The Cubs are acquiring designated hitter José Martínez from the Rays, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link). Chicago is sending two players to be named later or cash considerations in exchange. Catcher Josh Phegley has been designated for assignment to clear roster space.
Martínez burst onto the scene with the Cubs’ archrival Cardinals between 2017-18, hitting .306/.369/.478 over those two seasons. Since the start of 2019, Martínez has put up a more pedestrian .264/.339/.406 mark split between St. Louis and Tampa Bay, although he’s continued to feast on left-handed pitching in that time.
The Rays just picked Martínez up from St. Louis over the offseason in a trade that sent top pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore to the Cardinals and also brought back outfielder Randy Arozarena. He played a little bit of first base in Tampa but will obviously be seen almost exclusively as a DH in Chicago, where Anthony Rizzo has first locked down. Martínez will make just over $320K the rest of this season, followed by two additional years of arbitration control. With Martínez gone, Tampa figures to lean more heavily on Yoshi Tsutsugo and Ji-Man Choi at first base/DH.
Cubs already have guys who can DH like Bryant when not Injured.
Only true as you said, “when not injured.”
But he is always “injured”.
KB needs to “man up”!
Haha because manning up cures all injuries. I agree players need to play through but when its limiting their production it’s not worth playing through if it can be fixed with sometime off
Sox fans talking about the Cubs more than their team again!
Manning up, only after some combination of walking it off and/or rubbing dirt on it (depending on the injury) is a major cure all.
Some time off is usually only required when the order wasn’t followed in the first place.
Manning up without any dirt applied is a surprisingly common mistake in modern sports.
This is a surprising move. I never saw this coming.
Rays have already made 2 of them and not for Pitching. When all said in done Ray’s make maybe 6 Trades and have 40 Trades between today and tomorrow and couple of Blockbusters or 3 Teams Trades.
Yes, I’m surprised the Cubs can afford him. Ricketts must have let Theo smash the piggy bank.
Hopefully they let hkm spend money this winter. Other than extending baez and rizzo.
It’s under $400K … pennies … and doesn’t sound like they gave up much
He was being sarcastic.. in response to Ricketts “biblical losses” comment earlier this offseason
Cubs DH was their backup catcher.
No surprise.
Maybe the Rays traded Jose Martinez to sign Yasiel Puig. The Rays are a smart organization. It’s always difficult to guess what they do at the deadline. That’s why I like them.
Too late for Puig now… There’s no time for him to get in shape
Rays are smart?
Yes.
Signing Puig who hasn’t seen live CB pitching or game situational baseball?
Totally stupid.
Rays intelligence, yes. But not with regard to any possible Pui signing, in my opinion.
I think their intelligence re: Martínez Is that the Rays viewed Arozarena as their prize for Liberatore and are now doubling down on the flyer they took on the position-less Martínez by moving him along for two more players.
Depending who Cubs give up, this is solid pickup. Martinez hits LHers well.
Martinez has a career 153 wRC+ against lefties per FanGraphs.
Theo said he was looking for hitters good against lefties, as well at pitchers who do well against lefty hitters.
Cubs are better off playing David Bote every day at DH or 2B. Don’t see Martinez adding much to this team. It’s not as though they lacked pop.
So long as the Cubs don’t give up a top tier prospect, I guess the trade can’t hurt. Just pray Martinez leaves his glove in Florida. Don’t wanna see him wearing one on the North Side.
He is a disaster out there
Yes me neither. This guy can hit but only good as DH.
This has as much, or more, to do with the Cubs struggles vs LHP. Martinez has great career numbers vs LHP. If nothing else, he will platoon for Heyward in RF.
No he is a bad fielder. Almora can fill in at any outfield position against lefties
Bryant will primarily play 3rd why would you limit him to dh? That’s dumb
KB can’t play 3B.
He has an “owie”!
He’s a top 3 3rd baseman but Okay.
