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Players That Have Cleared Revocable Waivers

By Steve Adams | August 31, 2016 at 12:00am CDT

The first three two and a half weeks of August yielded only a few minor trades, featuring pickups by the Mariners (Arquimedes Caminero and Pat Venditte), a swap of veteran infielders (Erick Aybar and Mike Aviles) and the Marlins adding some left-handed depth to their ’pen (Hunter Cervenka). Since that time, several names have changed hands, though, including Carlos Ruiz, A.J. Ellis, Dioner Navarro, Jeff Francoeur, Daniel Nava, Marc Rzepczynski and Erick Aybar. A trade sending veteran outfielder Coco Crisp to the Indians should be announced on Wednesday as well.

Before diving into the names, a few items bear repeating. The majority of Major League players will be placed on trade waivers this month, with most instances going unreported. There are undoubtedly players (quite a few of them, most likely) who have already cleared waivers but have not been reported to have done so. Players can be traded into September, as well, but only those traded on or before Aug. 31 will be eligible for the postseason with their new teams, so there’s some urgency for contending clubs to complete deals by month’s end. And, of course, for those who aren’t familiar with the inner-workings of waiver trades, MLBTR published a full explanation of how August trades work earlier this month. Onto the known names…

  • Ryan Braun (link): Although Braun has slashed an excellent .315/.377/.551 with 24 homers and 14 steals through 454 plate appearances this season, his pricey contract enabled him to slip through waivers. Braun, 32, is owed $76MM through 2021, and any team acquiring him would likely need Milwaukee to pick up a sizable chunk of his contract, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal. That doesn’t seem to bode well for the possibility of a trade this month.
  • Ervin Santana (link): Santana, 33, is due $13.5MM per year through 2018, which makes him a fairly expensive investment, but he’s in the midst of another fine season. The righty has been among the few bright spots for the last-place Twins, having recorded a 3.54 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 2.38 BB/9 in 147 1/3 innings. Given that he cleared waivers, the Twins might have to eat some of Santana’s contract if they wish to move him for a decent return. However, Minnesota reportedly needed to be “overwhelmed” to deal Santana in July, and it’s doubtful their bullish opinion of him has changed since then.
  • Ryan Howard (link): It seems as if any possibility of a Howard trade has gone out the window with his time with the Phillies drawing to an increasingly pleasant end. But he does still deliver more pure power than most hitters — albeit almost exclusively against righties — with 19 long balls in less than half a season worth of plate appearances.
  • Matt Wieters (link): Not only is Wieters expensive ($15.8MM salary this year), but he’s also underperforming both offensively and defensively. Thus, with fellow backstops Kurt Suzuki and Brian McCann having already cleared waivers, it’s no surprise that Wieters did, too. Regardless of his struggles, Wieters is the starting catcher for a playoff contender with no better in-house option in place, making a trade involving the impending free agent all the more unlikely.
  • Scott Kazmir (link): Kazmir is owed $16MM in each of the next two seasons, but he has the ability to opt out of his deal after this year. Kazmir’s run prevention (4.41 ERA) has been a letdown in 132 2/3 innings this season, although he has recorded an outstanding K/9 (9.02) to go with a 3.32 BB/9 and a superb 15.2 percent infield fly rate. The positives weren’t enough for anyone to claim Kazmir, though, and it’s doubtful the injury-riddled Dodgers will move out a healthy starter in the middle of a playoff race.
