The past few days haven't been good for teams looking to acquire controllable starting pitching. On Friday, Angels southpaw Patrick Sandoval came out of his start shaking his arm. The Halos put him on the 15-day injured list the next day with an elbow strain. One day later, the Marlins announced that Jesús Luzardo was being shut down with a lumbar stress reaction in his back. Miami almost immediately put him on the 60-day injured list -- ruling him out into August.
Sandoval hasn't officially been ruled out beyond the early part of July, but it's hard to imagine he's looking at a minimal IL stint. Within 48 hours, two of the most talented controllable starting pitchers who could've plausibly been available instead very likely came off the trade market. (Players can still be traded while on the injured list, but it'd be such a sell-low on either pitcher that Sandoval and Luzardo would almost certainly stay put.)
Starting pitching injuries have been an unfortunate storyline throughout the season. Almost every team has been impacted, leaving all but a handful of contenders looking for rotation help over the next five weeks. Barring injuries of their own, the Mariners, Phillies and perhaps Yankees could feel great about the strength of their rotation. Everyone else has at least one or two points on which they could upgrade. Milwaukee, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Diego, Arizona and St. Louis could go into deadline season viewing the rotation as their top priority.
There aren't enough healthy starters to go around. Teams like the D-Backs and Reds came up empty in rotation pursuits at the '23 trade deadline. That'll be the case for a handful of teams yet again, particularly with two more arms more or less off the board. The White Sox are even more firmly positioned to dominate the market for controllable starting pitching, while the dwindling supply could provide an opportunity for a team like the Rockies or Rays to get good value for a mid-rotation type.
There are a handful of impending free agents who could change hands -- Jack Flaherty, Yusei Kikuchi and Luis Severino among them. Flaherty looks to have pulled to the top of the rental starter group. The supply of starters under control beyond the 2024 campaign is dwindling, though. Let's take stock of that market:
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The grimace Mets are in full steam ahead mode right now and Luis looked real good on national television last night so they will probably add and not subtract this summer
Unless they have a mets like slump in July…
Teams in the NL currently in the mix for those mediocre 2nd and 3rd WC spots can technically “sell” a starter and remain in that hunt even if the goal is to be stronger ’25/beyond.
Plouffe and Rose indicated that a SP trade was already in the works today and opted to guess Flaherty and Severino as the next pitcher traded after that person – Does that mean Kikuchi is moving this week?
Seems a little early, but the Jays are starting to truly fall out of it now.
Blue Jays have some ok pitching to trade, just because a team sells off a player or two shouldn’t mean they’re totally giving up on this year or next. Like, the Mets could afford to trade a starter if Senga gets healthy but also shouldn’t be too hesitant to add a longer term piece to the offense as well.
I think the Jays are in a similar situation to what the Cardinals were in last year. They have a window to win but it isn’t working out so they will sell the guys who are free agents after this season and there are a few of them. But they will regroup and try to compete next year.
Mets are playing well hard to tell what they do as of today. 2 weeks ago they looked like for sure sellers now who knows.
The Nationals should get Trevor Williams back before the deadline. He was the ace of a surprisingly excellent starting rotation before going on the injured list.
He’s a rental so no reason not to sell.
Could always just sign Bauer.
Hamels already regretting his retirement…
I wonder if the M’s might trade Emerson Hancock? He, along with a solid position player prospect or two might get us the bat we need. DiPoto wisely resisted overpaying for several “big name” free agents the last few off seasons, much to the anger of local talk radio callers. Dansby Swanson, Javy Baez, Rendon, Bryant, Story, to name a few.
Pitch clock, teaching kids at an early age to max out their velocity, banning sticky substances. It’s taking a toll. It starts when they’re kids, teaching them how to throw harder. The body can only take so much.
Max velocity is much worse than the pitch clock. There are so many TJ surgeries at high school and college and there’s no pitch clock there.
Of course. Marlins are coming up on the lucky Astros schedule so of course he’s out for that series now.
I’m not rooting for more injuries but I would like to see continued heavy competition for the WC slots limit willingness to sell. The Dodgers’ Scrooge McDuck piles of money allowed them to build their own pitching depth, so reduced trade activity will be to their benefit.
No Bauer in MLB is fine. Character matters.
Bauer’s character is fine.
If you think Bauer’s character is fine, I question yours.
So you know him personally?
Do you? I know what I’ve read and from his online activities, and I’m extremely unimpressed.
Thirty MLB teams know him well enough to stay away.
I know that he coaches other MLB pitchers for free and that owners don’t seem to have a problem with that.
Hill told MLB.com that he turned down three contract offers this spring. In May he said he’s only interested in a deal that would still allow him time to coach his kid’s LL team.
Nobody’s signing a 44-year old who went 8-14 5.41 and a terrible K:BB off the street unless it’s to a minor league “we’ll see” kind of a deal, which he’s probably not interested in doing.
Bauer is done. Urias is done. Mad Bum is done too. He’s still making a ton of money from the DBacks so he doesn’t need to come back at all. Secondly, he got released for both performance *and* coachability issues. During his run of good starts in 2021, he said that “ditching” the scouting report was the reason why he was pitching better. That ended the relationship between Bumgarner and DBacks pitching strategist Dan Haren. After that run of good starts, he posted a 4.50 ERA and then a disasterous 10.26 in four starts last year.
Bumgarner refused to make changes that pitching coach Brent Strom asked him to make. Arizona gave up heading into last season, which is when he imploded. Bumgarner’s fastball topped out at 93 in his prime. It was much worse than that in Arizona. They aaked him to use his curve and changeup more, he refused.
Bumgarner is more headache than he’s worth. He’d get clobbered in today’s game.
Watch, the Tigers screw this one up, too……
I wonder if the market for sellers will be so strong that a few times might just “give up” because the price will be too good.
In orders, can a fringe contender be bought off? In some ways this is great for parity. If top contenders have to massively overpay, this helps the cellar dwellers get back to contention.
@Diggery Not sure what the “eyes of the law” have to do with MLB.last I heard Bauer is a free man, that’s the only freedom protected by the legal system.
As far as MLB teams, they are under no obligation to employ anyone. The only obligations they have are to pay those they have signed to contracts. Other than that, they decide who they want on their rosters.
So for now Bauer has as much right to be on any MLB roster as you or I do.
Bumgarner refused to adjust to the modern game. He isn’t nearly good enough to dismiss a pitching staff, and he’s been unwilling to change.
If no one has taken a flier yet, they aren’t gonna
Trade Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Kenta Maeda while you can.
No talk of Patric Corbin being available.
What views on domestic assault via technicality? There are several guys who admitted to doing worse than what Bauer has only been accused of who are still playing.