him linger on your roster? Waive him and get an opening for someone you have more confidence in or are willing to play.
I like this as an ‘ol’ timey’ throw back to keeping ones home grown longer. Taking stock. Dang this is fun.
Also i say “Let Lux hit!”
I suspected when they installed this deadline, teams would find a way to wiggle around it somehow. Simply having teams waive bad contracted players etc, so they can be picked up would at least provide a safety net for an untimely injury vs having to use ML talent. We shall see in the days to come.
“Twins GM predicts busy August waiver period.
Unless, of course, you work for the Minnesota Twins.
The ONLY member of the Pohlad family that was a true fan was smilin’ Carl’s wife.
Beyond that, it was then and is now all about making a buck.
The Pohlad’s lined their pockets off the citizens of MSP.
Through Mass Transit, Banking, Bottling and now the Twins.
Their is not enough profit in winning because after the team wins, all the players expect
wage increases and contract extensions, free agents leave and agents demand trades.
Much better to be close enough to drive fan excitement and attendance up through late summer and fall.
And then fall just short while crying about finances and who the other teams wanted in trade.
That’s what drives the bottom line. The descendants of “Mr. Cheap” have learned their lessons well.
“You’re in the business army now, you’re only friend’s a buck and the more bucks you’ve got, the more friends you’ve got”. = as told to Barney Rubble by Fred Flintstone.
You must be a blast at parties
Never no might be a party animal, the comments have some merit.
Baseball clubs are trying to get younger and stay that way. Teams out of contention with players over 30 who have no guaranteed large contracts are on shaky ground.
There will be players forced into minor league deals or just hung out to dry, retire.
Some can take big salary cuts and fill a specialty void but few over 30 get that chance.
Blah blah blah