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Athletics, Royals Swap Billy Burns, Brett Eibner

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The Athletics and Royals have announced a swap of outfielders, with the fleet-footed Billy Burns headed to Kansas City in exchange for Brett Eibner. Both were playing at the Triple-A level for their respective teams, but have been in the majors at points earlier in the year.

Billy Burns

[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals Depth Charts]

Burns, 26, brings to Kansas City an elite set of wheels that should play well in the spacious outfield at Kauffman Stadium, and his overall skill set should fit in well with the Royals’ general style of play. Burns boasts an extremely high contact rate and has fanned in just 13 percent of his plate appearances at the Major League level, which is characteristic of the approach the Royals have utilized to great effect in the past two seasons. However, his overall offensive game took a notable step back in his sophomore season. After posting a .294/.334/.392 slash in 555 PAs last season (good for fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, though that award was really a two-horse race), Burns batted just .234/.270/.302 in 292 PAs before being optioned back to Triple-A earlier this summer.

Eibner, 27, has just 85 plate appearances at the Major League level, where he’s batted .231/.286/.429 with three homers and six doubles. He ranked among the Royals top 30 prospects, per Baseball America, in each of the past five offseasons, checking in at No. 17 overall on the two most recent iterations of said list. Though the former second-rounder is older than most would associate with the term “prospect,” he does have an impressive track record in Triple-A, where he’s hit .280/.354/.471 with 37 homers in 961 plate appearances in parts of three seasons. Oakland has been home to no shortage of late bloomers under president of baseball operations Billy Beane, and the hope for Eibner is that he’ll seemingly be the next such success story.

Depending on the Royals’ plans for Burns, he could be controllable through the 2020 or 2021 season. Burns entered the season with one year and 20 days of big league service time, and he picked up an additional 97 days of Major League service before being optioned out earlier this month. He’d need another 55 days of service time in the Majors this year to reach two full years, which would put him on track for free agency following the 2020 season. However, if the Royals view him as more of a September call-up for the expansion of Major League rosters, Burns will fall shy and won’t be eligible until following the 2021 campaign. Eibner, meanwhile, is controllable through the 2022 seeason.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Injury Notes: Valbuena, Bourjos, Morrison, Boxberger, Cain, Pollock

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Injuries always play a major role in shaping the trade deadline; indeed, waiting to see how health issues shake out is one of the biggest reasons that clubs wait until they are under the gun to make their moves. We already have covered some notable recent developments — Rich Hill isn’t yet ready for a start for the Athletics; Mets center fielder Juan Lagares just went down to thumb surgery; the Rangers lost Prince Fielder for the season; and Royals reliever Luke Hochevar is likely headed for his own season-ending surgery.

Here are a few more less-impactful, but still notable injury updates from recent days:

