Athletics Rumors

Indians Interested In Sonny Gray

By charliewilmoth | July 15, 2017 at 4:10pm CDT

The Indians are “evaluating” Athletics starter Sonny Gray, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets. The extent of the Indians’ interest isn’t yet known.

Gray is in the midst of a strong season with Oakland, with a 3.69 ERA, 8.4 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 over 84 2/3 innings. Unsurprisingly, a large number of teams have been connected to Gray lately, including the Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Blue Jays, Cubs and Brewers.

The Indians’ rotation boasts a strong one-two punch this season in the form of Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco, and Mike Clevinger has fared reasonably well in 11 starts this year. The rest of its starting corps, though, has been uneven — Trevor Bauer’s results have lagged behind his peripherals, and both he and Josh Tomlin have ERAs over five. Danny Salazar, meanwhile, is on a rehab assignment after missing time due to a shoulder issue.

West Notes: Gray, Darvish, Torres

By charliewilmoth | July 15, 2017 at 12:28pm CDT

The Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Blue Jays all had scouts on hand as Athletics starter Sonny Gray pitched six shutout innings against Cleveland Friday, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. A report before the game had indicated Gray had been scratched, suggesting the possibility of an imminent trade, and Gray said he received 50 texts just before the game. That report, however, turned out to be false. Gray has also recently been connected to the Cubs and Brewers, although Brewers GM David Stearns suggested his club was merely doing “background work.” Here’s more from the West divisions.

The Rangers are not likely to trade or extend Yu Darvish, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. A recent report indicated the Rangers would listen to offers for Darvish and Cole Hamels, and Grant doesn’t dispute that possibility outright. But the Rangers, despite a 44-45 record, could still make a Wild Card run, and with plenty of starting pitching on the market, they aren’t likely to land a top prospect for Darvish, who would be a rental. The Rangers would also stand to receive compensation if Darvish rejected a qualifying offer and departed next winter. If they were to keep Darvish after the deadline, the Rangers could then attempt to sign him long-term, although, as Grant points out, long-term contracts for pitchers in their thirties are often risky propositions.
Padres lefty Jose Torres is receiving trade interest, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. The 23-year-old Torres has a 4.46 ERA and eight home runs allowed in his first full year in the Padres’ bullpen, but with an impressive 9.1 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and 95.1-MPH average fastball velocity. Those factors could make him an intriguing addition to the trade market, and one might think he could come up in various scenarios in discussions with teams also interested in fellow lefty Brad Hand. There would seem to be little pressing need for the Padres to move Torres, however, since he’s not eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season at the earliest.

Andrew Triggs Undergoes Season-Ending Hip Surgery

By Steve Adams | July 14, 2017 at 1:54pm CDT

Athletics right-hander Andrew Triggs has undergone surgery to repair the labrum in his left hip yesterday, the Athletics announced on Friday (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Jane Lee). Triggs had previously told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that he if he ultimately had the surgery, the expectation was that he’d be throwing off a mound in time for Spring Training 2018 (Twitter link).

It’s a tough break for the 28-year-old Triggs, who was sensational through his first eight starts in 2017 before turning in uneven results the rest of the way. Through mid-May, Triggs had worked to a 2.12 ERA with 6.8 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 54 percent ground-ball rate, but he allowed six or more runs in each of his final four starts before landing on the disabled list due to hip pain that will now ultimately cost him the remainder of his season.

An unheralded waiver claim out of the Orioles organization, Triggs quietly emerged as a promising starting option for the A’s last season when he pitched 56 1/3 strong innings. Though his 4.31 ERA didn’t appear all that encouraging on the surface, Triggs averaged 8.8 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 with a 51 percent ground-ball rate as a rookie in 2016, prompting metrics like FIP (3.20), xFIP (3.29) and SIERA (3.29) to forecast considerable improvement in 2017.

Triggs will spend the remainder of the season on the 60-day DL (once the A’s need to place him there to open a 40-man spot, that is), and will hope for better health in 2018. He’ll gain a full year of service time this season, pushing his career total to one year, 123 days. That trajectory means that he’s unlikely to be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season (post-2018 is possible, but unlikely, and will depend on the Super Two cutoff). The A’s can control Triggs via arbitration through the 2022 campaign.

Cubs Remain Interested In Sonny Gray After Quintana Trade

By Steve Adams | July 14, 2017 at 11:45am CDT

The Cubs swung what might be the biggest deal of the summer yesterday by acquiring Jose Quintana for a prospect package headline by Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease, but they’re still interested in A’s right-hander Sonny Gray, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com (Twitter link). Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and MLB Network tweets the same sentiment, that the Cubs are “pursuing” Gray despite having already added Quintana.

