A franchise-altering three-team blockbuster was struck, as the Dodgers acquired Mookie Betts and David Price, the Twins got Kenta Maeda, and the Red Sox received Alex Verdugo and Brusdar Graterol. But wait, there’s more! The Angels are expected to acquire Joc Pederson, the Giants signed Wilmer Flores, and the Mets’ sale to Steve Cohen is in jeopardy! MLBTR’s Jeff Todd runs through a wild day for the MLB hot stove in today’s video.
Archives for 2020
Grading The Mookie Betts Trade
In case you missed it — which, c’mon, you call yourself a MLBTR reader?! — the Red Sox have agreed to send superstar outfielder Mookie Betts to the Dodgers in a deal that also involves the Twins in a significant fashion.
Betts may be a rental player, but he’s an awfully good one, making this is a true blockbuster. Accordingly, it’s imperative that we get the consensus grades from the MLBTR readership — yes, long before we know what will become of the young players included in this deal. (It’s pretty easy to grade trades after the fact, right?)
Let’s set forth each club’s side of the deal, with a corresponding poll:
Los Angeles Dodgers
Give: RHP Kenta Maeda ($12MM through 2023 with significant performance incentives); OF Alex Verdugo (1.078 years MLB service; controllable at least through 2024)
Get: OF Mookie Betts ($27MM in 2020); SP David Price (approximately $48MM through 2022)
Grade:
[Poll link for app users]
Grade the Dodgers' Side of the Swap
A
61.90%
(28,677 votes)
B
26.57%
(12,311 votes)
C
7.74%
(3,588 votes)
D
1.96%
(910 votes)
F
1.82%
(843 votes)
Total Votes: 46,329
Boston Red Sox
Give: OF Mookie Betts ($27MM in 2020); SP David Price (approximately $48MM through 2022)
Get: OF Alex Verdugo (1.078 years MLB service; controllable at least through 2024); SP/RP Brusdar Graterol (0.029 years MLB service; controllable at least through 2025)
Grade:
[Poll link for app users]
Grade the Red Sox' Side of the Swap
C
30.17%
(13,573 votes)
B
26.63%
(11,980 votes)
D
17.63%
(7,929 votes)
A
13.10%
(5,891 votes)
F
12.48%
(5,613 votes)
Total Votes: 44,986
Minnesota Twins
Give: SP/RP Brusdar Graterol (0.029 years MLB service; controllable at least through 2025)
Get: RHP Kenta Maeda ($12MM through 2023 with significant performance incentives)
Grade:
[Poll link for app users]
Grade the Twins' Side of the Swap
B
42.30%
(17,771 votes)
A
24.80%
(10,418 votes)
C
20.74%
(8,715 votes)
D
8.01%
(3,364 votes)
F
4.15%
(1,745 votes)
Total Votes: 42,013
Angels Working To Acquire Joc Pederson
TODAY: The deal is expected to send righty Ross Stripling to the Halos and also involves other prospects going to the Dodgers, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). It has yet to be finalized, though, and “a lot of moving parts” remain.
Stripling has quietly been an extremely effective MLB hurler over the years, turning in 387 career innings of 3.51 ERA ball with 8.8 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. There have been some health issues at times, but the swingman has been quite good when available. He’s slated to earn $2.1MM this year with two more seasons of team control remaining thereafter.
YESTERDAY, 10:30pm: The Angels will also acquire outfielder Andy Pages, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN reports. The 19-year-old Pages slashed a phenomenal .298/.398/.651 with 19 home runs in 279 plate appearances at the rookie level last season. FanGraphs rated the Dominican Republic native as the Dodgers’ 29th-best prospect last May.
10:14pm: This trade will include more players, pending medical reviews, Passan tweets. The Angels will also get “a big league starter and a prospect,” while the Dodgers will pick up a prospect along with Rengifo, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
8:54pm: The Angels are set to acquire outfielder Joc Pederson from the Dodgers, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported. The Dodgers will get infielder Luis Rengifo in the deal, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
This has been a wild night for the Dodgers, who previously struck an absolute blockbuster delivering former Red Sox superstar Mookie Betts and lefty David Price to LA. The Dodgers let go of outfielder Alex Verdugo in the deal and sent righty Kenta Maeda to the Twins in what will go down as one of the most memorable trades in recent baseball history.
