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Astros Interested In Danny Duffy, Yordano Ventura

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Royals starters Danny Duffy and Yordano Ventura are two of the pitchers on the Astros’ list of rotation targets, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports.  The two K.C. arms join several other previously-known names (i.e. Jose Quintana, Chris Archer, Jake Odorizzi and other Tampa Bay’s starters) as potential trade fits for a Houston team looking to upgrade its starting pitching.

Kansas City is known to be open to dealing notable players in order to cut short-term payroll, and the Royals have already made one big move in this regard by dealing Wade Davis to the Cubs for Jorge Soler.  Even with Davis gone, however, the Royals have several more possible trade chips who are only controllable over the next one or two seasons before hitting free agency.

Duffy fits into that category, as MLBTR projects the southpaw to earn $8.2MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility before hitting free agency after the 2017 season.  K.C. began preliminary extension talks with Duffy earlier this winter but were also gauging interest in his services during the Winter Meetings.  Duffy, who turns 28 late this month, posted a 3.51 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 4.48 K/BB rate over 179 2/3 innings for Kansas City last year, finally solidifying himself as a member of the rotation after being used as a part-time reliever in the previous two seasons and at the start of 2016.

While Duffy would be a one-year rental, Ventura is locked up through at least 2019 due to a contract extension that includes club options for both 2020 and 2021.  Ventura is guaranteed $20.25MM through 2019 and, if both options are exercised, Ventura’s deal would cost $43.25MM over the five seasons.  Even if Ventura merely continues to post numbers akin to his only-okay 2016 season (4.45 ERA, 50.2% grounder rate, 6.97 K/9, 1.85 K/BB rate over 186 innings), that deal is still very good value given the rising costs of starting pitching, and it could become a major bargain should Ventura take a step forward in performance.

Ventura has been the subject of controversy due to reported maturity issues and his two suspensions for throwing at batters, though the Royals denied reports that they were shopping the righty last summer.  One would think that given Ventura’s age (25) and reasonable contract, the Royals would see him as a long-term building block rather than as a trade chip.  Their willingness to least listen to other clubs’ offers could be due to doubts about his personality, or it could just be due diligence, as Ventura’s years of control could net K.C. a nice return in a trade.

The Astros have a deep minor league system that could satisfy the Royals or other teams looking for young talent, and Houston could also offer starting pitching of its own in the form of Collin McHugh or Mike Fiers.  Since the Royals plan to contend next season, they could fit as a team that would take on a solid rotation piece like McHugh or Fiers rather than just prospects in exchange for a pitcher; the Davis trade, for instance, netted the Royals a player in Soler who they expect to contribute immediately.

Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers, McHugh, Fiers and the newly-signed Charlie Morton project as Houston’s rotation.  It’s an unspectacular but solid rotation, and one that could look better on paper if Keuchel returns to his Cy Young Award form of 2015.

White Sox Asked Astros For Musgrove, Martes, Tucker In Return For Jose Quintana

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During the Winter Meetings, it emerged that the Astros had asked the White Sox about lefty Jose Quintana, and that the Astros believed the White Sox’ price to be too steep. Today, Peter Gammons tweets that the White Sox asked the Astros for big-league righty Joe Musgrove plus their top two prospects, righty Francis Martes and outfielder Kyle Tucker.

The White Sox’ ask continued their pattern of aiming high (which has worked twice so far this week) and suggests it might be true that, as has previously been reported, the White Sox see no pressing need to trade Quintana, who is controllable at reasonable prices through 2020. The 27-year-old Quintana has emerged as a workhorse, throwing 200-plus high-quality innings in each of the last four seasons. Last season, he posted a 3.20 ERA, 7.8 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 208 frames.

The 24-year-old Musgrove had a successful rookie season last year, posting a 4.06 ERA, 8.0 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 62 innings. Baseball America ranked him the No. 86 prospect in baseball heading into the season.

Martes has emerged as the Astros’ best prospect since arriving from the Marlins’ system in the Jarred Cosart deal in 2014. The 21-year-old posted a 3.30 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 125 1/3 innings at Double-A Corpus Christi in 2016, winning praise from MLB.com (which ranks him the No. 29 prospect in the game) for his 93-95 MPH fastball and filthy curveball.

