Quick Hits: Daulton, Escobar, Montgomery, Dombrowski
Darren Daulton, the longtime former catcher for the Phillies, passed away tonight at the age of 55 after a five-year battle with brain cancer. Renowned as a clubhouse leader in Philadelphia, Daulton played 1109 games and parts of 14 seasons in a Phillies uniform, reaching three All-Star games, twice finishing in the top seven of NL MVP voting and winning a Silver Slugger Award in 1992. He played a particularly big role in the Phillies’ pennant-winning 1993 club, and he ended his career as a champion. After a July 1997 trade to the Marlins, Daulton’s final game was Game 7 of the ’97 World Series, going out on a high note as the Fish won their first title. We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Daulton’s family and loved ones.
Here are some news items from around the game…
- Yunel Escobar left today’s game due to a right intercostal strain, as per an Angels press announcement (Twitter link). The third baseman will undergo an MRI tomorrow to access the damage. Escobar has a .274/.333/.397 slash line and seven homers over 381 PA for the Halos this season, Escobar has already spent some time on the DL this season, missing around 2.5 weeks due to a hamstring strain in May, and he sat out of a couple of recent games due to a sore back.
- The Yankees optioned left-hander Jordan Montgomery to Triple-A after today’s game, as per a team announcement. With Luis Severino, C.C. Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka and new acquisitions Sonny Gray and Jaime Garcia in the rotation mix, the rookie Montgomery was the obvious odd man out when the Yankees made the move back to a standard five-man starting staff. The 24-year-old southpaw posted a 4.05 ERA, 8.6 K/9 and 3.17 K/BB over 115 2/3 IP (21 starts) in his big taste of MLB action, making an excellent case for himself as a future rotation piece in 2018 and beyond.
- Dave Dombrowski has put together a strong record on trades in less than three years running the Red Sox front office, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald writes. Breaking down the 15 trades under Dombrowski’s leadership, Mastrodonato calculates that the president of baseball operations has acquired quite a bit of “trade profit,” as observed by examining the salaries and fWARs of the players who came to Boston in those deals. The numbers are, of course, skewed by the fact that so many of the players dealt away in those trades were prospects who have barely or never played in the big leagues yet, though Chris Sale alone has more fWAR than every traded player combined since the time they were dealt.
AL East Notes: Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees
Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman has functioned as a starter in all 194 of his major league appearances, but he’ll come out of the bullpen next time he takes the ball. Tillman has been the weakest link in an awful Orioles staff this year, having logged an 8.10 ERA over 66 2/3 innings, leading them to shift the impending free agent to a relief role, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com was among those to report. The once-quality starter may be in his last weeks with the Orioles, but Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com argues that they should re-sign him now in a buy-low maneuver. Connolly’s reasoning: Baltimore will be desperate for starting pitching in the offseason, and the team’s unlikely to bid for big fish such as ex-Oriole Jake Arrieta or Yu Darvish, so re-upping Tillman on a one-year, $6MM-$8MM deal with a club option for 2019 would be a worthwhile gamble.
More from Baltimore and two other AL East cities:
- When the Red Sox placed left-hander David Price on the disabled list last week on account of elbow issues, they were confident he’d return this season. Now, “the clock is working against” Price, writes Evan Drellich of CSNNE.com, as he’s dealing with soreness that prevented him from throwing from flat ground Friday. Afterward, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was unable to provide a timetable for a potential Price return. While Dombrowski noted that Price’s elbow has been “fine” when he has thrown, the executive conceded “the longer that he’s out, the longer it takes to come back, because you have to then build yourself back up.”
- Designated hitter Matt Holliday wasn’t in the Yankees’ starting lineup Saturday after tweaking his lower back Friday, and a DL stint is possible, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Judging by his output lately, a Holliday absence wouldn’t be the worst thing for the scuffling Yankees. The 37-year-old got off to a sizzling start this season before going on the DL in late June with a viral infection. He has been a drain on New York’s offense since returning in mid-July, with a .136/.165/.198 line and 24 strikeouts against three walks in 85 second-half plate appearances.
