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Dodgers Acquire Tony Cingrani

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The Dodgers have added another lefty, picking up Tony Cingrani from the Reds. In return, Cincinnati has acquired outfielder Scott Van Slyke and catcher Hendrik Clementina.

Jul 26, 2017; Bronx, NY, USA; Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Tony Cingrani (52) pitches against the New York Yankees during the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

Cingrani joins Tony Watson as southpaw bullpen additions for Los Angeles, which came into the deadline looking to bolster that facet of the relief corps. The 28-year-old Cingrani has posted a mediocre 5.40 ERA on the year, but he’s carrying 9.3 K/9 with 2.3 BB/9 to go with it. The real issue thus far has been a monumental home run problem: Cingrani is allowing 3.47 per nine, with 29% of the fly balls he permits leaving the yard.

Oddly, Cingrani has struggled badly against same-handed hitters, allowing six long balls from just 43 lefties he has squared off against. That figures to balance back out somewhat, though, as he has limited lefty hitters to a .218/.305/.407 slash over his career (including this year’s ugly results).

Assuming those issues can be brought under control, Cingrani will add a power arm to the L.A. pen. He carries a 12.4% swinging-strike rate and is averaging a healthy 94.6 mph with his fastball. Cingrani represents an affordable option with some future value, too. He is earning just $1.825MM this year and can be offered arbitration over the next two seasons.

Van Slyke, 31, is another powerful corner outfield option that the Reds have added from the NL West. It’s not immediately clear whether he’ll have much function on the roster, though, and he’ll mostly offset Cingrani’s remaining salary obligations. The real motivation for Cincinnati was surely to add the twenty-year-old Clementina. He’s a Curacaoan backstop who has turned it up at the plate this year in Rookie ball, slashing .370/.439/.554 in a limited 108 plate appearance sample.

Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Cingrani was on the move (via Twitter). Ken Rosenthal of MLB Network (Twitter link) connected him to the Dodgers, while Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted the return.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Reds Place Zack Cozart On 10-Day DL

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The Reds have announced that they’ve placed shortstop Zack Cozart on the 10-day DL, recalling righty Kevin Shackleford from Triple-A Louisville to take his place. Cozart has been out since Tuesday after aggravating a quad injury, as Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported yesterday.

“I’m just going to obviously have to deal with the rest of the year,” Cozart said. “I’d like to get whatever happened on Tuesday to calm down a little more so I can just go back to the way I was before Tuesday.”

[Related: Updated Cincinnati Reds Depth Chart]

The move suggests the Reds won’t be trading Cozart before Monday’s deadline. Cozart has hit brilliantly (.317/.402/.568) over 322 plate appearances this season and is eligible for free agency next winter, but rumors about him were somewhat scarce in a market in which there was limited need for shortstops. He was briefly connected to the Red Sox before their acquisition of Eduardo Nunez to help at third base.

NL Deadline Chatter: Nats, Hand, Cards, Cozart, Cubs, Mets

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The Nationals are “scouring [the] market” for a starter, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). We have heard varying suggestions on this front, as the Nats deal with the loss of Joe Ross and newfound uncertainty regarding Stephen Strasburg. While the latest signs on Stras are positive, Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post argues that the club ought to going after a front-line starter regardless. Beyond the possibility of augmenting the club’s staff for an anticipated postseason appearance this year, the possibility of adding an arm for 2018 and perhaps beyond would seem to hold appeal, perhaps adding to the justification for making a move.

