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Report: Tigers Were Offered Baez, Bregman In 2017 Offers For Michael Fulmer

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Between a down year in 2018 and then Tommy John surgery in March 2019, Michael Fulmer has fallen off the radar for many fans outside of the Motor City.  Yet it wasn’t long ago that Fulmer was one the most sought-after trade chips in baseball, hotly pursued by multiple teams in the aftermath of a Rookie Of The Year season in 2016, and a strong sophomore year that saw him post a 3.83 ERA, 2.85 K/BB rate, and 6.2 K/9 over 164 2/3 innings in 2017, though Fulmer’s year was cut short by elbow surgery.

It was during that 2017 season that the Tigers finally went into full rebuild mode, trading Justin Verlander, Justin Upton, J.D. Martinez, and others before the trading period finally halted at the end of August.  Fulmer received plenty of attention from trade suitors, though he wasn’t as obvious of a moveable asset given that he still had so many years of team control remaining.

Nonetheless, the Tigers received some sizeable offers for his services, and according to Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, these offers included two blockbusters for future All-Stars.  The Tigers reportedly declined a three-player package from the Cubs that would have seen Javier Baez head to Detroit in exchange for Fulmer, while the Astros were willing to give up Alex Bregman for both Fulmer and left-hander Justin Wilson.

It makes for an eye-popping case of hindsight for the Tigers and their fans, considering how the three principal figures of those offers have since performed.  Baez and Bregman are simply two of the game’s best players, each collecting All-Star appearances in both 2018 and 2019, while Baez finished second in NL MVP voting last season while Bregman racked up a fifth-place finish in the 2018 AL MVP race and also played a big role in the Astros’ 2017 World Series title.

Fulmer, by contrast, hasn’t matched his early potential due to injuries and perhaps simply some statistical regression.  Whether he can regain his former front-of-the-rotation status is a question that can’t be answered until at least a few months into the 2020 season (or perhaps until 2021, if Fulmer is one of many pitchers who under-performs in their first several starts back from TJ surgery).

There were some rumors about a Cubs/Tigers trade involving Fulmer back in 2017, prior to Chicago’s acquisition of Jose Quintana from the White Sox, though Detroit reportedly wanted both Baez and Ian Happ as part of a Fulmer trade package.  Bregman and Fulmer were never linked in any trade talks, and one wonders if the Astros only floated the idea fairly early in the year, since Bregman was installed as the team’s everyday third baseman from Opening Day onward.  Needless to say, Bregman was no longer on the table by the time Houston and Detroit collaborated on their actual 2017 blockbuster, the championship-deciding deal that sent Verlander to the Astros on August 31.

In fairness to the Tigers, every front office has countless examples of instances where they missed out on a trade or a signing that would have been a steal.  Likewise, from the Cubs’ and Astros’ perspective, every team can cite numerous cases where they lucked out in not making a transaction.  But the Fulmer situation looms large, Fenech notes, given how Detroit has been unable to maximize the return on several of their top trade assets during their rebuild.

Several scouts from around the league weren’t very impressed by the four total prospects Detroit received from the Cubs and Braves in trade deadline swaps of Nicolas Castellanos and Shane Greene.  The Tigers also weren’t able to trade Matt Boyd, perhaps their most valuable trade chip, at all.  While “multiple executives indicated Boyd’s trade value will never be as high as it was at 3:59 p.m. on Wednesday” prior to the trade deadline, it seems that Detroit’s asking price on Boyd was simply too exorbitant.  One National League exec told Fenech that the Tigers’ demands were “borderline comical,” and an AL executive describing Detroit’s front office as “impossible to deal with.”

The Tigers also asked for a lot in their attempts to trade Greene.  For instance, Detroit asked the Nationals for top infield prospect Carter Kieboom, and Fenech also reports that the Nationals turned down an offer for Luis Garcia, another prized young infielder.

