The Dodgers have acquired right-hander Kendall Williams as one of the players to be named later in yesterday’s trade that sent Ross Stripling to the Blue Jays. Williams was Toronto’s second-round pick in the 2019 draft, and the 20-year-old took an above-slot bonus to begin his pro career rather than attend Vanderbilt.
MLB Pipeline ranks Williams as the 13th-best prospect in the Jays’ farm system, calling him “the quintessential projectable high school right-hander” with “potentially huge upside.” The 6’6″ right-hander has a fastball that is approaching mid-90’s velocity, though his biggest asset could be his overall four-pitch arsenal rather than any one signature offering. Baseball America’s scouting report cites Williams’ slider, curveball, and changeup “could all be average or better.”
There’s certainly enough potential here to see why the Dodgers would be intrigued in adding such a young arm to their already-deep minor league talent pool, particularly for a solid but non-elite pitcher like Stripling who wasn’t even a full-time rotation member. From the Jays’ perspective, they naturally see a promising but longer-term asset like Williams (who isn’t one of the upper-tier prospects in their farm system) as a reasonable price for Stripling, who has already shown that he can deliver at the MLB level and can help the Blue Jays win both in 2020 and in 2021-22 before he is scheduled to reach free agency.
Man… is one playoff run really worth giving up all this talent?”
Nope.
2 more arb years after this…
Projectable 6’6 Right hander for Ross Stripling. Great grab. Dodgers do a very good job of developing arms.
I saw “Dodgers Acquire” and I said “Hey that’s cheating” lol.
If it was Williams + for Stripling—I’m not so confident it wasn’t Kloffenstein for Walker.
Stripling has control (still a bad trade personally) Walker is a pure rental. Although they overpaid for Villar! so no doubt they overpay for Walker too.
Well you know Stripling has also been tuned up significantly this year. Kendall Williams isn’t far off from Kloff as far as value goes.
I wouldn’t think it’s Kloff but I also didn’t peg them giving up Conine for Villar. Or Williams for Stripling.
Conine isnt a good prospect. he posted good numbers but had previously been popped for PEDs, so he might again.
He was popped for Ritalanic acid. Or Ritalin.
Dark side you’re young. I’m sure you’ve taken an adderall or a Ritalin or at least know kids that do. That’s a common ADD medicine.
Conine is a prospect. Villar is an expensive bull in the china shop player. Whether or not he helps Toronto is yet to be seen.
Remember what happened to Chris Davis when he couldn’t take his ADD medicine anymore? It’s more concerning than if he’d been using a steroid just for muscles.
That said, he played well post-suspension so it’s obviously less of a concern than if he hadn’t.
Don’t need name #2. LA is the clear winner of this deal. There was no reason to give up Williams at this current timeframe.
Hate to break it to Jays fans; they aren’t ready yet. Had Atkins waited 11 months he could have used Williams in a bigger, better deal. One less chip to use later on. All for Ross Stripling? Just to finish between 5th and 8th? It wasn’t necessary.
Well if they get hot in the playoffs and win the World Series* I guess it would be worth it.
In which MLB The Show season will that happen?
The one with the cheat code.
Stripling slides right in to their number 3 starting rotation member for the next 3 years. No guarantee prospects will ever produce. Stripling has already been an all-star with a good fastball. This from a Giants fan.
If you watched strippling dude blows more leads and games that anyone I know. The only team he plays well against is your giants. Overall happy with this deal but I expect a high schooler or big boom or bust with the second player. 20-30 range.
Fair enough. His ERA and FIP have both been above average the last four seasons. Although to your point, we did have George Kontos who always had a decent ERA but could never strand inherited runners.
Antibelt if Stripling is the #3 then they aren’t a playoff-calibre team.
Have you watched him lately? His fastball sits at 92 and everything is hanging and being hit hard.
It is all about getting that playoff revenue so they can afford FA signings.
Boatmen they can afford it right now! No reason to spend during a rebuild which is why they haven’t. It’s not hard; waiting to deal Williams for a bigger deal down the road would prove significantly better than this.
