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Yankees Reportedly Dangling Brandon Drury In Search For Controllable Reliever

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Yahoo’s Jeff Passan has a landslide of trade chatter in his latest “10 Degrees” column, but he first kicks off with a look at what he terms “new depths of dysfunction” among the Mets’ front office and ownership. Passan echoes previous reports which have suggested that COO Jeff Wilpon is as caught up with whether the cross-town Yankees win or lose as he is with his own team’s success, and he also explores the startling lack of organizational communication that became increasingly apparent with this weekend’s Yoenis Cespedes debacle.

  • The Yankees have been tied to multiple rentals this summer, but they’ve also been inquiring on controllable relief arms and, in some cases, showing a willingness to include Brandon Drury in those trade talks. Drury was added as a depth piece late in the offseason and opened the year as the Yankees’ third baseman, but the near-immediate success of Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar made him relatively superfluous in the season’s early stages. Drury has appeared in just 16 games for the Yankees this season despite the fact that he’d established himself as a solid contributor at the big league level over the past two years with the Diamondbacks.

Jonathan Schoop, Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy Drawing Trade Interest

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July 23: The Rockies have been scouting both Gausman and Bundy recently, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Colorado has held a “longstanding interest” in Gausman, in particular, Rosenthal adds.

Colorado’s rotation has been in the bottom-third of the league in terms of ERA this season, though Rockies starters collectively rank in the top half of the league in both FIP and xFIP, lending some more reason for optimism. That said, Opening Day starter Jon Gray has been anything but the anchor the club expected him to be this season, and Chad Bettis has also had his share of struggles.

July 22: Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop and right-handers Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy are drawing trade interest, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. The Braves have asked the Orioles about all three players, while the Brewers have inquired about Schoop and Gausman, and Kubatko confirms the Yankees’ previously reported interest in Gausman.

Whether the Orioles are open to moving any of those players is unclear, but as a rebuilding team with the majors’ worst record (28-71), it stands to reason they’d listen to offers. Gausman and Bundy would likely bring back appealing returns, considering both the underwhelming trade market for starting pitchers and the fact that they’re affordable and controllable. The 27-year-old Gausman, who’s on a $5.6MM salary, has two arbitration trips remaining. Bundy, 25, is much cheaper ($1.64MM), and he’ll go through the first of three potential arbitration trips during the upcoming winter. Meanwhile, Schoop’s in his penultimate year of arbitration control and on an $8.5MM salary.

To this point, Gausman and Bundy have experienced similar seasons. Gausman has pitched to a 4.33 ERA/4.48 FIP with 7.77 K/9, 2.16 BB/9 and a 46.7 percent groundball rate over 112 1/3 innings, continuing a career of decent production. Bundy has managed a 4.57 ERA/4.85 FIP with 9.64 K/9, 2.61 BB/9 and a 34 percent grounder rate across 108 1/3 frames. He’s currently in the throes of a rough stretch in which he has allowed five earned runs in three consecutive starts. Thanks in part to that, the former top prospect’s ERA has risen by nearly a full run since June 11, when it sat at 3.66.

Schoop, 26, was among the game’s premier second basemen in 2017, when he slashed .293/.338/.503 with 32 home runs and 3.8 fWAR in 675 plate appearances. This season has been a totally different story, though, as Schoop has batted .229/.262/.394 with 11 homers and a replacement-level fWAR over 333 PAs. Moreover, he owns the majors’ fifth-worst xwOBA (.268), per Statcast, suggesting his .281 wOBA isn’t a product of poor luck.

Despite his decline this season, both the Brewers and Braves seem to think Schoop could help them. The fact that the Brewers are looking for an upgrade at the keystone isn’t a surprise, as their second basemen have hit a mere .227/.285/.340 and accounted for minus-0.5 fWAR. The Braves’ interest is an eye-opener, however, considering they have Ozzie Albies at second. Perhaps they could stand to upgrade over Dansby Swanson at shortstop and Johan Camargo at third base, but both players have outperformed Schoop this year, and Schoop has minimal professional experience at those two positions.

Yankees Place Clint Frazier On Concussion DL

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  • Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier was placed on the seven-day concussion DL this weekend while playing at Triple-A, though his status has been changed to a 10-day stint on the Major League disabled list.  (NJ.com’s Brendan Kuty was among those who had the news.)  Beyond the specifics of his placement, Frazier’s injury could also impact his immediate future in the organization, as the prospect has often been cited as a popular trade chip for the Yankees at the deadline.

Sonny Gray Drawing “A Bit Of Interest”

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Sonny Gray was part of a trade deadline deal last year, and the right-hander may end up on the move again this season. Gray, whom the Yankees acquired from the Athletics last July, is generating “a bit of interest” with July 31 nearing, Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets. Heyman casts doubt on the Yankees shipping out Gray, though, noting that the playoff shoo-ins are more interested in adding starters than subtracting them.