Astros Suspend Reymin Guduan

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The Astros have suspended left-hander Reymin Guduan for what GM Jeff Luhnow described as a “disciplinary issue” at Triple-A, the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome writes.  Guduan will be suspended for the rest of the season.  Specifics aren’t known about what caused the punishment, as Luhnow only said that Guduan “broke our team rules and is being disciplined because of it.”

Guduan has appeared in 32 games for the Astros over the last three seasons, with just 24 2/3 innings amassed over that limited big league action.  The hard-throwing southpaw has an 8.03 ERA as a Major Leaguer, including an 11.81 mark in only 5 1/3 frames this season.  Even in the minors, Guduan hasn’t exhibited much consistency — a 4.64 ERA over 382 career innings in Houston’s farm system, with an 11.1 K/9 that has been undermined by a 6.2 BB/9.  Between this lack of a track record and now a lengthy suspension, it’s fair to wonder if this could mark the end of Guduan’s time with the Astros organization.

Though Guduan wasn’t likely to be much of a factor for the Astros down the stretch this season, though his absence does remove some depth in an area that was already something of a thin area for the team.  As Rome notes, Wade Miley, Framber Valdez, and Cionel Perez are the only left-handers on Houston’s entire 40-man roster.  Of that trio, Miley is a starter, Valdez and Perez are in the minors, and Perez is additionally on the injured list.  While the Astros haven’t much sweated their lack of left-handed relievers over the last couple of years, the lack of an August waiver trade period this season would make it all the more difficult for the team to acquire another pitcher if it felt another lefty arm was needed.

How The Astros Landed Zack Greinke

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Just when it seemed like the 2019 trade deadline has passed without any truly major transactions, a blockbuster deal between the Astros and Diamondbacks shook things up when details emerged of the swap shortly after 3pm CT yesterday.  The Astros landed one of baseball’s top arms in Zack Greinke (and also $24MM of the roughly $77MM owed to Greinke through 2021), while trading away four interesting prospects in right-handers Corbin Martin and J.B. Bukauskas, first baseman Seth Beer and infielder Joshua Rojas.

The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (subscription required), ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan, and the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome all provided some of the details that led up to the trade, including the fact that Astros GM Jeff Luhnow didn’t get in touch with the D’Backs about Greinke until the day before the deadline.  Arizona GM Mike Hazen and his front office wanted four prospects for Greinke and didn’t move from those demands, despite some counters from the Astros.  Talks didn’t pick up again until around 35 minutes before the deadline.

“At the end of the day, that was the deal they insisted on, and that was the only deal that was going to get done, and we conceded at the last moment,” Luhnow said in a conference call with Rome and other media members.

It could be that the Astros were willing to bend on the Diamondbacks’ ask since Arizona may have been one of the few teams that didn’t try to pry away Kyle Tucker or Forrest Whitley, Houston’s top two prospects.  Luhnow told rival clubs that Tucker and Whitley were “off limits” — the Tigers and Mets are two of the teams known to have asked about Tucker, in discussions around Matt Boyd and Noah Syndergaard.

Also, as Passan writes, “it dawned on the Astros: No one else was doing anything” on deadline day.  The biggest moves for starting pitching were driven by teams that weren’t really contenders in 2019, namely the Reds’ acquisition of Trevor Bauer and the Mets’ acquisition of Marcus Stroman.  With teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers having quiet deadlines and other top teams like the Nationals, Twins, and Braves focusing on bullpen moves, Houston felt a Greinke trade would make an even bigger splash than usual due to the relative lack of activity from other World Series challengers.

Speaking of the Mets’ Stroman deal, that surprise trade served as something of a catalyst for the Greinke trade, Passan notes.  The Astros had interest in Stroman themselves, and once the right-hander went elsewhere, it broadened Houston’s search into other potentially available arms, including Greinke.