- In an act that has become commonplace for the Orioles, they traded international bonus slots for a minor leaguer on Saturday, when they acquired High-A infielder Brallan Perez from the Rangers. Owner Peter Angelos doesn’t allow Dan Duquette to make splashes internationally, notes Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun, and the general manager explained Saturday what he has tried to accomplish by dealing the money for players who are already stateside. “We’ve been utilizing the international slot money to help us acquire some pitching to help our team,” said Duquette, who added that he’s “utilizing a trade resource to impact your team now rather than three, four, five years down the road.” The trade Duquette made Saturday wasn’t for a pitcher, nor will Perez make a big league impact imminently. However, previous swaps have netted the club hurlers in Yefry Ramirez, Matt Wotherspoon, Jason Wheeler and Damien Magnifico – the last of whom is now in the Angels organization.
Post-Deadline Notes: Gray, Cards, Darvish, Britton, Estrada, Braves
The Cardinals “float[ed]” a trade proposal for Sonny Gray before the Athletics shipped him to the Yankees, according to MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal. In concept, at least, St. Louis would have considered sending young outfielder Stephen Piscotty to Oakland along with a promising starter (Luke Weaver or Jack Flaherty), though it seems talks never got going. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks closer at the Cards’ lack of action on deadline day. Top baseball decisionmaker John Mozeliak acknowledged “a level of frustration” that nothing got done, though he also said the team wasn’t inclined to make deals just for the sake of action. Ultimately, momentum never built toward a deal for Lance Lynn, and the club’s other chatter never materialized into a trade. You’ll want to peruse the lengthy column for all the details.
Here are some more post-deadline links of note:
- The Dodgers‘ acquisition of Yu Darvish came together quite late, as Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports explains in fascinating detail. It became apparent the Dodgers wouldn’t get Zach Britton from the Orioles within a half hour of the deadline, but the team had already “abandoned hope” of landing Darvish. The Rangers, meanwhile, had run through their alternative trade partners for the ace righty and found none availing. The paths of the two organizations converged just twenty minutes before the deadline. You’ll certainly want to give the story a full read; Texas fans will also want to check out this piece from Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on the team’s unannounced but still-evident rebuilding path.
- In the end, there just wasn’t that much demand in the marketplace for Darvish, Rosenthal also notes — so much so that the Dodgers were nearly in position to land both Darvish from the Rangers and lefty Zach Britton from the Orioles. That said, there was “some overlap” between the prospects in both potential deals, and it obviously would’ve required a steep overall price to get both arms. Instead, Los Angeles added two different lefties, Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani.
- As regards Britton, Rosenthal had some stern words for how things played out. The Orioles spurned not only the Dodgers but likely also the Astros. For Baltimore, the deadline approach “was disturbingly short-sighted,” by Rosenthal’s reckoning. And when Houston wasn’t able to find another top-end arm, says Rosenthal, its body of deadline work became a “lost opportunity.” It does seem worth bearing in mind, particularly regarding the Astros, that the August trade period appears to be full of opportunities for making further moves if the need is there.
- Over in Toronto, the Blue Jays ended up holding onto righty Marco Estrada and then watched him turn in a strong outing last night. As Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca writes, Jays GM Ross Atkins suggested yesterday that the organization may yet see Estrada as a part of the team’s future — though his contract is up at year’s end and he perhaps remains a plausible August trade piece. With Estrada remaining in Toronto through the deadline, said Atkins, “we’ll start thinking about not only how he impacts us now, but how he can potentially impact us beyond 2017.”
- Be sure also to check out the trade deadline rundown from Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, who assesses some winners and losers from the day’s action. ESPN.com’s Buster Olney also issued deadline grades in an Insider piece.
