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Padres Sign Aaron Loup

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3:32pm: Loup’s deal includes a $1.2MM guarantee in 2019 with $800K in incentives, per Heyman. The 2020 option is worth $2MM and features another $800K in incentives, or the Padres could buy him out for $200K. All told, it’s a $1.4MM pact that could max out at $4.8MM.

11:41am: The Padres have announced the signing. To make room for Loup on their 40-man roster, they moved Richards to the 60-day injured list.

10:25am: The Padres are set to sign left-handed reliever Aaron Loup, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Loup, a Beverly Hills Sports Council client, will receive a one-year, major league contract with a club option for 2020, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

The Padres will be the third franchise for the side-arming Loup, who has spent nearly all of his career with the Blue Jays organization since going in the ninth round of the 2009 draft. Loup’s run with Toronto finally came to an end last July when it dealt him to Philadelphia, where he spent upward of a month on the disabled list because of a left forearm strain. The 31-year-old returned toward the end of the season, though, and combined for two frames across five late-September appearances. In all, Loup totaled 39 2/3 innings between the two teams and recorded a 4.54 ERA/3.61 FIP with 9.98 K/9, 3.18 BB/9 and a 49.2 percent groundball rate.

While Loup was unspectacular in 2018, he has generally been a solid major league reliever, particularly earlier in his career. Loup has accrued 50-plus innings three different times – including in 2017 – and posted a 3.49 ERA with a matching 3.49 FIP in 322 2/3 lifetime frames, over which he has struck out 8.34 batters per nine, walked 2.76 and generated grounders at an excellent 54.3 percent clip. Along the way, Loup has limited left-handed hitters to a weak .226/.301/.318 line, though he hasn’t been nearly as successful versus righties (.266/.340/.428).

Loup’s just the third major league signing in recent months for the Padres, who have also added second baseman Ian Kinsler and injured starter Garrett Richards on guaranteed deals since last season ended. A far bigger move could be in the offing, but regardless, Loup will join a bullpen that was among the majors’ best in 2018. He’ll also give the Padres a second capable southpaw reliever to join Jose Castillo if fellow lefties Matt Strahm and Robbie Erlin end up in starting roles.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Padres Designate Carlos Asuaje, Announce Garrett Richards Deal

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The Padres announced this evening that they have designated infielder Carlos Asuaje for assignment. His roster spot will go to righty Garrett Richards, whose previously reported two-year deal is now official.

Asuaje, 27, originally came to the organization as part of the multi-player package received in exchange for closer Craig Kimbrel. The left-handed hitter has appeared in each of the past three seasons with the Padres but will now make way for a more-hyped crop of middle-infield talent.

Though he showed promise at the plate in 2017, Asuaje struggled quite a bit last year. He finished with a .196/.286/.280 slash through 218 plate appearances, though he did have a much better showing during his time at Triple-A (.314/.386/.463).

Teams considering Asuaje may find some comfort in the underlying numbers. Asuaje boosted his walk rate to 11.0%, which could bode well for the future. And he carried only a .243 batting average on balls in play in the bigs. That was an unlucky figure, Statcast suggests, crediting him with a .288 xwOBA that dwarfs his .255 wOBA.

Of course, even Asuaje’s hypothetically deserved offensive output wasn’t all that exciting. If he’s to carve out a role, it’ll likely be as a utility player. Asuaje has hit much better against right-handed pitching, which limits him but also suggests he could be useful in a platoon role. Defensive metrics have not loved him in a limited sample, though he’s generally considered a solid defender.

There’s some value in the fact that Asuaje is still optionable for another season. On the other hand, it doesn’t help his cause that he has never been considered capable of playing shortstop, though he does have plenty of lower-level experience at third base and has also spent some time in left field. All told, it’s possible he’ll be claimed, but by no means a given.

As for Richards, he’s still a long ways away from contributing on the field in San Diego, as his first priority will be to rehabilitate from Tommy John surgery. He’ll reportedly receive a hefty $15.5MM guarantee in hopes that he’ll be able to get back to full strength and provide the Friars with a high-quality rotation piece in 2020.

Padres To Sign Garrett Richards

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DECEMBER 7: The signing is now official. Richards will earn $7MM in the first year of the deal and $8.5MM in the second, Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets. The contract includes $250K bonuses for every start he makes from his 21st through his 30th.

NOVEMBER 29, 7:14pm: Heyman tweets that Richards will be guaranteed $15.5MM and can earn another $2.5MM worth of incentives on the deal.