Here’s more deadline chatter from the National League:

  • Padres chairman Ron Fowler suggested today in a radio appearance on The Mighty 1090 that he doesn’t really expect the team to end up dealing lefty Brad Hand (h/t Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune). “Other things being equal right now, I don’t see us moving him, because we value him more than what’s being offered and we think he could be part of the team for the foreseeable future,” Fowler stated. That said, he acknowledged the team remains open to working out a deal, calling it “a very fluid situation.”
  • Though it’s still unclear just what course the Cardinals will take at the deadline, the club is now “expected to listen to offers” on outfielders Tommy Pham and Randal Grichuk, according to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. While the Cards do now have quite a few options in the corner outfield, both of these players seem to fall in a curious spot in the potential market. There just isn’t much deadline demand in the corner outfield to drive up prices, and the Cards would surely be valuing their lengthy control rights in exploring potential deals. While there’d surely be interest, neither really looks to be a likely deadline mover from the outside. Of course, St. Louis also has some shorter-term assets that might be of interest — Lance Lynn, Seung-hwan Oh, and Trevor Rosenthal chief among them — and Morosi does note that the Dodgers and Nationals had scouts at the club’s latest game last night. Whether the Cardinals will really punt on the present season when the division is still in reach, though, is hardly clear at this point.
  • The Reds held shortstop Zack Cozart out of the lineup today as he continues to deal with quad issues, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes. It seems the hope is that this is more a rest day than the precursor to a DL stint, but it’s not the best news regardless. Cozart has been great this year, but the quad problem further dents his value in a market that doesn’t seem to have much appetite for shortstops.
  • Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein says there’s nothing close to completion at this point for his team, as Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio of Sirius XM tweets. The team is unsurprisingly still looking at pitching, with the rotation and relief corps both being susceptible of improvement.
  • The Cubs are among the teams to have asked the Mets about righty Seth Lugo, per ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). But there’s simply no indication at present that New York will seriously entertain offers on Lugo, as Crasnick and Newsday’s Marc Carig (Twitter link) note. That makes sense given the multitude of pitching injuries the organization has experienced as well as its intentions of competing again in 2018.
  • Some interest has begun to develop in Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). The veteran obviously is very much available, and would conceivably fit quite a few teams as a lefty-hitting outfielder who can still handle some time in center field. On the other hand, he has been hurt and cold at the plate of late, and is playing on a hefty $15MM salary this year.

Dilson Herrera To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Reds infielder Dilson Herrera will undergo surgery to remove bone spurs from his right shoulder, as C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports on Twitter. The procedure is expected to bring Herrera’s season to an end, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon (via Twitter).

Herrera has tasted the majors previously, during his time with the Mets, but has spent his entire tenure in the Reds organization at Triple-A since coming over in last year’s Jay Bruce swap. Shoulder troubles had increasingly become a concern for the 23-year-old over the course of the year.

The news brings an unhappy end to what has been a challenging season for Herrera. Expected to push for MLB time, he has managed only a .264/.312/.397 batting line with seven home runs over 264 plate appearances. If he’s able to return to health in time, a fall or winter ball stint may be in the cards.

It had been hoped that Herrera would play a significant role on the Reds’ 2018 roster. While that may still occur, he has surely fallen behind the surprising Scooter Gennett in the pecking order at second base.

Dilson Herrera May Be Out For Season

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  • The Reds may not get a look at Dilson Herrera in 2017, as Triple-A manager Delino DeShields recently told Redleg Nation’s Jason Linden, “from what I’ve been told, he’s probably done for the year” due to a shoulder injury. Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that no one in the Cincinnati front office has offered such a definitive take just yet, though he reports that team doctors are set to evaluate Herrera in Cincinnati this week. Acquired in last year’s Jay Bruce trade, the 23-year-old Herrera hit .264/.312/.397 in 265 Triple-A plate appearances this season. Herrera also battled shoulder issues in 2016 and spent most of this past Spring Training as a DH due to his shoulder.

Red Sox Scouting Zack Cozart

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  • The Red Sox have been scouting Reds shortstop Zack Cozart, CSNNE.com’s Evan Drellich reports (via Twitter), though with the caveat that teams around the league are doing their due diligence on many options at this time of year.  MLBTR’s Jeff Todd cited Cozart as a possible creative choice for Boston’s third base problem last month, and obviously the Sox will continue to explore possibilities until they get a sense of what Devers can do in the bigs.  Cozart has been on fire at the plate this year, though as Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, the shortstop is still being careful about re-aggravating the right quad injury that led to a brief DL stint in June.

