Episode 5 of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Simon Hampton is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss:
- The state of the White Sox, and why they find themselves in a deep hole in the AL Central after one month of the season (3:20)
- If they opt to sell at the deadline, who could they look to move and who might be off limits? (8:10)
- Whether the Cardinals could look to trade Tommy Edman as Masyn Winn nears the big leagues (18:35)
- Options for the Red Sox to improve their roster over the next few months (21:54)
- Plus, are there any managers on the hot seat at this early stage of the season? (25:41)
Check out our past episodes!
- The state of the Twins, Bryan Reynolds’ extension and Madison Bumgarner’s future – listen here
- Free agent power rankings, Shohei Ohtani’s next contract and Aaron Nola or Julio Urias in free agency? Listen here
- Rays, top prospect debuts, Angels, trade deadline, Gary Sanchez, Francisco Alvarez – listen here
- Early trade deadline preview, Jake Cronenworth extension and the Padres, Marlins trade ideas, Cardinals rotation, Dodgers – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Great job guys! You’re both spot on with regard to the Red Sox. Can’t really upgrade the starting rotation until Whitlock and Paxton return to show what they have, and Kluber will be given a long leash to improve his performance.
As for the infield, yep can’t do much until they know if Story and Mondesi will be able to contribute this year. This is another reason why it’s so very important to avoid players with existing injuries or really bad medical histories, because your hands are basically tied while waiting for them to return to health.
Assessing the Red Sox is like tasting the dish halfway through the cooking time.
Agree Whyhayzee:
Red Sox need to buy time for many reasons: let current pitchers straighten themselves out, several key players can get healthy, continue to develop players in minors, get to softer schedule.
Let the pie stay in the oven another hour. Debating it now is meaningless. Better to enjoy the ride, this week has had some fantastic games.
Wait! Pie? Oh man, you know I want some now.
Reggie, is the addition of Reggie Smith’s 1971 new? It’s probably the best of his cards.
JB ‘smith card’
Yeh, you got me to shift about a week ago. The RSmith was for something else, but I re-themed the image after your idea. Salute!
Reggie belongs in the HOF. He has a career OPS+ of 137 and a GG in CF. Vlad has a 140+ and isn’t half the fielder Smith was. And Reggie not only has a higher career bWAR than Vlad, his career bWAR/650 PAs was 5.2, while Vlad only had a 4.3.
No he doesn’t – he snubbed me for an autograph when I was 14.
He probably read some of your comments on MLB-R and decided to not sign.
J/K and all, but part of what i like about him is that he is a bit eclectic and a good musician. Also, Garvey and Sutton got into a fistfight when Sutton said Reggie was their MVP, and I didn’t much care for Garvey.
I agree. We’re playing fairly well right now, but I don’t think we know much more than we did on opening day. A few of the hitters will cool off or get hotter, but I think this is about where we are.
Everyone of our SPs seems to rotate between very good and very bad starts, so an assessment is difficult. It might be useful if got a few more QS and let our hitting and BP take care of it.
Our BP is about as advertised. Brasier should be a on a very short leash. Joely should be back soon to replace him. If not Joely, then Paxton’s return will force someone out.
My guess is that we have more upside than downside right now, but still a bit thin. Duran’s play in Duvall’s absence has been huge.
“Duran’s play in Duvall’s absence has been huge.”
That was a godsend. Duvall is nowhere near the batter he showed us. So better to have Duran take over than watch the inevitable slump that was about to happen.
Still a shame for Duvall though.
That was the thing I pointed out at the time. On paper, it was a big loss at the time. But his full year projection was only about 1.5-2.0 WAR.
“Our BP is about as advertised. Brasier should be a on a very short leash. Joely should be back soon to replace him. If not Joely, then Paxton’s return will force someone out.”
Yes, getting Martin back and Joely returning soon should really stabilize the bullpen Winckowski to be set up for Jansen.
My guess is that we have more upside than downside right now, but still a bit thin. Duran’s play in Duvall’s absence has been huge.
“Durran’s play has been a Godsend and I have no clue where the Red Sox would be without him. Now if only the team could get Casa going.
FPG – I listened to the two guys talking about the Red Sox and the first guy talked about the pitching and had no clue what he was talking about and the second guy seemed to understand the Red Sox situation better and pointed out the bad infield.