  • The Astros added infielder Luis Valbuena to the DL yesterday with a hamstring injury, as Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle tweets. Though it still seems like a relatively minor injury, it could shake things up for Houston. For one thing, it likely means extended exposure at the hot corner for top prospect Alex Bregman. For another, it could increase the need to get just-signed Cuban infielder Yulieski Gurriel into minor league action and then up to the majors. The really interesting question, though, is whether the injury opens some added daylight for the ’Stros to go after a big bat on the trade market. And it goes without saying that the injury snuffs out whatever meager chance there was that Valbuena would be moved as part of Houston’s deadline machinations. [Updated Astros Depth Chart]
  • This one is from two days back, but the Phillies’ placement of outfielder Peter Bourjos on the DL certainly seems to change things a bit on the center field market. He’d have represented a useful plug-in for teams in need of a swift-footed defender down the stretch. And even if his hot streak was destined to fizzle out, Bourjos has shown that he can still bring something to the table with the bat. As things stand, though, his shoulder is enough of a question mark that he’d be a tough player to add on speculation; given his cheap salary, moreover, Philadelphia will likely be forced to take a meager return should Bourjos be moved in the August waiver-wire period. [Updated Phillies Depth Chart]
  • Rays first baseman Logan Morrison has hit the shelf with a forearm strain, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported via Twitter. Given his struggles, Morrison’s departure from the first base market isn’t a major change. Still, though, Tampa Bay might have hoped to offload some of the remainder of Morrison’s $4.2MM salary this year, particularly given that he’ll be a free agent this fall. Though his overall .228/.304/.371 batting line on the year leaves quite a bit to be desired, LoMo has traditionally put up solid results (.754 OPS) against right-handed pitching. [Updated Rays Depth Chart]
  • Meanwhile, the Rays activated right-handed reliever Brad Boxberger from the DL. He still hasn’t made an appearance since returning from an oblique strain, and has only seen action in a single game this year. While that leaves him as an unlikely trade target, there’s an outside chance that a club seeking shelter from the high price tags on top pen arms could look for a buy-low opportunity. The Rays will surely hope he can rebuild some value over the next several months, but with Boxberger set to reach arbitration after the season, there’s likely to be added motivation to move him. Over his 178 MLB frames, Boxberger owns a 3.03 ERA with 11.9 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 — with even better results in 2014 — so there’s obviously some upside there.
  • To be sure, the odds of the Royals dealing Lorenzo Cain were always slight — even if the team is open to listening on him. But a hamstring injury and month-long layoff seemed to all but eliminate the already-feeble chances of a trade. Now Cain is back from the DL, and ready to get back to work at making this season’s batting line (.288/.338/.413) look more like that from 2015 (.307/.361/.477). It still seems that an offseason deal — if any — is more likely, but there’s no question that contenders would have serious interest in a player who has established himself as one of the game’s better all-around players in recent years. [Updated Royals Depth Chart]
  • Diamondbacks center fielder A.J. Pollock, who has missed the entire season after fracturing his elbow late this spring, faced live pitching for the first time yesterday, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. Pollock’s status won’t directly factor into the deadline; he’s not going anywhere and the D-Backs aren’t shopping for a replacement. Still, though, the fact that he seems to be making progress toward a return in 2016 may fortify Arizona’s resolve to maintain its course as a modest seller over the coming days.

Giants Looking At Royals' Pitching

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  • Even as the Marlins reportedly make their pitch for Andrew Cashner, the team is continuing to look far and wide for their rotation needs, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. He adds three more names that the club has asked about: Edinson Volquez of the Royals, Matt Shoemaker of the Angels, and Julio Teheran of the division-rival Braves. Nothing in the Miami system is off limits, per the report, including first baseman Josh Naylor and righty Luis Castillo — each of whom have been asked about quite frequently by other clubs, per Jackson. Rival clubs get the sense that the Marlins are “desperate” to bolster their rotation, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick tweets, but it’s still not entirely clear how the team will make that happen given its thin farm. Of course, as the examples of Naylor and Castillo show, the system isn’t devoid of talent, but it would certainly sting to part with the organization’s best pieces, and it’s not at all clear that those players would be enough to score a quality, controllable arm.
  • Despite moving to add infielder Eduardo Nunez tonight, the Giants are still focused on pitching, GM Bobby Evans tells reporters including Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area (via Twitter). It’s hard to draw a bead on the Giants’ favored targets, as ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick says they’re “blanketing” the market for starters and relievers (Twitter links). But the team is among may that have reached out to the Royals, so you can at least add some hypothetical new names to the long list of possibilities for San Francisco.

Royals Place Luke Hochevar On 15-Day DL

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TODAY: Though he’ll head in for a second opinion, skipper Ned Yost said that surgery is likely, Dodd tweets.

YESTERDAY: The Royals have placed reliever Luke Hochevar on the 15-day DL, per a team announcement. The team says that he is showing symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome, including numbness in his fingers, as Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports (Twitter links). Righty Brooks Pounders has been recalled to take Hochevar’s place on the active roster.

[Related: Updated Royals Depth Chart]

That’s highly unfortunate news for the 32-year-old, who has come back already from Tommy John surgery, which caused him to miss all of 2014. And it’s a blow for a Kansas City organization that could have used Hochevar down the stretch — or turned him into a decent prospect return in a trade.

