Braves To Promote Ozzie Albies, Lucas Sims
2:37pm: Atlanta has announced that Johnson and righty Akeel Morris were optioned to create roster space. With Albies in the lineup at second base tonight, it could well be that the Braves are readying to move on from Phillips — who could be traded or allowed to depart through a waiver claim, though he does have 12-team no-trade protection.
12:34pm: The Braves will promote top infield prospect Ozzie Albies for tonight’s game, according to MLB.com Pipeline (Twitter link) and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter). Pitching prospect Lucas Sims is also heading to the majors to make his first start, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday on Twitter.
The move on Albies comes as something of a post-deadline surprise, as the Braves’ infield mix currently includes veterans Brandon Phillips and Sean Rodriguez as well as younger players Johan Camargo and Micah Johnson (who was himself just promoted).
Albies has long been considered one of the organization’s best prospects and drew consensus top-twenty billing leaguewide entering the season. Though he scuffled a bit in his first attempt at the highest level of the minors in 2016, Albies has turned in solid results there in the present season. Through 448 trips to the plate, the 20-year-old switch-hitter carries a .285/.330/.440 batting line with 21 steals and nine home runs. That’s a nice jump in the long ball department for a player who launched just one ball out of the yard in his first two professional seasons and hit just six in 618 plate appearances last year.
It’s unclear how Atlanta intends to line up with Albies on the roster. He’s capable of playing both middle infield positions, but has spent most of his time in recent years at second. The thought had long been that Albies would form a double-play pairing with shortstop Dansby Swanson, and he may yet, but Swanson is currently back at Triple-A Gwinnett after struggling early on this year. The corresponding move isn’t yet known, but may be expected shed some light on the situation. Unless this is planned only as a quick trip up, though, the Braves will presumably be clearing the way for Albies to receive regular playing time.
As for Sims, his promotion comes with somewhat less fanfare but is notable in its own right. The former first-rounder had seen his prospect star fade somewhat in recent years, but he has turned in intriguing results this season at Gwinnett. Through 115 1/3 innings, Sims carries a 3.75 ERA with an excellent 10.3 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 — marking a notable reversal from the control problems that have plagued him at times in the past.
While Sims already had a spot on the 40-man roster, Albies will still need to be added. Atlanta does appear to have some free slots available, though, so it may not be necessary for the club to risk control rights over any existing players. It remains to be seen who’ll depart the active roster to make an opening.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Post-Deadline Notes: Gray, Cards, Darvish, Britton, Estrada, Braves
The Cardinals “float[ed]” a trade proposal for Sonny Gray before the Athletics shipped him to the Yankees, according to MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal. In concept, at least, St. Louis would have considered sending young outfielder Stephen Piscotty to Oakland along with a promising starter (Luke Weaver or Jack Flaherty), though it seems talks never got going. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks closer at the Cards’ lack of action on deadline day. Top baseball decisionmaker John Mozeliak acknowledged “a level of frustration” that nothing got done, though he also said the team wasn’t inclined to make deals just for the sake of action. Ultimately, momentum never built toward a deal for Lance Lynn, and the club’s other chatter never materialized into a trade. You’ll want to peruse the lengthy column for all the details.
Here are some more post-deadline links of note:
- The Dodgers‘ acquisition of Yu Darvish came together quite late, as Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports explains in fascinating detail. It became apparent the Dodgers wouldn’t get Zach Britton from the Orioles within a half hour of the deadline, but the team had already “abandoned hope” of landing Darvish. The Rangers, meanwhile, had run through their alternative trade partners for the ace righty and found none availing. The paths of the two organizations converged just twenty minutes before the deadline. You’ll certainly want to give the story a full read; Texas fans will also want to check out this piece from Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on the team’s unannounced but still-evident rebuilding path.
- In the end, there just wasn’t that much demand in the marketplace for Darvish, Rosenthal also notes — so much so that the Dodgers were nearly in position to land both Darvish from the Rangers and lefty Zach Britton from the Orioles. That said, there was “some overlap” between the prospects in both potential deals, and it obviously would’ve required a steep overall price to get both arms. Instead, Los Angeles added two different lefties, Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani.