From the Diamondbacks’ perspective, a Greinke deal wasn’t a priority for Hazen, despite constant speculation over the last several years that Greinke’s large contract was simply too much of a burden on the Snakes’ payroll.  When the Astros were agreeable to Arizona’s asking price, however, Hazen got the go-ahead from D’Backs owner Ken Kendrick and team president/CEO Derrick Hall.

“This was how the deal came together,” Hazen said.  “I think we anticipated, as we’ve gone through the last few weeks, if we were going to get any sizable amount of talent in return that there was going to have to be some compromise financially. That talent return was extremely important to us. We would never have considered trading Zack Greinke without talent (coming back). That would have been a nonstarter.”

With the Greinke trade coming down to the final few minutes before the deadline, the D’Backs were simultaneously in a scramble to replace him in the rotation with another veteran arm in Mike Leake.  Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto told reporters (including MLB.com’s Greg Johns) yesterday that the Leake trade was finalized with only 68 seconds remaining before the 3pm deadline.

“Human beings are notoriously bad when deadlines are imposed….For some reason, we don’t ever get to work until there are 20 minutes to go. This was a big one to be tackling with 20 minutes to go,” Hazen joked about the two trades.

Astros Acquire Zack Greinke

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In a last-minute trade deadline stunner, the Astros announced that they’ve acquired right-hander Zack Greinke from the Diamondbacks in exchange for right-handers Corbin Martin and J.B. Bukauskas, first baseman Seth Beer and infielder Joshua Rojas. Martin (who is recovering from Tommy John surgery), Bukauskas and Beer are arguably Houston’s three best non-Kyle Tucker and non-Forrest Whitley prospects.

Zack Greinke | Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The buzzer-beating trade transforms an already-imposing Astros one-two rotation punch to a genuine postseason powerhouse. The 2019 Greinke trade harkens back to 2017’s acquisition of Justin Verlander for the Astros, and Greinke will now join Verlander and Gerrit Cole as the most formidable 1-2-3 combination in the American League (if not all of baseball).

Greinke is earning $31.5MM in 2019 and is still owed another $10.5MM of that salary between now and season’s end. He’s also under contract in both 2020 and 2021, with a $32MM salary owed to him in each season. Beyond that, he still has multiple payouts on his prorated signing bonus coming his way — $3MM in 2020 and 2021 — and receives a $2MM signing bonus by virtue of being traded. A third of his salary in 2019-21 is deferred and will be paid out in annual payment of $12.5MM from 2022-26, thus reducing at least some of the immediate financial implications for Houston. The Astros are reportedly “only” on the hook for about $53MM of the money that is still owed to Greinke.

Greinke’s six-year, $206.5MM contract with the Diamondbacks, signed in the 2015-16 offseason, set a then-record for the largest average annual salary ever promised to a player. And while the first season of that deal looked to be an ominous step backward from the former Cy Young winner’s Hall of Fame trajectory, he’s righted the ship and then some in the ensuing two and a half seasons.

Dating back to 2017, Greinke has racked up 551 innings of 3.12 ERA ball with 8.9 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9 and a ground-ball rate near 45 percent. He’s been particularly effective in 2019 despite the league-wide home run boom, spinning 141 frames of 2.87 ERA ball with a 0.89 HR/9 average that is actually his lowest since 2015. Greinke was shelled for seven runs in his first start of the season, but over his past 21 outings he has a 2.49 ERA and a 2.77 FIP, underscoring that even with his 36th birthday looming in October, he’s still a bona fide top-of-the-rotation pitcher.

The acquisition of Greinke is all the more vital for the Astros when glancing at their future outlook. Cole is slated to become a free agent at season’s end, as are left-hander Wade Miley and right-hander Collin McHugh. That’s three rotation options all departing, and with Martin undergoing Tommy John surgery and Whitley struggling, the most big-league-ready of Houston’s farmhands suddenly looked less certain to be 2020 contributors. (Whitley certainly still could be, of course.) The organization hopes to have Lance McCullers Jr. back from Tommy John surgery next season, but an immediate return to form is far from a sure thing.