The Gray experiment hasn’t worked out thus far for New York, and as a result, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reported Saturday that some teams believe the Yankees do want to move him. The 28-year-old Gray has been a quality mid-rotation starter for the majority of his career, but he’s now amid his second-worst season in terms of both ERA (5.34) and FIP (4.41). While Gray has managed the second-best strikeout rate of his major league tenure (8.53 K/9), he has partially offset that with a personal-worst walk rate (3.94 BB/9). He has also generated the fewest ground balls of his career (a still-respectable 47.6 percent), racked up just 96 innings in 19 starts and totaled only seven quality starts.

As poorly as Gray has pitched this year, he’s still one of the Yankees’ five best starting options right now, to which Heyman alluded. Despite their excellent record (63-34, 4 1/2 games behind AL East-leading Boston), the Yankees haven’t gotten much from any starters but Luis Severino and CC Sabathia – the latter of whom is a 38-year-old with past knee problems. One of Gray’s fellow established starters, Masahiro Tanaka, has also had difficulty preventing runs. Meanwhile, Jordan Montgomery is out for this year and at least some of 2019 on account of Tommy John surgery, rookie Domingo German hasn’t been part of the solution, and fellow first-year man Jonathan Loaisiga didn’t offer length during his first four starts before succumbing to shoulder troubles.

Given their obvious starting pitching issues, the Yankees are known to be on the hunt for rotation help in advance of the deadline. The problem is that no front-line starters appear destined to move, which could leave the Yankees to choose from uninspiring hurlers who, like Gray, bring clear flaws to the table. One such option is righty Dan Straily, whom the Yankees have spoken with the Marlins about, according to Heyman. But the teams “don’t appear to be close” to a deal, per Heyman, and Straily certainly wouldn’t represent a slam-dunk upgrade over Gray.

As a result of the weak pitching market, Gray may at least finish the season as a Yankee, and then the team will have to decide whether to retain him in 2019. Gray, who’s on a $6.5MM salary this season, is slated to go through arbitration one more time.

Yankees Rumors: Drury, Gray, Hamels

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Third baseman Brandon Drury was in the package the Yankees offered the Orioles for shortstop Manny Machado, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports. The Yankees’ proposal didn’t suffice for the Orioles, who sent Machado to the Dodgers for a five-player return on Wednesday. Drury has also been part of a 2018 trade, an offseason deal in which he went from the Diamondbacks to the Yankees, but he hasn’t been able to find steady playing time in New York. After entering the season as the Yankees’ starting third baseman, the 25-year-old Drury headed to the disabled list with migraines in early April, paving the way for rookie Miguel Andujar’s emergence at the hot corner. While Drury also offers a fair amount of experience at second base and in the corner outfield, the Yankees have set starters in those spots.

Thanks largely to the presences of Andujar, Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Brett Gardner, Drury has amassed just 54 plate appearances with the Yankees and spent most of the season in the minors. Drury hasn’t done much in his limited work with New York, as his .184/.259/.286 batting line demonstrates, but he has posted a .294/.403/.447 slash in 233 Triple-A plate appearances. He’s also not far removed from a decent showing with Arizona, where he batted .275/.323/.453 with 29 HRs in 979 PAs from 2016-17, and comes with a cheap salary ($621,900) and three years of arbitration eligibility. Perhaps the Yankees will find a taker for Drury in the near future, then, though they’re surely not in a hurry to give away any depth.

  • Sticking with the Yankees, Cafardo relays that teams are scouting right-hander Sonny Gray, and some clubs are under the impression New York wants to trade him. The Yankees paid a high price to the A’s for Gray at last year’s trade deadline, but the move hasn’t worked out as hoped for the Bombers. Gray has taken sizable steps backward this season, with a 5.34 ERA/4.42 FIP in 96 innings, and may not be worthy of trusting in a playoff series should the Yankees get to that point. The 28-year-old’s making $6.5MM in 2018 and is only controllable via arbitration for one more season.
  • It’s “likely” the Rangers will find a trade partner for left-hander Cole Hamels, writes Cafardo, who adds that the Phillies, Yankees and Braves undoubtedly have interest. The Red Sox may also be among teams with Hamels on their radar, per Cafardo. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak doesn’t seem keen on dipping into the trade market for starters, though, and it’s no lock Hamels would even be part of the solution for them or any other team. The 34-year-old’s struggles this season are well known, and his $22.5MM salary for 2018 and $6MM buyout for 2019 don’t help matters.

CC Sabathia Hopes To Pitch In 2019

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Yankees left-hander C.C. Sabathia indicated earlier this season that this could be the last year of his career, but now he seems likely to return in 2019. Sabathia recently told Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com that he aims to play next year, health permitting.