- As regards Britton, Rosenthal had some stern words for how things played out. The Orioles spurned not only the Dodgers but likely also the Astros. For Baltimore, the deadline approach “was disturbingly short-sighted,” by Rosenthal’s reckoning. And when Houston wasn’t able to find another top-end arm, says Rosenthal, its body of deadline work became a “lost opportunity.” It does seem worth bearing in mind, particularly regarding the Astros, that the August trade period appears to be full of opportunities for making further moves if the need is there.
- Over in Toronto, the Blue Jays ended up holding onto righty Marco Estrada and then watched him turn in a strong outing last night. As Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca writes, Jays GM Ross Atkins suggested yesterday that the organization may yet see Estrada as a part of the team’s future — though his contract is up at year’s end and he perhaps remains a plausible August trade piece. With Estrada remaining in Toronto through the deadline, said Atkins, “we’ll start thinking about not only how he impacts us now, but how he can potentially impact us beyond 2017.”
- Be sure also to check out the trade deadline rundown from Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, who assesses some winners and losers from the day’s action. ESPN.com’s Buster Olney also issued deadline grades in an Insider piece.
- With the Braves holding on deadline day, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman takes stock of the months to come. Second baseman Brandon Phillips, reliever Jim Johnson, and starter R.A. Dickey could all be possible August trade chips, he notes, while the inclination of the organization remains to consider deals involving first baseman Matt Adams over the offseason. Meanwhile, Atlanta continues its long-standing pursuit of controllable pitching, though that’ll surely await the end of the current season.
New Facebook Pages For Fans Of Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Braves, Cardinals
For the past month, we have been attempting an experiment: five human-curated team Facebook pages. Under the direction of JP Hadley, Jack Stockless, Stephanie Nevill, Chris Jervis, and Tanner Puckett, our Facebook pages for the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Braves, and Cardinals have become engaging, informative, fun, and up-to-date. Instead of the previous automated posting of MLBTR content, these pages have team news of all kinds, polls, infographics, interesting links, discussion, and of course hot stove rumors. These pages have everything a fan could want. If you follow any of these five teams, please give our new Facebook pages a Like today!
Sonny Gray Trade Rumors: Deadline Day
With about one hour remaining until the trade deadline, all eyes are on Athletics ace Sonny Gray. Gray comes with a 3.43 ERA on the season and club control through 2019. The latest:
- The Yankees’ dialogue continues on Gray, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports says the Yankees and A’s have had some movement on a trade, but aren’t quite there yet. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com feels Gray will either go to the Yankees or stay with the A’s. There is a strong belief within the A’s organization that a Gray trade will get done, tweets MLB.com’s Jane Lee.
Sonny Gray Rumors: Saturday
With two days left before the deadline, here’s the latest on the market for Athletics starter Sonny Gray, with the most recent updates at the top.
- Gray to the Yankees is “somewhere between likely to inevitable,” according to Sherman, who reports that the trade could happen Sunday. An executive who has been involved in Gray talks told Sherman that the Yankees are “holding firm” in what they’re willing to offer because they’re not convinced there are any other serious bidders. In case their negotiations with the A’s collapse, the Yankees are discussing starters with other teams as fallback options, per Sherman.
Earlier updates:
- Neither the Astros nor Brewers are “serious players for Gray,” writes MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal, who adds that the Braves and Cubs also don’t look likely to acquire him. The Dodgers are the biggest threat to the Yankees in this sweepstakes, but Gray isn’t LA’s main focus, per Rosenthal. With that in mind, Rosenthal expects the Yankees to land Gray, though it might not happen until Monday. Gray to the Bronx makes sense, opines Rosenthal, who notes that the Yankees need answers in their rotation beyond this year (only Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery are locks to return in 2018) and want to get under the $197MM luxury-tax threshold next season. Acquiring the affordable Gray would help them on both fronts.