Now, with Greinke and fellow controllable acquisition Aaron Sanchez joining the team, the Astros have a pair of new arms to team with Verlander and whichever internal options are up to the task. (Sanchez, alternatively, could also work out of the bullpen.) Landing Greinke lessens the organization’s urgency to pay top dollar for Cole on the open market as well; Cole himself seems likely to pursue a $200MM+ contract in free agency and seems a good bet to secure $150MM+ even if he doesn’t quite reach that level of rarefied air.

Turning to the Diamondbacks, who entered deadline day with a .500 record and an insurmountable division deficit, the move is the next step toward ushering in a new era of baseball. The D-backs traded face of the franchise Paul Goldschmidt this offseason, landing promising young players Carson Kelly and Luke Weaver as the key pieces in that deal. Now, third-year GM Mike Hazen and his staff have shipped out the team’s ace and cleared a substantial amount of payroll, acquiring a pair of pitchers who entered the season regarded as top 100 prospects in all of baseball: Martin and Bukauskas.

Martin won’t be a factor until late 2020 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but he’s viewed as a potential midrotation arm with an above-average fastball and an above-average, potentially plus slider. He averaged 95.3 mph on his heater in his brief MLB time this season and posted a 3.13 ERA with nearly 11 punchouts per nine innings pitched in 37 1/3 Triple-A frames before undergoing surgery.

Corbin Martin | Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

Because his injury and the subsequent operation came about when he was pitching in Triple-A, Martin is on the minor league injured list and not accruing MLB service time. That’s key for Arizona because it means they quite likely won’t need to have him on the MLB roster or injured list until late 2020, which would theoretically make him controllable through the 2026 season. If the D-backs decide they need a roster spot and promote him to the MLB 60-day IL, that timeline would be subject to change.

Bukauskas, 22,was the 15th overall pick in the 2017 draft and has spent the 2019 season in Double-A. While his 5.25 ERA isn’t particularly impressive, he’s averaged 10.3 K/9 with a solid 47.1 percent ground-ball rate against older, more advanced competition at that level. Over at Fangraphs, Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen gave Bukauskas the potential for three 60-or-better offerings (on the 20-80 scale) but indicated in their preseason report that durability concerns — he has some back issues stemming from a previous car accident — and command could limit his workload and realization of his considerable ceiling.

Beer, beyond the superlative fun that can be had with his name, is the other big get for the Diamondbacks. Houston’s pick at No. 28 overall in 2018, Beer receives 65 to 70 grades on his raw power in scouting reports and makes more contact than one might expect from a prototypical slugger. He’s ripped through Double-A pitching in 2019, hitting at a .299/.407/.543 clip with 16 home runs and nine doubles. He’s also walked at an 8.6 percent clip against a 20.7 percent strikeout rate. Beer has bottom-of-the-scale speed but could be a bat-first option for Arizona at first base (or at designated hitter if it’s ever implemented in the National League — a possibility that continues to be a point of discussion).

Rojas is 25 years old and isn’t regarded as a top prospect, but he’s played all four infield slots and both outfield corners while tearing the cover off the ball in Double-A and Triple-A this season. He’s a potential near-term option for the D-backs who hit .322/.405/.561 in 195 Double-A plate appearances before graduating to Triple-A and raking at a comparable .310/.402/.586 clip. Rojas has a combined 20 home runs and 32 stolen bases this season. He may never have graced top prospect rankings in the past, but at a certain point that level of performance in the upper minors is difficult to overlook. At the very least, he’s an interesting fourth piece who could emerge as a utility option for the Snakes in the not-too-distant future.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported (via Twitter) that Greinke was going to Houston. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and the New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported various elements of the return (all Twitter links). Rosenthal and MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert added financial details (Twitter links).