“I’m [going] start to start,” Sabathia said. “I go out one start and feel like I can pitch five more years. I go out another start and I’m [feeling] done. But if I can stay healthy — if my knee holds up — hopefully I’ll play one more.”

It’s not a given that the big-bodied Sabathia’s knee will continue to cooperate, given that he dealt with serious troubles in that area as recently as last year. The pain in Sabathia’s right knee was so acute last summer that he nearly retired, in fact, before receiving a painkilling injection that helped him finish the season. His ongoing presence was a major positive for the Yankees, whom he helped pitch to the ALCS before they lost in seven games to the eventual world champion Astros.

Thanks in part to Sabathia’s strong finish in 2017, the Yankees re-signed the then-free agent to a one-year, $10MM guarantee in the offseason. The 38-year-old (his birthday is today) has been more than worth the investment so far in his 10th season with the Yankees, having pitched to a 3.51 ERA with 6.93 K/9, 2.61 BB/9 and a 45.3 percent groundball rate through 100 innings (18 starts). Although ERA estimators such as FIP (4.55), xFIP (4.52) and SIERA (4.45) haven’t been enamored of Sabathia’s work, it’s worth pointing out he has managed to defy severe regression by serving as a soft contact artist. Among qualified pitchers, only Milwaukee’s Brent Suter has induced a lower average exit velocity against than Sabathia’s 84.5 mph, per Statcast (via Baseball Savant), which also shows little difference between his wOBA allowed (.316) and xwOBA (.306).

Based on Sabathia’s performance, it seems the Yankees would have interest in retaining him beyond this season if he remains healthy. It’s unclear whether the Yankees will acquire a controllable starter this summer or during the winter, but even if they do, they’d likely still have room for an effective Sabathia in their rotation. He’s arguably New York’s second-best starter right now, after all, trailing ace Luis Severino. The club also has the home run-prone Masahiro Tanaka and the much-maligned Sonny Gray under wraps past this season. Beyond that, there are plenty of unproven young arms in the fold, with the highly touted Justus Sheffield, the struggling Domingo German and the currently injured Jonathan Loaisiga among them.

At the very least, Sabathia’s a superior option to each member of that group at the moment, and returning in 2019 could help him further his Hall of Fame case. The former ace, who was previously with the Indians and Brewers, owns a 3.70 ERA in 3,417 innings and ranks 36th all-time in pitcher fWAR (66.3), 53rd in wins (243) and 55th in pitcher rWAR (61.0).

Trade News & Rumors: Trade Value Rankings, Dozier, Andujar, Britton

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Fangraphs recently released its annual rankings of the top 50 most valuable contracts in baseball, or the players who would have the highest value in a trade. High atop the list sits a pair of Indians infielders (Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor), while Aaron Judge, Mike Trout and Carlos Correa round out the top five. The rankings take into account the amount of money each player is owed and the length of his contract in relation to his expected future performance. While the list is top-heavy with young stars (as one might expect), there are a few surprising names later down in the rankings, and a few top prospects even make the list.

Speaking of trades…

  • Twins second baseman Brian Dozier has drawn trade interest from the Brewers, reports Darren Wolfson of KSTP. That comes as little surprise considering the tight NL Central pennant race and the fact that Milwaukee’s second basemen have combined for the third-worst production in baseball to date. However, Wolfson also reports that another (unnamed team) has been “showing stronger interest”. For their part, the Twins (who now sit 8.5 games out of first place in the division) are open to moving Dozier.
  • The Yankees tried to acquire left-hander Brad Hand (who recently went to the Indians), but balked when they were asked to include young third baseman Miguel Andujar in the return, reports Andy Martino of SNY. That’s just one name the club had been targeting in a search for pitcher, but the prices for some of the available names (Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ, for instance), remain “insane” according to Martino.
  • The trade interest in Orioles lefty Zach Britton is “intensifying”, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Kubatko says that he expects Britton to be the “next Oriole out the door.” The Braves have thrown their hat into the ring recently, while the Cubs, Astros, Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers and Giants have also been “in the mix”. As Kubatko aptly points out, the removal of Hand from the pool of available names should turn a lot of attention towards Britton.

Yankees Promote Domingo Acevedo

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After optioning Domingo German to Triple-A following last night’s ugly performance in the Subway Series, the Yankees are set to promote a replacement Domingo. Robert M. Pimpsner of Pinstriped Prospects reported early this morning that the club was expected to promote 6’7″ righty Domingo Acevedo to the big league club; Robert Murray of The Athletic later confirmed the news. The Yankees’ PR department has since announced the promotion.

Prior to the season, Baseball America ranked the 24-year-old Acevedo as the Bombers’ ninth-best prospect, praising his strike-throwing ability despite “a delivery that is littered with funkiness and moving parts.” His fastball sits in the mid- to high-nineties, and he also possesses a slider that some scouts believe could develop into a plus pitch. It’s said that he possesses the ceiling of a middle-of-the-rotation starter, but more interestingly is that BA claims his floor to be that of a power reliever.