- Heyman, Sherman, Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Buster Olney of ESPN (on Twitter) each report that the A’s and Yankees are making progress in Gray talks. There’s “optimism” a deal will happen, per Nightengale.
- As expected, Oakland has pushed Gray’s next start from Sunday to Monday, reports Joe Stiglich of NBC Sports California (Twitter link).
- The A’s talks centering on Gray have been heavier with the Yankees than any other team over the past 48 hours, per Morosi (Twitter link).
- Gray will, in fact, skip his start tomorrow if he hasn’t been traded by then, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. Bob Klapisch of USA Today previously tweeted that the A’s were likely to pull Gray from his scheduled start tomorrow due to requests from teams interested in trading for him.
- The Yankees’ reluctance to part with Torres or Frazier is not currently holding up talks with the A’s about Gray, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. The two sides are currently discussing other players and still have not reached an agreement. In fact, Morosi tweets that the A’s prefer another Yankees prospect, Estevan Florial, to Frazier because of his center field defense.
- Only after the A’s trade Gray will there be a flurry of activity surrounding other starters, Jon Morosi writes for MLB.com. Teams in the pitching market are primarily seeking multiyear assets like Gray rather than rentals, Morosi writes. That means there are more teams interested in Gray than in rentals like Yu Darvish or Lance Lynn.
- The Brewers and Athletics have hit an impasse in their discussions about Gray, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. The hangup, it seems, is that the A’s want top young outfielder Lewis Brinson, and the Brewers don’t want to trade him. Brinson arrived last winter in the Jonathan Lucroy deal and made his big-league debut last month.
- The Yankees still have interest in Gray, but are now looking to rental options like Darvish, Lynn and Jaime Garcia, FanRag’s Jon Heyman writes. (A report earlier today also connected the Yankees to Dan Straily.) As was previously reported, the Yankees do not want to part with Gleyber Torres or Clint Frazier. Still, teams expect Gray to be traded before Sunday, when he’s scheduled to start.
- The Yankees “might take” first baseman Yonder Alonso to help “facilitate” a Gray deal, but they aren’t currently focused on first base, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick writes (Twitter links). If the Athletics don’t reduce their price for Gray, the Yankees are prepared to look elsewhere. To state the obvious, Alonso is a terrific asset in his own right, and does not fit the profile of a player a team would take merely to facilitate a trade. The first baseman is batting .262/.360/.525 with 21 home runs this season.
NL Notes: Teheran, Ellis, Cubs, Beede, Nationals
The Braves aren’t likely to trade righty Julio Teheran at the deadline, tweets Jon Heyman of FanRag. A report earlier this month suggested the Braves were open to dealing Teheran, but there haven’t been many specific details about potential Teheran deals since. Teheran is in the midst of an underwhelming season (5.09 ERA, 6.8 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 over 120 1/3 innings), is only 26, and is controllable at reasonable prices through 2020, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the Braves opted to keep him for now. Here are more quick notes from the NL.
- The Cubs remain interested in Marlins catcher A.J. Ellis, writes Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. A report earlier this week from MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro connected the Cubs to Ellis, who would provide Chicago with a veteran backup to Willson Contreras. (Frisaro tweets that two other teams are interested in Ellis as well and that the Cubs might not ultimately land him.) The Cubs also continue to look for a reliever. “That’s what you would be looking for — that high-leverage, later-inning guy that you’re really comfortable with — so you can spread the work out a little bit more evenly,” says Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who adds that his guess is that the team will make another move of some sort before the deadline.
- Top Giants pitching prospect Tyler Beede will likely miss the rest of the season with a groin strain, as Alex Pavlovic of CSNBayArea.com notes. Beede is expected to miss four weeks, taking him to around the end of the minor-league season. The injury could wind up costing him a chance at a big-league call-up once rosters expand in September as well. He could, however, pitch in the Arizona Fall League. After a strong season with Double-A Richmond in 2016, the former first-round pick struggled in Triple-A Sacramento in 2017, posting a 4.79 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 over 109 innings.