Though he is only working to a 3.86 ERA on the year, Hochevar has punched out 9.6 and walked only 2.2 batters per nine. He’s still bringing a mid-90s fastball and generating a strong 13.4% swinging strike rate. While he doesn’t generate grounders like he used to and has been a bit homer-prone (1.45 per nine), Hochevar looked like a nice trade chip for K.C.

While it’s not yet known whether the Royals will sell, or where exactly they’d draw the line, Hochevar would have rated as a prime asset to move because of his contract. He’s earning a reasonable $5.5MM this year and seemed likely to turn down his side of a $7MM mutual option (which comes with a $500K buyout).

Now, it not only seems unlikely that Hochevar will be traded, but his entire career path is uncertain. There are a range of outcomes for a player who is diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome — which, it must be stressed, hasn’t yet been determined — but it’s unquestionably a significant malady with which to contend.

Royals Waiting To Determine Deadline Status, May Move On From Escobar

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  • The Royals will wait until the very last minute to decide if they’re going to sell off veteran pieces. Edinson Volquez, Kendrys Morales and Luke Hochevar — each of whom has a mutual option on his contract but is likely to hit the open market following the season — are among the team’s candidates to be traded if the Royals do sell. Interestingly, he also notes that there’s a belief that Kansas City will let Alcides Escobar go and replace him with Raul Mondesi Jr. I’d personally wonder if, even though he hasn’t performed well at the plate whatsoever, the Royals could generate some trade interest (either now or after the season) due to the $6.5MM club option ($500K buyout) on Escobar’s contract.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Royals Attempting To Package Ian Kennedy With Wade Davis In Trades

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The Royals are looking to capitalize on the demand for Wade Davis by attempting to package Ian Kennedy’s contract with him in trade talks, reports Yahoo’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). Passan notes that the Dodgers are one team with noted interest in Davis that could afford to take on the remainder of Kennedy’s enormous contract. Joel Sherman of the New York Post hears the same as Passan — that the Royals are trying to attach Kennedy’s onerous financial commitment to Davis in trade talks — though he gets the sense that the Dodgers wouldn’t be willing to take on that type of money to get their hands on Davis (links to Twitter).

While the asking price on Davis, in terms of prospects, has been said to be exceptionally high — Kansas City has reportedly targeted Lucas Giolito in exchange for him, and the Arodis Chapman package reportedly wouldn’t have been enough for Davis — absorbing Kennedy’s staggering contract would dramatically reduce the prospect capital required for any team to add Davis to its bullpen. Kennedy signed one of the most stunning and widely panned contracts of the offseason, securing a five-year $70MM contract that included an opt-out clause after the second year. He’s owed $2.7MM for the remainder of this season and a total of $65.2MM through the end of his deal in 2020. Kennedy could technically opt out after the 2017 season, in which case he’d “only” be owed $22.2MM through the end of next season, but based on his performance this year, that seems unlikely.

The 31-year-old Kennedy (32 in December) has pitched to a 4.41 ERA with 9.2 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a career-low 33.2 percent ground-ball rate in 2016. His 26 home runs allowed are the most in the league, and the dramatic spike he saw in his homer-to-flyball ratio last season hasn’t regressed whatsoever, still sitting at 17.3 percent. Given the increase of fly-balls he’s seen this year, that has made him even more homer-prone than he was in 2015 and resulted in a dismal 2.05 HR/9 rate. The Royals’ signing of Kennedy was a contributor to their franchise-record payroll this season, and the hefty financial commitment they made to him in the long term could impact the team’s ability to retain stars such as Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Davis — each of whom is a free agent following the 2017 season.

Of course, it could be a tough pill to swallow for the Dodgers to take an asset with as much trade value as Davis possesses and leverage him as a means of shedding payroll. The Royals could reasonably ask for a greater package than the one the Cubs surrendered for Chapman — Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford — given the extra year of control over Davis at a reasonable rate. However, the possibility also exists that Kansas City is trying to capitalize in fear of a potential decline or injury.