ChiSox, what are you trying to accomplish? If you don’t like when Cubs fans make dumb comments on Sox threads, why are you going out of your way to do it the other way?
They’re stupid trailer trash.
WTF. Rays just traded a top prospect for Jose
I think the Rays were more interested in Randy Arozarena than Martinez when they made that trade. Martinez was more of a nice bonus to the trade to them. Still a bit of a strange move to trade Martinez.
That trade made no sense at the time, and it looks significantly worse now. This looks like a rare mistake from the Rays.
lol. Ya’ll dont even know the trade. People on this board are wild
Seeing as the Cubs don’t have any pitching prospects that looks anywhere near as interesting as Liberatore, I think it’s safe to say the return won’t be anything special.
They have 1 pitching prospect more interesting than him, and then they have 48 infield prospects before their next interesting pitcher, Braylin Marquez is a 20 year old lefty who’s hit over 100 for strikes multiple times…that’s interesting
@parx True – but I think Marquez is part of the 60 man player pool, which would most likely mean he is not part of the trade.
theo isn’t stupid. Marquez isnt being trade for a rental. At most is 2 minor league players in A ball and at best Double A.
I hope they have the good sense not to trade Marquez
Marquez, Davis, maybe Amaya going nowhere. What worries me a touch is players draft this year like Ed Howard, Burl Carraway, Little, Jordan Nwogu are not eligible to be traded this year but could be dealt after the season is over. What with the super draft Chicago had, I’d be worried if any of the top 5 would go, which I doubt. Cubs are loaded at catcher with Ethan Hearn and Ronnier Quintero plus Brayan Altuve which could be part of this deal. Out of these, keep Hearn!!!
Watch Cory Abbott. Saw him throw 3 different times at AA Tennessee and really liked him. Got zero offensive support but won 2 starts and the third three 8 innings of 1 hit ball and lost 2-1 to AS best team in their division. Real good stuff with solid 4 pitch mix. He’s closer then Marquez.
Super draft?
I like Howard. Carraway might be okay in a few years.
Reasonable. Maybe above average.
Super? Naaaaaah.
Why would they trade any of their draft picks. All 5 are there for long haul. Especially Carraway and Howard and Little too.
Per experts, A draft. That’s super after what McLeod did for years.
Carraway could be passable in that pen right now. 89 K’s in 51 innings in college. High 90s FB with late movement and a plus curve. He’s a near lock be be on there by this time next year. Howard was an excellent pick as was Nwogu. If his (Nwogu) swing wasn’t so unorthodox he would have gone in the second round. That kind of raw power and discipline (.430 OBP) is rare in the third round. Little throws like 160 mph albeit without control but still a power lefty arm is never a bad roll of the dice. And Moreno was once considered a first round talent and mainly fell do to signability concerns as he was said to be a solid ECU commit. I agree with Bobbyk the Cubbies knocked that draft out of the park.
Wait and see what Arozarena does. That seems more of what the Rays were after in that trade and not Martinez.
Randy has the skills to be a 30hr 100rbi 30 stolen base type of player. He’s got a solid 4 tools and I think he’s gonna blow a lot of peoples minds. Martinez was just a nice add on. You get 2 prospects who I mind you the rays have one of the top if not the top development systems in the game and they don’t just take any prospects. I love this deal and I cannot wait to watch RA play
It may have been retribution for Tommy Pham, whom the Rays acquired for 3 low level lottery tickets. GMs who deal with each other frequently often do a transaction heavily favoring one side followed by another one heavily favoring the other.
Lol what? Every GM is always trying to get the best deal possible. They aren’t going to take an L on one because they got a W on a previous deal.
Imagine what they would have to send back to Pittsburgh to even that deal out
In that case the Rays would just have to really, really like Arozarena. But then I don’t understand why they traded for Brett Phillips.
Rays must have figured Lucius Fox’s prospect status is sinking farther and faster than Phillips’s stock has.
I love that theres a player named Lucius Fox.