Bingo! Playoffs means revenues. No damage to the upper tier talent pool.
I think the Jays could’ve held off the juggernaut Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers w/o Ross Stripling.
And seriously how much playoff revenue do you think the Jays will get for a 3 game series?
They’ve added 6-7 million bucks in salary on this years tab with these moves? (Haven’t exactly added all the salaries up but that seems like it’s in the ballpark)
They better hope they go longer than 3 games to get a ROI for that expenditure.
Flip him next year…or year after.
Can’t flip Stripling if he’s getting striped all over the yard. Williams could have been dealt for something bigger at any time so long as he is/was healthy. Big difference here.
I feel good with Ryu going game one anyways!
The Blue Jays are owned by Rogers which is a media company that would gain considerable playoff revenue.
That;s nice. Too bad Rogers didn’t care enough to keep pushing for that playoff revenue in 2017. Or 2014 for that matter. Or during the 2000’s for that matter.
Perhaps they didn’t know how much revenue was out there until 2015 and 2016. There weren’t many other years that they could have been buyers at the deadline.
Saskatchewan – Do you know how much money Rogers has? What a terrible excuse!
They contended for a WC in 2003 for over half the year and did nothing that offseason. Same in 2006. 2009 they started 27-14. 2014 they were in a better position than 2015 at the deadline and did nothing. Rogers never has and probably never will possess the desire to be the best team in baseball. Your statement about playoff revenue is nothing by empty words.
Playoff revenue is nice, but it’s more about getting the future season ticket revenue and new advertising contracts from having been in the playoffs.
You’re making an early assumption that the Dodgers won the deal.
Yes, Williams looks like a good potential arm but that doesn’t mean he’s a sure bet to the show.
Wow. What a massive overpay. Completely shocked at this one.
Come on, Kendall is just a kid, almost a complete unknown. The Dodgers bought a roll of the dice.
1/6 are pretty good odds for a bad back end of the rotation guy!
I was thinking more of craps but you get the idea.
Stripling had no place to go on the Dodgers and Williams is exactly the sort of player you’d expect to see exchanged for a controllable starting pitcher/swingman. This trade works for both sides.
My dear Canadian friends-relax! Think you will be reasonably to very happy with Stripling. Good teammate and always takes the ball regardless of the situation.
Atkins fleeced.
So Conine and Kendall Williams + another prospect have fetched Villar and Ross Stripling.
I certainly wouldn’t call that maximizing your resources. Hopefully the Walker trade looks a little better.
Walker and Villar are worthwhile players, though both are rentals. The Jays are basically trying to hold off the Tigers and Orioles for a playoff berth. They should have been able to do that with what they already had. If they miss now, these trades will sting.
Oops, I forgot they also got a third rental in the struggling Robbie Ray.
Ray was a dumb pickup but it was pretty well free. I mean I would still rather Bergen so that is another loss on Atkins, but a small one.
That’s already a stiff price for a guy whose basically a journeyman in the NL West, and doesn’t project to be even that in AL East. Projectable high school pitching is the highest currency in the land, and tho 6-6 guys usually take a while for the body mass to adjust, there’s a lot of upside if it does.
Nota good deal for the Jays IMHO. Did they toss Kloffenstien in too?
Williams is bit of an over pay but regarding your comment on HS pitching being the highest currency. There was a article written leading up to this years draft, Looking back over the last 20 yrs worth of prospects and the 4 categories. College-position, College-arm, HS-position, HS-Arm.
College Position had by far the highest rate of success in making it to the bigs.
Care to guess the lowest by a substantial amount?
That’s why most HS arms go 2nd round or lower.
Williams is a 45FV pitcher – that level of prospect is worth 2-3 War.
All Stripling has to do produce that in 2 yrs plus 1 month it will be a win for the Jays
A 45 is a ~1-1.5 WAR guy per year BTW. A #4/5 starter projection. Fangraphs tells you that the further off you are the less likely it is that they’re going to give you a higher grade.
That’s just the nature of their rankings because prospects bust. A 45 in rookie ball is a guy who has the ability to be a 50-55+ prospect as he climbs the ladder
To get that for Stripling is a big W.