- With the Braves holding on deadline day, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman takes stock of the months to come. Second baseman Brandon Phillips, reliever Jim Johnson, and starter R.A. Dickey could all be possible August trade chips, he notes, while the inclination of the organization remains to consider deals involving first baseman Matt Adams over the offseason. Meanwhile, Atlanta continues its long-standing pursuit of controllable pitching, though that’ll surely await the end of the current season.
New Facebook Pages For Fans Of Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Braves, Cardinals
For the past month, we have been attempting an experiment: five human-curated team Facebook pages. Under the direction of JP Hadley, Jack Stockless, Stephanie Nevill, Chris Jervis, and Tanner Puckett, our Facebook pages for the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Braves, and Cardinals have become engaging, informative, fun, and up-to-date. Instead of the previous automated posting of MLBTR content, these pages have team news of all kinds, polls, infographics, interesting links, discussion, and of course hot stove rumors. These pages have everything a fan could want. If you follow any of these five teams, please give our new Facebook pages a Like today!
Yankees Acquire Sonny Gray
The Yankees pulled off a long-awaited rotation upgrade, acquiring righty Sonny Gray from the Athletics today for three prospects: outfielder Dustin Fowler, infielder/outfielder Jorge Mateo, and righty James Kaprielian. In addition to Gray, the Yankees will receive $1.5MM in international bonus pool money. The teams have officially announced the trade, which was first broken by Jack Curry of the YES Network. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan was first with the return.
Gray joins a Yankees rotation that lost Michael Pineda to Tommy John surgery this month, but added Jaime Garcia in a trade with the Twins. With C.C. Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, and Jordan Montgomery also in the mix, the Yankees have a rotation logjam. Yankees manager Joe Girardi nixed the idea of a six-man rotation, so it seems Montgomery will move to the bullpen or to Triple-A, according to Curry. Sabathia and Garcia are headed to free agency after the season, and Tanaka can join them if he chooses to exercise his opt-out clause. Gray adds veteran stability for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Gray, 27, was drafted 18th overall by the Athletics in 2011 out of Vanderbilt. He excelled from 2013-15, posting a 2.88 ERA over 491 innings. 2016, however, was a lost year for Gray as he endured DL stints for a strained right trapezius as well as a forearm injury. This year, Gray is back on track with a 3.43 ERA in 16 starts, as well as his best strikeout rate since his rookie year. Gray, who is listed at 5’10”, is one of the most successful starting pitchers of this height since the Dead Ball Era, to this point in his career. With the Cubs having acquired Jose Quintana several weeks ago, Gray was the big prize of the 2017 MLB trade deadline.
In the end, the Athletics were unable to pry loose the Yankees’ top three prospects: Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, and Chance Adams. Fowler, a 22-year-old outfield prospect, suffered a major knee injury in the first inning of his Major League debut last month. The open rupture in his right patella tendon resulted in season-ending surgery. MLB.com ranked Fowler fourth among Yankees prospects, citing a potential five-tool ceiling. Now, Fowler will likely make his first MLB plate appearance in 2018 as a member of the Athletics.
Mateo, 22, was ranked eighth among Yankees prospects by MLB.com. Mateo has what Baseball America describes as “80-grade speed,” and this year he’s spent most of his time at center field and shortstop. He was promoted to Double-A in late June, and has flourished with a .300/.381/.525 line in 140 plate appearances. Mateo was the key to the deal for Oakland, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Kaprielian, 23, was drafted 16th overall out of UCLA by the Yankees in 2015. He suffered a flexor tendon strain last summer that eventually led to Tommy John surgery in April of this year. He is expected to begin a throwing program next month. MLB.com ranks Kaprielian 12th among Yankees prospects. Last winter, Baseball America wrote that the righty had “front-of-the-rotation makeup and stuff with a well below-average delivery.”