  • James Shields (link): The right-hander was previously a high-end option that every team would’ve loved to slot into its rotation. At 34, he’s now pitching like a DFA candidate. The White Sox, who acquired Shields from the Padres earlier this year, owe him $10MM per season through 2018. Thanks largely to a plummeting strikeout rate and a propensity for allowing HRs, Shields has run up a 7.62 ERA in 69 2/3 innings with Chicago. Overall, he has a 5.98 ERA in 137 frames this year. While Shields is on track for a 10th straight 30-start season, there’s no point in trading for someone who isn’t at least keeping his team in games every fifth day.
  • Nick Markakis (link): The negatives seem to outweigh the positives with Markakis, who’s on a $10.5MM salary through 2018 and doesn’t bring the offensive value to the table that he used to. Since leaving Baltimore for Atlanta last year, the right fielder has hit .285/.360/.384 with a mere 12 HRs in 1,200-plus plate trips. The average and on-base percentage are clearly pluses. Fact is, though, a corner outfielder who has little power, doesn’t grade well defensively and isn’t all that cheap isn’t too appealing.
  • Mitch Moreland (link): Moreland is amid his third straight 20-homer season and isn’t overly expensive ($5.7MM salary) in the last year of his contract, so it wouldn’t have been shocking had someone claimed him. Instead, the lifetime .251/.316/.481 hitter got through waivers and looks likely to remain with World Series-contending Texas for the rest of the season.
  • Matt Kemp (link): Once an MVP-level player, the 31-year-old Kemp has fallen off thanks to defensive issues and a decline at the plate. As a roughly league-average hitter on a $21.5MM salary through 2019, he was fully expected to go unclaimed had the Braves placed him on waivers. They did, and that’s exactly what happened. Atlanta’s on the hook for $18MM per year of Kemp’s money for the duration of his contract. The Padres, his previous team, make up the difference. For any deal to happen, the Braves would likely have to eat a hefty portion of that cash.
  • Joakim Soria (link): The 32-year-old Soria has become increasingly homer prone and displaying some concerning control issues in 2016, so it’s not surprising that no team risked claiming the remaining $19.72MM that he is owed through the completion of the 2018 season. Soria’s 92.8 mph average fastball is actually a career-high, and his strikeouts and ground-ball rate both remain sound, so perhaps he could be moved if Kansas City were to eat some of the remainder on that deal.
  • Eric O’Flaherty (link): Once a powerhouse out of the Braves’ bullpen, O’Flaherty’s second stint with Atlanta hasn’t gone nearly as well. He’s never fully regained his form after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2013, and his ERA in 2016 rested just shy of 7.00 when word of his clearing waivers broke. His $1.75MM salary wouldn’t be prohibitive were he pitching well, but even opposing lefties have roughed up O’Flaherty this season, and he’s been positively obliterated by right-handed opponents.
  • Kurt Suzuki (link): The Twins’ catcher was reported to have cleared waivers just yesterday. Unlike a number of players that clear waivers in the month of August, Suzuki is relatively affordable, making it something of a surprise that no teams placed a claim on him. While he’s not regarded as a highly skilled defensive backstop, he’s hitting .281/.321/.431, which is quite a step up from the league-average catcher (.242/.311/.380). He doesn’t walk much, but he’s also very tough to strike out (12.9%), and he was owed just $1.54MM through season’s end when he reportedly cleared on Aug. 16.
  • Brian McCann (link): It’s no surprise that McCann cleared waivers, as he’s owed a hefty $34MM beyond the 2016 campaign. McCann’s offensive production has wilted a bit in recent weeks, and while his .232/.333/.404 batting line and 15 homers are still solid marks for a catcher, it’s tough to imagine the Yankees moving him without absorbing a fair amount of the money that remains on his contract. Also standing in the way of a potential deal is the fact that teams looking for catching help beyond this year have a fair number of choices on the upcoming free agent market.

One final note: outfielder Jeff Francoeur (link) and catcher Carlos Ruiz (link) were both reported to have cleared waivers as well, but each has already been traded to a new team, with Francoeur going to the Marlins and Ruiz going to the Dodgers.

