Marlins Pushing To Land Andrew Cashner; Rangers Out?
FRIDAY, 12:37am: Texas isn’t landing Cashner, sources tell MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan (via Twitter). That would seem to leave the Marlins in position to finalize an agreement, and SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets the Fish are indeed getting closer to striking a deal.
THURSDAY, 11:29pm: The Marlins and Rangers are the two “current leaders” to acquire righty Andrew Cashner from the Padres, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Miami is “pushing hard to finalize” a swap that would send multiple prospects to San Diego for the much-needed starter, per MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro (via Twitter), though it seems as if there’s still competition for his services.
We’ve long heard of interest from a wide variety of clubs in the pending free agent, who seems among the likeliest trade pieces in all of baseball. The Orioles were said to be making a push to strike a deal on Cashner just yesterday, but now seem to be behind in the sweepstakes. Other contenders who have been linked include the Blue Jays and Giants.
Recent reports have suggested that the Pads were nearing a deal for Cashner at various points in time, but he remains in San Diego at present. That probably worked out to the benefit of his current team, as the up-and-down righty has put together his best work of the season over his last three outings, permitting five runs and running up 23 strikeouts against just three walks over 17 2/3 frames.
Still, on the year he’s carrying only a 4.76 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 over 79 1/3 frames. Some home run troubles (16.0% HR/flyball rate) haven’t helped, and Cashner has also posted a career-worst 7.3% swinging striker rate with a slightly declining (but still-strong) average four-seam velocity of 94 mph.
Despite his rocky results, Cashner currently holds the fifth spot on MLBTR’s top trade candidate ranking. That’s due not only to his oft-noted talent, but also to San Diego’s aggressive selling posture, which has already resulted in deals for James Shields, Fernando Rodney, and Melvin Upton. There’s an argument to be made that Cashner is the most appealing rental starter currently available; Rich Hill has unquestionably been better, but also hasn’t pitched much of late, while Jeremy Hellickson arguably doesn’t have quite the ceiling of the other two.
Cashner is earning a relatively modest $7.15MM salary this year, so he’s just as affordable in terms of salary as Hill and Hellickson. In theory, the Pads could hold onto him and hope that he pitches well enough down the stretch to warrant a qualifying offer, but it seems that ship has sailed at this point — particularly with the starting pitching market seemingly primed for sellers to receive strong returns.
Rangers Have Yet To Show Serious Interest In Lucroy
6:10pm: The Brewers’ trade talks surrounding catcher Jonathan Lucroy are picking up, per ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (links to Twitter). The Indians, Rangers, Mets, Astros and Red Sox have all been mentioned in connection with Lucroy, Crasnick notes, and offers being made by other clubs have become more serious recently. Crasnick adds that the the ever-popular “mystery team” may have entered the mix as well.
While there’s a common belief that Lucroy will indeed be traded prior to the Aug. 1 non-waiver deadline, Rosenthal writes that the Mets feel that Milwaukee is “overreaching” in its asks for Lucroy, while AL West contenders like the Astros and Rangers are more focused on adding pitching depth than a catcher at this time. Houston is also looking at other backstops, he notes, so it’s not a guarantee that even if they move for a catcher, Lucroy would be the target. Meanwhile, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan tweets that the Rangers have yet to show serious interest in Lucroy and consider adding a catcher to be a “luxury” at this point, as pitching depth remains their primary focus. Those tweets came prior to Texas’ acquisition of Lucas Harrell and Dario Alvarez from the Braves, but one would assume that those two arms alone have not ended the Rangers’ search for pitching upgrade.
Rangers Have Inquired On Walker, Paxton
- The Cubs and Rangers have both called the Mariners about Taijuan Walker and James Paxton, but Seattle hasn’t shown any inclination toward moving either pitcher. Wade Miley is more likely to be moved, and Heyman adds that the Mariners are still open to adding some pieces for 2016 and have checked into Angels righty Joe Smith, whom GM Jerry Dipoto signed while serving as GM in Anaheim.
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Rangers Still In On Andrew Cashner
The Orioles are “trying hard” to get right-hander Andrew Cashner from the Padres in trade talks, per FOX’s Ken Rosenthal (links to Twitter), though Baltimore isn’t necessarily considered the favorite. The Marlins and Rangers are both still in on Cashner, he notes, and others recently linked to the free-agent-to-be include the Blue Jays and Giants. While MLB.com’s Jon Morosi recently reported that San Diego was making progress on a Cashner trade, Rosenthal feels that Cashner talks could stretch into Monday.