Acevedo was a $7,500 international signing in 2012, and has slowly managed to work his way through the club’s minor-league ranks. Last season at Double-A, he made 14 starts while pitching to a 2.38 ERA with an excellent 4.82 K/BB. That earned him a brief 12 1/3-inning stint at the Triple-A level later in the year, though he was sent back to Double-A to begin the 2018 season. Though he hasn’t quite shown the same dominant command so far, he’s still managed to post a respectable 2.84 ERA.

German’s demotion isn’t much of a surprise considering his struggles in the majors so far this season. While the right-hander has managed to rack up an impressive amount of strikeouts (10.38 K/9), his struggles to keep the ball on the ground (37.3% ground ball rate) and in the park (1.64 HR/9) have led to a bloated 5.68 ERA. Last night, German allowed five runs (four earned) in 3 2/3 innings against a pathetic Mets offense that’s tied for the third-fewest runs scored in all of baseball.

Acevedo will become the latest right-handed pitcher to leapfrog top prospect Justus Sheffield for a big-league debut. In addition to a pair of Domingos, right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga also earned his first promotion to The Show earlier this season. Though roster implications no doubt had plenty to do with it (the aforementioned three pitchers are all on the Yankees’ 40-man), it’s fair to wonder why the pitching-needy Yankees continue to keep Sheffield at the Triple-A level despite his excellent performance there so far this year. The southpaw owns a 2.53 ERA to go with nearly a strikeout per inning and a 44% ground ball rate at Scranton-Wilkes Barre.

Trade Interest In Zach Britton Has “Picked Up Steam”

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JULY 20, 10:58am: Add the Braves to the list of teams interested in Britton, Crasnick reports.

9:28am: Baltimore’s “barreling ahead” with its Britton trade talks, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com tweets. Along with the teams mentioned below (the Astros, Cubs, Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox), the Giants are among the clubs in the mix for Britton, according to Crasnick.

JULY 17: If and when the reported trade sending Manny Machado to the Dodgers is formally announced by the teams, the O’s could be quick to turn around and move longtime closer Zach Britton in a separate deal, reports MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli (via Twitter). Interest in Britton has “picked up steam” recently, according to Ghiroli.

Britton missed about half of the 2017 season due to a pair of forearm injuries and was out until June 2018 due to a ruptured Achilles tendon that required offseason surgery. And while his first few appearances since coming off the disabled list raised questions about his trade value, he’s looked more impressive lately.

Britton’s past seven appearances have been scoreless, but beyond the bottom-line results, he’s made some encouraging gains in terms of sinker velocity. His ground-ball rate has been a superlative 68.8 percent in that time as well — a noted increase from his earlier outings in which his sinker wasn’t at its most effective levels. That’s not quite to up to Britton’s (quite literally) historic standards, but it remains elite all the same.

Control has still been somewhat of an issue, as he’s surrendered three walks in those seven innings and thrown a first-pitch strike to just 40 percent of the hitters he’s faced along the way. But there’s no denying that Britton has begun to round into form at a most opportune time for an Orioles organization that, at the very least, looks to be a lock to trade the left-hander and fellow impending free agents Machado and Brad Brach.

Britton is earning $12MM in 2018, which will present a roadblock for a number of clubs interested in acquiring his services. As could be the case with the eventual Machado deal, the Orioles might have to include some cash to facilitate the deal and to improve the return they receive for their prized lefty. Britton is still owed about $4.8MM of that $12MM sum through season’s end.

To this point, the Astros, Cubs, Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox have all been connected to Britton in fairly prominent fashion. Surely, as is the case every summer, though, the top relievers on the market will draw at least some level of inquiry from the majority of contenders. Unlike the Machado saga, in which some contending clubs had little need for another infielder on the left side of the diamond, there’s no contending team in baseball that won’t have some interest in bolstering its relief corps. Certainly, some teams will consider it to be a more pressing need than others, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise if as much as a third of the league is tied to Britton before he inevitably finds himself with a new team for the first time in his career.

Rosenthal On Yankees' Plans With Miguel Andujar

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The Yankees were involved in the Manny Machado sweepstakes before the Dodgers acquired him from the Orioles this week, though adding him wouldn’t have led New York to trade rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar. Rather, the Yankees simply would have platooned Andujar at first base or sent him down to the minors while Machado played third, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required). The bottom line is that the Yankees “have no plans to trade Andujar,” writes Rosenthal, who adds that they recently turned down the Padres when they asked for the 23-year-old in exchange for reliever Brad Hand. San Diego ended up sending Hand to Cleveland in a blockbuster deal on Thursday.

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