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Jesse Crain Rumors: Tuesday

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Jesse Crain's rapidly rising trade value took a hit when he was placed on the 15-day disabled list earlier this month with a right shoulder strain, but the right-hander is still likely to be highly sought if he returns healthy next week, as he's expected to do. Here's the latest on the White Sox setup man…

  • The Rockies are very interested in Crain given the struggles of Wilton Lopez, writes Troy Renck of the Denver Post. The Rockies have long coveted Crain, according to Renck. While Crain was born in Toronto, he attended high school in Colorado and admitted to Renck that he nearly accepted a two-year offer from the Rockies prior to signing his three-year pact with the White Sox.
  • Crain told Rob Bradford of WEEI.com that "it would be fun" to play for the first-place Red Sox. Crain says he's heard plenty of rumors about Boston being a potential destination for him on the trade market, and that trade rumors were frequently on his mind prior to his injury. He's now focused on getting healthy rather than where he will be pitching come August 1.

Quick Hits: Wilpon, Rios, Mozeliak, Blue Jays

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National League All-Star starter Matt Harvey has become a well-known name around baseball…though not necessarily a well-known face.  Harvey personally explored his relative anonymity in a comedy bit tonight on The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon (YouTube link).  If it makes Harvey feel better, I rarely hear, "Hey, are you Mark Polishuk from MLB Trade Rumors?!" when I'm strolling around New York.  Here's some news from around baseball on the eve of the All-Star Game…

  • Jeff Wilpon promised that the Mets are willing to spend in 2014, the team COO said in an interview on WFAN radio (and partially transcribed by Newsday's Neil Best).  The Mets will be helped when the Johan Santana and Jason Bay contracts expire this winter, which will by themselves free up $43.625MM in payroll space.  "We haven't set a payroll for next year, but I can tell you we're ready to invest with those big contracts coming off the books," Wilpon said. "We have the money to invest. We're going to invest it prudently. Sandy [Alderson] is going to set a path."
  • The Rangers could avoid giving up top prospects for White Sox right fielder Alex Rios, depending on how much of Rios' contract Texas is willing to eat, ESPN Dallas' Richard Durrett writes.  Rios is owed roughly $4.85MM for the rest of 2013, $12.5MM in 2014 and a $13.5MM club option for 2015 that can be bought out for $1MM.  The Rangers are one of several teams interested in acquiring Rios, though his trade stock has dipped due to a six-week slump.
  • “A lot of teams you think might normally would be breaking things up aren’t,” Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “There just aren’t a lot of players that are truly available. That could change. That’s my observation today.”  The Cardinals are known to be interested in acquiring starting pitching and have recently been connected to Matt Garza, though the Cards aren't too keen to trade within the NL Central and are unlikely to make a deal that would cost them one of their top prospects.
  • Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Cecil all tell Sportsnet's Shi Davidi that the Blue Jays already have the talent to turn their season around.  Bautista, for one, doesn't think GM Alex Anthopoulos necessarily needs to make any further roster additions.  “Alex is not out on the field playing for us, we’re totally capable of playing a lot better baseball than we’ve shown, we just need to play better as a team,” Bautista said.  If the Jays don't make any moves, Bautista "wouldn’t look too much into it" since Anthopoulos “made plenty of moves in the off-season to make our team the best team that he could put on the field.”
  • The three prospects acquired by the Nationals in the Michael Morse trade have performed well for Washington thus far, MASNsports.com's Byron Kerr observes.  Right-handers A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen have pitched well at high A-ball and Double-A, respectively, while southpaw Ian Krol reached the Majors and delivered a 1.80 ERA, 13 strikeouts and just one walk over 15 relief innings for the Nats.
  • Chase Lambin turned 34 years last week and has played 12 years of professional baseball in the minors and in Japan, but the veteran has still yet to reach the Major Leagues.  Kent Babb of the Washington Post profiles Lambin, who currently plays for the Royals' Triple-A affiliate.
  • The Mets' infamous long-long-term deferred contract with Bobby Bonilla is actually a pair of contracts that will pay the retired slugger $42MM between 2004 and 2035, CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports.  While the Orioles are paying part of Bonilla's ongoing salary, the Mets are solely responsible for another 25-year deferred payment plan, this one to Bret Saberhagen.  The former two-time Cy Young Award winner has received $250K per year from the Mets since 2004.

AL Central Notes: Twins, Perkins, Jacobs

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Here's a look at the latest out of the AL Central..