Reds Complete Key Phase Of Rebuild

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  • The Reds completed the most crucial stage of their rebuild in the last 13 months, Zach Buchanan and C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer write. “You say talent acquisition is part of the rebuild,” says GM Dick Williams. “It really is the rebuild. That’s what it is all about, dedicating as much of our resources as we can to a large influx of talent in a short period of time.” They’ve had two strong draft classes led by 2016 first-rounder Nick Senzel and 2017 second overall pick Hunter Greene, and they’ve spent heavily on Latin American players like Victor Ruiz, Vladimir Gutierrez, Alfredo Rodriguez and Jose Israel Garcia.

Reds Rumors: Iglesias, Feldman, Cozart, Storen

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Though Raisel Iglesias’ name has somewhat frequently been mentioned on the rumor circuit, Reds general manager Dick Williams tells Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he’s not marketing his closer to other teams. That doesn’t mean that Williams won’t listen to offers on the 27-year-old, but the GM’s comments suggest that a trade isn’t especially likely “[I]f somebody really gave you an opportunity to improve your franchise, you’d have to consider it,” said Williams of listening to offers on Iglesias. “But I really like a lot of the pieces we have, and I see us not that far from being competitive if we can get some of these young pitchers to turn the corner. If I were to trade him, you’d want something back that could help us real soon.”

  • From that same piece, Williams tells Buchanan that he’s more open-minded when it comes to dealing impending free agents such as Zack Cozart, Drew Storen and recently injured Scott Feldman. The knee injury that landed Feldman on the disabled list seems particularly unfortunate, as Buchanan reports that the Reds had received trade interest in Feldman prior to that issue. His timetable for a return isn’t yet known. There’s technically time for him to be activated before the deadline if it proves to be short-term in nature, though one can imagine that most interested parties would prefer to see him make a start before moving forward with a trade. Buchanan also speculates on the possibility of a Tony Cingrani trade, noting that he’s pitching well and controlled for two more seasons, while Cincinnati has quite a few younger arms it’d like to take a look at in the ’pen.

Reds Place Scott Feldman On 10-Day DL

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The Reds have placed righty Scott Feldman on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. His precise injury situation isn’t yet known, but the placement is clearly related to Feldman’s early exit with an apparent knee injury yesterday, as C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The 34-year-old has evidently been dealing with the balky joint for some time, but the situation reached a breaking point yesterday. Feldman was knocked around, exhibiting severely diminished velocity before he was pulled after just one inning.

With the move, the Reds have not only suffered yet another hit to their beleaguered rotation, but may have lost one of their more likely deadline trade pieces. Feldman has been solid all year long, with a 4.34 ERA even after his brutal outing. With only a $2.3MM base salary, he looked to be an affordable depth option for organizations hoping to shore up their rotations down the stretch.

It’s still conceivable that Feldman could be dealt, but the Reds will have a much harder time achieving a worthwhile return. The 13-year MLB veteran won’t return until just before the deadline, if he’s able to make it back by that point at all. And while he could conceivably be moved during August, that’s not typically a time when sellers have much leverage.

Reds May Listen On Iglesias, Unlikely To Meet Cozart's Asking Price In Extension Talks

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  • Meanwhile, in his NL Notes column, Heyman writes that the Reds are believed to be willing to listen to offers on closer Raisel Iglesias but would only move him for a package that would “blow them away.” The 27-year-old Iglesias has emerged as one of baseball’s best relievers and is controllable through the 2020 season. He’s affordable at the moment ($3.5MM in 2017), but his contract allows him to opt into arbitration once eligible, so his salary is going to balloon quite a bit between now and 2020. Heyman also notes that the Reds would be interested in a two- or possibly three-year deal with Zack Cozart but recognize that he can earn more than they’re willing to pay when he gets to free agency.
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