- The Nationals need catching help, FanGraphs’ Travis Sawchik writes. Matt Wieters has not hit or framed pitches well, batting .248/.297/.381 over 310 plate appearances while rating -10.8 runs in framing, via Statcorner. Sawchik suggests Atlanta’s Tyler Flowers (a much better receiver) and Detroit’s Alex Avila as good targets for the Nats to pursue.
Trade Rumblings: Lynn, Darvish, Strickland, Johnson, Cubs, Blevins
Teams around the league are waiting for the Cardinals to give a clear indication that they intend to trade right-hander Lance Lynn, tweets ESPN’s Buster Olney. The impending free agent is among the most sought-after assets in a thin market for starting pitching, Olney adds. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests, though, that the Cardinals haven’t exactly made Lynn’s availability a secret. St. Louis is “in the process of generating a market and offers” for Lynn, according to Goold, though they’re also still trying to acquire a bat to put in the middle of their lineup. Goold speculates that once Sonny Gray is finally traded, other clubs may then pivot to the Redbirds and make their best offer for Lynn, who hasn’t had any substantive talks with Cardinals brass about an extension. The Yankees have interest in Lynn, per Goold, who also notes that the Dodgers and Indians have scouted St. Louis recently. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that the Royals have also had recent talks with the Cardinals about Lynn.
More trade rumblings with the non-waiver deadline now less than 72 hours away…
- Yu Darvish is still the Dodgers’ top target, but the team isn’t likely to surrender any of its “very top prospects” in order to pry him away from the Rangers, per Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. The Dodgers view Sonny Gray as a fallback option for Darvish, who is also drawing interest from the Yankees, Cubs and Astros, according to Heyman.
- ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets that the Giants are open to moving Hunter Strickland but feel that the vast number of relief options available on the trade market could prevent them from extracting max value. As such, San Francisco may simply elect to hold onto the 28-year-old with the intent of pairing him with Mark Melancon, a returning Will Smith and a seemingly rejuvenated Sam Dyson at the back of the bullpen in 2018. (On a somewhat related note, MLBTR recently ran down the trade market for right-handed relievers and for left-handed relievers.)
- Also from Crasnick (Twitter link), the Braves are listening to offers for right-hander Jim Johnson, though they’re not actively trying to move the veteran, either. The 34-year-old is playing out the first season of a two-year, $10MM extension inked last October. He’s worked to a 4.10 ERA through 41 2/3 frames, albeit with a career-high 10.8 K/9 that has contributed to a more encouraging 3.21 SIERA mark. Johnson’s 50.5 percent ground-ball rate is the lowest of his career, though, and his 3.2 BB/9 represents his highest mark since a brutal 2014 season.
- The Cubs have been oft-connected to Tigers catcher Alex Avila as they seek to acquire a more experienced backup option to young Willson Contreras, but MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that Avila is one of many names on the Cubs’ list. He’s not a priority for the Cubs, per Rosenthal, who adds that Chicago is seeking more of a defense-first upgrade. MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets that Chicago could be in on Marlins veteran A.J. Ellis as a possible option. Among the catchers that are likely to be available, Rene Rivera may well have the best defensive reputation.
- Newsday’s Marc Carig tweets that teams have continued to call the Mets on the availability of left-hander Jerry Blevins, but GM Sandy Alderson and his staff aren’t keen on moving the 33-year-old. Blevins is viewed by the Mets as an important piece to the team’s 2018 plans, per Carig. Blevins is much more of a specialist than fellow southpaw trade candidates Justin Wilson and Brad Hand, having limited same-handed opponents to a putrid .173/.230/.185 batting line. Conversely, right-handed opponents have absolutely clobbered Blevins (.316/.469/.632) through 49 plate appearances. He’s earning $5.5MM i 2017 and has a $7MM club option for the 2018 campaign.
