Gardner, Prado, Drew Clear Revocable Waivers
Yankees veterans Brett Gardner, Martin Prado and Stephen Drew have cleared revocable waivers and are now free to be traded to any team, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Left-hander Matt Thornton, of course, did not sneak through waivers, as he was claimed by the Nationals and subsequently let go by the Yankees, with Washington assuming his remaining salary and year of team control.
It’s not surprising to see any of the these names placed on waivers by the Yankees, as clubs will frequently place a large portion (if not all) of their roster on waivers in the month of August. None of the three figures to be trade bait, as the 58-53 Yankees are just a game back of a Wild Card playoff berth.
Gardner, who turns 31 in just under three weeks, is in the midst of perhaps his best season, having batted .286/.364/.468 with a career-best 15 homers in addition to 18 steals and plus defense in the outfield. While he’s a highly appealing player — he’s been worth 4.4 rWAR and 3.6 fWAR in 2014 — he’s also guaranteed $50MM through his age-34 season (2018).
Prado, also 30, is hitting .268/.316/.365 for the D’Backs and Yankees this season — arguably the worst offensive performance of his career. He’s owed $11MM in 2015 and again in 2016, making him a logical candidate to clear waivers.
Drew, 31, is hitting just .179/.261/.333 with four homers on the season, though he does have a .782 OPS over the past month. Still, his struggles at the plate prevented any team from placing a claim on the roughly $4.24MM he’s owed through the end of the season. A Drew trade is conceivable, if he continues to produce and the Yankees endure an extended series of losses in the month of August.
While Gardner, Prado, Drew and a trio of Dodgers have all reportedly cleared waivers according to reports today, it’s likely that other, unreported players have cleared waivers as well. For a refresher on how revocable waivers and August trades work, you can check out MLBTR’s August Trades primer.
Nationals Acquire Matt Thornton From Yankees
1:54pm: The Nationals have in fact acquired Thornton after placing a claim, reports Heyman. It’s not yet clear whether or what the Nationals will send in return other than taking on salary, says Heyman. 
1:44pm: The Nationals have claimed Matt Thornton off revocable waivers from the Yankees, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports on Twitter. Washington was awarded its claim on Thornton, which indicates that every club in the American League clubs and all National League clubs with a worse record than the Nats passed on the opportunity. (Be sure to read this primer on August trades if you have not done so already.)
This means that the Nationals have 48.5 hours from the point that the claim was awarded (which remains unclear) to work out a deal. If a trade cannot be arranged, the Yankees will have to decide whether to allow the Nationals to take on Thornton’s contract without compensation. (Having placed the claim, the Nats would be obliged to accept it.)
Thornton has been excellent this year, pitching to a 2.55 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 over 24 2/3 innings. He signed a two-year, $7MM deal over the offseason, under which he is promised a $3.5MM annual salary in each season. The Nationals have been said to be looking hard to add a southpaw pen piece, though it would be somewhat of a surprise if the Yankees moved a player who has been a fairly valuable contributor.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Tigers To Sign Jim Johnson
The Tigers have agreed to a minor league deal with righty Jim Johnson, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports on Twitter. The longtime Orioles closer lost his 9th-inning gig not long after joining the Athletics this year, and was ultimately released by Oakland.
It’s obviously a low-risk move for Detroit, which has dedicated plenty of attention to shoring up the pen. Johnson can audition and provide depth in the minors, while of course also providing that always elusive late-inning experience if the need arises down the stretch.
Johnson has never been an outright dominant reliever in the sense of maintaining high strikeout rates or wielding unhittable stuff, but he certainly has a history of effectiveness. Still only 31, Johnson racked up three straight seasons of sub-3.00 ERA ball in Baltimore over 2011-13 before hitting a wall with the A’s. Though he continued to induce tons of ground balls with his heavy sinker, Johnson became highly susceptible to the long ball (17.2% HR/FB rate) and suddenly lost his usually solid control (5.13 BB/9).
Johnson had recently worked out for the Orioles, which seemed a natural fit — except for the fact that the big league bullpen really did not have an opening. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweeted last night that Johnson had chosen to sign elsewhere. After taking on his $10MM salary by trade before the year, the A’s will still be responsible for the balance, less only the league minimum rate (for whatever stretch Johnson ends up spending in Detroit).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Kemp, Ethier, Crawford, Beckett Clear Waivers
All three of the Dodgers’ highly-paid, veteran outfielders — Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Carl Crawford — have cleared revocable waivers along with pitcher Josh Beckett, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). Infielder Hanley Ramirez, however, was claimed (which, of course, does not mean he will be changing teams).
