Tanner Scott is almost certain to be traded within the next four days. He and Carlos Estévez are the top two rental relievers on the market. The Marlins are willing to listen on anyone on the roster and already traded one key bullpen piece last night.
Scott has been a known target for the likes of the Yankees, Dodgers, Orioles and Phillies dating back to the middle of June. Interest in the hard-throwing southpaw surely extends beyond that group of four. Indeed, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic wrote on Thursday night that the Royals are also looking into Scott.
Kansas City general manager J.J. Picollo has spoken a few times about wanting to add power to the back of the bullpen. The Royals put that into action a couple weeks ago, landing Hunter Harvey from the Nationals just before the draft. They’re evidently still engaged in the relief market. Harvey had pitched in a setup capacity in Washington and looks to be sticking in that role with his new team.
James McArthur has held the ninth inning. It hasn’t always been smooth, as he has blown five of 22 save chances (including his most recent opportunity in Wednesday’s loss to the Diamondbacks). The 27-year-old righty has allowed nearly five earned runs per nine across 40 1/3 innings. He’s getting ground-balls at an excellent 53.8% clip and has plus control, but his 18.5% strikeout rate is well below average. McArthur doesn’t get nearly as many strikeouts as the typical closer, so the Royals could look to push him into the middle innings.
Scott is much more of a traditional closer. He pairs a 97 MPH heater with an upper-80s slider that misses plenty of bats. Scott has fanned more than 29% of opponents over 45 2/3 frames this season. He punched out more than a third of batters faced last year. He’s prone to bouts of wildness but has such high-octane stuff that he has been a dominant presence at the back of the Miami bullpen. After turning in a 2.31 ERA across 78 innings a year ago, he’s allowing 1.18 earned runs per nine this season.
The 30-year-old southpaw is playing on a $5.7MM salary in his final year of arbitration. There’s roughly $2MM in commitments for the stretch run. Scott could be looking at a three- or four-year deal next winter, so there’s very little chance he’ll stay in Miami past the deadline.
Who would the royals send in return? KC doesn’t have many strong prospects
Rental closers have limited value. Anyone can technically land either of those guys. If others lowball-they can get 1 of those 2.
They have some pretty good prospects. Some good young pitching. They are pretty deep at catcher that’s a need for the Marlins. The Royals seem to be motivated to win this year they can work it out.
“A need for the Marlins” is funny. The Marlins are going to need a lot of they ever hope to seriously compete in this league again.
The Royals’ FO are doing what they think they should be doing, but I wouldn’t expect a team that was terrible only last year to hope to go too deep into the playoffs with what they have one year later.
You never know. They got a chance this year and they are going for it. Gotta respect that.
My favorite articles are always the ones that begin “Team A Shows Interest in Player B.” Just a hunch, but I’m guessing 20 other teams have shown an interest in Tanner Scott.
Texas lost 100 in 2022 and won WS. It has happened already.