3:59pm: It’s a straight two-year deal for Richards, Passan further tweets. With incentives, the contract can max out at a total of $18MM.

3:49pm: Richards’ two-year agreement comes with a hefty guarantee of roughly $15MM, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That’s a new precedent for a player coming off Tommy John surgery, though the timing of Richards’ surgery also makes it at least plausible that he could return to the mound before the end of the 2019 season.

3:45pm: The Padres have reached an agreement with free-agent right-hander Garrett Richards, tweets Fancred’s Jon Heyman. The ISE Baseball client was reported earlier today to be a target of both the Padres and the division-rival Dodgers.

Garrett Richards | Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Richards may not pitch in 2019 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in mid July, but other free-agent starters in his situation have recently landed two-year guaranteed deals with an eye toward contributing in the second season of that pact. Namely, both Michael Pineda and Drew Smyly signed two-year, $10MM contracts last winter (with the Twins and Cubs, respectively), while Nathan Eovaldi inked a two-year, $4MM pact with the Rays an offseason prior. All three of those hurlers had undergone Tommy John surgery and were known to be out for the vast majority of the first season of those two-year deals.

A former top 50 overall draft pick (No. 42 in 2009), Richards established himself on the Angels’ pitching staff in 2013 and looked to be one of the more promising young arms in the American League by the end of the 2015 campaign. In 2014-15, the righty pitched to a combined 3.18 ERA through 376 innings (58 starts) and averaged 8.1 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 along the way.

Injuries, however, have limited the now-30-year-old Richards to just 138 2/3 innings in the three seasons since that time. He’s been quite good when healthy enough to take the mound — 3.05 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 3.6 BB/9, 3.59 FIP — but by the lengthy slate of arm injuries that has slowed his career now make him an upside play in free agency rather than the potential frontline starter many expected he’d become after that strong 2013-15 showing.

The most recent ulnar collateral ligament injury for Richards was actually the second of his career; he also suffered a UCL tear back in 2016 but opted to undergo stem cell treatment to avoid surgery. While that did stave off Tommy John surgery for awhile, Richards was ultimately forced to undergo the procedure this past summer when he was diagnosed with another tear.

For the Padres, the addition of Richards dovetails nicely with the organization’s projected timeline to contend. The Friars have begun to mix in some win-now moves with their longstanding efforts to rebuild the organization and were said this offseason to be eyeing pitchers who can help them contend in 2020, when much of the upcoming wave of young talent has surfaced at the MLB level. The Friars have little in the way of rotation certainty at the moment, so it’s still possible that they could add another arm on a multi-year deal — likely one who’d still be in his prime into 2020 and beyond. They’ve been tied to younger free-agent starters like Nathan Eovaldi and Yusei Kikuchi this offseason, and they’ve also been rumored to have interest in Mets righty Noah Syndergaard.

Dodgers, Padres Pursuing Garrett Richards

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The Dodgers and Padres are among the teams pursuing free agent righty Garrett Richards, with Jon Heyman of Fancred (via Twitter) reporting that both have made offers. The Los Angeles organization, in particular, is said to be “making a push” to keep the long-time Halos hurler in the region.

Richards has been derailed by elbow issues for some time now, recording only 138 2/3 total innings since the start of the 2016 season. While he was able to stave off Tommy John surgery for quite some time, he finally went under the knife last July and is expected to miss most or all of the 2019 season while recovering.

In all likelihood, then, the clubs pursuing Richards will be angling for some sort of multi-year arrangement. The current standard for this sort of situation is a two-year, $10MM pact. That’s what Drew Smyly (with the Cubs) and Michael Pineda (Twins) took home last year under similar circumstances, and it’s also what MLBTR predicted for Richards in our annual ranking of the top fifty free agents.

Of course, market forces could push the money or years in a different direction in this case. Richards is quite an accomplished pitcher, after all, having thrown 744 2/3 career MLB innings of 3.54 ERA ball. The high-velocity hurler is a consistent groundball producer (52.5% career GB rate) but has increasingly shown an ability to get whiffs (he has generated more than an eleven percent swinging-strike rate in each of the past four seasons and carries 9.6 K/9 in the past three).

It’s notable that these two California organizations are pushing for Richards, though he’d fit comfortably with any club that likes him and is interested in taking some financial risk for a potentially high-quality starter. There are some connections to the state that are worth noting: not only has Richards obviously spent his professional career to date in California, but he has family roots there as well. (He was born in the state, though spent most of his childhood in Oklahoma.)