Prior to adding Garcia and Gray to their rotation, the Yankees completed a mid-month blockbuster with the White Sox that brought in David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle for bullpen help and Todd Frazier to contribute at the infield corners. The Yankees hold just a half game lead over the Red Sox for the AL East, with a Wild Card berth a possible alternative.
The last-place A’s also shed a pair of bullpen pieces earlier this month, sending Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson to the Nationals. The Gray trade is another in which they’ve moved veteran pitchers (and their salaries, although Gray’s salary was not a primary factor in this deal) for younger talent.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Yu Darvish Trade Rumors: Deadline Day
It’s quite possible that today is Yu Darvish‘s last day as a member of the Rangers organization. The Texas ace has drawn interest from several teams, with the Dodgers the most prominently linked club. However, Darvish has also been tied to the Yankees and the Indians to varying extents. The Astros are also said to have checked in, though the intra-division roadblock makes that notion a bit tougher. We’ll track all of the latest Darvish chatter in this post between now and the 4pm ET non-waiver trade deadline…
- At this point, it seems that Darvish will either go to the Dodgers or stay put, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Given other indications that Los Angeles is focused elsewhere, it could be that the righty won’t end up changing hands today.
- Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter) that it’s “getting increasingly harder” to envision Darvish landing with the Dodgers, as the two sides “simply aren’t matching up.”
Earlier Updates
- Bowden suggests that the Dodgers could look to pry lefty Alex Claudio away from the Rangers in a package deal alongside Darvish (Twitter link). Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News suggests the same, though he notes that it’d still require the Dodgers changing their stance on the inclusion of Verdugo or Buehler. Claudio, though, is just 25 years old and is controlled through 2021, so he’d be a nice long-term piece for L.A. He’s held lefties to a laughable .131/.169/.197 slash this year and has a masterful 70.5 percent ground-ball rate overall in 2017. However, he doesn’t miss many bats.
- Yahoo’s Tim Brown tweets that the Indians “are not in on Darvish” at this time. Notably, Cleveland was reported by Hoynes to be in pursuit of Orioles closer Zach Britton.
- ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, however, hears that the Indians and Astros are both “hanging around” in the Darvish picture, but the Dodgers are Texas’ preferred trading partner (Twitter link). The Yankees‘ interest in Darvish is dependent on the outcome of their talks for Sonny Gray, Crasnick adds.
- Bowden tweets that the Astros, Indians and Dodgers are the three teams that are still in the mix for Darvish, and he again mentions Mejia’s name in connection to talks. Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets that the Indians are interested in Darvish only if the price tag drops.
- While the Dodgers have generally regarded as the favorites for Darvish, their talks with the Rangers have essentially reached an impasse, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Los Angeles has reportedly been unwilling to part with the likes of top-ranked prospects Alex Verdugo, Walker Buehler and Yadier Alvarez for a half-season rental of Darvish, and it would seem that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has yet to budge in that regard.
- The Rangers and Indians have spoken about a “Yu Darvish for Francisco Mejia type” of deal, tweets Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. Including Mejia, the consensus top catching prospect in baseball, would be a steep price for Cleveland to pay for a rental, though the wording of the report leaves some wiggle room for other pieces to potentially be involved. The 21-year-old Mejia is hitting .317/.367/.520 with 10 homers through his first 279 plate appearances in Double-A and ranked as baseball’s sixth-best prospect on Keith Law’s midseason list. MLB.com pegged him 16th overall, while Baseball America had him 18th. Cleveland is on Darvish’s no-trade list, though it remains possible that he could waive that right for a clearer shot at the postseason.
Orioles Acquire Yefry Ramirez From Yankees For International Bonus Money
The Orioles announced that they’ve acquired Double-A right-hander Yefry Ramirez from the Yankees in exchange for international bonus pool money. Ramirez’s departure opens a move on the Yankees’ 40-man roster.