While several of those players may be useful to another contender, a claim has always seemed unlikely given the large sums owed to Kemp ($107MM), Ethier ($56MM), and Crawford ($62MM) after this season. Beckett is much more affordable, particularly since he is on an expiring contract, but has had injury issues and more importantly would not seem to be a realistic trade candidate in any event.
Though Dodgers GM Ned Colletti has made clear that he has no intentions of dealing away Kemp — who, in any event, has been an important contributor of late — it is now at least hypothetically possible that something could come together on one of the three Dodger outfielders over the next several weeks.
Marlins Designate Jacob Turner For Assignment
The Marlins have designated right-hander Jacob Turner for assignment, the club announced. Lefty Brian Flynn has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster.
Needless to say, this comes as something of a surprise. Turner, 23, was at one point considered by some to be one of the game’s twenty best prospects. And while he has not produced good bottom-line results this year (5.97 ERA), Turner has been victimized by a .368 BABIP. And he has thrown just 264 total big league innings over parts of the last four seasons.
Notably, he has improved significantly this year in several respects: his 6.2 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 are improvements over last year, even though he’s allowed more earned runs, and he has even bumped up his groundball rate to 51.3%. Indeed, Turner owns a 4.01 FIP, 3.93 xFIP, and 3.98 SIERA on the season — all career-low marks, and all seemingly in line with a player of his age and former repute. His fastball velocity is on the rise.
Turner’s situation will certainly warrant a close eye. He will, of course, need to pass through waivers to be dealt. One wonders whether Miami perhaps already has its eye on some sort of trade with a high waiver-priority club. (The Rockies, followed by the Cubs, Phillies, and Diamondbacks, currently lead the NL “reverse standings.”) It is hard to imagine the club simply letting him go: not only was Turner the key piece in the deal that sent Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to the Tigers two years ago (which also included Flynn), but he came into the season with just 1.033 years of service to his credit and so will not even be arb-eligible until 2016.
It is worth noting that Turner is already out of options and is playing on a MLB contract, which he signed after being chosen ninth overall in the 2009 draft. That deal comes with a $1MM option for next year. It gave Turner the right to opt out of that salary and file for arbitration if eligible after this season, but he won’t have enough service time to qualify. Nevertheless, the lack of an available option does limit his market somewhat, as a team would need to be willing to use both a 40-man and an active roster spot (or try to slip him through outright waivers at an opportune moment).
The fact is, players like Turner have value, even if they have not lived up to expectations. He reached the big leagues at a young age, and it seems that several teams would be willing to hold an active roster spot for him to make a run at harnessing his potential (while reaping the benefits of his low salary and team control). Just last year, the Astros shipped a very similar player in Jordan Lyles — former top prospect, decent peripherals, poor results — to the Rockies (along with Brandon Barnes) to acquire two full seasons of a solid, reasonably affordable MLB center fielder in Dexter Fowler.
On the other hand, Turner is something of an extraneous part for Miami, which has other advanced young arms in its system. (One contributing factor to that assessment, however, is that the team recently added Jarred Cosart via trade.) The club seems to be willing to give up at least some future value to improve its chances in 2014 — the Fish sit six and a half back in the NL East — and it could be that the assessment was already made that he would not warrant a roster spot for the rest of the way or over the offseason. (Of course, if that truly were the case, it would have seemed more likely for Turner to be moved a few days ago.)
Matt Cain To Undergo Elbow Surgery, Miss Rest Of Season
MONDAY: Cain has decided to undergo surgery and will miss the rest of the season, tweets Alex Pavlovic of the Mercury News.
FRIDAY: Several medical officials have recommend that Cain undergo surgery, and Giants manager Bruce Bochy told reporters (including MLB.com’s Chris Haft) that “if you’re putting odds on it, odds are going to be that he will not pitch” again in 2014. Cain did some flat-ground throwing from 60 feet today and he’ll see how his arm responds to that workout before deciding whether to go under the knife immediately and begin the minimum three-month recovery period.
THURSDAY: Cain and the Giants are weighing whether the righty will undergo a procedure on his right elbow to clean up bone chips and other debris, reports Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com. Tommy John surgery is not on the table, says Baggarly.
If Cain has the procedure now, he would likely be out for the rest of the year, but would be expected to be ready for a standard ramp-up to the 2015 season.