Market Notes: Richards, Kikuchi, Rockies, Realmuto

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Our predictions at the top of the free agent market are certainly not for the faint of heart; by our reckoning, both Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have chances at securing record-setting contracts. Whether or not that’ll come to pass remains to be seen, but a more pressing question for hot-stove enthusiasts may be whether we’ll see a repeat of last winter’s agonizingly slow market. It seems fair to say our overall slate of predictions represents a general bet that the activity will pick up this time around. Indeed, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets that there’s a broader sense that the 2018-19 offseason will feature action. The player market, he says, could be “robust early” and “awfully busy” all winter long.

We heard earlier about some intriguing possibilities in Cleveland. For the most part, though, things are just starting to get heated up. Here’s some early chatter:

  • While Garrett Richards will hit the market while still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, that doesn’t mean he won’t draw strong interest. Indeed, a dozen teams have already reached out, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). It’s no surprise to hear that, as quite a variety of clubs have agreed to two-year contractual arrangements with recovering hurlers in recent seasons, primarily in hopes of capturing value in the second season of the deal. MLBTR predicts that Richards will land a deal right in line with some of those cases.
  • The Dodgers factor as a strong possible suitor for Japanese hurler Yusei Kikuchi, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets. It’s hard to argue with that assessment based upon recent history, even if the Los Angeles club seems to be well on its way to filling out a deep rotation mix. The Dodgers have secured several talented but less-hyped starters from Asia via the posting process and have given out several large deals to pitchers with injury questions. In this case, Kikuchi figures to draw a number of suitors, particularly since he’s just 27 years of age. But recent shoulder woes could be a red flag for some organizations. Truthfully, it’s exceedingly difficult to get a read on his potential market, but the Dodgers are among the west coast organizations that seem to be rather good fits if Kikuch is posted, as seems likely but has yet to be decided conclusively.
  • As the offseason gets underway, the Rockies represent a bit of a mystery team. They obviously look to be a contender, but have some clear needs and don’t appear to have much payroll flexibility barring a boost in their spending or clever move to shed salary. GM Jeff Bridich said today, as Nick Groke of The Athletic tweets, that the club will seek to oversee “responsible growth with the payroll,” adding that “success begets more growth.” That seems at least to leave open the possibility that the organization could add some more dollars to the books, though what kind of outlay might be possible remains unclear. Improving a lagging offense is the priority, as MLB.com’s Thomas Harding writes.
  • While the Marlins have given prior indication that they hoped to pursue a long-term deal with catcher J.T. Realmuto, his agent shot that idea down rather candidly, indicating that he does not expect his client to don a Marlins uniform in 2019. That hasn’t deterred the Miami brass, though, as Wells Dusenbury of the Sun Sentinel was among those to cover (Twitter links). CEO Derek Jeter rejoined recently that the Miami organization will decide where Realmuto plays. Today, president of baseball operations Michael Hill says that Realmuto’s apparent preferences won’t “impact in any way how we approach our offseason.” Of course, it still seems quite likely that the Marlins will end up marketing Realmuto this winter, as his value has undeniably crested after turning in a strong season with two more arb years left to go.

Injury Notes: Snell, Dickerson, Fowler, Williams, Skaggs

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As expected, the Rays have activated left-hander Blake Snell to start tonight’s game against the White Sox. The first-time All-Star will be on a limited pitch count following a two-week DL stint for left shoulder fatigue. Following a trade of Chris Archer to the Pirates, Snell looks like the only reliable starter in a Rays rotation that continues to see relievers open games more often than the starters themselves. Snell’s pre-injury performance, of course, was phenomenal; his 2.27 ERA would be more than a run lower than his career best season.