Tucker was the fifth overall pick in the 2015 draft, and MLB.com now ranks him the No. 50 prospect in baseball. The 19-year-old held his own at Class A Quad Cities in 2016, batting .276/.348/.402, then hit very well in a small sample after heading to Class A+ Lancaster.

Astros Tried For Chris Sale

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  • On Wednesday, the White Sox shipped ace lefty Chris Sale to the Red Sox in exchange for a heralded foursome of prospects. That swap, and its build-up, dominated the headlines at the Winter Meetings. Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski discussed the process that led to the move in an excellent interview with Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. He not only provided an interesting account of the information gathering and processing that goes on at the Winter Meetings, as teams jockey for position and look to arrange fits on trades and signings, but went into the details on the pursuit of Sale. The sides built off of their prior “preliminary conversations,” and honed in on an agreement late Tuesday night as the sides began to line up on the complementary pieces that would go to Chicago along with the two headlining prospects (Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech). Momentum seemingly began to build as early as Friday, before the meetings kicked off, as Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com explains. It was at that point that White Sox GM Rick Hahn notified Dombrowski that he’d be willing to consider a different sort of return — presumably, top minor leaguers rather than young MLB assets — than had been discussed over the summer. The Nationals and Astros also dangled significant pieces; Hahn notes that “there were similar-type players being offered from other clubs,” leading to “a level of excitement in that room as we debated which was the best path for us.”

Astros To Sign Reid Brignac

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  • The Astros added infielder Reid Brignac on a minor-league deal, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports on Twitter. His contract includes a spring invite. Brignac, 30, has bounced around quite a bit since his days as a frequent contributor to the Rays earlier in his career, appearing most recently with the Braves. The former top prospect has appeared in each of the last nine major league seasons, but hasn’t cracked 100 plate appearances in a single year since 2011. All told, Brignac owns a .219/.264/.309 batting line over 951 trips to the plate in the majors.

Astros Agree To New Deal With Cuban Lefty Cionel Perez

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The Astros and young Cuban left-hander Cionel Perez have agreed to a new deal that comes with a $2MM signing bonus, reports MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). Houston and Perez had originally agreed to a $5.15MM signing bonus back in September, but in October it was reported by Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and ESPN’s Keith Law that the deal had been voided for medical reasons. The precise medical problem that derailed the first deal remains unclear.

The new arrangement comes with less financial risk for Astros, who in addition to the bonus figure are also on the hook for a 100 percent luxury tax due to the fact that they’d already exceeded their 2016-17 international bonus pool. As such, Perez drops from a $10.3MM total expenditure to a $4MM total expenditure for the Astros, who clearly are intrigued by Perez’s talent despite some apparent physical red flags.

Perez, 21 next April, ranks fourth on Sanchez’s list of top 30 international prospects at MLB.com. He’s undersized, though Sanchez notes that he still has room to add to his 5’11”, 170-pound frame. Perez already features a fastball in the 92-95mph range, and that velocity could tick upward a bit as he continues to grow. Perez also shows good feel for a slider and changeup, Sanchez continues. Longenhagen offered similarly high praise for Perez at Fangraphs, rating him seventh among international prospects. While Longenhagen’s report is down a bit more on Perez’s slider, he also notes that Perez flashes a potentially plus curveball. At the time of Perez’s original signing, Baseball America’s Ben Badler wrote that the changeup was a fairly new pitch for Perez, who has only added it since leaving Cuba. His slider has improved since leaving Cuba as well, Badler notes.

Perez spent just two seasons playing in the Cuban National Series, logging a 2.20 ERA while pitching as a professional at ages 17 and 18. He totaled 139 innings with 100 strikeouts against 61 walks, although 13 of those free passes were issued intentionally. Perez should be ticketed for the lower levels of the minor leagues to begin his pro career in the United States.