The Cubs’ acquisition of Quintana left them without two of their top prospects, though the Cubs still have a number of appealing young players. Infielder Jeimer Candelario ranks among the game’s Top 100 prospects over at MLB.com, and ESPN’s Keith Law recently noted that pitching prospect Adbert Alzolay and Oscar De La Cruz have seen their stock rise quite a bit this season.

Chicago also has a number of young position players already at the MLB level, though there’s been considerable doubt cast on their willingness to deal players that have already played their way into prominent roles on the Major League roster. If the team is to make a serious run at Gray, however, that may well be what is required of president Theo Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer.

It’s not necessarily clear that the Cubs are aggressively chasing Gray, who is controllable via arbitration through the 2019 campaign. Rosenthal tweets that it’s not yet known how hard they’ll push to bring Gray into the fold, though their openness to the notion is interesting all the same. Acquiring both Quintana and Gray would line the Cubs up for a rotation featuring that pair, Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks for at least the next three years, and while Gray’s price figures to rise, it should be more manageable than filling the spots of Jake Arrieta and John Lackey via free agency when that pair reaches the open market this offseason. That could be a key for the Cubs, who will see Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Javier Baez, Hendricks, Kyle Schwarber, Carl Edwards Jr. and others reach arbitration eligibility in the next two years.

Trade Chatter: Rangers, Rockies, Ramos, Mariners, Alonso, Cards

By Steve Adams | July 12, 2017 at 2:17pm CDT

With 19 days until the non-waiver trade deadline, the Rangers are telling other clubs that they plan to hold, at the very least, and may yet act as buyers on the trade market, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports (on Twitter). The Rangers, of course, are all but finished in the American League West as the Astros run away with the division. However, despite a 43-45 record, Texas is just three games back in the American League Wild Card race. Morosi notes that the defending AL West champs open the season’s second half with a 10-game road trip that will likely prove pivotal in the Rangers’ determination of a course of action prior to the deadline.

More trade talk from around the game…

The Rockies are eyeing relief help as the deadline approaches, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes in his latest mailbag column. One name that Saunders has heard connected to the Rox is Marlins closer AJ Ramos. The Miami Herald’s Clark Spencer reported recently that the Fish are scouting a number of rival farm systems in preparation to trade some veteran assets before the deadline, specifically naming the Rockies as a system of interest. It seems unlikely that Ramos would usurp Greg Holland as manager Bud Black’s closer, but he’d give the Rox an arm with huge strikeout potential that can be controlled through next season. And, with Holland all but certain to turn down his player option (barring an injury), Ramos would give the Rockies an option in the ninth inning in 2018. Ramos is earning $6.55MM this year and is controllable for one more season via arbitration.
Morosi also reports that the Mariners would like to add some pitching at this year’s trade deadline, but they’re not keen on adding any rentals (Twitter links). Seattle finished the first half poorly, and the notion of sacrificing prospects for a two-month rental and a chance at a one-game playoff is off-putting to the majority of teams around the league. Even if the Mariners’ slide continues, Morosi adds that the team has no plans to move slugger Nelson Cruz, who even at 37 years of age continues to be among the game’s most productive bats. Cruz is hitting .292/.372/.520 and is earning $14.25MM this year and next — the final two seasons of a four-year, $57MM pact inked prior to the 2015 campaign.
The Athletics have made it known to other teams that first baseman Yonder Alonso is available in trades “right now,” writes ESPN’s Buster Olney. Alonso’s availability isn’t exactly a new development, as he’s been among the most oft-speculated and reported trade candidates for most of the season’s first half. However, the A’s and Alonso’s camp were also said to be exploring talk of a possible extension. While Olney doesn’t mention the extension possibility one way or another, his newest report certainly doesn’t do much to inspire confidence that the two sides will agree to a deal. In addition to the oft-suggested Yankees fit, Olney speculatively lists the Royals as a possibility.
The Cardinals are still looking into adding a middle-of-the-order bat and will continue to do so up through the deadline, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote in a recent chat with readers. The Cards expect that type of pursuit to perhaps run right up to the deadline, however. Goold notes that he’s been told recently that St. Louis isn’t keen on adding rental bats (e.g. J.D. Martinez) but could rethink that mentality and take a late shot at a rental if their pursuits of longer-term assets don’t prove fruitful over the next couple of weeks.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/12/17

By Steve Adams | July 12, 2017 at 1:13pm CDT

Here are Wednesday’s minor moves from around the league…

Catcher Ryan Lavarnway has cleared waivers and been outrighted to the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate, as first noted on the team’s transaction page at MLB.com. The 29-year-old Lavarnway played in just one game with Oakland in his recent call-up, though he’s spent parts of six seasons in the Majors. In 409 big league plate appearances, the former Red Sox farmhand is a .197/.257/.315 hitter. He carries a considerably better Triple-A track record and has hit at a .274/.362/.378 clip through 232 PAs with Oakland’s Nashville affiliate in 2017.