Here are a few other disabled list transactions from around the league…

  • Pirates outfielder Corey Dickerson has been activated after a short stint on the disabled list; he’d been sidelined with a left hamstring strain. They’ll surely be glad to have him back after the club traded away notable outfield depth in the form of Austin Meadows at the July 31st deadline. While he’s active, Dickerson won’t be starting today’s game against the Cardinals (though he’ll presumably be available off the bench).
  • As expected after last night’s news, Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler will hit the DL after suffering a fractured foot. Fowler’s enduring a miserable season that’s by far his career worst; he’s managed to hit an absolutely wretched .180/.278/.298 across 334 plate appearances while playing middling outfield defense. Fangraphs rates him as being 1.2 wins below replacement level on the season after a 2.5 fWAR debut with the Cards last year.
  • Switch-hitting relief pitcher Taylor Williams is headed to the DL with right elbow soreness. It’s certainly bad news for a Brewers bullpen that’s seeing Corey Knebel struggle mightily of late. Williams has tossed 42 2/3 relief innings and managed to strike out 10.43 batters per nine innings, though he’s only managed to keep the ball on the ground 34.8% of the time and has walked a batter nearly every other inning on average. Williams is in the midst of his first full season in the majors after a 4 2/3 inning cup of coffee last year.
  • Angels hurler Tyler Skaggs is headed to the disabled list with a left adductor strain, the club has announced. Skaggs has described the injury as “extremely frustrating”, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. He apparently sustained it during his last start. In his stead, the Angels have called up right-hander Taylor Cole. The Angels, of course, have already seen their rotation annihilated by injuries this year, with Garrett Richards, Shohei Ohtani, J.C. Ramirez and Matt Shoemaker among the affected starters.

Garrett Richards To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Angels right-hander Garrett Richards has opted to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, tweets J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group. The news comes on the heels of a recent announcement from the Angels in which they revealed that an MRI had identified some damage to Richards’ right UCL. He was presented with both surgical and non-surgical treatment plans and had been weighing the decision over the past 24 hours.

Richards’ UCL tear comes at the worst possible time for the right-hander (not that there’s ever a “good” one), as he’d been slated to hit free agency at season’s end. The 30-year-old had previously rehabbed some UCL damage without surgery back in 2016, opting instead for stem-cell and platelet-rich plasma treatment (much in the same vein as Ervin Santana and Masahiro Tanaka, each of whom has avoided going under the knife entirely, to date). While that appeared to stave off a significant enough UCL tear to require surgical repair, though, Richards missed nearly all of the 2017 season with a biceps issue.

The 2018 season had been a largely healthy one for Richards, at least in terms of his right arm. He missed about three weeks due to a hamstring strain but had otherwise pitched well. However, in his just his second start back from that hamstring issue, he departed after three innings due to ever-ominous “forearm irritation” — a symptom that has increasingly proven to be a precursor to ligament damage.

Richards, now, will miss the remainder of the 2018 season and most, if not all of the 2019 season as well. He’ll still garner interest on the free-agent market, of course, but what at one point might’ve been an annual salary of $12MM+ on a multi-year deal may now drop to something along the lines of the two-year deals signed by Drew Smyly ($10MM), Michael Pineda ($10MM) and Nathan Eovaldi ($4MM) while each of those respective hurlers recovers from his own Tommy John procedure.

Alternatively, Richards could simply follow the route that both Greg Holland and Trevor Rosenthal have taken — opting not to sign a deal at all in the coming offseason and then auditioning for teams to demonstrate his health the following offseason. Either way, it’s quite possible that Richards has tossed his final game as a member of the Angels.

Devastating as the news must be to Richards, Hoornstra notes that the right-hander is approaching his latest injury with about as positive an outlook as possible (Twitter link).

“I’ll be back,” Richards said.“I’ll be ready. Everything will be fine. I’ll get through this. I’m going to be positive about this. I’m not going to dwell on the negative stuff. This is what was presented to me, and this is what I’ve got to deal with. Just try and tackle it.”

For the Angels, the move comes as a crushing blow. With just three weeks remaining until the non-waiver deadline, the loss of Richards will only further the seemingly inevitable reality that the team will need to look beyond the 2018 season and sell off short-term assets on the trade market this year. However, Richards was the top short-term asset the Angels had to market to other clubs, and he’ll now be taken off the market entirely, thus depriving the the team of the possibility of recouping any kind of prospect return for the loss of one of their longtime top starters.

Beyond all of that, the Angels will continue to face scrutiny for the rampant injury troubles that have permeated their rotation in recent seasons. In the last three years alone, the Angels have had Richards, Andrew Heaney, Tyler Skaggs, Nick Tropeano, J.C. Ramirez, Keynan Middleton, Blake Wood and John Lamb undergo Tommy John surgery, and that already plentiful list doesn’t include the current UCL tear through which Shohei Ohtani is playing (while serving only as a designated hitter). Meanwhile, others such as Alex Meyer, Nate Smith and Matt Shoemaker have gone under the knife for myriad other reasons.