Astros To Acquire Aaron Sanchez, Joe Biagini

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The Astros acquired right-handers Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini for outfielder Derek Fisher, according to reports from Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun, Joel Sherman of the New York Post, and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca.  The deal was a precursor to a trade deadline buzzer beater, as the Astros picked up Zack Greinke from the Diamondbacks as well.

Sanchez, 27, was drafted 34th overall by the Blue Jays in 2010 and was ranked among the best 35 prospects in baseball prior to his 2014 debut.  The Jays had Sanchez work out of the bullpen as a rookie, and he joined the rotation the following season.  He suffered a lat strain that season and returned as a reliever.  Sanchez  was again moved back to the rotation for the 2016 season, and he authored his finest campaign: a 3.00 ERA in 30 starts, good for a seventh place Cy Young finish.  He would never reach those heights again, dealing with a blisters and finger injuries in the ensuing years. His ERA sits at 6.07 in 23 starts this year.

Biagini, 29, was Toronto’s Rule 5 Draft selection in 2015 and enjoyed a tremendous rookie campaign in 2016, pitching to a 3.06 ERA with 8.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.40 HR/9 and a 52.2 percent ground-ball rate in 67 2/3 innings. However, the Blue Jays’ subsequent attempt to move Biagini into the rotation in 2017 proved an ill-fated mistake, and his 2018 season spent mostly back in the bullpen didn’t yield quality results, either (6.00 ERA in 72 innings).

The 2019 season has seen Biagini bounce back to the tune of a 3.75 ERA over the life of 48 innings. He’s been homer-prone — like most of the league — but is sporting a career-high 9.0 K/9 against an even 3.0 BB/9 with a 45.3 percent ground-ball rate. There’s reason to be optimistic about further improvement, too; Biagini’s 13.7 percent swinging-strike rate is easily a career-best, as is his 36.1 percent opponents’ chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone. The spin rate on his breaking ball is elite as well, ranking 21st of 399 big league pitchers to throw the pitch at least 100 times dating back to 2016. That type of profile has yielded substantial benefits for the Astros in the past, of course, and they’ll look to elevate his profile with their data-heavy approach moving forward.

Once a top 100 prospect, Fisher hasn’t established himself in the majors since debuting in 2017. He likely wouldn’t have gotten a chance to do so in Houston, either, with the team loaded in the outfield now and with high-end prospect Kyle Tucker ahead of him in the organizational pecking order. Fisher has hit just .201/.282/.367 with 10 home runs in 312 MLB plate appearances, but he has been quite productive in Triple-A ball. The 25-year-old has slashed .289/.379/.520 with 50 HRs in 1,053 PA at the minors’ highest level.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Angels Acquire Max Stassi

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The Angels have agreed to a swap with the Astros to acquire backstop Max Stassi, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). Stassi, 28, was pushed out of the picture in Houston when the club acquired backstop Martin Maldonado.

Outfielders Rainier Rivas and Raider Uceta are going to Houston in return, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).

With Maldonado rejoining the fray in Houston, the 28-year-old Stassi was evidently made expendable. He’d already been struggling to justify his spot on the active roster, with an abysmal .446 OPS in 98 plate appearances for this year’s Astros. That said, Stassi has made his living not as a formidable offensive player, but for his value behind the plate. Per Statcast, he’s posted top-of-the-line framing numbers behind the plate, one of the most sought-after skills in a catcher. DRS credits him as saving 9 runs last season and 2 runs this year. For his career, he’s caught 24% of would-be base-stealers—not a great mark, but passable considering his framing skills.

In Anaheim, he’ll replace Dustin Garneau, who was designated for assignment earlier Wednesday. The Angels’ everyday catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, is slated to make his return from the injured list. Kevan Smith, who has enjoyed a solid offensive season by backup catcher standards, is also on the active roster, though he lags behind Stassi as a defensive catcher. Both Smith and Stassi are out of options, so it appears that the Halos will move forward with three catchers on the 25-man roster, at least for the time being.