That’s the stupidest thing someone has ever said.
Hold my beer…
Yup terrible move. All they got for a top LHP prospect was a utility player and a higher draft pick where they took a light hitting SS despite having Wander Franco and Xavier Edwards in the system. Rays usually make good moves but that one was atrocious.
Agreed. Think of what the Rays could buy for Liberatore now.
Odd move by the rays
Maybe just as odd for the Cubs. With a sputtering offense and an iffy rotation, the Cubs choose a bat rather than a pitcher. Does this add fuel to the rumored fire of a roster turnover in the off season?
Who r we getting
2 PTBNL
Almora one of them.
Kimbrel the other!
I assume you are just trying to instigate :), but PTBNL most likely means they aren’t in the 60 man player pool.
Maybe or maybe the Cubs just haven’t pulled the two aside and told them they are ex-Cubbies.
…or they were just drafted.
Almora isn’t being traded. Why would they do that? Kimbrel and cash would be fine.
Maybe it’s his .167 BA
Kimbrel??? Doubt that. Right now, couldn’t give him away.
Who is “we?”
wHo Is “wE”?
Rays
Who are you? (Who who, who who)
Who’s on 1st?
Yu’s on 1st.
Covering the bag on grounders down the 1st base line hopefully.
Yusei Kikuchi. I say Kikuchi!
Wow.wasn’t expecting that
Bit of an odd move. Must have been on the chopping block or another move to come from the rays … he’s enough of an asset and they are in 1st, seems odd to trade him :/
RA will out produce Jose and Jose was clogging up that roster spot
I would guess that Tampa was trying to clear out any possible salary just in case they are able to make a bigger trade
Right… seems like something more to come.
They’re clearing for Vazquez and another SP
Unless Hoerner is coming back Rays just lost the Liberatore trade
Did they though? Arozarena was the real piece the Rays were looking for. Not Martinez. That always gets glanced over when people look at that trade.
Also have to remember the rays went up over 30 spots in the draft in that trade by swapping comp picks. And the rays covet their drafts very highly. So liberatore for 2 PTBNL RA and a much higher draft pick
Settle down, Nostradamus. The other pieces have yet to play out. It will be years before we know the results.
Hoerner isn’t being trade for a rental.
Martinez has 2.5 years of control
And he’s unless without a dh in the nl next year. He’ll be flipped in the winter
nah, DH will be a rule in the NL for years to come, mark my words
Thats a terrible thing. No reason to take the strategy out of the NL permanently. Only thing worse than that is a runner on 2nd in extras and 7inning DH (Luckily the latter is only this year. ) and I really hope the runner on 2nd is as well.
No way on earth Hoerner is part of that trade.
I don’t know much about the cubs prospects but the rays beat writer just wrote in his article that the 2 players to be named were a big reason the trade was made. Meaning these are guys with some value to them it wasn’t just a salary dump
If beat writer knows who Cubs giving up, where are names involved? Doubt this portion very much.
That was a very intelligent response, for one the names are not allowed to be released by league rules because they are not on the 60 player pool and just because he doesn’t include names doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how the rays value them
or he’d have already been announced
Tampa lost Liberatore trade when they made that deal. Really like that lefty. Hoerner is going nowhere. I’m think Quintero (C) and a mid-level MILB pitcher like Richard Gallardo.
Your takes are awesome lmao. The least amount of sense put into your comments
I don’t see that happening.
Wait for the details. Watched enough Rays games to know Martinez was expendable. The return could be worth it for the Rays, and an addition by subtraction since Martinez is a bat-only player who wasn’t really a starter.
If he was a bat-only player who wasn’t really a starter, then they lost the trade with St. Louis before today, right? They knew he wasn’t a great fielder, but they had to think they had a DH who could hit >.300. One MLB radio guy had him winning the batting title before the year (Bowden maybe?).
