As teams gear up for the stretch run with the trade deadline behind us, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:
1. Tigers to retire Leyland’s number:
The Tigers announced yesterday that they plan to honor recently-inducted Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland by retiring his number 10 on Saturday prior to the club’s game against the Royals. The game starts at 6:10pm local time that evening but Detroit encouraged fans to arrive early and be in their seats by 5:25pm local time for the retirement ceremony in a press release about the retirement ceremony. Leyland’s number will be the tenth to be retired in Tigers history, joining numbers one (Lou Whitaker), two (Charlie Gehringer), three (Alan Trammell), five (Hank Greenberg), six (Al Kaline), 11 (Sparky Anderson), 16 (Hal Newhouser), 23 (Willie Horton), and 47 (Jack Morris). Leyland joins Anderson as the only manager in Tigers history to have his numbers retired. In his eight years managing the Tigers from 2006 to 2013, Leyland won 700 games and a pair of AL pennants.
2. Youngsters to make MLB debuts:
A pair of prospects in the AL East are having their contracts selected to the majors today and will make their MLB debuts when they first appear in a game. The Rays are calling up outfield prospect Kameron Misner to the big leagues in the wake of an injury to Richie Palacios, while the Orioles are calling up top infield prospect Coby Mayo after third baseman Jordan Westburg suffered a fractured hand earlier this week. Both clubs have vacancies on their 40-man rosters, meaning corresponding moves will be necessary only to make room on the active roster for these youngsters.
Misner, 26, is a former first-round pick by the Marlins. The Rays acquired him during the 2021-22 offseason in return for veteran utilityman Joey Wendle. Misner has spent the past two seasons with the Rays at Triple-A Durham and has posted a .236/.360/.453 slash line in 224 games, although a hefty 33.4% strikeout rate is cause for some concern about how his approach will translate to the big leagues. As for Mayo, the Orioles’ fourth-rounder in the 2020 draft established himself as a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport entering this year and has done nothing but confirm his status as one of the league’s elite prospects with an excellent .301/.375/.586 slash line at the Triple-A level in 2024.
This last one isn’t an MLB debut, but the Giants will give slugger Jerar Encarnacion his first look in the majors since 2022 and his first action in a Giants uniform when they select his contract later today. The 26-year-old Encarnacion, a former Marlins prospect, was a minor league free agent this offseason who had to settle for a deal in the Mexican League after finding scant MLB interest. He tore through pitching staffs in Mexico at a comical .366/.439/.989 rate and slugged 19 homers in only 107 plate appearances. The Giants quickly grabbed him on a minor league deal, and he’s hit .352/.438/.616 with 10 homers in 146 Triple-A plate appearances.
3. Recently traded arms starting anew:
A number of starting pitchers got traded in the run-up to the trade deadline earlier this week, and many of those arms are set to make their first starts with their new clubs this weekend. Newly-minted Cardinals righty Erick Fedde (3.11 ERA) and Brewers right-hander Frankie Montas (5.01 ERA) will make their team debuts against the Cubs’ Javier Assad (3.23 ERA) and Nationals’ Jake Irvin (3.44 ERA), respectively, later today. On Saturday, recently-added Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty (2.95 ERA) will take on A’s rookie Mitch Spence (4.47 ERA). New Royals starter Michael Lorenzen (3.81 ERA) faces a to-be-announced Tigers starter on Saturday. This weekend affords fans of each of those four teams their first look at a major addition by their club from the days leading up to the deadline that is sure to impact the pennant races those teams find themselves in down the stretch.
It’s time for Anaheim to trade Trout for a massive haul while they still can and reload their farm system. Should have done it with Ohtani too, but at least they can still get a massive haul of marquee prospects for Trout.
Trout’s value has greatly diminished with so many injuries and his hefty salary doesn’t help. Trout will need to stay healthy for a full season before Angels even think about listening on offers.
acoss – I think Trout’s situation is comparable to Sale, who was injured for basically 5 years prior to this season.
Trout can come back healthy eventually, just like Sale did.
You think any GM will pay a massive haul for Trout? Trout is Trout, but wrong side of age curve…37+mil a season for 6 more seasons…hasn’t played a full season in years…averaged about 64 games a season for the past 5 seasons…new injury to same meniscus again…and reduced production compared to prime Trout…and no trade clause.