Certainly not all of those injuries can be pinned on the Angels. Meyer’s shoulder troubles, for example, date back to his days with the Twins, while Lamb has had injuries of his own and was only briefly in the organization before requiring surgery. Ohtani was known to have some UCL damage at the time he was signed, though reports following the Angels’ recent announcement suggested this to be a new tear. Regardless, the barrage of pitching injuries the Angels have faced in recent years is undoubtedly something that’ll prompt a deep dive from the front office as it seeks to determine if there’s more than sheer coincidence and misfortune at play.

Garrett Richards’ MRI Reveals UCL Damage In Right Elbow

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The Angels announced tonight that an MRI performed on right-hander Garrett Richards has revealed damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Unlike the case of Shohei Ohtani, the Angels added that Richards has already been presented with “both conservative care and surgical options to treat the injury.” Richards, it seems, is mulling those options. The Angels added that they’ll provide an update on his treatment plan “when appropriate.”

Richards, 30, exited last night’s start after three innings due to what was initially termed forearm irritation, though forearm issues are often a precursor to ligament damage in the elbow. He’s been in a similar spot in the past, having been diagnosed with a partial tear of the UCL in his right elbow back in 2016. At the time, however, he opted for stem-cell and platelet-rich plasma injections in addition to a long period of rest and rehab as a means of avoiding Tommy John surgery.

That proved effective in sparing him from Tommy John, but the rest and rehab program cost him most of the 2016 season. In 2017, he was sidelined by a biceps injury for most of the year and limited to 27 2/3 innings.

The extent of the damage to Richards’ elbow ligament wasn’t specified by the Angels’ announcement, but it’s of note that the club announced that Ohtani had a Grade 2 UCL strain, and GM Billy Eppler has persistently said that surgery has not been recommended by medical professionals. That the Angels immediately announced surgery to be an option for Richards, then, doesn’t paint an optimistic picture moving forward.

Regardless of whether he opts for surgery, this type of injury calls into question his availability for the remainder of the season at a time when the Angels can ill afford to lose one of their best arms. The Halos are 14 games out of first place in the AL West and 10 games behind the Mariners for a Wild Card spot after topping the M’s last night (despite Richards’ abbreviated start and injury). The loss of Richards makes it all the more improbable that the Halos will be able to surmount that deficit.

Furthermore, with Richards’ status as an impending free agent, he’d have been a logical and highly attractive trade chip had the Angels eventually decided to sell off pieces. The Halos won’t be fielding offers on Mike Trout anytime soon, so Richards would’ve been arguably their most appealing commodity to shop around to other teams. He’s pitched to a 3.66 ERA with 10.3 K/9, 4.0 BB/9, 1.3 HR/9 and a 49.3 percent ground-ball rate so far in 2018. That’s a moot point at this juncture, however, as the injury all but eliminates the possibility of him factoring into the trade market.

And from a personal standpoint, the injury to Richards is devastating for his future earning potential. While his lengthy injury history would’ve no doubt given teams pause on the open market even if he’d pitched a healthy season in 2018, a UCL injury at this stage of his career will torpedo perhaps his best chance at a sizable multi-year deal. It’s true that some pitchers — Drew Smyly  (Cubs) and Michael Pineda (Twins), for instance — have landed multi-year deals while recovering from Tommy John surgery, but those $10MM guarantees, which could be a best-case scenario, pale in comparison to what a healthier Richards would have earned in free agency.

Beyond all of that, the Angels will continue to face scrutiny for the rampant injury troubles that have permeated their rotation in recent seasons. In the last three years alone, the Angels have had Andrew Heaney, Tyler Skaggs, Nick Tropeano, J.C. Ramirez, Keynan Middleton, Blake Wood and John Lamb undergo Tommy John surgery, while others such as Alex Meyer, Nate Smith and Matt Shoemaker have gone under the knife for various other reasons.

Certainly not all of those injuries can be pinned on the Angels. Meyer’s shoulder troubles, for example, date back to his days with the Twins, while Lamb has had injuries of his own and was only briefly in the organization before requiring surgery. But the barrage of pitching injuries the Angels have faced in recent years if undoubtedly something that’ll prompt a deep dive from the front office as it seeks to determine if there’s something more than sheer coincidence and misfortune at play.

Garrett Richards To Undergo MRI For Forearm Injury

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The Angels announced tonight that right-hander Garrett Richards exited tonight’s start due to irritation in his right forearm. He’ll undergo an MRI tomorrow to further evaluate the injury.