I think opinions of pod-casters can be fun if they know the subject being discussed but clearly that wasn’t the case with their comments about the Red Sox.
Sale, Houck, Pivetta, Bello, Crawford is a bit too right handed but it’s a young improving rotation. If Whitlock is forced into the rotation I think it will back fire and I would prefer to see him in his stress inning role from a few years ago. Starting pitchers go as long as they can but when the wheels fall off they need a guy who will come in and leave the runners on the bases. Many games are won and lost based on the performance of the guy who tries to bail out the SP. Whitlock was outstanding in that role. With Winck, Schreiber and Jansen not to mention Martin who is coming back the bullpen is in great shape. Helping keep the SP from getting his ERA exploded by allowing all the runners to score when he comes out will significantly improves the team’s chances for wins.
I think a trade for a comparable lefty SP that is young for Pivetta would be a smart move. I really like Sale, Houck, Bello and Crawford for the next several years. I wouldn’t waste money on guys like Kluber and Paxton. I would either go get a top quality lefty SP to drop into the 3rd spot in the rotation or I would trade for them. This staff is the most competitive part of the team. I can’t remember when the SPs and RPs were as good as they are this year. 2018 may be the last time.
I’m on the fence with Whitlock. He has proven effective in his bullpen role and I agree with its value. Maybe you’re right, he should stay there.
Kluber might be ok. No idea on Paxton. Pivetta is durable and essentially average. Great at the back end of the rotation. Consistently gives you innings.
On offense, I want to see if Casas pans out. How good is Yoshida? Are Wong and Duran going to be legitimate?
They are playing better but will it last?
hayzee – Casas is really a strange dude, tonight he showed it by standing ready to swing all alone at the plate during the pitcher injury time out and Youk used the nice term “unique” when the camera zoomed in on Casas with the doughnut on the wrong end of the bat. I still believe in him, but if the Sox continue to hang in the playoff hunt I can’t imagine him not going down for a bit.
I’d say yes on Yoshida, he made the change to his batting stance and now is the Wade Boggs type player I was talking about all offseason.
I think Duran is legit, yet another Dombrowski stud from the “barren farm system he left”. Hahahaha!!!
And now for some random congrats:
Congrats to Raffy for homerun #150, one of only three Red Sox to reach that number before turning 27 (RIP Tony C).
Congrats to ERod, today he pitched another 8 shutout innings in lowering his ERA to 1.81 as he seems to finally be physically and mentally healthy again.
And finally, congrats to the Tigers for sweeping the .500 Mets. It would be kinda nice if Cohen’s spending doesn’t even get him a playoff appearance.
KD17…. wow… I thought the same thing…. when talking about pitching at no point in time did they even mention Paxton. Then talking about the infield, not a mention of Mondesi.
KD17…. wow… I thought the same thing…. when talking about pitching at no point in time did they even mention Paxton. Then talking about the infield, not a mention of Mondesi.
The Cardinals are going to make trades this year. They can’t stand pat no matter what. The kind of trades they make will be decided by whether they are buyers or sellers. Either one is still very possible. The only constant is that neither Arenado or Goldschmidt will be traded. Anything else is possible in my opinion.
If Cleveland wasn’t competitive, Bieber would be a good addition to the Cardinals rotation, lots of outfield prospects to use as trade chips.
acoss13;
Yes, Bieber would be a nice get if the Guardians don’t get back into contention and they were thinking of moving him.
But a team doesn’t make a trade because another team has a surplus of guys at a position. Cleveland has plenty of young, inexpensive OF’s on the team, in the high minors, and one out injured this season. What Cleveland will ask back is multiple young controlled pitchers that they believe they can rework. Based on the way the Cards are playing this year, if they had any players fitting that criteria they’d be pitching them.
You guys need to get off of the ‘Bieber to the Cardinals for some of our excess players’ wagon. It’s hasn’t moved in 6-8 months, and it’s not going to move this year. Maybe when / if Bieber hits free agency.
You make good points Samuel. I do think St. Louis needs another starter, it’s just that I’m not sure who’d be a good partner for one, as you said Cleveland has outfield prospects even if they were to fall out of contention. At the same time, Cardinals do need to use those outfield prospects for a trade, while they still have value, just my two cents.
acoss13;
Maybe a 3 team trade?
