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Trade Deadline Notes: Royals, Moore, Rays, BoSox, Angels, Eppler, Orioles

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Trevor Rosenthal and other Royals relievers are already drawing interest from trade suitors, though GM Dayton Moore hasn’t ruled out being a deadline buyer.  “We wouldn’t hesitate to add to this team,” Moore told Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star.  “This team is talented enough to be one of eight teams representing the American League in the playoffs….So I’m not even beginning to think about dismantling or moving players that help us win at this point.  I believe that this group of players is extremely talented and very much capable of being a playoff team.”

The Royals are last in the AL Central with an 11-18 record, and they sit four games back of the Blue Jays for the last AL wild card slot.  While they’d have to leapfrog a lot of teams to cross the postseason line, even one brief winning streak could greatly improve Kansas City’s chances in the shortened season.  As Worthy notes, the Royals haven’t yet had their entire ideal roster together at one time, as multiple key players have been sidelined due to injuries and COVID-19.  It doesn’t seem likely that K.C. will make any kind of big deadline push, though those expecting a mini-fire sale might also be disappointed.

More trade buzz from around the league…

  • There is no doubt that the Rays are planning on being deadline buyers, as ESPN.com’s Buster Olney tweets that “other teams say the Rays are being very aggressive in” trade talks.  It stands to reason that Tampa Bay is targeting pitching given all of their injured arms, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Rays swing some creative deals to address multiple needs.  In July 2019, for instance, Tampa landed Nick Anderson, Trevor Richards, Eric Sogard, and Jesus Aguilar in separate deals with the Marlins, Blue Jays, and Brewers respectively, while five other lower-level trades were also consummated.
  • The Red Sox are willing to include some money to accommodate trades, Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal writes (subscription required).  We’ve already seen the Sox kick in $815K to the Phillies as part of the Brandon Workman/Heath Hembree trade last weekend, and McAdam speculates that Boston could potentially eat larger sums for higher-paid players like J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, or Christian Vazquez in order to land a better prospect return.
  • Though the Angels’ 9-21 record is the worst in the American League, their approach at the trade deadline could be impacted by front office uncertainty, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman said in an appearance on the MLB Network (video link).  “There is probably not a general manager on thinner ice…right now than Billy Eppler,” Sherman notes, as the Halos are looking at their fifth straight losing season in Eppler’s five-year tenure.  Since Eppler’s contract is up after the season, Sherman wonders if the GM would have the green light to trade anything beyond rental players.  Dylan Bundy and Andrew Heaney, for instance, would draw a lot of trade interest if shopped, though both pitchers are also arbitration-controlled through 2021 and the Angels plan to contend next season.
  • The Orioles have a .500 record and are in the mix for a playoff berth, though both The Athletic’s Dan Connolly and the Baltimore Sun’s Jon Meoli figure that the team isn’t likely to make any splashy rental acquisitions.  As Connolly puts it, “general manager Mike Elias is focused on his big-picture plan and he’s not going to alter that for the immediate gratification of a seventh or eighth seed in a short season.”  Meoli, meanwhile, wonders if the O’s will be particularly active either as a buyer or seller at the deadline, noting that Elias didn’t swing many significant deals at the 2019 trade deadline and instead waited until the offseason to move the likes of Bundy and Jonathan Villar.  Between many teams’ uncertain financial situations and the lack of many defined buyers or sellers, there might even more reason this year for the Orioles to hold off until the winter.

Trevor Rosenthal Drawing Trade Interest

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“Several teams” have been in touch with the Royals about right-hander Trevor Rosenthal, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter link).  There seems to be enough interest in Rosenthal that “many expect” the veteran reliever to be moved prior to the August 31st trade deadline, Feinsand writes.

After missing 2018 due to Tommy John surgery and then struggling badly over 15 1/3 innings (with the Nationals and Tigers) last season, Rosenthal has seemingly gotten back to his old All-Star form in Kansas City.  The 30-year-old has a tiny 0.87 ERA over 10 1/3 innings this season, recording six saves with a 3.50 K/BB rate and 12.2 K/9.  While a .211 BABIP and a perfect 100% strand rate indicate that at least some regression is inevitable, Rosenthal’s fastball appears to be in prime form, with a 98mph velocity that actually tops his 97.5mph career average.