It’s the latest in a seemingly ceaseless line of injuries to an Angels pitching staff that has struggled to stay healthy over the past several seasons. Richards himself only recently returned from a hamstring injury and was making just his second start since being reinstated from the disabled list.

Any serious injury to Richards would be impactful to the Angels on multiple levels. First and foremost, he’s among the team’s most talented options in the rotation and is in the midst of a solid season, having pitched to a 3.68 ERA with 10.3 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, 1.3 HR/9 and a 49.3 percent ground-ball rate through 76 1/3 innings.

Beyond that, the Angels are buried 14.5 games back in the American League West and are a similarly daunting 11 games back from an American League Wild Card spot (though they’re poised to move up a game in those standings with a late lead over Seattle at present). If the team can’t put together a significant winning streak in the coming weeks, GM Billy Eppler and his lieutenants may very well be forced to sell off some short-term assets and begin looking toward 2019. Richards would be among the team’s best trade chips with the deadline looming, but this latest injury calls even that possibility into question.

Trade Rumblings: Happ, Giants, Britton, Red Sox, Richards

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The Yankees continue to hold Blue Jays left-hander J.A. Happ in high regard and have him near the top of their list of “realistic” trade targets as the deadline approaches, tweets Fancred’s Jon Heyman. (Notably, Heyman adds that the Yankees don’t consider either Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard to fall into that “realistic” category.) However, to this point, the Yankees believe the asking price on Happ to be too high for talks to become serious.  The Mariners and Cubs have also been linked to Happ in recent weeks, and it seems it’s merely a matter of time until the southpaw finds himself in a new jersey. Though he was hit hard in his past two starts, Happ is averaging nearly 10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched against 2.9 BB/9 with a 4.44 ERA. Metrics like FIP (3.97), xFIP (3.79) and SIERA (3.64) all feel he’s been substantially better than his ERA would indicate.

Some more trade talk from around MLB…

  • The Giants might not be done making moves to shed salary, reports Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. The team seemingly dubbed Austin Jackson and Cory Gearrin expendable and shed their remaining salary in Sunday’s trade with the Rangers, and Schulman wonders if the Giants would also take a similar course with either Derek Holland or Sam Dyson. Holland has been solid dating back to early May, but he’s somewhat redundant with Ty Blach also on the roster (though certainly the depth is valuable). San Francisco could save another $1.4MM, Schulman adds, if Dyson is moved. It should be emphasized that the Giants’ goal certainly isn’t to shed payroll at all costs; rather, the aim would seem to be shedding expendable pieces who could be replaced by more affordable internal options, thus creating further distance from the $197MM luxury tax barrier. Schulman also notes that while finding a taker for Hunter Pence would obviously create ample breathing room in that regard, some within the organization, including manager Bruce Bochy, would hate to see Pence and his leadership depart.
  • The Red Sox have been scouting Zach Britton since he was activated from the disabled list, tweets Heyman. The Sox and Orioles aren’t frequent trade partners but did line up a couple of years back in the Andrew Miller/Eduardo Rodriguez swap, and Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has already pulled off one intra-division swap in 2018, acquiring Steve Pearce from the Blue Jays. Britton hasn’t looked like himself since returning from surgery to repair his Achilles tendon, as his K/BB numbers and ground-ball rates have all been well south of his usual levels. Britton’s velocity has ticked upward in his past two outings, though he’s still falling behind far too many hitters and is owed more than $5MM through season’s end. That last bit may be of particular importance to the Red Sox, who after acquiring Pearce are just narrowly under the next level of luxury tax penalization. If they exceed the luxury tax by more than $40MM, the Red Sox would see their top pick in next year’s draft pushed back 10 slots.
  • Teams looking for rotation help on the trade market will have a close eye on the upcoming Mariners/Angels series, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. If Halos already trail the Astros by 14 games in the AL West and trail Seattle by 11 games in the AL Wild Card race. If the Mariners can widen that gap further, the Angels may have little choice but to turn an eye toward 2019, which would likely result in Garrett Richards being made available in trades. Sherman notes that Angels GM Billy Eppler told him just last week that his focus remained on reaching the postseason, but Sherman also writes that “those who know Eppler believe he will be pragmatic” if things don’t change quickly. The Yankees, Brewers, Braves, Cubs, Phillies and Mariners are among the teams looking for rotation upgrades, per Sherman.

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