Davis has already missed time this season with a forearm strain, and while his ERA rests at an immaculate 1.60, the rest of his stats are far less encouraging. Davis’s strikeout rate has dipped from 13.6 K/9 in 2014 and 10.4 K/9 in to 2015 to a more mortal 8.6 K/9 in 2016. He’s also averaging four walks per nine innings this year — a noted increase over the 2.8 BB/9 he logged from 2014-15 — and has seen his fastball dip from an average of 95.8 mph in 2014-15 to 94.9 mph in 2016. Davis’ bottom-line results, of course, remain tantalizing, and his track record is among the best in the game. Nonetheless, there are at least some red flags that could give potential trade partners cause for concern, especially if they’re being asked to take on a contract as unappealing as Kennedy’s in conjunction with Davis himself.

Dodgers Interested In Wade Davis

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Royals closer Wade Davis is “someone who interests the Dodgers,” reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. The Dodgers, of course, have one of the best closers in all of baseball in the form of Kenley Jansen and actually rank first in the National League in bullpen ERA, but as Heyman notes, that didn’t stop the club from pursuing a massive bullpen upgrade this winter when they made a run at Aroldis Chapman. The Dodgers have been plagued all season by rotation injuries, and adding a reliever of Davis’ ilk would lessen the workload from a starting staff that is presently a bit of a question mark for Los Angeles. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is quite familiar with Davis, having drafted him while serving eas GM of the Rays. Davis, 30, has a 1.10 ERA in 32 2/3 innings this season and has a $10MM club option on his contract for the 2017 season. Theoretically, he could step into the ninth inning for the Dodgers next season if a trade does come to fruition, though it’d be a surprise if they didn’t at least attempt to re-sign Jansen.

  • Royals righty Luke Hochevar is a potential target for the Giants as San Francisco searches for relief upgrades, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Hochevar’s name hasn’t been out there much, but the mutual option on his contract means that he’ll almost certainly be a free agent at season’s end, as such options are rarely exercised. The former No. 1 overall pick has settled in as a quality bullpen arm in Kansas City and has recovered nicely from 2014 Tommy John surgery, as he owns a 3.86 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 36.1 percent ground-ball rate in 37 1/3 innings this year. While his velocity isn’t at its 95.5 mph peak from the 2013 season, he’s still averaging a strong 94.4 mph in 2016, and SIERA pegs him at a more favorable 3.16.

Royals Set High Price For Wade Davis In Past Trade Talks With Cubs

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Joel Sherman of the New York Post walks readers through the winding process the Cubs took to reach an agreement on an Aroldis Chapman trade with the Yankees. Per Sherman, the Cubs never wanted to pursue a rental pitcher but weren’t able to convince the Yankees to back down from their demand of Kyle Schwarber. Chicago then turned to the Royals, only to find the asking price on Wade Davis to be even higher than the asking price on Miller. The Cubs weren’t willing to deal from their big league roster to upgrade the ’pen but were willing to deal from their infield depth, parting with Class-A shortstop Gleyber Torres largely because of the presence of both Addison Russell and Javier Baez on the Major League roster. (Notably, Chicago also dealt from its first base depth in moving Dan Vogelbach for another left-handed reliever: Seattle’s Mike Montgomery.) Sherman adds that owner Hal Steinbrenner still wants to win in 2016 despite approving the Chapman swap, which calls into question whether the club would entertain even an overwhelming offer for Miller.

Latest On Nationals’ Search For Late-Inning Reliever

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The Nationals were in the mix for Aroldis Chapman right up until the end of the Yankees’ negotiations with the Cubs, reports ESPN’s Jayson Stark, and general manager Mike Rizzo and his staff are still on the hunt for a relief ace that could anchor the back of the bullpen and provide an upgrade over Jonathan Papelbon. Citing rival clubs that have spoken with the Nationals, Stark reports that Andrew Miller, Wade Davis and David Robertson are all on the radar for the Nats.

The asking price on Miller and Davis is said to be otherworldly, of course, as evidenced by a recent report from Yahoo’s Jeff Passan which stated that the Royals kicked around Lucas Giolito’s name when internally discussing the notion of trading Davis. Beyond that, Stark reported yesterday that the package sent from the Cubs to the Yankees in exchange for Chapman — Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford — wouldn’t have pried Davis away from Kansas City. The price on Miller, as has been the case since discussions about potentially trading him surfaced back in May, is exceptionally high. The Yankees were said to be fixated on Kyle Schwarber in talks pertaining to Miller, and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports again emphasizes that the Yankees would want MLB-ready talent from the Nationals in exchange for Miller, suggesting that names like Giolito and Joe Ross could surface in talks.