The Royals entered today’s action with a 11-15 record, five games back of Cleveland for second place in the AL Central and three games out of a wild card spot.  As with all but a small handful of teams in this compressed season, the Royals might not have decided yet whether they’ll be buyers, sellers, or a combination of both, as one good week could get K.C. back over the .500 mark and more firmly in the postseason race.

On paper, Rosenthal seems like a logical trade candidate if the Royals did plan to sell.  The 30-year-old is only under contract through the 2020 season, as per the terms of a minor league pact he signed last winter.  Reaching Kansas City’s MLB roster locked in the prorated portion of a $2MM salary for Rosenthal, and with a month of games already in the books, a new team would only be on the hook for roughly $350K if they acquired Rosenthal at full price.

Could a trip to Miami be in Rosenthal’s future?  MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reported that the Marlins are looking at the Royals’ bullpen as part of their wide-ranging search for bullpen help prior to the deadline, and while Rosenthal’s name wasn’t specifically mentioned as a target, it’s logical to assume that the closer would be on Miami’s radar.  Greg Holland is another veteran rental who would make sense as a K.C. trade chip, while hurlers like Josh Staumont or Scott Barlow would have a higher asking price due to their extra years of control.

AL Injury Notes: Simmons, Yankees, S. Perez, Astros

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The Angels reinstated Andrelton Simmons from the 10-day injured list and placed catcher Max Stassi (right quad strain, knee bruise) on the IL, the team announced. Simmons is back after a three-plus-week absence because of a sprained left ankle. It could be an interesting upcoming 10 days for Simmons, a soon-to-be free agent whom the non-contending Angels may choose to move before the Aug. 31 trade deadline. Regardless, the 30-year-old Simmons will spend the next month-plus trying to boost his stock before he reaches the open market for the first time in his career. He dealt with injury issues (including to his ankle) during a down season in 2019, and he has hit a mere .188/.188/.250 in 16 plate appearances this year.

  • Yankees manager Aaron Boone issued updates Friday on a few of their key players who are on the IL, telling WFAN (via Marly Rivera of ESPN.com) that right fielder Aaron Judge is “likely” to be in the Yankees’ lineup for their next game (that won’t be this weekend, as their series with the Mets was postponed). Judge has been down for a week with a mild calf strain. Meanwhile, second baseman DJ LeMahieu is doing “significantly better” as he recovers from the left thumb sprain that sent him to the IL last weekend. And reliever Zack Britton, whom the Yankees shelved Thursday with a strained left hamstring, should recover “on the shorter side.”
  • The Royals announced that they’ve placed catcher Salvador Perez on the IL, retroactive to Aug. 18, with left eye central serous chorioretinopathy and recalled left-hander Randy Rosario. Perez’s issue has bothered him since last weekend and hampered his vision, though it’s not believed to be a long-term problem. After missing all of last year because of Tommy John surgery, Perez was enjoying a strong return season with a .307/.326/.511 line, four home runs and a 25 percent caught-stealing percentage prior to going to the IL.
  • Astros outfielder Michael Brantley is eligible for activation Saturday, but manager Dusty Baker told Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle and other reporters he’s “not real optimistic” that will happen. It seems Brantley will need a bit more time to recover from a right quad injury that has kept him out since Aug. 11. Baker also suggested (via Rome) that yet another Astro – right-hander Josh James – will probably go on the IL. James suffered a hip injury and had to be helped off the field in Colorado on Thursday. That continued a nightmare of a season for James, who has surrendered 13 earned runs on 12 hits and 14 walks (with 13 strikeouts) in 10 2/3 innings.

Royals To Promote Matt Harvey

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1:40PM: Harvey will start the second game of the Royals’ doubleheader with the Reds tomorrow, the team announced.

11:28AM: Cue the inevitable “The Dark Knight Rises In K.C.” headlines.  The Royals are calling right-hander Matt Harvey up to the Major League roster, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter).  Harvey inked a minor league deal with Kansas City in late July and is now on track to earn the prorated portion of a $575K salary upon reaching the majors.

It isn’t known when Harvey could take the hill for K.C., given that the team’s schedule is somewhat in flux due to the rescheduling of games in their current series with the Reds.  With Jakob Junis recently placed on the 10-day injured list and Mike Montgomery’s return potentially in question due to his placement on the 45-day IL, however, there is certainly opportunity for Harvey to find some innings in the rotation.