Who knew a 60 game season would make GM’s like Atkins thinking a hot month by Grichuk and Teoscar is enough to go all in for the 8th seed.
How is our #13 and #16 prospects all in?
Where is @marko told you it was 1 top 15 prospect plus something in the range of 15-20 for strippling who has years of control.
He was 13th on the Jays farm. With mlb 30 teams, he might be in the top 300. Won’t know for 5 years what he is. This isn’t emptying the farm. This is on characteristic of Atkins, but a serendipitous occasion nonetheless.
In Marko’s defense he did not think the Jays brass would do this. I thought they wouldn’t do it either. Given the offseason deal that almost happened with the Angels this was a moment of weakness for Atkins and company. They should have stood firm knowing Williams could help them down the road with a future trade in a better, stronger position as an organization.
I just know the dodgers they only would make the trade unless it was a clear win for them. Blue jays are betting on strips upside and track record and years of control, dodgers get back a nice arm years away despite strip being awful this year and not being able to crack rotation consistently. Could work out well for both teams, I was never a fan of ross so I’m glad we got something for him.
The frustrating part of this trade is it wasn’t necessary. Jays traded for Walker, traded for Ray, that was enough. It is not like the Jays are contending for the division. And, I would have rather seen Williams and Conine put in a bigger package for Clevinger.
For LA this is another piece to use in another future deal to further their quest for a World Series title. Building the warchest. I bet in two years LA will deal Williams or another arm thanks to Williams’ addition to win the WS, and the Jays will not have Williams to deal for that player that would get them to the WS.
Hey man you are right no question. I just don’t think that either of those guys are what indians wanted in the return they wanted an outfielder I think on paper the team that matched up the best was Braves which it’s shocking that they didn’t pull the trigger and grab clevinger. From what’s being reported he is a cancer in the lockeroom maybe you guys can add a bauer in the offseason that will cost you nothin.
Agreed about the Braves, but we had AA as a GM and aside from one trade deadline he wasn’t one to rock the boat.
I believe Conine and Williams would have been secondary pieces to the primary pieces the Jays could have traded. But, we aren’t in the boardroom to know that.
Clevinger is a tool, but not the first or last dumb pitcher we have seen. But if that was the risk for a TOR guy I was all for it. Bauer might wind up in Toronto. If he’s all about the short-term deals, why not? Although I bet Cincy will QO him and I wonder if the Jays will bite.
LA -Actually you said 8-12. I said 13 or 15-20 .
#13 and #16 isn’t a huge price but i agree with Bill , it would have been better to package them for someone better. May not have been Clevinger but even a position player with term.
You said 2 in 15-25 range lmao nice try I said 1 top 15 prospect and 1 between 15-20. Lol
You actually said 8-15 and i came back with
Even willing to make a gentleman’s wager on this. Interested? No one in the #1-12 range and only 1 in the 13-20 range.
Nice to have in black and white. Go back and look for yourself.
Marko, fwiw, that’s what you said to me. Idk if you said same thing to both of us or are confusing us
With our little wager, consider yourself lucky you said 12 not 13 lmao. Either way, think most of the comment here support the notion that they overpaid and we don’t even know the second guy yet
Williams does fit perfectly with what I said, where it would include a high upside young guy that fits into the next crop of LA prospects. That’s dead on. Guess we’ll see who #2 is
The Dodgers held Stripling for 5 months longer. He gets absolutely tuned up and they probably do better in this trade than they did in the one w/ the Halos that got axed.
Remarkable.
Maximizing the return is everything when it comes to trading. Friedman refused to include Verdugo in the Machado trade. As a result, he still had Verdugo in assembling his Mookie package. Meanwhile, the Orioles are still waiting out the prospects they received.
To be honest the prospects o’s got were pretty terrible. Really suprised we pulled that one off with none of lux, May being included. Friedman fleeced Red Sox as well for a generational player and added there future closer…..crazy to think all they lost was Jeter downs who I think I massively overrated.