But a team doesn’t make a trade because another team has a surplus of guys at a position.
========================
it makes trades easier. The RS got Verdugo, Downs & Wong because the Dodgers had (got) Betts, Lux and Smith. No matter what they did, none of the guys that LA traded were ever going to start for them.
Unless this offense starts clicking and scoring some runs it won’t matter what SP they trade for.
Samuel,
That’s the only way at this point.
As much as it pains me, but if the White Sox don’t turn the ship around, Cease would be a pitcher St. Louis could target, under arbitration control, is a top if the line starter, and the White Sox could certainly get a good haul of outfield prospects, especially if Robert gets traded too.
Normally I’d look at that situation as the Cardinals becoming desperate. But Mo believes he’s a high-tech Branch Rickey – which Jeff Luhnow actually was – and he’s just not going to have his staff evaluate things properly and then make savvy moves that make the team on the field into a real contender.
They’ll make some trades that appear logical, and perhaps it’ll improve the team for a short period of time. But the real issues are with the manager, ML coaching staff, and Milb coaching staff. The once vaulted Branch Rickey style of fundamental baseball carried on by George Kissell and Red Schoendienst left with Mike Shilt when he was shown the door. He took Kissell’s book on how to play winning baseball out of the managers office, leaving the cockamamie canvas for Mo and his Yes men to putter around with.
I’d love to see the Cardinals become sellers and clean house.
It’s looking more and more like the Cardinals will be sellers. Either way a lot of trades need to be made at the deadline or after the season. I’m sure they could get something for Montgomery at the deadline.
At some point the Cardinals are going to run out of space on the active and 40 man rosters.
All game last night the broadcasters kept saying the Sox bullpen was thin. No Crawford, Winckowski wasn’t going to be available, Jansen tweeked his back. Yet after Wong’s Home Run gave them the lead who was warming up in the bullpen: Josh Winckowski. This is what they need; guys who want the ball in a crucial situation, even if he pitched 2 innings the night before. The bullpen is decent but would be a lot better with Whitlock in it
Rsox – Who was saying it, the radio guys or the TV guys? Thinking Winck wouldn’t be available is absolute garbage.
Yeah he threw 30 pitches the night before, so what?
He didn’t pitch Sunday.
He threw just 9 pitches Saturday
He didn’t pitch Friday
He didn’t pitch Thursday
He didn’t pitch Wednesday
It’s crazy how soft some people think the Red Sox pitchers are, like their arm will fall off if they pitch in consecutive games.
Tv guys. Dave O’Brien, Kevin Youkilis and Tim Wakefield
You have to give Whitlock his chance at starting this entire season. He wants to be in the rotation so he deserves a legitimate crack at it. Then next October you take a look and make the call. You give him another year or you put him in the pen for good? But you cannot jerk the young man around mid-season 3 years in a row.
Only point I feel was left out of the White Sox statistically coming back to division winning form is how often teams with early struggles do, in fact, just that.
So you think the WS will right the ship and at least compete for a WC spot?
Lamars- Agreed, the White Sox are toast. When they had a legitimate team that could compete, they hire a fossil as manager. I wonder if they will go another 108 years between World Series championships….2113 for the next one.
JC#1;
Last year the Mets hired “a fossil as manager” and this year the Rangers did. Both teams seem to be doing OK.
Jc the ageist
Samuel –
Big Difference
LaRussa hadn’t managed for 10 years until he took over in 2011, Showalter hadn’t managed for 4 years and Bochy hadn’t managed for 3 years.
Not all early struggles are the same…statistically, how often do teams that start 10-21 come back to win the division, even a bad one.
This Simon guy’s novice opinions are about as annoying to listen as an orchestra of didgeridoos.
Don’t let the didgeroos get your underoos in a buncheroo.
I’m gonna go eat some Dunkaroos
I think I’m hearing the same people that embarrassed themselves last year in saying the White Sox were going to be in first place by the AS break, trying to embarrass themselves again. Anything is possible, of course, but I think its very fair to say the Sox are not that kind of team to go on a run and be first in the division. I have seen this team have such massive losing streaks before and most teams do not dig their way out of them. Their ‘core’ group of players is suspect, even when not hurt. Their pitchers apparently have times where they forget to pitch and so far this coaching staff appears to be asleep at the wheel. Basically the same is it was last season and we say how that panned out.