Harvey last appeared in a Major League game on July 18, 2019, the final outing of a rough tenure with the Angels that saw the former All-Star post a 7.09 ERA over 59 2/3 frames.  After bursting onto the scene with the Mets earlier this decade, Harvey began to develop shoulder issues in 2016 that eventually led to thoracic outlet surgery, and the righty simply hasn’t looked the same since.

Since the start of the 2017 season, Harvey has a 5.89 ERA over 307 1/3 MLB innings.  Between the end of his tenure in New York and his tough year in Anaheim, Harvey did perform decently well (4.50 ERA, 3.96 K/BB rate, 7.8 K/9) over a 128-inning stint with the Reds in 2018.  Most recently, there were positive reports on Harvey at the Royals’ alternate training site, as GM Dayton Moore said he liked what he had seen from the 31-year-old’s work.

Reds/Royals Game Postponed In Favor Of Wednesday Doubleheader

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10:19am: Major League Baseball has formally announced that tonight’s game has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader tomorrow.

10:06am: The Reds’ schedule has been in a state of limbo after Saturday’s positive Covid-19 test(s), but they appear to be trending toward a resumption of play. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that tonight’s game against the Royals will also be postponed — as was the case with the final two games of this weekend’s series versus the Pirates — but the two sides will play a doubleheader tomorrow (Twitter links). The Reds’ most recent wave of tests came back negative, and they’re en route to Kansas City right now. However, the league will take the extra step of pushing back their return one more day.

It’s a point of frustration for some fans, but MLB has seemingly become more cautious with its scheduling in the wake broad-reaching outbreaks on the Marlins and Cardinals rosters. Both of those clubs saw new positives emerge well after the initial cases were identified. Miami had new cases six days after their initial positives, and the Cardinals had new positives more than a week after their initial cases became known. Other members of the organization tested positive along the way in those outbreaks, and that has not been the case with the Reds. But the league understandably hopes to avoid a third outbreak that wipes out more than a week’s worth of games.

Pushing today’s game into a doubleheader tomorrow won’t delay either club’s schedule, assuming the organization continues to test negative tomorrow. As for the makeup games against the Pirates, there’s no set date yet, although the two teams have a pair of series left on the schedule that present ample opportunity for makeup games. Their Sept. 4-6 series in Pittsburgh is currently scheduled to be bookended by a pair of off-days, and the Sept. 14-16 series in Cincinnati is followed by a Sept. 17 off day.

Royals’ Foster Griffin Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Royals left-hander Foster Griffin revealed in a tweet tonight that he underwent Tommy John surgery last Tuesday in Los Angeles, with Dr. Neal ElAttrache performing the procedure.  As such, Griffin will be out of action for the next 12-14 months, quite possibly sidelining him until the 2022 season.

Griffin suffered a tear in his UCL during his very first Major League game, back on July 27 in Kansas City’s 14-6 win over the Tigers.  Griffin earned the win after tossing 1 2/3 innings of relief, retiring all five batters without a hit or a walk, and was perfect apart from one runner reaching via error.  Adding to the bittersweet nature of Griffin’s debut and subsequent injury, July 27 was also his 25th birthday.

Drafted 28th overall in 2014, Griffin was making his MLB debut after an inconsistent six-year stint in the Royals’ farm system.  The southpaw has a 4.77 ERA, 2.19 K/BB rate, and 7.2 K/9 over 708 minor league innings, starting 139 of his 141 games.  Given this lack of a track record, back-end starter or long man might be his eventual ticket to remaining in the big leagues, though obviously Griffin’s first order of business will be getting healthy after a long rehab period.

Latest On Matt Harvey

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Former Mets ace Matt Harvey may not be far from a return to the major leagues, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com writes. Now with the Royals, Harvey will throw an intrasquad game Thursday, after which the club will evaluate whether it should promote him to the bigs. General manager Dayton Moore has been encouraged by what he has seen from Harvey, whom the Royals signed to a minor league contract in late July.

“He’s throwing well,” Moore said (via Flanagan). “And he’s a guy who can serve a variety of roles for us. He can be a starter, he can be a long man, he might even be able to help us in the back of the bullpen. We’ll see.”

Harvey peaked with the Mets from 2012-15, a period in which he gave the club front-line production, but the Dark Knight also missed a full season (2014) because of Tommy John surgery. While Harvey bounced back brilliantly from that procedure, he hasn’t been able to rebound from the thoracic outlet syndrome surgery he underwent in 2016. For the most part, Harvey struggled mightily with the Mets, Reds and Angels over the previous three seasons. He hasn’t pitched in the majors since July 7, 2019, as a member of the Angels, and he finished last season on a minors pact with the Athletics.