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Atlanta Braves Baltimore Orioles Chicago White Sox Kansas City Royals Los Angeles Dodgers Minnesota Twins New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies Texas Rangers Brian McCann Carlos Ruiz Eric O'Flaherty James Shields Jeff Francoeur Joakim Soria Kurt Suzuki Matt Kemp Matt Wieters Mitch Moreland Nick Markakis Ryan Howard Scott Kazmir

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Pirates, Yankees Complete Ivan Nova Trade

By Jeff Todd | August 30, 2016 at 5:03pm CDT

The Pirates and Yankes have completed the mid-summer swap that sent Ivan Nova to Pittsburgh, per an announcement.  Outfielder Tito Polo and lefty Stephen Tarpley are headed to New York in the swap as the players to be named later.

As MLBTR’s Charlie Wilmoth recently examined, Nova has been every bit the buy-low, bounceback candidate that the Bucs hoped he would be. Over five starts since coming to Pittsburgh, the 29-year-old has posted a 2.87 ERA over 31 1/3 frames with 22 strikeouts against one solitary walk. Pittsburgh will only get to enjoy the fruits of the turnaround for the next month, as Nova is set to hit the open market after the season, but he has helped keep the club in contention.

In return for Nova, the Bucs will end up parting with a reasonably interesting pair of young players, both of whom cracked MLB.com’s most recent top thirty organizational prospect list. Polo, who just turned 22, cruised through the Class A level but has seen his power dissipate over 247 plate appearances at High-A (.276/.351/.346). The 23-year-old Tarpley — a 2013 third-rounder who came to the Pirates in the deal that sent Travis Snider to the Orioles — has spent the entire year at the High-A level, posting a 4.32 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 over 100 innings.

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Yankees “Aggressive” On Waiver Wire

By Jeff Todd | August 29, 2016 at 9:12am CDT

The Yankees have been aggressive in making waiver claims, rival executives tell ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required). New York has traditionally made many claims during the August waiver period, sometimes in pursuit of late-season upgrades themselves or simply to block players from reaching other rivals.

This year, the club is in a somewhat different position, as a series of mid-season trades proved that the focus isn’t on 2016. Still, the Yanks have rather remarkably maintained a 15-10 record since the calendar flipped to August, and sit only 3.5 games out of Wild Card position and 6.5 back in the AL East.

Interestingly, Olney suggests that New York’s position just behind Baltimore — but ahead of its division-rival in waiver priority — has created problems for the O’s as they seek to make last-minute additions. The Yankees, it seems, have been able to open possibilities for their own new acquisitions while also cutting off the supply lines of their competitors.

All said, then, the Yanks could be juggling any of three primary sources of motivation in making any single claim: adding players for the final month of 2016, preventing A.L. rivals from doing the same, and/or picking up assets for 2017 and beyond. While there’s not much time remaining for the aggressive waiver wire strategy to work, it seems that New York has at least largely succeeded in maintaining the status quo — leaving the club in position to make a surprising late run at a Wild Card, if not the division itself.

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AL Notes: Sox, Rangers, Choo, Girardi

By Connor Byrne and Jeff Todd | August 27, 2016 at 8:13pm CDT

After dealing away Dioner Navarro on Friday, the White Sox may have further moves to make before the end of the month. As Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago tweets, GM Rick Hahn says that there are some other irons in the fire as contenders move to add players to their organization before the August 31 deadline to bring in postseason-eligible outsiders. “We were having dialogue with a lot of different clubs on a handful of different players,” says Hahn.

More from the American League:

  • Rangers right fielder Shin-Soo Choo’s chances of playing again this year are ostensibly poor after suffering a fractured left forearm Aug. 15, but he’s aiming to return in October. “I want to try for the postseason,” he said (via Ryan Posner of MLB.com). “I have a plan, I have a goal, I have the confidence.” Choo underwent forearm surgery Aug. 17, and the Rangers’ physician told him then that he’d need eight weeks to recover. That would set Choo up for a mid-October comeback, though the first-place Rangers might not be alive at that point. In the event they are, Choo could have difficulty working back into game shape if he’s unable to embark on a minor league rehab assignment sometime in September. Choo’s injury opened the door for the signing of Carlos Gomez, who has taken over as the Rangers’ everyday left fielder.
  • Red Sox setup man Koji Uehara hasn’t looked like a sure bet to return this season since landing on the shelf with a strained pectoral in late July, but there is progress on that front, per Scott Lauber of ESPN.com. Uehara threw 53 pitches off a mound “with good intensity” Friday, said manager John Farrell. Uehara will throw again Monday and is “making some pretty good strides,” Farrell added. With a 4.50 ERA to accompany a bloated home run to fly ball rate (16.3 percent) and a minuscule ground-ball percentage (19.0), the battle-tested Uehara hasn’t been nearly as effective in 2016 as he was in previous seasons. On the positive side, the 41-year-old has posted outstanding strikeout and walk numbers (12.75 K/9 and 2.25 BB/9) across 36 innings.
  • Yankees manager Joe Girardi spoke out Saturday against September roster expansion, telling reporters (including Brendan Kuty of NJ.com), “I think during the most important time of the year you look for advantages for matchups. You do that for five months and all of a sudden some of those advantages are gone because of all the call-ups.” Girardi also offered a year-round alternative to the 25-man roster, which is in effect from April through August, as well as the 40-man edition. “I think you should have to designate maybe 27 players to a roster, 28 players to a roster that day,” he said.
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Latest On Brian McCann, Braves

By Connor Byrne | August 21, 2016 at 12:00pm CDT

With red-hot prospect Gary Sanchez in the midst of taking over the Yankees’ starting catcher role, an offseason deal sending veteran Brian McCann back to Atlanta is a legitimate possibility, writes Randy Miller of NJ.com. In theory, the teams could work out a deal sometime this season, as McCann cleared trade waivers two weeks ago. At the time, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reported that the Yankees and Braves engaged in McCann-related discussions prior to the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline.

Atlanta likes the idea of adding the 32-year-old McCann as a leader of a young team, Heyman reported. Further, general manager John Coppolella told Jim Bowden of Sirius XM on Sunday that, along with finding a manager and upgrading his club’s rotation, improving at catcher will be a high priority during the offseason (Twitter link).

“We need to win games next year,” Coppolella said of the Braves, who will move to a new ballpark in 2017.

As of now, the Braves’ leading in-house candidate to start behind the dish next season is likely Tyler Flowers, who has been out since mid-July after suffering a broken hand. Flowers hit a solid .254/.343/.422 with seven homers in 210 plate appearances before the injury, but the Braves clearly aren’t buying into him as a solution.

Brian McCann (vertical)

Before joining the Yankees on a five-year, $85MM deal in December 2013, McCann was a star with the Braves. As a full-time member of the team from 2006-13, he batted .277/.350/.477 with 171 home runs in 4,150 PAs. That stellar production hasn’t quite transferred to New York, where McCann has posted a league-average .233/.311/.418 line in 1,452 trips to the plate. Still, McCann’s on-field mix of respectable offense and well-regarded defense (StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus have mostly given him good pitch-framing marks, and the latter is fond of his blocking skills) could make him an appealing option.

Moreover, the Yankees are amid a youth movement, making a McCann deal seem like an inevitably. Of course, McCann would first have to agree to waive his full no-trade clause. Money could also complicate matters, as he’s owed $34MM through the 2018 season. However, McCann’s best chance to continue as an everyday catcher will likely be in another uniform. The writing is on the wall in New York, which has turned to Sanchez lately and shifted McCann to designated hitter. The 23-year-old Sanchez is doing his best to seize the backstop role for good, having recorded a videogamelike .379/.419/.776 line with six long balls in 62 trips to the plate.

“It was always the case that Sanchez at some point was going to come up and hopefully come up to stay,” Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said earlier this week. “So we’ll cross that bridge in the offseason when we come to it, but McCann’s a great player, too.”

McCann is taking the Yankees’ future-oriented approach in stride, telling Miller, “This is the best young group I’ve seen.”