TUESDAY: Giants starter Matt Cain is set for a visit with Dr. James Andrews regarding his ongoing difficulties with inflammation in his right elbow, CSN Bay Area analyst (and former big leaguer) Shawn Estes tells 95.7 The Game (Twitter link). Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com confirmed the report via Twitter.
Certainly, the club will hope that good news comes out of the consultation, but the necessity of the visit presumably only adds to the team’s reported desire to add a starter at the trade deadline. Cain is owed $67.5MM after this season, including a buyout of a $21MM club option for 2017. He owns a cumulative 4.06 ERA over 274 2/3 innings dating to the start of 2013.
Mets Designate Bobby Abreu For Assignment
The Mets have designated veteran outfielder Bobby Abreu for assignment, the club announced. Kirk Nieuwenhuis will take spot on the active roster, according to the Mets.
Abreu, 40, has a .238/.331/.336 triple slash through 142 plate appearances on the year, which rates just below league average. After a hot start to the year (.913 OPS in May), Abreu has cooled considerably and seen his playing time dissipate. Though his final production fell just below replacement level, that is no mean feat for a man of Abreu’s age.
It remains to be seen whether Abreu will seek to continue his playing career, but it would not be surprising to see a club add him on a minor league deal to provide some depth. Indeed, he tells Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (Twitter link) that he is not yet ready to retire and will keep his options open for the time being.
Cubs To Promote Javier Baez
The Cubs will promote star prospect Javier Baez in time for tomorrow’s game against the Rockies at Coors Field, Bruce Levine of 670TheScore.com reports (Twitter link). Corresponding moves still need to be made to make room for the Puerto Rico native on both the Cubs’ 25- and 40-man rosters. Baez is a client of the Wasserman Media Group, as he just hired his new representation last week.
Baez is a consensus top-10 prospect in the game, as detailed in recent midseason minor league rankings by Baseball Prospectus (which puts him at #5), MLB.com (#6), Baseball America (#7) and ESPN’s Keith Law (#8). The 21-year-old impressed many with a big Spring Training performance but then got off to a slow start in his first couple of months at Triple-A. After 434 plate appearances for Iowa, however, Baez is hitting .260/.323/.510 with 23 home runs, so it seems his power swing is ready for the big league spotlight.
Originally selected ninth overall in the 2011 draft, Baez has a .278/.336/.545 slash line in 1350 minor league PA, cranking 76 homers and stealing 62 bases (out of 79 attempts) over his four minor league seasons. The 2014 Baseball America Prospect Handbook says that Baez could stand to slow down some of the natural aggressiveness in his game, yet raved about his “special bat speed” and baseball instincts. The Handbook gave Baez’s power a 75 scouting grade (out of 80) and said “he profiles as an all-star-caliber, 30-homer infielder wherever he lands.”
It seems likely that Baez will land at second base for his Major League debut, with Starlin Castro entrenched at shortstop at Arismendy Alcantara (another well-regarded prospect) capable of shifting to center field. Baez is a natural shortstop but has seen playing time at the keystone at Triple-A in preparation for both playing alongside Castro and because there is some concern that he might be better suited for second or third base over the long term. With Castro locked into a relatively expensive contract through at least 2019 and a wealth of strong infield prospects (Baez, Alcantara, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell) in Chicago’s system, it will be interesting to see how the Cubs juggle all these young talents in the coming years.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri/USA Today Sports Images
Padres Likely To Select New GM This Week
The Padres are likely to hire a new general manager this week, Scott Miller of Turner Sports and FOX Sports San Diego tweets. He notes that Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler and Rangers assistant A.J. Preller are still in the mix.
Last week, the finalists for the job appeared to be Eppler, Preller, Red Sox assistant GM Mike Hazen, and MLB executive Kim Ng. All four have had second interviews with the team. Since the Padres fired Josh Byrnes in June, Omar Minaya, A.J. Hinch and Fred Uhlman Jr. have performed the Padres’ GM duties in an interim capacity, trading players like Chase Headley, Huston Street and Chris Denorfia while the organization searched for a permanent GM.
Blue Jays Outright Cole Gillespie
The Blue Jays have outrighted outfielder Cole Gillespie to Triple-A Buffalo, according to an email from MiLB.com. Toronto had claimed Gillespie from the Mariners last month.
Gillespie has collected 81 plate appearances for Seattle this season, hitting .243/.300/.311. He’s hit .230/.295/.329 in parts of four seasons with the Diamondbacks, Giants, Cubs, Mariners and Jays.