Although his career has fallen off a cliff, there was no real harm in taking a low-cost chance on Harvey from the rebuilding Royals’ standpoint. If he ever does don their uniform, it’ll be intriguing to see how the 31-year-old fares.

Royals Add Asa Lacy, Carlos Hernandez To Player Pool

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The Royals have added left-hander Asa Lacy and right-hander Carlos Hernandez to their 60-man player pool and assigned the pair to their alternate training site, per a club announcement.

Lacy is the bigger name of the two, having been selected with the fourth overall pick of the 2020 draft. Though he was the second pitcher taken — Miami selected University of Minnesota righty Max Meyer one pick earlier — Lacy was considered by many to be the top overall pitching prospect in the draft. The Texas A&M ace overwhelmed SEC hitters during his NCAA career, pitching to a cumulative 2.07 ERA with 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. Lacy was off to a blazing start in 2020, having pitched to a 0.75 ERA with an outrageous 46-to-8 K/BB ratio in just 24 innings when the season came to a halt (17.3 K/9, 3.0 BB/9).

Given his status as an elite college arm, there might be some fans who hope to see him in the big leagues as soon as 2020, although that still seems decidedly improbable. He’s a huge part of the Royals’ future and immediately became one of the organization’s top three prospects upon signing, but this is quite likely a developmental assignment for the 21-year-old. Kansas City has several prominent pitching prospects who are closer to the big leagues but have yet to receive their first promotion — most notably Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch. Top prospects Brady Singer and Kris Bubic have already debuted in 2020.

Hernandez, 23, is already on the Royals’ 40-man roster, so there’s a bit more of a chance that he’d see the big leagues this season, although that’s also a long shot. He’s never pitched above A-ball and has just 36 innings of experience at that level, although they were sharp ones. Hernandez missed a big chunk of last season while waiting on a fractured rib to mend, but once healthy he turned in a 3.50 ERA with 10.8 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 1.25 HR/9 and a 39.1 percent grounder rate in the Class-A South Atlantic League. MLB.com ranks him 12th among K.C. farmhands, noting that his velocity jumped into the upper 90s last season and also praising his potentially above-average curveball. The alternate camp assignment will give him some additional developmental time in the absence of a traditional minor league season in 2020.

Royals Place Franchy Cordero On 45-Day IL

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AUGUST 11: Cordero required a surgical procedure to repair damage to his right hamate bone, manager Mike Matheny told reporters including Alec Lewis of The Athletic (Twitter link). Young infielder Jeison Guzman will get his first crack at the majors. He was already on the 40-man roster but has now been tapped for active duty.

AUGUST 10: The Royals have placed outfielder Franchy Cordero on the 45-day injured list, per a club announcement. He is sidelined with a wrist injury.

While this won’t officially end Cordero’s season, it makes it quite unlikely he’ll return to action. He originally hit the injured list on August 9th, so he won’t be eligible to return until late September.

Soon to turn 26, the recently acquired outfielder struggled to a .154/.185/.231 slash in his first 27 plate appearances with the Royals. He’ll be eligible for arbitration over the offseason.

Orioles Claim Jorge Lopez

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The Orioles announced today that they have claimed right-handed pitcher Jorge Lopez off waivers from the Royals. Lopez, 27, was designated for assignment by Kansas City on Friday. He’ll be added to the Baltimore 40-man roster, which is now full.

Lopez made just one appearance for the Royals this year before he was placed on the bereavement list. That preceded his departure from the Royals, who designated Lopez owing to his lack of minor-league options.

Once a highly-regarded prospect, Lopez has thus far failed to find success at the MLB level between stints with the Brewers and Royals, who acquired him as part of the return for Mike Moustakas. In 190 innings at the MLB level, Lopez has a 5.97 ERA while averaging a mediocre 7.4 K/9. Last year, he was a key part of the Royals’ staff, throwing the fifth-most innings on the team as he was deployed both as a starter and in relief.

Lopez should be a viable depth option for an Orioles pitching staff that has actually fared pretty well this year: the Orioles staff is sporting a 3.87 FIP, good for tenth-best in baseball. Granted, the ERA figures have lagged behind thus far, and it’s not a group of world-beaters, but there are some intriguing names in Baltimore. Lopez, if he gets a crack in the Majors, could serve as a starter or reliever for Brandon Hyde.

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