He’ll soon get a look at a different group of young players if a potential return to Atlanta becomes a reality.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Nathan Eovaldi Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

By Jeff Todd | August 19, 2016 at 2:55pm CDT

AUG. 19: The Yankees announced today that Eovaldi underwent Tommy John surgery and also had his right flexor tendon repaired during the operation. Yankees head physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad performed the procedure, which figures to sideline Eovaldi for the remainder of this season and the entirety of the 2017 campaign as well.

AUG. 16: Yankees righty Nathan Eovaldi is set to undergo surgery to repair both a torn flexor tendon and a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, ESPN New York’s Wallace Mathews was among those to report (Twitter links). The pair of procedures will prevent him from pitching in 2017.

The news could well spell the end of Eovaldi’s tenure with the Yankees. He is entering his final season of arbitration eligibility, and will surely command at least some kind of a raise on his current $5.6MM salary. Unless New York looks to work out some kind of multi-year arrangement, then, Eovaldi will likely be non-tendered this fall.

Presuming that Eovaldi is fitted with a new UCL as part of the work being done, this will be his second trip through the Tommy John process — with his first coming during his amateur days. That prior procedure increased the 26-year-old’s likelihood of requiring Tommy John surgery this year, as MLBTR contributor Bradley Woodrum explained in his recent statistical study. That — along with the concurrent flexor tendon injury — also likely means that he’ll face a longer and more difficult road back than a typical, first-time TJ patient.

This crushing injury brings a disappointing end to what had already been a frustrating campaign. Eovaldi averaged 97.0 mph with his fastball and ran up a 9.3% swinging strike rate — both personal highs — but managed only a 4.76 ERA over his 124 2/3 innings. Despite a 49.6% groundball rate, Eovaldi surrendered a lot of hard contact and coughed up 1.66 home runs per nine innings.

Long an intriguing talent, Eovaldi has not yet managed to fully harness his gifts at the major league level. He has never previously had home run issues — quite the contrary, in fact — but still underperformed his fairly promising peripherals in each of the last two years, when ERA estimators valued him as a sub-4.00 pitcher.

Eovaldi carries a 4.21 ERA over his 739 lifetime innings, though a 3.85 career FIP also leads to a solid accumulation of 9.3 fWAR. That kind of output makes him a useful back-of-the-rotation arm with some room to grow, but it’s fair to wonder whether the bullpen lies in his future. After all, Eovaldi’s big-time fastball would likely play up in a relief role, where he could also limit his often-inconsistent secondary offerings and reduce the toll on his arm. And over his career, Eovaldi has limited batters to a sub-.700 OPS the first and second times through the order, with that number shooting up to .887 for hitters seeing him the third time in a day.

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New York Yankees Newsstand Nathan Eovaldi

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Latest On A-Rod’s Plans For The Future

By Jeff Todd | August 18, 2016 at 8:15pm CDT

Just-released slugger Alex Rodriguez has already announced that he won’t play with a team other than the Yankees in 2016, but it is still unclear whether he’ll look to suit up again in the future. While there’s nothing official, and plenty of time remains for him to change his mind, A-Rod has told friends that he’s done playing, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag.

The 41-year-old, who is among the most productive players in major league history, hasn’t yet had much time to digest his time away from the game. New York cut him loose five days ago after a mini-farewell tour of sorts.

Despite a remarkable bounceback season in 2015, coming on the heels of a highly publicized PED suspension, Rodriguez hadn’t managed to stay productive in his age-40 campaign. Over his 243 plate appearances, he carried a weak .200/.247/.351 batting line while exclusively appearing in the DH spot (up until the final inning of his tenure in New York).

Part of the severance included a deal that will make Rodriguez a special instructor and adviser next year. That doesn’t mean, though, that the organization would get in the way of him joining another team in a playing capacity. Owner Hal Steinbrenner says that it’s “a very flexible situation.”