  • Twins GM Terry Ryan says that he's willing to trade anybody, including coveted reliever Glen Perkins, writes Mike Beradino of the Pioneer Press.  "If somebody overwhelms you with something, then you've got to listen," Ryan said. "There's no question. You just can't say, 'No.' It's not just Glen Perkins. It would be anybody in this situation. If somebody wants to talk about a guy, I'm all ears. Go ahead."  Perkins is under contract for a combined $10.3MM through 2015 with a team option for 2016 at $4.5MM.
  • In today's column, Buster Olney of ESPN.com (insider sub. req'd) writes that rival GM continue to believe that the Twins don't want to part with Perkins.  However, the left-hander's value is at its zenith and he would bring in a nice haul for Minnesota.
  • Jim Margalus of South Side Sox breaks down the newly-acquired Brandon Jacobs, who came to the White Sox in the Matt Thornton deal.

AL Central Notes: White Sox, Twins, Indians

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After last night's Matt Thornton trade sent a veteran player to greener pastures, the White Sox team faces a few weeks of speculation backed by the knowledge that some rumors will come to fruition. Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com gathered some interesting material from the Chicago clubhouse. Fellow reliever and trade candidate Jesse Crain, for instance, said that the team now realizes that it is in for a lot of changes: "With him being traded, you know it's going to happen. That kind of opens the door." Likewise, manager Robin Ventura acknowledged that the deal makes things harder. "Any time these guys read a paper or look at the names floating around, now one of them is true," Ventura explained. "It does become a little tougher because it was a rumor before, but now something has happened." Indeed, the White Sox could move any number of its veterans before the deadline. Here are a few notes elsewhere in the American League's Central division:

  • The Twins ownership approved a "much higher payroll" for 2013 than the team's front office elected to utilize, tweets Phil Mackey of 1500 ESPN. Of course, as Ben Nicholson-Smith explained in reviewing the Twins' offseason for MLBTR, the true arguable failure was not the decision to withhold from spending, but rather the failure to deploy funds in a way that would give the team some upside (either generating an outside shot at contention or building trade chips). 
  • Indeed, the Twins seem to have little prospect of significant returns among the team's free agent signings. While Mike Pelfrey could be dangled, he would hardly bring much in return after a poor first half. Fellow starter Kevin Correia has produced better results and could garner some attention, but as Nicholson-Smith noted in March, his value is limited by the seeming over-pay he received from Minnesota. (While Correia does come with another year of control, he has produced only .5 fWAR to date and will be owed $5.5MM in his age-33 season.)
  • Although the Indians remain viable contenders, Sheldon Ocker of the Akron Beacon Journal writes that the team should stick with its multi-year rebuilding plan rather than going for broke. With too many holes to fill this year, Ocker recommends a conservative trade deadline strategy in which the team explores additions with longer-term value but otherwise hopes that its current club can hang in the division with its present constitution.

Odds & Ends: Thornton, Soriano, Mariners, Rockies

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Here's today's look around baseball..

  • Other teams passed on Matt Thornton because they felt that he hasn’t been throwing well and that the cost of acquiring him outweighed the possible reward, writes Buster Olney of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd).  The cost for the Red Sox was giving up a 22-year-old minor league outfielder in Brandon Jacobs and taking on the remainder of Thornton's salary, less the $750K that came from the White Sox.
  • Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com sized up the trade market for Windy City outfielders Alfonso Soriano and Alex Rios.  Recently, our own Steve Adams sized up the trade market for corner outfielders and center fielders as the deadline approaches.
  • Teams are waiting on the Mariners, Phillies, and Giants to decide their strategy before the trade deadline as they all have "useful players", tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.
  • The Rockies could conceivably go out-of-house to replace Todd Helton once he retires, but they have a couple of options to turn to in their farm system, writes Irv Moss of The Denver Post.

Reactions To The Thornton Trade

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Last night, the Red Sox made the first major move on the trade deadline relief pitching market, sending mid-level prospect Brandon Jacobs to the White Sox for lefty Matt Thornton. (The Rockies did snag Mitchell Boggs from the Cardinals, but that deal shapes up as more of a roll of the dice given that Boggs has spent most of the year toiling in Triple-A.) Let's take a look at some of the initial reactions to Boston's move to replace the injured Andrew Miller:

  • Looking at the deal from a broader perspective, MLB Network's Peter Gammons tweets that it carries lessons about the trade market. Namely, says Gammons, the deal shows that free cash and toolsy prospects are a powerful combination of trade commodities for a contender to wield.
  • Indeed, White Sox GM Rick Hahn says that the club has been pursuing Jacobs for over a year, reports Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. "He's an athletic kid who projects to be a power bat/corner outfielder," Hahn explained. "He's a toolsy player with upside to be an everyday corner outfielder."
  • While a trade of Thornton became more and more inevitable as Chicago's season continued to turn south, the late-inning stalwart will be missed by Sox fans. Jim Margalus of South Side Sox took a look at Thornton's interesting path to becoming a dominant reliever.
  • From Boston's side of things, the team is tempered in its hopes for Thornton. As the Boston Herald's Scott Lauber explains, the Red Sox intend to deploy him primarily in the sixth and seventh innings and as a lefty specialist. In spite of Thornton's history of success against batters on both sides of the plate, he has been much better against lefties this year. GM Ben Cherington said that whereas Thornton once possessed "elite, elite stuff, … it may just be really good stuff now. But we're confident he has enough stuff to be effective in the role that we need him in." (Click here for a transcript of all of Cherington's remarks, courtesy of WEEI.com's Rob Bradford.)
  • Lauber also notes that the Red Sox would have been facing a decision on Jacobs in the offseason. Had the club retained him, it would have had to place him on the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
  • Jacobs has largely failed to convert his tools into on-field production, Alex Speier of WEEI.com details. Nonetheless, given his immense upside — Speier says a Red Sox official told him that Jacobs had far more tools than Jackie Bradley Jr. — a team like the White Sox was sure to pluck him in the Rule 5 draft. Hence, Speier suggests, it made sense for Boston to cash in Jacobs now.

Red Sox Acquire Matt Thornton

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The Red Sox bolstered their bullpen tonight when they acquired left-handed pitcher Matt Thornton from the White Sox in exchange for outfielder Brandon Jacobs.  The White Sox also sent $750K out east to help take care of a portion of Thornton's salary.

Thornton, 36, is owed about $3.5MM over the remainder of the season. A fixture in the White Sox's bullpen since 2006, the lefty owns a 3.86 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 28 innings this year.  In ten big league seasons, eight of which have been in Chicago, Thornton owns a career 3.53 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9.  

Thornton

Thornton's name has come up quite a bit on the pages of MLBTR as speculation has increased that the White Sox would look to sell at this year's deadline.  The deal brings GM Rick Hahn a decent prospect while freeing them from the bulk of Thornton's remaining 2013 salary.  For Boston, the veteran could theoretically be more than a rental as he has a $6MM club option with a modest $1MM buyout for 2014.

Jacobs, a 22-year-old outfielder, was recently promoted to Double-A Portland in the Red Sox's system after hitting .244/.334/.440 for the club's High A affiliate.  Baseball America's 2013 Prospect Handbook had him ranked at the 13th best prospect in the BoSox system coming into this season.  According to BA, he had one of the more intriguing bats of anyone in the Red Sox farm system despite his dip in production from his breakout Low-A season in 2011 to his last two seasons in Advanced-A ball.

A source told Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com (via Twitter) that the two clubs have been discussing a deal for Thornton, but talks picked up when Andrew Miller was ruled out for the season.  Meanwhile, Hahn says that he had serious talks about the lefty with seven or eight clubs before pulling the trigger on this deal, tweets Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com.

The White Sox still have a number of key trade chips that could be moved, including Alex Rios, Matt Thornton, Matt Lindstrom, and possibly Jake Peavy and Jesse Crain when they return to action.  Crain figures to bring back the best return of any White Sox reliever if he can come back healthy in time.

Alex Speier of WEEI (on Twitter) reported the cash amount headed to the Red Sox in the deal.  Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Quick Hits: Orza, Orioles, Boras, Gardenhire

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Here's tonight's look around baseball..