Except Diaz is still a potential ML starting outfielder and was a consensus top 100 at the time. Kremer is still a potential #4 starter. Zach Pop looked like a very good reliever pre-TJ and Rylan Bannon has a chance to be a platoon guy.
The Dodgers have a great farm system but the Orioles didn’t get a bunch of junk back for .5 a season of Manny.
For manny machado a top 5 3rd basemen even for half a season is an underwhelming return. Diaz is now there 6th best prospect and looks lost in upper minors .267 in double a with high strike out numbers and low obp. This was also similar in the yu darvish trade where we gave up a position less player with a great bat that has struggled to find a place in rangers squad.
~10% BB walk rate. ~20% strike out rate. Missed half the season with injury. Diaz never had a superstar’s ceiling. That’s why LAD wanted to trade him. A guy who can be an above average ML regular is a perfectly fine player though.
6th prospect in a pretty decent farm system isn’t bad. The orioles got more than Texas. There’s at least 3 other guys in the deal with the potential to be useful major leaguers.
Currently the 6th,10th,16th and 17th prospects in the organization. Give or take on some of them with a couple of new prospects coming in and obviously prospect Rankings aren’t uniform.
It’s just Friedman being Friedman. Remember when people thought the Dodgers got fleeced by only getting a couple of prospects in the Puig-Kemp-Wood-Farmer trade with the Reds? Josiah Gray is now their #1 pitching prospect and Jeter Downs helped them acquire Betts.
Except in this case Dodgers already did the fleecing.
They did the fleecing then as well. Puig and Wood had to go and Kemp looked done in the second half of the 2018 season. In the Jays defense, they’ve done a good job of stockpiling some young arms. Brodie Van Wagenen, the giver of gifts.
You would trade two top 100 prospects for Dodgers spare parts and get rid of Homer Bailey? Lol no wonder the Reds haven’t made the playoffs in 7 years.
I love Williams upside and what he could be. Looking at the blue jays top 30 prospects he’s behind multiple pitchers who’s ETA are at least a year ahead of him. I don’t like the trade especially giving away another prospect on top of Williams but he’s extendable at least. I wouldn’t agree for Stripling though. Not the greatest of trades but acceptable for the current situation.
if the Jays way overpaid for Stripling by giving up Williams, just remember there’s another prospect going to LA as well.
Great trade for Dodgers now. You don’t trade super good prospects, even if they are young, for a back end starter
Williams is basically a draft pick, he hasn’t pitched significant professional innings. The Jays might even net an equivalent compensation pick when Stripling leaves as a free agent in a few years (though that depends on the new CBA and other details).
Wow, the rich keep getting richer.
Weird how the Dodgers keep making great moves since Farhan left. How hard was it to fill his shoes I wonder…
Why? I thought that Williams would be the biggest piece in a deal with Pittsburgh to get Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl, and you give him up plus more for Ross Stripling…
Sorry Blue Jays’ fans, kinda feel bad for you, but not much…
They had a deal for Musgrove and another pitcher but two of the pitchers from the pirates are injured, why they pivoted to ray and Ross
Remember, Jays can always flip Stripling next trade deadline if they aren’t competing.
If Ross Stripling pitched in Pittsburgh or Kansas City, nobody would know who he was. Pedestrian stuff aided by friendly pitching environments. Unless Williams has some warts we don’t know about (possible), the deal makes zero sense. Winning or getting into the dance this year is almost meaningless, especially for a team like the Jays who were probably going to get there next year anyway.
Let’s face it, we don’t even know if they’ll be fannies in the seats next April. That kills the impact (financial) of getting into the playoffs this year. And even if they do, it’s tainted by the expanded tournament, and the bizarre nature of the season.
Making the dance for the Jays means holding off the Orioles and Tigers for the eighth spot. One would hope they already had enough talent on-hand to do that. Instead, they trade for Ross Stripling and three rentals.
“Player to be named later”. Named in less than 24 hours.
There is still another player to be named. Friedman is reviewing the candidates and will make his choice after the season ends.