Whether or not another team would have serious interest also remains to be seen, but it can’t be forgotten that Rodriguez posted a .250/.356/.486 slash just last year. He also contributed 33 home runs in the 2015 season, so he’s not far removed from showing serious pop.

One club that has been mentioned with some interest is the Marlins, and Heyman says the team did at least have some internal dialogue on the possibility of bringing in the hometown star. But Marlins president David Samson tamped down the concept in comments to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Samson downplayed the reports as the product of Rodriguez’s geographic ties to the Miami area. Of course, given his defensive limitations at this stage of his career, the former shortstop and third baseman would seem best suited to play in the American League if he ends up deciding to make a return endeavor.

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Hal Steinbrenner On Yankees’ Youth Movement

By Steve Adams | August 18, 2016 at 11:02am CDT

The Yankees have aggressively moved toward a younger group of players over the past month, trading veterans Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller while also releasing Alex Rodriguez and announcing that the 2016 season will be the end of Mark Teixeira’s excellent career. Looking back further, the Yankees targeted youth when dealing Martin Prado to the Marlins for Nathan Eovaldi — a move that ultimately came with mixed results — and selling high on one young asset (Shane Greene) to acquire an even younger asset at a more premium position in Didi Gregorius. While the 2016 season as a whole may be a disappointment for Yankees fans in terms of the team’s overall record, it’s also an undeniably exciting time as the future is right before them. Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Tyler Austin and many other young players have forced their way into the Majors this year. Greg Bird will be back in 2017 after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury this past spring, as well.

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner discussed that youth movement with reporters, including Ken Davidoff of the New York Post and David Lennon of Newsday, explaining his palpable excitement for the possibility of a new core’s emergence. “We’ve been following these guys for three years, all the ups and downs and the progressions,” said Steinbrenner. “My goodness, the hope that you have. Then when you come up and see [Gary] Sanchez, the last two weeks, what he’s doing. And then (Austin and Judge hitting back-to-back homers in their debuts)… it would be hard as managing general partner to not be emotional about something like that.”

As Davidoff writes, Steinbrenner was acutely aware of the short-term pains that would come from continuing to add potential core components, specifically discussing the difficulty of trading away Beltran when he had been the team’s best hitter in 2016. However, he approved the acquisition of Tyler Clippard to help the club remain competitive this season and next, and the addition of Adam Warren was similarly motivated.

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The subtraction of Rodriguez, too, was about creating a chance for younger players like Judge and Austin in 2016 and beyond, and Steinbrenner also touched on rumors of A-Rod playing elsewhere, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes. While the announcement of his release suggested retirement — Rodriguez took a role as an advisor/instructor with the Yankees — there’s been talk of him playing elsewhere in 2017. Steinbrenner suggested that Rodriguez’s role as an instructor wouldn’t stand in the way of that happening. “It’s very flexible,” he explained, “and it was intended to be a very flexible situation. We talked to him about it as an option. And I just wanted to let him know about his option. When we talked about ’17, it was just that was when the contract was up. It was just logical to get everything done quickly.”

One veteran that’s still on the club, but doesn’t look to have a long-term spot, is catcher Brian McCann. Lennon writes that Steinbrenner seemed to suggest that the possibility of a McCann trade loomed a larger offseason likelihood than an August scenario, though McCann has indeed cleared trade waivers, making him available to all clubs. “It was always the case that Sanchez at some point was going to come up and hopefully come up to stay,” said Steinbrenner. “So we’ll cross that bridge in the offseason when we come to it, but McCann’s a great player, too.” The $34MM remaining on McCann’s contract and the full no-trade clause he obtained in the deal serve as roadblocks to an eventual deal, however, as Lennon notes. Even if the Yankees are willing to pay down some of the money he’s owed, McCann could still impede the situation by trying to get his $15MM option for the 2019 season exercised in advance, which would muddle matters considerably.