According to Stark, the Nationals aren’t willing to part with Giolito, Trea Turner or Reynaldo Lopez in their quest to upgrade the bullpen, which makes the addition of either Miller or Davis seem decidedly unlikely. Robertson, on the other hand, would perhaps be another story given the facts that he’s owed roughly $29.15MM through the end of his contract and hasn’t seen his results with the White Sox match up with his otherwise pristine track record.

Robertson has managed an excellent strikeout rate both this year and last, and his 2016 ground-ball rate of 46.7 percent is the second-best of his career. However, he’s sporting a troublesome 4.46 ERA with the Sox this season and has a 3.82 mark since signing with the team. Robertson has struggled with location, leading to an increase in walks (4.7 BB/9) and home runs (1.3 HR/9, 14.3 percent homer-to-flyball ratio) in 40 1/3 innings this year. Optimists can point to the fact that 16 of the 20 runs yielded by Robertson since Opening Day have come across just four disastrous outings and he’s been otherwise excellent, but the bottom-line results haven’t been as consistent as the ChiSox would hope.

Beyond the prospects the Nationals would have to surrender, finances also have to factor into the equation. Washington reportedly struggled to attract free agents this offseason because the club had to factor deferred money into nearly all of its offers, in part due to the longstanding dispute with the Orioles over the shared MASN television network rights fees. (The Nats also convinced Papelbon to take a slightly lesser 2016 salary than his club option called for in exchange for exercising it immediately upon completion of last summer’s trade.) Robertson’s salary is the most prohibitive, but Davis is slated to earn $10MM next season via a club option, and Miller is owed $9MM in each of the next two seasons. None of the three is an insurmountable sum, but the finances involved with each reliever in question add another layer to the calculus of negotiating a trade.

Royals Promote Raul Mondesi Jr.

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The Royals have promoted top infield prospect Raul Mondesi Jr. and optioned fellow infielder Whit Merrifield to Triple-A Omaha, per a club announcement. Mondesi joins the club about a month after the release of second baseman Omar Infante, giving him the opportunity to prove that he’s capable of being a long-term piece in Kansas City. Manager Ned Yost told reporters, including MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan, that Mondesi is with the big league team to play second base, and Flanagan tweets that Mondesi will be playing “a lot” as he looks to prove himself.

[Related: Updated Kansas City Royals Depth Chart]

Mondesi, just 20 years old, entered the season rated as a Top 75 prospect in the eyes of Baseball America (29), MLB.com (37), Baseball Prospectus (16) and ESPN (73), and his strong play at a young age this year hasn’t changed that stock. Despite being one of the youngest players in both the Double-A Texas League and the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, Mondesi has batted a combined .268/.322/.469 with seven home runs and 24 stolen bases in 231 plate appearances. Of course, his playing time has also been limited this season by a suspension that was triggered by a failed PED test. However, Mondesi’s punishment was shortened from 80 games to 50 games after he was able to prove that the banned substance in question on his test was ingested when taking cold medicine purchased in his native Dominican Republic.

While some at the time questioned why Mondesi was punished if it was believed that the substance was truly ingested in error, the infielder himself owned the punishment, telling the media in a statement: “I failed to read the labeling on the medication or consult with my trainer or team about taking it and did not know it contained a banned substance.” Royals GM Dayton Moore said in a statement that the organization truly believed the failed test to be an error but also stressed the importance of a player being fully cognizant of every substance he puts into his body. “We have a protocol in place with our medical team should a player ever have questions about what they may be taking, even if an over-the-counter medication,” said Moore back in April.

Mondesi’s start tonight will be his regular season debut at the Major League level, but he does own the unprecedented distinction of being the first player in MLB history to make his Major League debut while playing in the World Series. He replaced the fleet-footed Terrance Gore on the Royals’ postseason roster following the American League Championship Series.

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