Manfred & Clark On Int’l FA, Homers, 10-Day DL, Expansion, Rays, A’s

By Jeff Todd and Steve Adams | July 11, 2017 at 4:18pm CDT

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA chief Tony Clark each chatted with the media today in advance of tonight’s All-Star Game. Here are a few highlights from their comments:

While the new CBA instituted some rather significant changes to the international signing system, there remain quite a few ad hoc rules in place — with variation, in particular, based on a player’s country of origin. Manfred suggested a more comprehensive change, with the intent of establishing one uniform system for acquiring foreign professional talent, as Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe notes (Twitter links). Clark expressed general agreement with that concept, which suggests that the league and Union will continue working to create one standardized means of acquiring talent from foreign professional leagues in Japan, Korea, Cuba and others.
The leaguewide power surge has been the source of much discussion of late, with Manfred suggesting there has been no change to the game ball that would explain it. In his most recent comments, he suggested that the current ball falls within rather wide established standards, while also hinting he’s not exactly displeased to see more balls leaving the yard. A tighter variance in testing may be one possible solution, Manfred said (and Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal tweets). But he also noted that bats could be as much of a cause as the baseballs and suggested that MLB will begin testing bats as well, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. As for the MLBPA, Clark says “health and safety” considerations — presumably, recent complaints over blisters feature among them — have led the union to engage the league on the topic, Shaikin tweets.
Changes in home run propensity and the run-scoring environment can impact the player market in subtle ways; so, too, does the change from a fifteen to a ten-day minimum DL stint. Of course, that latter modification also bears more directly on roster movement, since it makes it easier for teams to give rest to slightly injured or worn down players. Manfred suggested that some organizations may have gone too far already with aggressive DL placements, as Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets. “I don’t like some of the activity in terms of what’s going on with the 10-day DL,” said Manfred. That did not seem to be a concern shared by Clark, who indicated he had not received complaints from the players about the way the 10-day DL has functioned.
Manfred also touched upon a few open stadium issues. As Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. “I continue to believe Tampa (Bay) is a viable major-league market, and I also believe it may be better than the alternatives than we have out there,” Manfred said of the Rays and their efforts to move into a newly constructed, more modern facility. “And I am hopeful we get to a resolution.” The commissioner did concede that eventually there may come a point where alternatives must be considered but stressed that such a point is not close at hand. Topkin adds that based on Manfred’s comments about expansion/relocation on Monday, the primary alternatives are believed to be Montreal, Charlotte and Mexico City (or elsewhere in Mexico).
Regarding the ongoing stadium issues for the cross-country Athletics, Manfred again offered hope that the team would not need to relocate (via MLB.com’s Mark Newman). Newly hired A’s president Dave Kaval, who was brought in largely to oversee the stadium process, has said recently that the team hopes to have a proposal for the site of a new facility this year, and Manfred is heartened by the efforts being put forth. “I think the renewed interest that [managing partner] John Fisher has shown in finding a new site in Oakland is positive,” said Manfred. “Baseball has had a long history of commitment to its communities. We have been the sport least likely to relocate. We’d like to have Oakland be a success. I think the identification of a single site in Oakland will be a step forward in that stadium process.”
Newman also notes that Manfred continues to have interest in expanding the league, though the commissioner said expansion will not become a prominent focus until the stadium issues for both the Rays and A’s are resolved. “I know the Mayor of Montreal has been very vocal about bringing baseball back to Montreal,” said Manfred. “Charlotte’s a possibility. And I’d like to think that Mexico City or some other place in Mexico would be a possibility.”
Finally, Clark addressed the long-simmering issue of substandard wages for minor-league players. Though the MLBPA does not technically represent non-40-man players, almost all of its members spent at least some time playing in the minors without a 40-man spot. Still, Clark largely demurred when asked about the union’s role in the minimum-wage dispute between minor leaguers and MLB organizations. “We’ve done what we can where we can,” Clark said (via Shaikin, on Twitter).

Twins Showing Interest In Controllable Starters

By Jeff Todd | July 11, 2017 at 1:33pm CDT

The Twins are “checking in” on a few starting pitchers around the game, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Minnesota is seemingly limiting its interest to controllable arms at this point.

That’s not terribly surprising to hear. After all, the Twins are still treading water in the AL Central and AL Wild Card races. And GM Thad Levine said recently that the organization “would be very open to spending aggressively on assets that we could use to propel our team forward this year and for years to come.”