I’m guessing a huge boom or bust youth in the 15-25 range. Then he will become a beast with dodgers and people will be like how did blue jays trade this guy for Ross strippling
Everybody seemed to be saying that players not on the 60-man could not be traded. Seems that isn’t actually true.
They can’t be officially traded
He probably remains a PTBNL officially till end of year. Just because it’s leaked doesn’t mean it’s official
The Jays got Woods-Richardson and Kay for a few months of Stroman. Jays are playing with house money.
Bad analogy. One, because nobody knew of a pandemic over a year ago. Two, Stroman is a better pitcher than Stripling. No debate. That trade wasn’t house money. Not even close.
Ask the Mets
Nor should you ever look at dealing an asset as “house money”
Makes no difference how you acquired that asset or how many you have in the minors—you don’t overpay for crap. The Jays have a pretty full infield but you don’t trade Jordan Groshans for Buck Farmer. And then try to justify it because Austin Martin unexpectedly fell to you at #5.
Buck Farmer! Lol! Relax and let’s this play out. Akins contract is coming up. Why do u think he made some bold moves.
Bold is getting a TOR starter. Lynn or Clevinger would have been bold. This isn’t bold. Any team could have dealt for Stripling. That’s not bold when 29 teams could easily get you.
Oh man, this could really come back to bite us in the butt. I’m glad to have Stripling, but I wouldn’t have parted with Williams for that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Williams be developed into another good Dodgers middle-to-top of the rotation pitcher in 3-4 years.
The MLB transactions page for both the Dodgers and Blue Jays (it’s the same trade so assuming it’s just info. copied onto each list) have the trade as “RHP Ross Stripling and Player To Be Named Later to Toronto Blue Jays for Player To Be Named Later.” so I’m curious as to which source is wrong regarding this 2nd PTBNL? I believe the reason Kendall was named today was because he was transferred from one alternative training site to the other earlier today (also listed on the transactions page for the Dodgers)?
Yea you are right it says Stripling +PTBNL to Toronto.
Dodgers.com headlines says Stripling for 2 PTBNL for what it’s worth.
Gift to the Dodgers!
Shapkins pocket got picked on this one! Stripling is an opener. OPS against goes over .800 after first time thru the order. What is that? A middle reliever …or an opener. That’s it
The good news for the Jays is that Atkins’ contract is up after this season, who do we bring in to right the ship?
Dombrowski. Bare cupboard but he wins. He also helped start the rebuild for Florida’s 2003 team before he left for Detroit where he presided over a rebuild coinciding with one of the worst teams ever in 2003.
He will sell the entire farm, but … he wins.
Doesn’t make sense to just spend for the sake of spending. First you need to develop a solid home grown core. Then augment it by spending. Otherwise you end up like the Angels year after year.
With the Dodgers pitching development he’ll be a top of the rotation guy in 2023.
Stripling has 2 more years of control after this one. he’s more then worth Williams, who one may note is still far down the rungs. id also be suspect of any IMG guy and their potential to get injured.
Who cares about years of control. He might be out of the league in less than a year for sucking.
I would not go that far, but the Dodgers would’ve likely non tendered him this off-season. Getting anything this good for him was a win
yeah, couldnt that be the case for any player if they struggle enough? do 7 bad starts suddenly erase the fact that Stripling was easily baseball’s best swingman from 2016-2019?
As of today, 7 starts. Expect another 5 starts this year and another 10 next year. Yes, that is enough to erase 2016-2019.
And so could Williams.
Nice contribution Paul. Very strong.
Stripling is good the first time through the order as far as limiting damage. Then it gets progressively worse. He will probably do ok from the outset with the Jays until the league catches up to him. If he gets the feel for his change up back, he could be decent.
His best work has always been in long relief. I’d bet on him returning to that role again sooner or later.
Seems to me this trade was as much a concession to Stripling as anything. He shows flashes of solid stuff, but hasnt been able to put it all together since the first half of ’18. He needed a fresh start and the Dodgers have a better option in Gonsolin. Strip gets a do-over and the Dodgers get a young arm. No harm, no foul.
Are most of the PTBNLs gonna be announced soon?
Wait until the offseason for most PTBNLs to be named.