Rangers Acquire Lucas Harrell, Dario Alvarez
The Rangers have added some depth to their rotation and bullpen, announcing the acquisition of right-handed starter Lucas Harrell and left-hander reliever Dario Alvarez from the Braves in exchange for minor league second baseman Travis Demeritte. Texas has designated infielder Matt Duffy for assignment to clear room on the 40-man roster. Both Harrell and Alvarez will join the big league club right away, per the Rangers’ announcement.
[Related: Updated Texas Rangers Depth Chart]
Harrell, 31, signed a minor league contract with the Tigers this offseason and opened the year pitching with Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate. After hitting the open market in late May, Harrell inked another minors pact, this time with the Braves, and worked his way up into Atlanta’s big league rotation, where he’s posted a 3.38 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 44.2 percent ground-ball rate in 29 1/3 innings spanning five starts.
Harrell broke into the Majors with the 2010 White Sox but didn’t find his first success until the 2012 season, when he tossed 193 2/3 innings of 3.76 ERA ball and made 32 starts for the Astros. Harrell looked at that point to have a chance at establishing himself as a long-term option at the back of the Houston rotation, but he struggled in two subsequent seasons and ultimately landed with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization in 2015, where he also struggled over a full season’s workload out of the rotation. Harrell, though, has pitched well at all of his minor league stops this season and looked useful enough in the Braves’ rotation to have reportedly garnered trade interest from a handful of teams.
Alvarez, too, was a midseason addition for the Braves, who claimed him off waivers from the Mets back on May 25. The 27-year-old hadn’t experienced much in the way of big league success prior to this season despite a lifetime 2.97 ERA in the minors, but he’s yielded just five earned runs on 11 hits and five walks with a whopping 28 strikeouts through 15 Major League innings since being claimed by the Braves. It’s a small sample, to be sure, but Alvarez’s velocity is up two miles per hour (averaging 93.5 mph) over his previous stints with the Mets, and he’s doubled the usage of his slider, which appears to have led to considerably improved results. The Rangers clearly were impressed by the gains he’s made in 2016, and if they prove to be sustainable, Texas will have control of Alvarez for another five years beyond the 2016 season, so there’s some long-term potential here.
That the Braves were able to turn a pair of May additions into Demeritte is a fairly notable surprise. While the 21-year-old doesn’t rank among the game’s top 100 prospects or even the top 10 farmhands within the Texas organization, the former first-round pick entered the season rated 20th among Rangers prospects per MLB.com and 28th per Baseball America. He struggled last season and was hit with an 80-game PED suspension but has had a rebound year with Texas’ Class-A Advanced affiliate, batting .272/.352/.583 with 25 home runs and 13 stolen bases. MLB.com notes that he has more power than a typical second baseman but has long been far too aggressive at the plate. That hasn’t changed this year, as Demeritte has whiffed in more than a third of his plate appearances in Class-A in spite of his power.
The 27-year-old Duffy, not to be confused with the Giants third baseman of the same name, was claimed off waivers out of the Astros organization last month. He’s a career .272/.340/.438 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons but has totaled just 12 plate appearances at the Major League level — all coming with Houston.
David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported that Harrell and Alvarez had been traded. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reported that the Rangers were getting each player. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Demeritte was heading back to Atlanta in the deal.
Rangers GM Jon Daniels On Trade For Lucas Harrell, Dario Alvarez
The Rangers addressed their pitching staff earlier today when they acquired pitchers Lucas Harrell and Dario Alvarez from the Braves for second base prospect Travis Demeritte. The price was seemingly high—Demeritte was a starter in this year’s All-Star Futures Game—for two pitchers who had very little value when picked up by the Braves in late May. Harrell was signed to a Minor League contract four days after he was released by the Tigers. Alvarez was claimed off waivers from the Mets. But with pitching being the Rangers’ top priority, general manager Jon Daniels was able to acquire two pitchers who could help in 2016 and are not yet eligible for arbitration. In a conference call earlier today, Jon Daniels explained his thinking behind the deal.
Described by Daniels as “a sinker-baller who’s going well right now,” the 31-year-old Harrell will be reunited with current Rangers pitching coach Doug Brocail, whom he knows from his days with the Astros. Daniels said that Brocail’s assessment of Harrell was “more of a confirmation of what we thought” and the expectation is that he’ll be a part of their rotation. After tossing six shutout innings in his final Braves start on Tuesday, Harrell is lined up for a home start against the Royals on Sunday.
In regards to his new lefty reliever, Daniels called the 27-year-old Alvarez, who has allowed five earned runs in his 15 innings of work with an amazing 28-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio, a “real interesting guy” with “deceptive delivery and plus velocity.” He also mentioned that this was Alvarez’s first time with an extended run in the Major Leagues. “Sometimes you have to take a chance before a guy’s a household name”, said Daniels, who did just that when he traded for Sam Dyson on the last day of the 2015 trade deadline and has seen him blossom into a successful late-inning arm.
