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Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers! Anthony took questions on the Randy Arozarena and A.J. Puk trades, whether the Yankees will trade from the top of their farm system, where Brent Rooker might land, whether the Dodgers should deal young pitching for Garrett Crochet, the Tigers' shortstop possibilities, the chances the Giants find a taker for Blake Snell, and much more.

 

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Tim Dierkes’ MLB Mailbag: Skubal, Rooker, Orioles, Padres

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Today's mailbag marks the last one before the trade deadline, and covers the likelihood of Tarik Skubal and Brent Rooker trades, what the Orioles, Padres, Tigers, and other teams might do, and much more.   For further discussion of many of these topics, check out the MLBTR podcast as well.

Paul asks:

How aggressive do you see Detroit being in moving Tarik Skubal? As an O's fan I am wondering if a package centered around Basallo and some lesser guys like Norby and Stowers could get it done.

I do not expect the Tigers to trade Skubal.  They've got the AL Cy Young favorite under control through 2026 at well below-market arbitration prices.  In a couple of months, president of baseball operations Scott Harris will reach his two-year anniversary with the team.  Trading Skubal right now seems like a bit of a surrender for 2025-26, at a point in his tenure where it seems like Harris should increasingly be pushing chips in.

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The A’s Difficult Deadline Decision

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The A's are one of the few obvious sellers this summer. Oakland will certainly move some players by next Tuesday, but it's not clear if they'll dominate the trade market. The A's don't have anyone on significant long-term commitments that they'll be trying to offload. They could move a couple middle relievers and call it a deadline.

That's not all that interesting. Their bigger decisions will be whether to deal players under team control. They've reportedly set a massive demand on Mason Miller, whom they could stretch back into a rotation role next season. Miller has been the subject of a ton of trade speculation with good reason. There's been less chatter, at least publicly, about Brent Rooker.

The front office might have an even tougher call in the coming days regarding Rooker than they do with their star closer. Rooker has been one of the most productive offensive players in baseball over the past season and a half. He could be the best hitter traded. Yet his winding career arc makes him a tricky player to value -- potentially making it tough for the A's and other teams to align on an asking price.

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MLB Mailbag: Reds, Red Sox, Skubal, Alonso, Prospects, Dodgers, Cubs, Diaz

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I'm stepping in for MLBTR founder and owner Tim Dierkes on this week's MLB Mailbag. It's a deadline-heavy edition this week, with questions on the Reds' outlook, Frankie Montas, Jonathan India, the Red Sox, Tarik Skubal, Pete Alonso's future, the 2024 draft, the concept of non-contending clubs using the deadline to buy pieces for the 2025 season, the Dodgers' growing list of needs, the Cubs' uncertain status, and more! Let's get into it.

Matthew H. asks:

No Reds in the Top 50 trade candidates? Was there any consideration to the front office tendency to stand pat in July or was that just the way the names fell?

We'll definitely do at least one more update to our top trade candidates list -- possibly two. The Reds could factor more prominently onto a future version, but as of right now, they're only three games out of the Wild Card hunt in the National League. They're in a key group of borderline contenders -- along with teams like the Cubs, Pirates, Giants and Rangers -- whose deadline fate hinges on how the first few games of the second half shake out. A nine-game road trip to play the Nats, Braves and Rays (in that order) is going to be a major factor.

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Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers! Anthony took questions on draft pick trading, whether the Royals could deal from their MLB team for help in other areas, the asking price on Garrett Crochet, Ivan Herrera's value, the Yankees' closing situation, the A's middle infield, where the first Juan Soto trade ranks among the biggest in MLB history, and much more.

 

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The Trade Market Remains Light On Middle Infield Talent

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We released our first iteration of the Top 50 trade candidates last week. It was a broadly pitching-heavy list, with 30 of the spots occupied by pitchers. Especially striking is the lack of middle infield talent that'll clearly be available. We listed just four middle infielders among that Top 50.