In Rivas and Uceta, the Astros will in turn receive two teenage outfielders from the depths of the Los Angeles minor-league ranks. MLB Pipeline doesn’t view either as one of the Halos’ top 30 prospects, though at just 18 years old, these are far from finished products. Both Rivas and Uceta are playing in the Arizona League with the Angels’ rookie-ball affiliate. Uceta has posted a .278/.341/.373 batting line in 138 plate appearances at the level, while Rivas has batted .400/.512/.543 in 86 PA.

Yankees, Astros Pursuing Madison Bumgarner, Zack Wheeler

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The Yankees and Astros, two American League superpowers, continue their pursuit of high-profile starting pitchers. Both teams are in on Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner and Mets righty Zack Wheeler, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. The Astros are also “focused” on Diamondbacks southpaw Robbie Ray, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Ray has been on the Yankees’ radar of late, too.

The Astros and Yankees are among the teams on Bumgarner’s limited no-trade list, but that doesn’t mean the pending free agent would block a deal to either club. Of course, it’s not a sure thing the playoff-contending Giants will even move Bumgarner, a franchise icon, by today’s deadline. They’ve been telling teams that they plan to keep him and closer Will Smith, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports.

This is the second time this week the Astros have been prominently connected to Bumgarner and Wheeler. As is the case with Bumgarner, Wheeler’s a 29-year-old soon-to-be free agent. While Wheeler may be the top trade candidate in baseball, the Mets aren’t guaranteed to part with him. They’ve made something of a charge up the standings of late, and seem prepared to retain Wheeler if they don’t get the type of return they’re seeking for the flamethrower. And whether the Mets would even trade Wheeler to the hated Yankees is also in question.

Astros Acquire Martin Maldonado For Tony Kemp

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The Astros have acquired catcher Martin Maldonado from the Cubs, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. Outfielder/second baseman Tony Kemp is going to Chicago in return, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle.

This is the second trade of the month for Maldonado, whose Cubs tenure was fleeting. They acquired Maldonado from the Royals for left-hander Mike Montgomery on July 15. At the time, the Cubs had just lost their starting catcher, Willson Contreras, to the injured list. He quickly returned, though, making Maldonado a superfluous piece for a team that already had the capable Victor Caratini as its reserve backstop.

The Astros reportedly pursued Maldonado before his trade to the Cubs, and he’ll now head to Houston for the second straight year. The club previously acquired Maldonado from the Angels last July. Maldonado now figures to supplant Max Stassi, who’s out of options and could now be on his way to a trade or a designation for assignment, as Robinson Chirinos’ backup. Stassi’s a quality defender who hasn’t hit this year, which doesn’t make him much different than the 32-year-old Maldonado. However, even Maldonado’s paltry .217/.285/.349 line easily outdoes Stassi’s .167/.235/.211 showing.

Maldonado, who’s earning the balance of a $2.5MM salary, will be a free agent at season’s end. Kemp, on the other hand, could be a multiyear piece for the Cubs. Kemp won’t be eligible for arbitration until after next season, though the Cubs won’t have the option of sending him to the minors without subjecting him to waivers. The 27-year-old’s time in Houston came to an end when it designated him on July 25.

Kemp, to his credit, had been amid his second straight useful offensive campaign before the Astros booted him from their roster. He has slashed .227/.308/.417 with seven home runs, four steals and a terrific 15.6 percent strikeout rate across 186 plate appearances this year, also logging 25-plus appearances at second and in the outfield.