Ramirez, 23, has worked as a starter with the Yankees’ Trenton affiliate this season, pitching to a 3.41 ERA with 8.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 36.4 percent ground-ball rate. Baseball America rated him 23rd among Yankees prospects this past offseason, though he didn’t crack MLB.com’s midseason list of the top 30 Yankees prospects. Per BA’s report, he works with a low-90s fastball and a changeup and curve that both grade out as average pitches.
The Orioles have made a habit of trading their international bonus allocations rather than spending them to sign amateur free agents in recent years, so this swap represents a continuation of that tendency. However, Ramirez’s solid results in Double-A, presence on the 40-man roster and proximity to the Majors seem to suggest more upside than some of the others that Baltimore has received in exchange for previous international considerations.
Sonny Gray Trade Rumors: Deadline Day
With about one hour remaining until the trade deadline, all eyes are on Athletics ace Sonny Gray. Gray comes with a 3.43 ERA on the season and club control through 2019. The latest:
- The Yankees’ dialogue continues on Gray, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports says the Yankees and A’s have had some movement on a trade, but aren’t quite there yet. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com feels Gray will either go to the Yankees or stay with the A’s. There is a strong belief within the A’s organization that a Gray trade will get done, tweets MLB.com’s Jane Lee.
Yu Darvish Trade Rumors: Sunday
With the non-waiver trade deadline closing in, here’s the latest chatter on Rangers ace Yu Darvish…
- Ken Rosenthal of MLB Network has the latest on Darvish. It’s said to be unclear whether the veteran would waive his no-trade protection, though of the teams with known interest only the Indians would need authorization to acquire him. There remains a mystery team in on Darvish, and the Rangers still think they’ll make a deal despite the lack of evident progress thus far.
Yesterday’s Updates
- Cleveland has indeed spoken to Texas about Darvish, as Grant suggested, MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets.
- ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets that the Yankees “aren’t really that involved” in talks for Darvish.
- Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Rangers are “more sold than ever” that they will trade Darvish. The Dodgers and Yankees are the two likeliest landing spots, though a trade isn’t likely to be announced on Sunday. Rangers GM Jon Daniels and other execs met with Darvish last weekend to explain to him the possibility that he’d be traded, Wilson continues. Texas hopes to trade Darvish to a contending club and re-sign him, and while Wilson reports that the right-hander has told the team he hopes to continue his career with them, he also is curious to see what the open market will bear.
- MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan also tweets that the Dodgers and Yankees are both in on Darvish, but he hears there’s a third team in the mix that no one anticipated. (Hooray for the mystery team!) The Cubs aren’t heavily involved in Darvish talks, according to Wilson (Twitter link). Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News speculates that the Indians could be interested (Twitter links). Grant also notes that the Astros have expressed interest, though the Rangers feel that would be the toughest deal to complete.
Sonny Gray Trade Rumors: Sunday
Sonny Gray‘s scheduled Sunday start has already been pushed back to Monday, and as of yesterday, the Yankees were widely rumored to be the favorite to land the Oakland ace. Generally, though, the state of play does not appear to have changed all that much much as of this afternoon. Still, there will be plenty of rumors on Gray flying around from this point forward, and we’ll track them all in this post…
- Indications from this morning are that the Yankees remain focused on pursuing Gray rather than a rental arm, as Jon Heyman of Fan Rag writes. New York has added lefty Jaime Garcia from the Twins, of course, but that acquisition reportedly will not deter their pursuit of Gray — who’d likely bump Garcia to the pen if he’s added.
- At this point, though, talks between the Yanks and A’s are at something of a stalemate, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. There are suggestions on both sides that the teams will stick to their valuations even with the pressure of the deadline. And that means there’s somewhat “less optimism” that there’ll be a deal sending Gray to the Bronx. Indeed, per Sherman, there hasn’t been much new dialogue of note between New York and Oakland over the last day.
- Meanwhile, the Dodgers are still talking with the A’s about Gray, MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets. But it’s also possible, he notes, that the ongoing dialogue is as much about maintaining leverage as it is due to serious, mutual interest.