Asked if he was done addressing his pitching staff and if there was a possibility that he would acquire a non-pitcher before Monday’s deadline, Daniels said that he wouldn’t rule anything out. “We’re still having additional conversations”, he said, adding that pitching remains his team’s top priority.
Prince Fielder To Undergo Season-Ending Neck Surgery
JULY 27: Fielder will undergo surgery to repair a C4/C5 herniation on Friday, according to an announcement from Rangers executive vice president of communications John Blake (Twitter link).
JULY 25: The Rangers expect that first baseman Prince Fielder will undergo neck surgery later this week, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on Twitter. There had been some hope that the veteran slugger could avoid a procedure after his recent diagnosis of a herniated disk, but it seems that Fielder is destined to go under the knife.
Details remain unknown, but it seems all but certain that Fielder will miss the remainder of the season. It won’t be the first trip through the process for the veteran, who also ended the 2014 campaign after a neck operation. He bounced back quite well last year, but has never gotten things going in 2016.
The loss of Fielder doesn’t feel terribly consequential, somewhat surprisingly, because he has struggled so badly this year. Despite never finishing a season at anything worse than an approximately league-average batting line, he has limped to a .212/.292/.334 slash. That’s nearly as far off of the league mean (65 OPS+) as Fielder was above it last season (126 OPS+). And it’s a far sight from his peak, when he was one of the better hitters in baseball.
The Rangers will have several alternatives for the immediate future, including expanding the role of youngster Jurickson Profar and, perhaps, eventually giving minor league slugger Joey Gallo a full shot in the majors. But there’s also certainly a chance that the club will look to add a hitter from outside the organization over the next week.
In the longer term, it’s not clear how much value Texas can hope to receive out of Fielder’s monster contract. He’s on the books for $18MM annually for the next four campaigns, even after the team that signed him (the Tigers) kicks in its $6MM per year. It hurts even more to see Ian Kinsler — the player for whom Fielder was dealt in a big-contract swap — putting up one of his best seasons as a big leaguer this year in Detroit.
Rangers Less Involved On Andrew Cashner
3:39pm: The Padres are making progress on a trade involving Andrew Cashner, reports MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). Cashner, widely expected to be on the move prior to the Aug. 1 non-waiver deadline, could even be moved before tonight’s scheduled start against the Blue Jays, Morosi adds. Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller, however, heard otherwise earlier today, tweeting that the Padres are expecting Cashner to start in tonight’s game. However, Miller did add that trade talks surrounding Cashner continue, with the Blue Jays and Marlins “heavily” involved and the Rangers involved to a lesser extent.
A number of teams have been connected to Cashner in recent weeks, with the Orioles, Marlins, Blue Jays, Rangers and Giants among the supposedly interested parties. Cashner is earning $7.15MM in his final season before hitting the free agent market, and about $2.67MM of that sum remains on his contract through the end of the year. Cashner’s name has been in trade rumors for months, and the right-hander has accepted the fact that his days in San Diego are nearing an end. “I know I’m going to be traded,” Cashner told Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune following his start last week. “It’s just part of the game, part of where the season’s at.”
Rangers Release Justin Ruggiano, Justin De Fratus
- The Rangers released outfielder Justin Ruggiano, per a club announcement. It had seemed at one point over the winter that Ruggiano would hold down an important role at the major league level for Texas, but the team ended up adding Ian Desmond and the veteran Ruggiano has received a grand total of four major league plate appearances on the year. He has been playing at Triple-A, where he owns a .226/.321/.427 batting line with seven home runs over 190 plate appearances. The eight-year MLB veteran could yet have an impact this year with another organization; he has enjoyed some productive runs in the majors, including a late-season spurt last year with the Dodgers.
- Righty Justin De Fratus signed a minor league deal with the Nationals after being released by the Rangers. Now 28, De Fratus was a source of quality innings for the Phillies not long ago. Entering the 2015 season, he had thrown 114 major league innings of 3.08 ERA pitching with 8.1 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9. Things went south from there, however, as De Fratus scuffled to a 5.51 ERA in his ensuing campaign and hasn’t seen the majors since. He had not shown well since moving from the Mariners’ to the Rangers’ top affiliate, walking more batters than he struck out over 9 1/3 innings.
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Rangers Among Teams Scouting Hellickson's Monday Start
- Both the Rangers and Orioles were in attendance for Jeremy Hellickson‘s scoreless six innings for the Phillies against the Marlins last night, per ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. (The Marlins — Hellickson’s opponents — also obviously had evaluators on hand and have long been linked to Hellickson.) There’s no clear frontrunner for Hellickson’s services, Crasnick notes, but it’s a “virtual lock” that he’ll change teams on or before next Monday.