No because RA was the real gem
Arozarena .. Martinez was a throw in
@kc and Dv
Exactly
Big Hurt – the Cards trade is a separate argument. Focusing on this move, Rays might come out ok since they are the current AL East beasts looking to further their position in the standings and push for a World Series victory. I’m strictly looking at this move and isolating it.
Guessing that Souza is probably not coming back soon. Pretty much similar no defense type players.
Either that or they are going to DFA Phegley and Caratini will be get lesser DH at-bats.
Caratini/Schwarber DH against righties and Martinez/Contreras against lefties.
Exactly mom——kind of a poor mans Castellanos pickup. Like you said—-important to get Caratini out of playing six days a week.
No way cubs trafe Caratini. Not for a rental. Caratini would net 2 top prospects.
Gonna be 2 low level players. No prospects
Wrek—-nobody came close to even inferring Caratini was getting traded. Pretty strong inferences by a couple though that he can’t be the number one DH option any longer. He’s getting way too many at bats.
Sorry, wrek. Bad sentence on my part. Caratini will not DH as much now with the Martinez acquisition and the Phegley DFA lowering the active roster to two catchers.
And we probably won’t know the PTBNLs until after the season but they should be two lottery picks.
How can have way too many ABs? He would be a starter all 29 teams.
No worries.
Almost game time. Hopefully Chatwood is good this time and Rossy doesn’t use Kinbrel anytime soon. Especially in a save spot
Wrek——Caratini is .250 hitter with limited to no power—-average (at best) defensively. A very nice BACK UP catcher. He’s not even a starter on the team he is on—let alone all of the other 29 teams in baseball.
He’s above average defensive catcher. And for the those who think pitch framing is a thing. Hes great at it. One of the best. Contreas isn’t far behind in that non stat.
Martinez not a rental. Cubs control him 2 more years.
Oh wrek——you should have gone with the Sunday is a day of rest theory.
Martinez, by contract, is not a rental.
Of the new rules, most likely to stick is the DH.
Caratini is a very nice backup catcher, but couldn’t net two top prospects in a trade and certainly would be a starter on maybe a handful, maybe two teams, just not 29 of them.
Ps—-was also hoping Chatwood was good today, but I’m thinking that was NOT a back injury today. He kind of clenched his fist after his last two pitches.
No DH Next year in the NL.
2ND time I’m posting this comment. He will probably be flipped
more playing time would get Caratini at least 15-20 home runs. 70-80 rbi. He could very easily be a starter for quite a few. Probably a little exaggeration on 29 teams. But at least half the league be would be a starter. From the Mets to the giants Orioles possibly the red Sox
they actually did dfa phegley. Probably should do the same to kimbrel and descalso and call up Amaya
Means the Rays can replace Martinez with newly acquired Brett Phillips who they covet more defensively for their OF. They don’t need Martinez’s bat as a RH’ed DH at this point.
I don’t watch the Rays religiously, but wasn’t Martinez in their lineup regularly? This seems odd.
Actually barely ever started. Only had 67 abs on the season. And he was gonna be an expensive piece for next year with a bat only player making close to 5m. And also this year they may wanna clear as much salary as they can for possible deals they wanna make
Could this be a prelude to a Lynn trade? He’s not expensive, but he does have an extra year worth 9 mil… ooo
I just don’t see the rays spending that much on a pitcher when they are probably the best team at finding those struggling pitchers who nobody expects to pan out and they make them work somehow.
Two types of fans: one doesn’t know enough about TB to make an informed comment (a lot of those on here), and the other (here come the only 3 fans jokes) actually follow the Rays enough to know what goes on
This guy gets it. I don’t often comment but you and kc are among the few that actually follow the Rays and have intelligent things to say.
They need bullpen help and a closer. They need to end the kimbrel experiment. Especially after last night. 3 walks and 3 wild pitches.