AL Notes: Chapman, Yankees, Encarnacion, Astros, Tigers

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The Yankees believe that the Marlins’ unexpected pursuit of Aroldis Chapman — Miami reportedly offered Chapman a five-year deal worth $87MM — forced New York to spend about $10-15MM more than they would otherwise have had to offer in order to finalize the deal, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Sherman also adds that the Yankees are still hoping to add a starting pitcher and multiple relievers (one of the left-handed variety), though the Cashman said earlier this week that he doesn’t anticipate adding a free-agent starter due to the high asking prices around the league (via Sherman’s colleague George A. King III).

More from around the American League…

  • In an interesting read for Yankees fans (or for any fan, really), Mike Axisa of River Ave. Blues examines the decision to re-sign Chapman from a variety of angles. Axisa questions whether the Yankees, who currently look to be a ways behind Boston in terms of expected 2017 performance, did the right thing in “paying a lot of money now to buy Chapman for the future” and notes the possibility that Chapman will be opting out of his deal just as the bulk of New York’s vaunted young talent is solidifying itself at the big league level. The move also flies somewhat in the face of the desire to get below the luxury tax threshold, Axisa observes, and there are of course ongoing public relations considerations due to last October’s domestic violence allegations.
  • Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet tweets that many in the industry still consider the Rangers to be the most logical landing spot for free agent Edwin Encarnacion. Texas reportedly feels that it doesn’t have the financial means to fit Encarnacion into the budget, but GM Jon Daniels and his staff have certainly made some creative value plays for free agents whose markets have crumbled a bit in the past.
  • The Astros prefer not to move upper-level prospects in their search for rotation upgrades, GM Jeff Luhnow tells MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. Houston has been asked about top prospect Francis Martes on numerous occasions, McTaggart writes, though Luhnow downplayed the possibility of dealing the right-hander. “The players we’re staying away from are the players that are probably going to start the year on the big league club and are key parts of the 2017 plan,” said the Houston GM. “Martes is a very valuable player, and very valuable players that are close to the big leagues get asked about a lot. That’s no different with him. It would take something significant for us to move him.” McTaggart also notes that outfield prospect Kyle Tucker is “generally considered untouchable.”
  • The Tigers aren’t pursuing an Andrew McCutchen trade tweets MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. They’ve also yet to get involved with the recently non-tendered Ben Revere, tweets MLB.com’s Jason Beck. Detroit has a clear question mark in center field at the moment, but the team is also well-known to be striving to shed payroll and get younger. With that in mind, a pursuit of McCutchen never would’ve made much sense for GM Al Avila’s club, though Revere could be a low-cost option that would have plenty of surplus value in the event of a rebound from last year’s disastrous season.

Latest On Jose Quintana’s Market

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8:34pm: The Astros did, in fact, talk to the White Sox about Quintana, but have found the White Sox’ price to be too steep, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle writes. Kaplan notes that it’s unclear whether the Astros would have to give up Bregman to get Quintana, but notes that he doesn’t want to part with players who could help the Astros next season. “We’re just not prepared to trade away players that are core to our production in 2017, and those are sometimes the players that are required to get these deals done,” says GM Jeff Luhnow.

The Braves also asked about Quintana and thought the White Sox’ price was too high, writes David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The problem seems to be that the Braves don’t feel Quintana is as valuable as Sale was, even though Quintana is controllable for an extra year. “We don’t have needs in starting pitching,” says GM John Coppolella. “Do we want a No. 1 starter, is Chris Sale a No. 1 starter? Yes. Do we want Jose Quintana? I don’t think Jose Quintana is Chris Sale.”

8:51am: A day after trading Chris Sale to the Red Sox, the White Sox are now “in serious talks” with multiple teams about their other star left-hander Jose Quintana, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link).  The Astros and Nationals are two of the clubs involved in discussions.

The Astros were rumored to have interest in Sale, but Houston’s refusal to include Alex Bregman in any trade likely removed them from the bidding, given how Chicago was looking for only elite prospects for Sale (like maybe the game’s best prospect in Yoan Moncada).  The White Sox undoubtedly want quite a bit for Quintana as well, though their demands could be closer to the Astros’ comfort zone.