Heyman’s Latest: Royals, Lynn, Gray, Rockies, Brewers
In his Inside Baseball column today, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag takes a look at some of the most important remaining trade deadline scenarios. He also runs down some news and notes from both the American League and National League. Among the highlights with relevance to the trade market:
- The Royals remain on the hunt for rotation help even after netting Trevor Cahill, Heyman writes. (That much may be evidenced by their apparent talks for Francisco Liriano, which are reportedly progressing.) Heyman notes that Kansas City even called the Athletics on Sonny Gray and the Rangers on Yu Darvish, though the team was realistic about the fact that it doesn’t have much of a chance of outbidding the competition for either player.
- If the Cardinals ultimately make Lance Lynn available, the Yankees would have interest in the right-hander, though Sonny Gray remains New York’s top target. Lynn is a free agent at season’s end, and as such wouldn’t help fill any of the upcoming voids in the Yankees’ rotation after the 2017 season.
- The Braves have scouted Gray more than any team in the league, per Heyman, though they’re not currently believed to be the favorite to land him. Heyman notes that the money saved in the Jaime Garcia deal could help facilitate the acquisition of Gray, which is a suggestion that has been made in recent days. It seems worth bearing in mind, though, that Gray is only earning $3.575MM in 2017. Plus, any financial crunch the Braves had would only have been present due to the fact that the team acquired Garcia (and Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey) as stopgaps in the first place.
- Starting pitching remains a target area for the Rockies after picking up Pat Neshek in a trade, and Colorado even considered Darvish as an option, though the Rockies are unsurprisingly on Darvish’s no-trade list. (That’s not a knock on the Rockies by any means, but I’d imagine that most pitchers, if given the opportunity, would want to safeguard themselves from being traded to pitch at Coors Field.)
- Brewers owner Mark Attanasio is more willing to part with top prospects in order to land Sonny Gray than his front office is, according to Heyman. General manager David Stearns and his staff are reluctant to part with the club’s very top prospects, and Attanasio has been deferring to the preferences of his baseball operations staff. The Athletics are eyeing center field prospect Lewis Brinson, Heyman continues, but it seems that the Brewers’ front office isn’t keen on parting with that level of talent.
- It’s been reported that the Mets are likely to hang onto lefty Jerry Blevins, and Heyman notes that GM Sandy Alderson’s rationale is that if he traded Blevins, he’d merely be looking to fill that void with a free agent in a market where most relievers will enter the offseason seeking three-year deals. (Of course, that logic could also be used to argue that Blevins’ value is all the higher, and the Mets managed to pick up Blevins on a one-year guarantee even though he reportedly sought three years himself early last offseason. Boone Logan, who also signed a one-year deal in Cleveland, was also reportedly seeking three at one point.)
Braves To Option Dansby Swanson
The Braves are sending shortstop Dansby Swanson down to Triple-A Gwinnett to receive everyday at-bats as they look to break him out of a lengthy slump, tweets Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
[Related: Updated Atlanta Braves depth chart]
The No. 1 overall pick by the Diamondbacks in the 2015 draft, Swanson was traded to the Braves alongside Ender Inciarte and Aaron Blair in the widely panned Shelby Miller trade. After just 529 minor league plate appearances, he burst onto the scene with a .302/.361/.442 batting line through 145 plate appearances late in the 2016 season.
Swanson got off to a terrible start to the season but righted the ship from early May through July 1, hitting .282/.352/.420 with a dozen doubles and four homers through 196 plate appearances. Unfortunately, he’d fallen into a brutal 2-for-40 slump and begun to lose some playing time to the hotter-hitting Johan Camargo.
By all accounts, Swanson is still largely viewed as the shortstop of the future in Atlanta despite what can be described, at best, as an up and down 2017 campaign. He’s yet to take a full season’s worth of plate appearances in the Majors or in the minors, so at 23 years of age Swanson should hardly be considered any kind of lost cause. In all likelihood, Swanson will get another chance to prove himself at the Major League level later this season after working to sort out some kinks in a lower-pressure environment.