Trout is an Angel next year
He’s 32. Still has at least 3 years of prime left. Do it NOW.
32 is generally considered the end of a player’s prime years.
12981 You also need to be drug tested
Trout is biologically 32. Physically, he’s 38.
He can’t stay healthy. No one wants that risk.
That GM would need to be drug tested along with Astro’s GM
Trout has zero trade value dude, they wouldn’t get a single decent prospect for him at this point. And I’m a Trout fan
Do it NOW.
You won’t get much NOW and would have to pay a good chunk of his salary NOW…..what part of that is not sinking in.
I was born in the same general area as Trout and in the same hospital (there was/is only one major hosp in that area) so I have followed him. Being a Phillies fan for 62 years I always wanted him to be a Phillie BUT not currently. He can’t stay healthy. I have accepted that….you need to as well and realize the “time for Anaheim to trade Trout for a massive haul” is long past. Wise up 12981
Trout COULD be traded…but the Angles would have to eat a HUGE chunk of the $$$
Trout had 6 years left on his contract. A full no trade clause. Hasn’t played 120 games in a season since 2019. Has a torn meniscus out for the season. Facing a long rehab. Even if he agrees to be traded ( Philadelphia?) the Angels aren’t getting a haul. And the Angels would have to take on most (70%?) of Trout’s remaining salary. He’s not going anywhere until he can play an entire season healthy
“trade Trout for a massive haul while they still can”
Can they still do that though? He’s owed like $35-40 million a year for another 6 or 7 years and he’s been constantly injured for several years now. I don’t really see anyone trading much for that unless the Angels eat like 1/2 or 2/3 of the contract.
Of course not.
It was rhetorical. I was trying to lead him to the correct answer.
He was on pace this season for a 50/30 season- arguably would have been his best season ever. The answer is YES. Do it now.
And then he got seriously injured, the same as every other year in recent memory.
Nobody is giving up a massive prospect haul for a guy that costs almost $40 million and only plays around 40% of the time (if that). MAYBE, if the Angels ate $20-25 million a year for the remaining 6 or 7 years on his contract, they might be able to get a couple of decent prospects, but certainly nobody like a Jackson Holliday or Coby Mayo.
He banged 10 HR and he banged 6 SB in 1 month to go along with an other worldly OPS. You do the math.
The “math” is completely and utterly irrelevant since he makes almost $40 million a year and hasn’t played a full season in like half a decade.
I’m sure there have been many players that hit 10;HR with 6 SBs in a month. The difference is they’re not making $37M
12981…. People like you are the reason we have warning labels.
He has averaged 64 games and 275 PA over the last 5 seasons and is owed $37,116,666 per year until 2030 . You do the math!!! No one is going to give the Angels a massive haul. If you think otherwise you do NOT understand baseball at all.
You’re not going to get a “massive haul” for Trout. In fact, if they released him today, I doubt any teams would claim him. His injuries and contract would prevent any team from taking a flier unless the Angels ate most of his remaining deal. They’re not going to trade him, and Trout doesn’t want to go anywhere anyway, so it’s a moot point.
Orioles.
The Orioles are too smart to trade for the remains of Mike Trout.
If they released him someone would sign him for the minimum. The process is waivers then release not the other way around. So he would go on waivers and no one would claim him of course because they would have to pay his salary. Then after he clears waivers the Angels would release him. But the Angels would still have to pay the money owed him minus the minimum. So the Angels aren’t releasing him
Just to reiterate you won’t get a massive haul for the dude’s name value alone. You may get something for that, but he’s beyond damaged goods, he’s a liability. MLB isn’t like soccer, though, where a team will take on aging star players to sell jerseys. No small market team does that, and he’s of no use with his history to contenders. So I think he’s an Angel for life, which isn’t the worse thing for club and player.
The only haul following Trout is the haul of money he is owed. No team is shelling out multiple top prospects for that contract anymore
Trout for Stanton and prospects.
Kidding…
You could get even more prospects if you add Rendon into the mix too. Could you imagine home much expertise the trainers could get from those 2? That would be invaluable. I nominate the Yankees to make an offer. Volpe could be the headliner going back to the Angels.
Zero chance they get a “haul” for a guy who can’t stay on the field for years now.