They are waiting too long. Relievers are flying off the market and the cubs can’t keep relying on players inside of the system. They need to swing a move and fast with minimal talent traded away. Almora can get traded for a team with a need in defensive help like the giants and get Watson? That would be ideal for the Cubs for a lacking Almora who just can’t seem to find his hitting. I don’t think that’s the only move they will make.
As much as I like alomora. If he can get a good reliable arm. I’ll take it.
All these comments tell me people look at “names” instead of why teams made a trade.
For the nth time. Rays wanted Arozarena. They traded Martinez and called up Arozarena.
They also swapped comp balance picks meaning rays moved up to the A slots and Cardinals moved back to the B slots. Idk who each took but thats something to examine going forward.
Wow, I didn’t expect this since the Rays were so balanced between Righty and lefty hittters for 1base and DH.We are in first because of them, for what in return? I know we need room for Randy Arozarena but that was a fast hook on Martinez.
Gonna become too expansive for the rays next year for a very one dimensional player and Jose just isn’t producing. I would bet randy is gonna produce more right away, is cheaper and a much better defender
With an expected 110M payroll in 2021, the Rays purge has begun…..expect more…..and they may be clearing salary space for an addition….maybe….
I’d agree the main motivators for the Cards deal were Arozorena and the draft pick flip (where they got a very good college shortstop in Alika Williams, who wouldn’t have been there later).. And Libertore has his warts. And I’d assume, given they are the Rays, they got a couple of useful pieces back, though there isn’t a lot in the Cubs system.
Main motivator in the deal? Money.
But granted, Martinez was hitting .239/.329/.388 with a 99 OPS+ and 98 wRC+. Both bWAR and fWAR had him right around replacement level. He’s a 31-year-old limited to DH and 1B, but struggles defensively at 1B. If you’re really paying him more than league minimum, then he’s not worth keeping around.
A few more stats even as an avid rays fan I forgot about RA. Batted .344 in 400 plate appearances between AA and AAA. After making his debut in 23 plate appearances he had 4 balls batted at 100mph + also ties kiermaier in sprint speed to tie for the team lead. An all around promising player who could be a rays cornerstone for years to come. With the depth of pitching we have I don’t mind a liberatore for RA trade straight up.
I have to imagine Cubs’ motivation here was to add a RH power bat which they lack, but they also see opportunity in the possibility that Martínez will be motivated to play out of his mind vs STL who chucked him overboard.
Good point.
The 2 most senseless cubs fans. Yeah the cubs traded for him thinking he’ll wanna crush his old team that’s the perfect reason to acquire a player. And Jose is hardly a power bat lol.
Rays just got prospects so they can get who they really want
Nate Lowe call-up a possibility here?
Chances Nate Lowe finally gets a chance?
Rumor has it Nate Lowe will be traded before tomorrrow’s deadline. Ji Man and Yandy (and others) will get most 1b duties going forward. Nate is slow in defense and on the basepaths is his biggest flaw and the Rays have better options. Let’s see where he lands tomorrow and good luck to him.
Over the winter, pre-Covid, I thought Lowe to KC made all the sense in the world. They’re light at 1B on the MLB level, and their only regarded prospect strikes out 40% of the time, can’t run, can’t field; besides that, he’s OK.
KC does have some attractive young pitching, even going beyond the “big” guys (no, you won’t get Kowar or Lynch for Lowe). But there’s some interesting lower level guys.
The cubs had a guy named Soler that would have been a great DH. And what was the pay off for him? One of the most lopsided trades of all time!
Dude soler was horrible when he was with the cubs was given tons of chances and failed bad
Jorge Soler, the MVP of the 2015 NLDS!
Yep, the Cubs could have used the mighty 3 WAR he’s racked up since he was traded.
My guess hearn or quentero they already have contreas caratini and maya at catcher hearn a quentero rank top 20 in there system makes sense..and possibly norwood who is in there top 30 as well as a pitcher…wouldnt rule out almora but usually ptbnl are prospects
And martinez a nice pick up controlable cheap and a solid contact hitter against lefties