The Cubs had been seeking help at second and in the outfield prior to this trade. Whether Kemp will be enough to satisfy those needs remains to be seen. The club could acquire further help at either position in the next few hours, but it does expect to get second baseman/outfielder Ben Zobrist back from the restricted list later in the season.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Astros Place Ryan Pressly On IL

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9:45am: Highly regarded righty Bryan Abreu will take the open roster spot, per the Astros Future Twitter account (link). The 22-year-old already has a 40-man spot but hadn’t yet debuted in the majors. It could just be a brief fill-in job, but the Astros could also consider Abreu a late-season option at the MLB level. Abreu is said to possess high-end stuff but is still learning how to command it. He is being developed as a starter in the minors. In 55 2/3 innings this year at the Double-A level, Abreu owns a 5.17 ERA with 10.8 K/9 and 5.2 BB/9.

9:28am: The Astros have placed reliever Ryan Pressly on the 10-day injured list, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). It seems the move was technically made yesterday, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic notes on Twitter, since it’s backdated to June 27th.

Fortunately, this still seems to be a minor issue for the Houston organization and one of its best arms. Pressly has been limited by knee soreness after being struck in the joint by a batted ball, but there’s no indication he is dealing with any structural issues. With a healthy division lead, the ’Stros can afford to allow Pressly a chance to heal up and get back to full health.

Pressly, 30, has been exceptional again this season after being traded to Houston in the midst of a breakout 2018 showing. (He went on to ink an extension that seems to represent an exceptional value for the club.) Through 44 1/3 innings in 2019, Pressly has produced a 2.03 ERA while carrying 11.2 K/9 against 1.6 BB/9 along with a 50.9% groundball rate.

With or without today’s injury news, the Astros figure to be on the hunt for relief arms. While it’s certainly not the chief need — that’d be in the rotation — the club could stand to improve and deepen its bullpen, particularly from the left side.

Trevor Bauer Drawing Increased Interest; Reds Have Inquired

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There’s been an “uptick” in the level of trade interest in Indians righty Trevor Bauer today, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (subscription required). Rosenthal adds that the Indians are becoming increasingly tempted to make a deal. Joel Sherman of the New York Post, meanwhile, tweets that several executives throughout the league now believe the Indians are more likely to trade Bauer than to keep him.

More interestingly, Rosenthal tweets that the Reds and Indians have had discussions about a potential Bauer swap. Outfield prospect Taylor Trammell has been a part of those topics, Rosenthal notes, although Trammell is in the midst of a down season in Double-A and doesn’t exactly fit the bill of a big-league-ready asset the Reds can plug directly onto the 25-man roster. Cleveland is marketing Bauer more due to looming payroll concerns than because the organization is waving a white flag on the current season, and the common line of thinking has been that they’d need an immediate roster supplement in order to consider parting with Bauer.

Cincinnati’s interest, too, suggests that the club isn’t giving up on its push to end its ongoing rebuild. The Reds added Sonny Gray, Tanner Roark, Alex Wood and Yasiel Puig over the winter in an effort to contend in the NL Central. Those efforts didn’t put the club in contention for a division title, but Gray looks reborn as a quality starter and was extended for three more years. While Roark and Wood are slated to hit free agency (as is Puig), Bauer would give the Reds another option for the 2020 rotation. The trio of Bauer, Gray and Luis Castillo would become on of the more formidable top three in the game and would position Cincinnati well for a 2020 push before even reaching the offseason.

Unsurprisingly, it seems that the recent outburst in which Bauer hurled a ball over the center field fence out of being frustration upon being lifted from a start hasn’t deterred clubs from expressing interest. That incident resulted in a fine for Bauer but not a suspension, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, but there won’t be any additional action from the league. Indians skipper Terry Francona spoke of potentially levying some additional team-issued discipline for Bauer (link via Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com), but that would of course only come into play if Bauer remains with Cleveland beyond tomorrow afternoon’s deadline.

Interest in Bauer has been fairly widespread, with the Padres, Yankees and Astros all linked to the right-hander (in addition to the aforementioned Reds). Houston has had “recent” talks about Bauer, tweets MLB.com’s Jon Morosi, though it’s not clear whether that’s indicative of talks earlier today or simply confirmation of the prior talks that have been reported upon in recent weeks.

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