As noted in that above-linked post, the Twins have an obvious need — both now and in the near future — for reliable starting pitching. While there’s little reason to think that the team would part with significant future talent just for an immediate upgrade, it makes sense that the club would value the chance at contending this year while also considering arms that could bolster the roster for a few more seasons to come.

Rosenthal notes that Jose Quintana of the White Sox and Sonny Gray of the Athletics are two pitchers who’d likely appear on Minnesota’s list of possible targets, though it’s not clear whether the Twins have eyes for either in particular. He also suggests Dan Straily of the Marlins as an option, though again there’s still no indication that he’s specifically on the radar of Levine and chief baseball officer Derek Falvey.

Of course, those sorts of pitchers — Quintana and Gray, in particular — figure to draw interest from many other organizations. Those two have done so for quite some time, in fact, with the continued demand perhaps also representing a big reason that their respective organizations have felt comfortable waiting to deal them.

At this stage, there’s still a lack of clarity as to how the market will develop. Quintana and Gray might spur bidding wars; certain contenders could pivot to more affordable rental pieces (or even relievers); and/or we could see other long-term rotation assets (such as Julio Teheran or Gerrit Cole, among many other possibilities) reach the market to meet the demand. The level of involvement of teams such as the Twins will very likely play a role in dictating those developments, though the question remains whether Minnesota will press to get a deal done for a new starter.

AL West Notes: Trout, Rangers, Mariners, A’s

By Steve Adams | July 10, 2017 at 3:14pm CDT

After 39 games away from the team, Mike Trout is set to rejoin the Angels on Friday, per Tim Mead of the Angels’ public relations department (Twitter link). Via C.J. Daft of the Orange County Register, Trout proclaimed himself “ready to play” in the Majors following a fifth rehab game on Sunday. The Angels, incredibly, went 19-20 without Trout in the lineup, maintaining virtually the same pace at which they played when he was healthy. (Anaheim was 26-27 when Trout upon completion of the last game in which Trout played.) His return will be a boon to an Angels club that remains in the thick of the race for one of two American League Wild Card slots, though the division is effectively out of reach. Houston entered the break with a 60-29 record and is 16.5 games up over the second-place Angels.

Gammons On Cubs, Tigers, Verlander, Lowrie, Cole

By Mark Polishuk | July 9, 2017 at 9:15pm CDT

“This is the reality: there are a lot more sellers than buyers right now,” a club personnel director tells Peter Gammons in the writer’s latest piece for his Gammons Daily website. Not only are some teams still wondering if they can get back into the postseason race, other teams further back in the standings are looking to rebound in 2018 and thus won’t engage in full-scale selloffs at the deadline. It makes for a lot of speculation but little hard facts at this point in July. As one GM jokes, “the whole countdown to deadline day has become akin to stores putting Christmas decorations in their showcase windows on Labor Day.” Here are some hot stove items from Gammons…

“The Cubs have called almost every team” in search of starting pitching, including asking the Tigers about Michael Fulmer and Daniel Norris. It would take a blockbuster offer for Detroit to eve consider moving Fulmer, as he has already displayed frontline-starter capabilities over his year and a half as a major leaguer, and he has yet to even reach his arbitration seasons. Norris would come at a lesser but still substantial price since he is controlled through 2022, though the southpaw has battled both injuries and inconsistency during his four years in the bigs. The Cubs are known to be looking for controllable young arms, and may be willing to deal from their surplus of young position players to do so.
One Tigers pitcher that isn’t on the Cubs’ radar is Justin Verlander, as one Cubs official tells Gammons that “no one is going to pay $70MM for him, even though he may still be a very good pitcher.” Chicago reportedly at least asked about Verlander at one point, though with Detroit apparently wanting to both get top prospects and get Verlander’s salary off the books, it isn’t surprising that the Cubs’ interest in Verlander was described yesterday as “more smoke than fire” by the Detroit Free Press’ Anthony Fenech.
Billy Beane told Gammons earlier this week that he hadn’t received any serious interest in Sonny Gray prior to last weekend, and the same goes for any serious calls about Jed Lowrie. The veteran infielder is thought to be a good target for teams in need of middle infield help and the Athletics to find lineup space for prospect Franklin Barreto, though it appears that Lowrie’s market has yet to develop with over three weeks still to go until the deadline. MLBTR’s Connor Byrne examined Lowrie, Gray and other Oakland trade candidates in a Taking Inventory piece earlier today.
Returning to Gammons’ original point about teams not wanting rebuild when they feel they have a chance in 2018, Pirates GM Neal Huntington said that his team isn’t likely to trade young right-hander Gerrit Cole. “We haven’t had a real conversation about Gerrit, and I don’t see us doing so,” Huntington said. “We think we can be serious contenders next year….Our goal is to maintain a level of competitiveness every year, and not to have to jump back and build all over again.”

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