  • A source tells MLB Network's Peter Gammons (Twitter link) that Gene Orza may rejoin the MLB Players Association. Orza retired as the organization's chief operating officer before the 2011 season. In a Thursday article, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported that Donald Fehr, the predecessor to current MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner, could also return to the association,. 
  • Orioles Vice President Dan Duquette says his club wants to see how its newly revamped rotation, which features recent acquisition Scott Feldman and a now-healthy Wei-Yin Chen, performs before it considers adding another starting pitcher via trade. Duquette also discussed the possibility of trading prospects for big leaguers in an article by Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com. "I wouldn't handicap our opportunities to make additional deals," Duquette said. "We're going to be active in the market to try and help our team so we can go back to the playoffs and have another crack at it."
  • Jim Callis of Baseball America (via Twitter) notes that the top four MLB draft bonuses of all time went to players advised by Scott Boras: Gerrit Cole ($8MM), Stephen Strasburg ($7.5MM), Bubba Starling ($7.5MM) and Kris Bryant ($6.7MM).
  • Leaks of names associated with the Biogenesis scandal are a violation of baseball's collective bargaining agreement, Scott Boras says in an article by Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com. "I don't know where [the leaks] are coming from," Boras said. "There are only a very small group of parties that have access to this information. Whenever these things happen, whoever is doing it, is not serving the game well." MLB Players Association executive director Michael Weiner has also criticized the leaks in recent days, saying they "threaten to harm the integrity of the Joint Drug Agreement and call into question the required level of confidentiality needed to operate a successful prevention program."
  • Twins manager Ron Gardenhire doesn't intend to resign, despite the team's recent poor play, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune reports.  In comments earlier this month, Twins GM Terry Ryan accepted some of the blame for the Twins' losing ways. "I put this roster together. I've told Gardy to do the best he can. I understand that I don't have a perfect roster here," Ryan acknowledged.
  • White Sox GM Rick Hahn said in a conference call with reporters that the team remains active in trade discussions after shipping reliever Matt Thornton off to Boston. "We're going to keep talking and see where it leads over the coming weeks," Hahn is quoted as saying in a tweet from the South Siders' official feed.

Latest On The Diamondbacks’ Pitching Search

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FRIDAY: Despite Towers' comments, ESPN's Buster Olney tweets that the Diamondbacks are at least discussing Jake Peavy as a possibility, noting that the White Sox have scouted Randall Delgado (Twitter link). Given the number of available relievers the White Sox have, the Diamondbacks could ask for both Peavy and a bullpen arm in a trade, though that's just speculation on my part.

THURSDAY: While many of the rumors regarding the D-Backs' search for pitching thus far have focused on starting pitchers such as Yovani Gallardo and Jeff Samardzija, GM Kevin Towers told MLB.com's Steve Gilbert that bullpen help is the team's bigger need:

"I'm not as concerned probably with our starting pitching and looking externally for starting pitching as much as trying to get a bullpen arm," D-backs general manager Kevin Towers said.

Towers feels that injured starters Trevor Cahill and Brandon McCarthy can help to upgrade the team's rotation when they return from the disabled list. Jack Magruder of FOXSportsArizona.com echoes that sentiment (Twitter link), adding that Towers will not trade top prospects Tyler Skaggs or Archie Bradley. Skaggs had been mentioned as a possible component to a Gallardo trade.

The Diamondbacks have actually received a combined 3.33 ERA from their bullpen this season, but J.J. Putz has been injured and Heath Bell has an 8.38 ERA over his past 11 appearances. They also lost one of their top relief arms when Matt Reynolds hit the disabled list in early June. So far, the Diamondbacks have been linked to the Brewers' bullpen options such as John Axford, Francisco Rodriguez and Michael Gonzalez. Other teams such as the Marlins, White Sox and Twins figure to have bullpen arms that could be moved in the coming weeks as well.

White Sox Notes: Hahn, Thornton

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With the second-worst record in the American League and plenty of useful veterans, the White Sox are a clear seller this month.  The team's prime trade chips are Alex Rios, Matt Thornton, Matt Lindstrom, and perhaps Jake Peavy and Jesse Crain when they return from the disabled list.  It's less clear whether the Sox would consider trading Alexei Ramirez, Paul Konerko, John Danks, and Alejandro De Aza.  The latest:

  • "The bulk of our struggles this year have been on the offensive side. That's something we are going to have to improve," GM Rick Hahn told reporters yesterday, including Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune.  Though Hahn wouldn't address trade rumors or the July 31st deadline, Gonzales takes this to mean Hahn will lean toward hitters in making deals this month.  Hahn has dispatched scouts to evaluate prospects from the Braves, Blue Jays, Rangers, and Red Sox, writes Gonzales.
  • The White Sox seek "high-end prospects" for Thornton, a source tells Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com.  The 36-year-old is having his worst year in recent memory, with a 4.00 ERA, 6.7 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.33 HR/9, and 44.3% groundball rate in 27 innings.  He's been better against left-handed hitters, though they've authored three of the four home runs he's surrendered.  With a $6MM club option for 2014, Thornton can be more than a rental.
  • Regarding the idea of trading ace Chris Sale, Jim Margalus of South Side Sox writes, "Hahn would pretty much have to get two stars back to justify it. Otherwise, it's getting way too cute."  Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports notes today that a large contingent of scouts are watching Sale.
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