One of those players, Jazz Chisholm Jr., hadn't actually played an inning in the infield since 2022 at the time of that writing. The Marlins have since begun getting him second base work in an apparent effort to showcase his defensive flexibility for interested teams. Bo Bichette made the back of the Top 50 because he's a marquee name, but the Blue Jays haven't suggested a willingness to deal key players whom they control beyond this season. He's still a long shot to move. The other two middle infielders to make the list: Paul DeJong and Brendan Rodgers, each of whom is at best a low-end regular.

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Another Contending Club That Could Have Pitching To Spare

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A couple of weeks ago, in a piece for Front Office subscribers, MLBTR's Steve Adams highlighted some clubs that he figured could walk a buy/sell tightrope at the deadline. The teams he featured are all contenders, but with enough starting pitching options that they could plausibly "sell" a pitcher or two while still trying to compete here in 2024. In recent weeks, there's one other rotation that has suddenly become quite crowded as the team has been climbing in the standings.

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Current And Former Top Prospects To Watch As The Trade Deadline Approaches

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Last week, MLBTR's Anthony Franco ran through a handful of under-the-radar trade candidates for teams on the hunt for bullpen help. It was a simple enough premise. While there's rightly a heavy focus placed on high-quality relievers on bad teams (e.g. Mason Miller, Tanner Scott, Carlos Estevez), MLB teams will be casting a wider net than just those obvious trade candidates.

I wanted to do something similar with hitters -- and may still do so -- but as I parsed through some potential options, I was also struck by the likelihood that there are a number of current and former (more of the latter) top prospects who increasingly look like they'll have an uphill battle to earning a role with their current club. Oftentimes, this is due to other prospects leapfrogging them on the depth chart, the team extending a current key player and/or injuries. While today's front offices tend to hoard depth as much as possible the finite number of minor league options a player possesses can put an inherent clock on that depth's shelf life.

Not all of the players highlighted in this exercise are teetering on being out of options, nor is this intended to be an exhaustive list of names in this situation. (If there's anyone you feel I missed, by all means, let me know in the comments and bring them to the discussion!) I'm also not going to focus much on former prospects who've already been passed through waivers/released or those who are performing poorly enough in the minors that they're now DFA candidates themselves.

The aim here is to find some interesting, controllable names still on the 40-man roster who have decent minor league (and in some cases, big league) track records but lack a clear path to an everyday role on their current roster. That sort of player ought to have appeal to rebuilding teams or retooling sellers who are looking to take another shot at contending as soon as next year. Here are a few situations that seem worth monitoring as the deadline draws near:

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Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today at 2:00pm central, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers.

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Under-The-Radar Bullpen Trade Candidates

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A number of relievers move every deadline season. Almost every contender could at least upgrade upon the seventh or eighth man in their bullpen. Others urgently need to bring in one or more high-leverage pieces. Teams outside the playoff picture are usually willing to field offers on their relievers, particularly on middle innings arms.

This summer's market will feature a few obvious names. Carlos Estévez and Tanner Scott are good impending free agent closers on bad teams. They're going to move. Yimi García, John Brebbia, Luis García, Dylan Floro, Scott Alexander, T.J. McFarland, Derek Law and Jalen Beeks are affordable rental middle relievers on clubs that are at best fringe contenders. They could each go for a mid-tier prospect. Hunter Harvey, Kyle Finnegan and Michael Kopech -- each of whom are controllable through 2025 -- have already been the subject of trade rumors. So has A's breakout closer Mason Miller, although Oakland would need to be blown away to move him with another five years of team control.

Those are some of the more obvious options. Most teams will cast an even wider net, though, identifying a few players of interest who aren't prototypical trade candidates. There are typically a couple controllable relievers who find themselves on the move even if they weren't the subject of many pre-deadline rumors. Scott Effross and Colin Holderman fit that bill a couple years ago. Jose Cuas, Peter Strzelecki and Manuel Rodríguez were dealt at last summer's deadline.

Predicting long shot trade candidates is by definition going to lead to more misses than hits. Most of the following players will still be on their current teams come August. Yet I'll try to identify a few controllable bullpen pieces who have a small but realistic chance to be traded in the next couple weeks.

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