This move’s quite an encore for the Dodgers, whose outfield has undergone massive changes in a small amount of time. Pederson and Verdugo were regulars last season, a 106-win campaign for the club, but now the unit’s fronted by two MVP winners in Betts and Cody Bellinger. There’s also the well-compensated A.J. Pollock and depth on hand in Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez and Matt Beaty.
To at least some extent, the Dodgers will miss the 27-year-old Pederson, who has been an easily above-average hitter since his first full season in 2015. Pederson’s now coming off a typically productive showing in 2019, when he slashed .249/.339/.538 with 3.0 fWAR and a a career-high 36 home runs in 514 plate appearances. If there’s one major knock on Pederson’s offense, it’s that the left-hander has struggled versus southpaws, who have held him to an awful .188/.263/.310 line during his time in the bigs.
Now a member of the Angels, Pederson will join yet another jam-packed outfield. The group’s headlined by center fielder Mike Trout, of course, with Justin Upton holding down left field. Brian Goodwin had been the projected starting right fielder before Tuesday, but he looked like a placeholder before the forthcoming promotion of elite prospect Jo Adell. Now, it’s unclear exactly how the Angels’ right field situation will shake out in 2020. Regardless, they’ll tack on approximately $8.5MM to their payroll for Pederson, who’s in his last year of arbitration eligibility. Landing him is the latest aggressive pickup in an offseason that previously saw the Angels add Anthony Rendon, Jason Castro, Julio Teheran and Dylan Bundy to a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2015.
In Rengifo, the Angels are giving up a 22-year-old fresh off a promising first season in the majors. The switch-hitter slashed .238/.321/.364 during a 406-plate appearance span in which he mostly lined up at second base. As recently as last February, FanGraphs ranked Rengifo as the Angels’ seventh-best prospect, giving him a chance to turn into a “regular second baseman.” That’ll be a difficult task now for Rengifo, who’s joining a loaded Dodgers team with Taylor, Hernandez, Max Muncy and Gavin Lux as second base possibilities. Rengifo does have two minor league options remaining, however, so it’s not majors or bust for him.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Astros & Rays Reactions To James Click Hiring
As they try to shift attention to the coming season, the Astros introduced new GM James Click yesterday. He joins new skipper Dusty Baker on a re-formulated leadership team hand-picked by owner Jim Crane to replace fired GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch. It’s a move with major implications both for the ’Stros and for the Rays, who lost yet another top executive.
The Houston organization is obviously hoping that Click can hit the ground running after coming over from an analytically driven Rays club. Crane noted that Click should fit right in from that perspective, as Jake Kaplan of The Athletic explains (subscription link).
Kaplan further analyzes the trickier questions surrounding the hire. Click will be stepping out from behind the curtain for the first time. And he’ll be doing so at a time when the Astros are facing intense scrutiny.
From a baseball perspective, Click says he expects “to just continue doing what they’re doing and continue to push it forward.” He spoke of working “to keep a championship-caliber roster on the field for years to come.”
In terms of the internal culture developed by Luhnow — the one blasted by commissioner Rob Manfred and defended by Crane — Click walked a line in his public comments. Click said he’s “focused on the future,” as MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports, noting that he’ll “bring a fresh look and keep what’s working.” Though Click says there’s a “positive culture” in Houston, he did note an intention “to continue to make sure that this is an employee-first culture kind of place where people want to work and are involved and engaged.”
For the Rays, it’s hardly an ideal situation. Owner Stuart Sternberg said yesterday that the team can handle the loss, but noted that it’ll hurt — all the more so due with Spring Training right around the corner. He suggested the organization will continue to rely upon its front office intake and development system.
Per Sternberg: “We have great organizational leadership, strong faith in our ability to regenerate, and we have supreme confidence in the men and women who will be stepping up into their newfound opportunities and responsibilities.
The Rays have moved ahead with some internal promotions to account for Click’s departure, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Former MLB hurler Jeremy Sowers and Sammi Bireley will take over the bulk of Click’s portfolio, with recently promoted VP of development Peter Bendix taking charge of the analytics work. (Bendix was one of the execs elevated after the previous departure of Chaim Bloom.)
Details On Padres’ Pursuit Of Mookie Betts
The Padres missed out on their bid to acquire Mookie Betts, but that doesn’t make them the loser of the negotiations. It was always tough to imagine a deal for such a high-end rental player that would truly make sense for the San Diego organization. And the latest reporting seems to bear that out.
Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Dennis Lin of The Athletic (subscription link) each covered the aftermath of the Betts deal from the Friars’ perspective. Each noted the impact of the Padres’ limited budgetary flexibility and the organization’s realistic assessment of its 2020 outlook. The picture that emerges is one of an organization that was ready to make a deal on certain terms but not to extend any further.
One Padres source that spoke with Acee seems to have summed things up nicely — not only capturing the team’s approach but also the reason a Betts strike felt strained. “We were not going to trade on our future,” said the unnamed employee. “We’re in for the (long haul), not one year.”
Betts was not only a rental, but one that was exceedingly unlikely to remain in San Diego for the long haul. Not only has he made clear he wishes to test the open market, but the Friars are in no position to take on a mega-contract with Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer on the books. Per Lin, the San Diego organization launched its effort to structure a deal “more than a month ago,” so it was obviously a serious and long-running bid. At worst, the team’s pursuit forced the powerhouse Dodgers to pay a bit more. But it was always going to be tough to find a package that suited the Red Sox and made sense for the Pads.
So, will the Padres front office now pivot to alternatives? Perhaps, but not necessarily in the coming weeks. Lin writes that “the expectation is that the Padres will begin the season with what they have.” While he says the team has asked about Kris Bryant, in addition to Indians stars Francisco Lindor and Mike Clevinger, it doesn’t seem there’s any active blockbuster structuring in the works.
We can still probably expect plenty of eyebrow-raising trade rumors involving the Padres, the nature of which will surely depend upon how the coming season unfolds. Both Acee and Lin say that a wide variety of players were discussed in the trade talks surrounding Betts, indicating that the Pads remain willing to entertain a range of scenarios.
Latest On Kris Bryant
Kris Bryant’s long-running service-time grievance against the Cubs finally came to an end last week. Bryant lost the hearing, meaning he’ll remain under team control for two more years instead of one. As you’d expect, the players’ association isn’t enamored of the results. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark issued a statement on the matter Tuesday:
“The Players Association disagrees with the decision issued today in the Kris Bryant service-time grievance. While we respect the finality of that decision, we will continue to pursue any and all measures that incentivize competition, discourage service-time manipulation and ensure clubs field their best players. We applaud Kris’ courage and determination in challenging the Cubs’ actions and seeing the grievance through to the end.”
Although Bryant understandably fought the Cubs over team control after they delayed his rookie promotion, he said last week he harbors no ill will against the club. While there doesn’t seem to be bad blood between the two sides, that doesn’t mean Bryant will be a Cub for much longer. The Cubs have had a modest offseason after last year’s dud of a finish, and if they’re as focused as getting under the luxury tax as, say, the similarly deep-pocketed Red Sox (who traded Mookie Betts and David Price on Tuesday), Bryant might not stick around for much longer. Bryant has been the subject of trade speculation for months, after all, and the fact that the $18.6MM man is controllable for two years instead of one should only help his value on the market.
A 28-year-old former NL MVP, Bryant has a pair of suitors in the Nationals and Phillies, who have shown “at least exploratory interest” in him, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. This isn’t the first time either team has been connected to the 28-year-old Bryant this offseason, though, and it’s unclear whether they’re more inclined to trade for him now that the third base market has all but emptied out in free agency. The Nationals re-signed Asdrubal Cabrera, who figures to hold the position down until prospect Carter Kieboom’s set to take the reins, while the Phillies have the versatile Scott Kingery as their projected starter and Alec Bohm waiting in the wings.
The Braves, yet another NL East team, are in questionable shape at the hot corner, where they look prepared to roll with Johan Camargo and Austin Riley in the wake of Josh Donaldson’s exit in free agency. Nevertheless, the Braves have not been discussing Bryant with the Cubs, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, so it continues to look unlikely that he’ll end up in Atlanta.
Minor MLB Transactions: 2/4/20
Checking in on the latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The Red Sox have signed third baseman Ryder Jones to a minor league contract, Robert Murray tweets. Boston’s the second MLB organization for the 25-year-old Jones, a 2013 second-round pick of San Francisco who was with the Giants through last season. Jones saw some action in the majors from 2017-18, but he struggled mightily over 172 plate appearances (.184/.250/.316) and barely played at all in the minors last season after suffering a dislocated knee in September 2018. Jones does own a solid .287/.352/.471 line with 24 home runs in 756 PA in Triple-A ball, though.
Latest On Boston’s Managerial Opening
The Red Sox don’t have a manager at the moment, but the person who lands the job will oversee a much different roster than the one previous skipper Alex Cora worked with in 2019. There’s no more Mookie Betts or David Price, both traded to the Dodgers on Tuesday. Nevertheless, the Red Sox have been working to find a replacement for Cora since his ouster a couple weeks ago.
Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay is among those to interview for the position, but it doesn’t appear he’ll get it. Kotsay’s out of the running for the job, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Along with Kotsay and Diamondbacks bench coach Luis Urueta (previously reported), the Red Sox have discussed their managerial role with two in-house possibilities in third base coach Carlos Febles and bench coach Ron Roenicke, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com.
The 43-year-old Febles, a former Royals second baseman, has been a coach with the Red Sox organization since 2007. The majority of his work has come at the minor league level, but he joined the MLB staff as a third base coach in advance of the 2018 season. Roenicke, meanwhile, has significant managerial experience under his belt at the sport’s highest level. Now 63, Roenicke oversaw the Brewers in parts of five seasons from 2011-15, during which they went 342-331 with one playoff appearance.
There are “likely” more names on Boston’s radar, Cotillo writes, though it’s safe to say that individual will be inheriting a worse roster than the team had entering Tuesday. The Red Sox acquired a pair of quality building blocks in outfielder Alex Verdugo and hard-throwing right-hander Brusdar Graterol, but it’ll be hard to make up for the losses of Betts and Price in the near term.
Phillies Sign Anthony Swarzak
The Phillies have signed right-handed reliever Anthony Swarzak to a minor league contract, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. The deal includes an invitation to major league spring training and a $1.5MM salary if Swarzak makes the Phillies’ roster. The pact also features $1.25MM in incentives.
Philly’s the latest of many stops for the 34-year-old Swarzak, who has both shined and struggled since he entered the majors with the Twins in 2009. While Swarzak starred with the White Sox and Brewers as recently as 2017, his career has gone off the rails with the Mets, Mariners and Braves since then.
Swarzak posted a 4.56 ERA with a far more disastrous 5.71 FIP in 51 1/3 innings between Seattle and Atlanta last season, also logging 8.78 K/9 with 4.56 BB/9. It was the second straight year Swarzak had difficulty limiting walks, which is a new trend for a hurler who has issued fewer than three free passes per nine over his 641-inning tenure in the majors. Home runs have also been a significant problem of late for Swarzak, who yielded them on better than 20 percent of fly balls in each of the previous two years.
Despite his recent troubles, there’s little harm from the Phillies’ standpoint in taking a risk-free flier on Swarzak. The club’s bullpen was a mediocre unit in 2019, and the Phils haven’t aggressively upgraded that part of their roster since then. Should Swarzak make the team, he’ll reunite with manager Joe Girardi, whom he played under when the two were with the Yankees in 2016.
Taijuan Walker Works Out For Teams
Free-agent righty Taijuan Walker is one of the more intriguing options on the open market. The former top prospect is still just 27 years old, and in his last full season back in 2017, he tossed 157 1/3 innings of 3.49 ERA ball with 8.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 0.97 HR/9 and a 48.9 percent ground-ball rate. Tommy John surgery and a strained shoulder capsule have limited him to 14 innings across the past two seasons, however, creating a good bit of uncertainty surrounding the talented but (recently) injury-plagued right-hander.
To that end, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that Walker threw for about 20 scouts earlier today, hoping to bolster his chances of landing a Major League contract as opposed to a minor league deal and a non-roster invite. (Presumably, several clubs would be interested in offering him the latter.) Walker’s fastball sat in the 85-88mph range, per Nightengale, which is a notable departure both from his 94 mph career average and the 93.3 mph he averaged in his lone inning of the 2019 season (which came in Arizona’s final game of the year).
That lack of velocity perhaps sheds some light on why Walker has yet to secure a big league deal this winter. Other injury bounceback candidates like Alex Wood and Jimmy Nelson have cashed in on big league guarantees with the Dodgers, after all, and both are older than Walker. Elsewhere, the Giants paid a combined $13MM to rebound candidates Kevin Gausman and Drew Smyly.
One February bullpen session certainly doesn’t mean that Walker won’t regain some life on his fastball with continued workouts and the benefit of a Spring Training regimen. But at least for contending clubs, some trepidation about guaranteeing a roster spot is understandable. A rebuilding club — particularly one like the Orioles or Pirates, who’ve both cut payroll this winter — would make for a rather logical pairing with Walker, though. To this point, he’s been linked to the Mariners and the Twins, although the presence of nearly two dozen scouts at his showcase suggests that a far broader number of teams are considering him.