While that situation does figure to be a complicated matter, there’s little doubt as to who will be overseeing negotiations. Per Davidoff, Steinbrenner “made it clear” that he has total faith in both general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi. Each has a contract that is up after the 2017 season, but neither is any danger this coming offseason despite a lackluster showing in the American League East.

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Quick Hits: Rivera, Orioles, Lackey, Fernandez, Myers, Rays

By Mark Polishuk | August 14, 2016 at 11:10pm CDT

The Yankees unveiled a Monument Park plaque in Mariano Rivera’s honor, yet as Dave Dombrowski told reporters (including Fangraphs’ David Laurila) this weekend, Rivera could have become Florida Marlins property via the 1992 expansion draft.  Dombrowski, then the Marlins GM, would’ve chosen Rivera if the Rockies hadn’t taken Yankees farmhand Brad Ausmus with the previous selection.  Since the rules prevented a team from losing more than one player in an expansion draft, that took Rivera and any other unprotected Yankees off the board.  Here’s some more news from around baseball as we wrap up the weekend…

  • With Darren O’Day back on the DL, BaltimoreBaseball.com’s Dan Connolly opines that the Orioles should try to acquire a veteran southpaw reliever to fill the void.  Connolly reports that the O’s looked into the Rockies’ Boone Logan and the Padres’ Brad Hand and Ryan Buchter prior to the trade deadline, so it’s possible the Orioles could revisit those talks, though it will be much harder to complete a deal through August trade waivers.
  • John Lackey spoke last season of signing one more two-year contract and then retiring, though ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that the right-hander could continue past the 2017 season if the desire and ability is still there.  Lackey is enjoying another solid season, and Olney notes that the veteran is actually posting a career high in fastball velocity at age 37 (though this velocity is a rather modest 91.8 mph, after six seasons in the 91.5-91.7 mph range).  Lackey would be 39 on Opening Day 2018, so if he is still pitching well, I would suspect he’d explore another contract with a contending team.  Staying with the Cubs may well be at the top of Lackey’s list given how the team seems to be entering a long-term contention window.
  • It’s no surprise that the big-market Cubs and Phillies are prepared to be big spenders in the coming years, though Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe notes that the traditionally low-payroll Marlins could also potentially become more open to big salaries.  With a new local TV contract on the horizon, the revenue increase could make the Marlins more likely to re-sign Jose Fernandez, who has long been considered a good bet to leave Miami in free agency after the 2018 season.
  • As the Padres are about to begin a series with the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times revisits the three-team blockbuster between San Diego, Tampa and Washington in December 2014.  Right now, the deal doesn’t look like a good one for the Rays — Steven Souza has yet to become a consistently productive player, while three of the players Tampa flipped in the deal (Wil Myers, Joe Ross and Trea Turner) are all enjoying success in 2016.  It could be years, of course, before we can really judge the trade as a win or loss for any of the three clubs.  Topkin also notes that Myers was the source of some clubhouse issues in Tampa Bay, so it’s possible he would never have had his breakout season without a change of scenery.
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Yankees Outright Chris Parmelee

By charliewilmoth | August 13, 2016 at 4:16pm CDT

The Yankees have announced that they’ve reinstated first baseman Chris Parmelee from a stint on the disabled list with a strained hamstring and outrighted him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Parmelee has been outrighted before and therefore had the right to refuse the assignment, but he’s currently listed on the Yankees’ Triple-A roster, so it appears he’s accepted it.

Parmelee signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in February and was promoted in June as one Yankees first baseman after another went down with an injury. Parmelee lasted just eight plate appearances before heading to the DL himself.

Parmelee went 4-for-14 on a rehab assignment in Scranton and has batted a respectable .255/.339/.448 at Triple-A this season, but now that he’s healthy, the Yankees have little use for him. Tyler Austin has emerged as a legitimate option at first after a great stint in Triple-A and a recent promotion, and Mark Teixeira is now healthy as well. The 28-year-old Parmelee has batted .248/.313/.405 in parts of six big-league seasons.

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