Well the 3 x 40 man spots we need Drury and Sammy G DFA. Tejeda released,
When the BlueJays are out of the playoffs after the first round, someone will have to go. Unfortunately it won’t be Shapiro so it will be Atkins or Montoyo or both.
Would someone on the Board of Directors place a call to Dombrowski or Gillick[if he ‘ll do it]?
Brutal trade. I am totally for emptying the farm system to win, that is the only way to win a world series these days unless you luck in. Stripling? really? Yeeesh.
Ricciardi, Anthopoulos, Atkins/Shapiro. Do you see a pattern here? The solution is to find a very rich buyer with a real passion for winning to take this team off Rogers hands. Until then they will continue this passive approach we have seen over 20 years. Should add the false narratives their media has peddled. We saw how Rogers and Shapiro reacted when AA and Beeston when rogue in late-July 2015.
The richest owner in baseball and I agree with Scott Boras of all people, that Rogers needs to spend spend spend every year regardless of the competative level.
I knew Jays fans had a problem when I read an analyst article on Rogers a few years ago. Rogers had met their corporate yearly numbers but there was an asterisk at the bottom of the financial statement. It read something like, “due to unusually low player salaries in the baseball unit”.
Currently the Jays payroll ranks 28th only ahead of the marlins and rays. Yeesh.
Doesn’t make sense to just spend for the sake of spending. First you need to develop a solid home grown core. Then augment it by spending. Otherwise you end up like the Angels year after year.
Please don’t drink that Shapiro koolaid. There is no reason a team can’t be competative every year by spending 200 M USA THe money has to be spent well. The angels don’t always spend it too well.
Actually opening day we were at 110 million -20th. 10 teams with less.
Just make stuff up as ya go?
Name one top team right now that built up solely by free agency without first having a solid home grown core?
I guess it depends how you do your math. Spotrac has the BlueJays currently at 54M.
I didn’t say only FA to build a club. It must be both farm system and FA and trades to win.
That’s the pr0 rated for 60 games. LOL
Count how many teams are below them on spotac,
SO you take the Jays pro rated number and compare that to all other teams 162 game number to arrive at 3rd worse?
math isn’t your strong point is it?
Actually another website has the BlueJays at 71 M prorated with only marlins and rays behind them.
Enough of the personal insults, be professional. There is no call for insulting anyone in these pages.
To clarify the point, this team in a normal season needs to have a 200M budget every year.
YES and post 2015 we had
1- an aging core
2- 170 million payroll
3-A farm ranked 24-25
Compare that to now
1-young talented core
2-farm ranked 4th recently by BA
3-110 million payroll
Aitkens and Shapiro have put the franchise in great shape to be competitive for a long stretch .
They deserve a couple yrs to see it thru.
Every site has them 18-20 in payroll
Stop trying to twist facts and own it- you were wrong.
Coming out of a rebuild puts us in fantastic shape .
Funny how you use spotrac number but when you are proven painfully wrong you use “another site”
Marco that $170-mil payroll, which was upped from $145-150 where they started that season initially should have been closer to $190 at the end. While in-contention the Jays should always be flirting with the idea of going over the tax threshold. But, only when contending.
When they have spent they have proven they are not willing to go all the way. When they did they did it through trades that Shapiro was reportedly livid over. When it was time for Atkins to deal Alford in 2016 he chose not to. Then the nickel and dime approach backfired and the rebuild would be further along had they dealt JD to the Cards.
The only thing that gives us hope is the few young players who’ve grown as ballplayers. What they do with them and how they are surrounded is major question mark with this staff, upper management and ownership.
“Stripling to Toronto for righty Williams and a PTBN.”
So, this means the Dodgers got picks 25 (Hoese), 31 (Busch), 52 (Williams), 78 (Lewis) and 102 (Pepiot) in 2019. Not bad haul for 2019. Of course, 2020 drafted pitchers Miller, Beeter, Knack all ahead of the 2019 pitching class.
With Williams, Dodgers doubling down on 2019 projectable, high upside, high risk, 6’6” HS arms!