From a service time standpoint, he’s currently just nine days away from reaching a full year, so it’s exceedingly likely that he’ll still end up with one-plus year of service this offseason. That’d still leave him on pace to be eligible for arbitration upon completion of the 2019 season and eligible for free agency in the 2022-23 offseason.
Rockies Seeking Catching Upgrades, Bullpen Arms
The Rockies are looking to upgrade behind the dish and are interested in Rangers catcher Jonathan Lucroy, reports T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. Sullivan’s colleague, Thomas Harding, reports that the Rox also have some interest in Braves backstop Kurt Suzuki and Tigers catcher Alex Avila.
All three of the options listed are set to hit free agency upon completion of the 2017 campaign, and none of the bunch is earning at a substantial rate. Lucroy’s $5.75MM salary is the heftiest of the bunch, while Avila is earning $2MM in 2017 and Suzuki is owed only the balance of a $1.5MM base salary (plus some modest incentives).
The 31-year-old entered the season as one of the consensus top free agents on the 2017-18 market, but he’s seen both his bat and his glove take steps backward in his first full season with Texas. After being acquired just prior to last year’s non-waiver deadline, Lucroy raked at an exceptional .276/.345/.539 pace with 11 homers in 168 plate appearances down the stretch. However, he’s batting just .240/.293/.339 through 294 plate appearances this season and has begun to cede some playing time to Robinson Chirinos.
Lucroy has caught 30 percent of those that have attempted to steal against him, but he’s also seen his once-vaunted framing numbers deteriorate to the point that Baseball Prospectus ranks him as one of the league’s worst pitch framers.
It’s the opposite story for the 30-year-old Avila, who has broken out in a substantial way in 2017. A well-above-average catcher with the Tigers in 2011-12, Avila’s career was mired in a downward spiral before a return to the Motor City sparked a renaissance. He’s hitting .280/.402/.488 with 11 homers through just 256 plate appearances and has slashed his strikeout rate from 37.3 percent in 2016 to a more passable (but still too high) 29.7 percent this year.
While many have questioned Avila’s ability to sustain this pace, there isn’t a player in baseball (min. 250 PAs) that has a higher hard-contact rate than Avila’s 50 percent. His 92 mph average exit velocity is also among the top 10 in the league, trailing only Aaron Judge, Miguel Sano, Khris Davis, Joey Gallo, Manny Machado and Nelson Cruz. He’s sporting a 31 percent caught-stealing rate but, like Lucroy, has received below-average marks in framing this year (albeit to a lesser extent than Lucroy).
Suzuki, meanwhile, is hitting .255/.340/.468 through 163 plate appearances in his first season with Atlanta. While SunTrust Park has a homer-friendly reputation, six of Suzuki’s eight big flies have come on the road this season. He’s caught a much-improved 26 percent of potential base thieves with the Braves and has demonstrated some improved but still shaky framing skills, per B-Pro.
The reason for the Rockies’ interest in catching upgrades isn’t difficult to see. Tony Wolters has shouldered the bulk of the time behind the dish this season, but he’s posted a meager .255/.351/.306 batting line, with much of that OBP boost coming from batting in front of Rockies pitchers. On the whole, Rockies backstops have posted a dismal .234/.313/.310 batting line — an especially unsightly level of output when considering their hitter-friendly home park.
Harding further reports that the Rox have “extensively” scouted Tigers left-hander Justin Wilson, adding names like Brad Brach, Zach Britton and AJ Ramos as other names the Rox have at least kept an eye on.
It’s not hard to connect some dots and expect that the Rox could have interest in a combo deal that would net them both Avila and Wilson from Detroit, though the asking price on that affordable and excellent pairing would figure to be high. Similarly, I’d imagine there’ve at least been internal discussions about the possibility of pairing one of the Baltimore relievers with Orioles catcher Welington Castillo, though his bat has cooled considerably since suffering a groin injury earlier this summer. That last connection is merely my own speculation, but if the Orioles do indeed listen on their relievers, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see them gauge interest in Castillo as well.