Did MLBTR miss it, or have the Tigers not retired Ty Cobb’s number? Did he not have a number back then?
Google: “Indeed, because Ty Cobb — often referred to as “The Greatest Tiger of All” — did not have a uniform number to retire, Detroit’s upper management long took the position that no Tigers uniform number should be retired.” He retired in ’28 and numbers started in ’29.
I, too, thought they left off Cobb’s #.
Yep, numbers were not introduced until after Cobb was retired.
The name I was surprised not to see on that list was Mickey Lolich.
Lolich and maybe Freehan.
217 career wins. 168 K’s short of 3,000 and the reason the Tigers won it all in ’68. Mickey is, without question, one of the most overlooked stars of the past 100 years.
Shilling meets that criteria and has the outstanding post season resume to boot.
he’ll never get in for 1 reason.. not politically correct.
Absolutely. Can anyone tell me why Mazeroski is in the HOF, but Whitaker and Grich are not???
cooperhill,
Nope.
No better fielder at 2B in the history of the game and authored the ONLY Game 7 WS walk-off homer. By all reports, no players have a problem with Maz being in. There is not a finite number of spots. Maz is keeping NOBODY out of the HOF.
Also, 2-time WS champion.
The Tigers could find a way to include Cobb on their retired number group by listing him as ” no number”. Since this list is known as a ring of honor for those team’s players. The Cardinals have done this with Roger’s Hornsby as he did not have a number, but is found on the list and included in the Stadium with a period logo.
Jack Morris the Harold Baines of pitchers. Ahahaha!
Or maybe the Mazeroski of pitchers. Wouldn’t be in the HOF if not for one unforgettable World Series performance.
Cobb, Heilman and Hughie Jennings names are on the wall next to the retired names with numbers and Cobb has a statue at the park, as does Gehringer, Kaline, Newhouser and Horton
As well as Sam Crawford, Heinie Manush, George Kell and Ernie Harwell having names on the wall
Thanks weasel. That sounds appreciated. I have been to the old stadium but not the new stadium.
Shame on Bob Nutting and the Pirates for not doing same for Leyland.
The team announced several weeks ago that Leyland and Bonds are going into the Bucs HOF. Other than Jackie Robinson I don’t think they have retired any number since Stargell, a 2-time WS winner and MLB HOFer.
They haven’t had any numbers worth retiring. I’m sure McCutchen will get his number retired at some point when his career is over. But who else couid they retire? Jay Bell? Jason Kendall? Pedro Alvarez? Jose Tabata?
Dave Parker? Tony Pena?
Who is arguing those numbers should be retired? PhilliesBob is suggesting that Leyland’s should have been.
2 gifts from the Orioles!
Hardly “gifts” lol.
Nutting is such a funny name
I thought the same thing… but they’ve already retired around 10 numbers, and when you have a 40 man roster, then additions and subtractions all season, you end up with a lot of position players using spring training pitcher numbers in August.
Like the Yankees
Leyland never won anything in Pittsburgh. Only 4 winning seasons. No world series. No pennant. I’m not giving him a participation trophy number retired.
Managers don’t even wear a visible uniform anymore. Shouldn’t have had a number to begin with. Or a uniform.
Kikuchi is starting for Houston tonight.
Was the trade so bad he is forgotten about?
Yes.
Leyland had good run,as Pirates fan never forgave him bringing in Stan Balinda in 92 playoffs against Braves! Braves hadn’t hit Wakefield all year plus playoffs! Just needed 3 outs!? You bring in Wakefield! He never got called out on that move! Stupid.
With pencil ass Bonds before the rouds! Gain 30 pounds of muscle in one off season at 36? Hmmmmmmmm!
But Bonds was a great player before he ever took any steroids. He just became more of a home-run focused player after 1998. He was a tremendous all-around player before then.
True, he certainly did not need them.
Reinsdorf has TLR consulting him, and they are ready to offer Leyland the job to replace Grifol.
Bring back the ’83 band.
Leyland would have to be senile to take that offer
Congratulations! Jim Leyland!
Don’t think “Jimmy Smokes ” is a HOF.
Good for Jim Leyland. He actually lives in the Pittsburgh area. Sadly, he couldn’t win it all in Pittsburgh
On him in 92!! He blew NL championship!