Houston has heavily bolstered its lineup this offseason with the additions of Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Josh Reddick, though Charlie Morton has been the only new face brought into a rotation that fell short of expectations in 2016.  The Astros have been creatively both shopping starters (Mike Fiers and Collin McHugh) while also looking at upgrades; in particular, Houston has often been linked to the Rays’ pitchers in trade talks, even dating back to last summer’s trade deadline.

The Nationals’ interest in Quintana is a bit harder to gauge.  While Nightengale and FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman have both reported that the Nats were in on Quintana, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal and the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes have reported that Washington was only specifically interested in Sale, not in any other starting pitchers.  While the Nationals have a very good rotation already, Quintana (and his team-friendly contract that is extendable through 2020) could still be an upgrade.  Stephen Strasburg can opt out of his deal after the 2019 season, Gio Gonzalez is only controllable via a club option through 2018 and the Nats might simply see Quintana as a more proven commodity than youngster Joe Ross.  In fact, a controllable young starter like Ross would be a potential fit for a Quintana trade package.

While often overshadowed by Sale in Chicago, Quintana has rather quietly been a very durable and effective pitcher over his five years with the White Sox.  Quintana has a 3.41 ERA, 3.20 K/BB rate, 7.4 K/9 over 951 career innings, and over the last four seasons, he has generated 18.2 fWAR and averaged 204 innings per year.  An early-career extension has made Quintana even more of a valuable commodity, as he is owed just $14.35MM through 2018, plus $10.5MM club options for both 2019 and 2020 (with $1MM buyouts in each year).

Astros Sign C.J. Riefenhauser To Minors Deal

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  • The Astros signed southpaw C.J. Riefenhauser to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports.  Riefenhauser was traded from the Rays to the Mariners to the Orioles last winter before being claimed off waivers by the Cubs in February, and he posted a 4.55 ERA over 27 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level.  Chicago released him in August.  In 20 career MLB innings with the Rays in 2014-15, Riefenhauser posted a 6.30 ERA, nine strikeouts and nine non-intentional walks.

Astros Introduce Carlos Beltran

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  • New Astros signee Carlos Beltran was introduced to media (including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart) during his introductory press conference today, and he said the Astros quickly drew his attention in free agency.  “They really made an offer early, faster than any other team….The fact they were aggressive and went out there and really showed big-time interest, it wasn’t that difficult to make to make a decision,” Beltran said.

Chris Sale Rumors: Monday

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Chris Sale’s name figures to dominate headlines in the coming days as baseball’s Winter Meetings pick up steam. We’ll track all of today’s updates on his market in this post…

  • The White Sox continue to put a high price on Sale’s services, and teams in the hunt for the lefty tell ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark (Twitter link) that they don’t expect a deal to be completed at the Winter Meetings.
  • Some in the White Sox organization feel Sale will eventually break down with injuries, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports (subscription required), which could be part of the reason why rival executives and evaluators feel the Sox are more ardently pursuing a deal now than they were at the July trade deadline.  Questions about Sale’s mechanics have plagued the lefty even since before he was drafted, though he has been generally healthy throughout his big league career.

Earlier updates

  • The Nationals are stepping up their efforts to acquire Sale from the White Sox, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. The Nats and White Sox are meeting this afternoon to discuss Sale according to Heyman, who also notes that the Red Sox and other teams are also still in the mix for Sale. Washington reportedly believes it has the prospects to add both Sale and Andrew McCutchen in a trade, though doing so would obviously come with a lofty asking price that would require GM Mike Rizzo to part with a significant portion of his farm system (and likely some MLB-ready talent as well). Trea Turner is reportedly off limits in trade talks, though the Nats have plenty of other young talent to entice other clubs.
  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted this morning that rival execs get the sense that the Nationals and Astros are the most aggressive teams on the Sale market, and the Braves are in the picture as well. As is the case with the Nats and Turner, the Astros (Alex Bregman) and Braves (Dansby Swanson) each have a young core player whom they effectively deem to be untouchable in trade talks, even for someone of Sale’s caliber.
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