MLBTR Podcast: Top Trade Candidates, Hunter Harvey To KC And The Current State Of The Rays And Mets
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- MLBTR’s list of the Top 50 Trade Candidates For The 2024 Trade Deadline (2:20)
- The Royals acquire Hunter Harvey from the Nationals (5:45)
- The Mets acquire Phil Maton from the Rays (14:55)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- The Cubs are such an interesting case right now. They’re not performing well, but they’re also not built to sell. They’ve got a lot of players slated to return from the IL in the next few weeks and they’ve got an easy strength of schedule after the deadline. They’ve got a strong farm system and some positional surpluses that they could deal from, but they’re up against the tax that they’ve self-imposed as a hard cap. They’re not too far from playoff contention but they’ve got a bunch of teams ahead of them. What should they do? (27:15)
- With the trade deadline approaching fast and the Tigers’ recent play, could they be potential buyers if they continue this trend up to the deadline? (34:25)
- If the White Sox trade Luis Robert Jr., Garrett Crochet, Erick Fedde and Michael Kopech, just how improved could they expect to be? (40:40)
Check out our past episodes!
- Brewers’ Pitching Needs, Marlins Rumors And The Nats Prepare To Sell – listen here
- The Rays Could Deal Starters, Garrett Crochet, James Wood And Free Agent Power Rankings – listen here
- Injured Trade Candidates, The Cristopher Sánchez Extension And Blue Jays’ Woes – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
A’s Release Lazaro Armenteros
The A’s released outfielder Lazaro Armenteros, tweets Francys Romero. Oakland had sent Armenteros through outright waivers in May, so the move won’t create a spot on the 40-man roster.
It’s a disappointing conclusion to the Cuban outfielder’s seven-year stint in the A’s system. Armenteros was a high-profile amateur signee back in 2016. He landed a $3MM bonus on the strength of his raw power potential. It didn’t take long for prospect evaluators to express concerns about Armenteros’ defense and pure hitting ability, though. The right-handed hitter never made enough contact to get a major league look in Oakland.
Armenteros has fanned in more than 37% of his professional plate appearances. Even with huge walk rates and double digit home run totals, that’s not viable against minor league pitching. The A’s nevertheless added Armenteros to their 40-man roster at the start of last offseason on the heels of a .248/.380/.464 showing in Double-A. At the time, Oakland’s front office still had some belief that he could translate his physical tools into better results and didn’t want to let him reach minor league free agency.
The A’s gave the 25-year-old Armenteros his first look at Triple-A pitching this season. It didn’t go well, as he struck out nearly 40% of the time en route to a .191/.321/.309 slash over 42 games. The A’s demoted Armenteros back to Double-A last month. While he managed decent results behind a .481 average on balls in play, a 37.5% strikeout rate in 16 Double-A games led the team to move on entirely.
Guardians Re-Sign Zak Kent To Minor League Deal
The Guardians re-signed righty Zak Kent to a minor league contract yesterday, the team announced. Cleveland had released him a couple weeks after designating him for assignment on June 29 as the corresponding move for the Matthew Boyd signing.
Kent has not pitched in Triple-A since April 14. The team announced yesterday that he’s battling a strain in his throwing elbow and is going on the minor league injured list. Players cannot be placed on outright waivers while they’re hurt. The Guardians could only trade or release Kent once they’d designated him for assignment. The injury meant there’d be no trade interest, so Cleveland had to release him. After a couple weeks on the market, the VMI product returns to the organization without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster.
The 26-year-old Kent is trying to reach the big leagues for the first time. He was taken by the Rangers in the ninth round of the 2019 draft. Kent pitched his way to Triple-A by the end of the ’22 campaign and secured a spot on the 40-man roster as Texas decided to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. That put Kent on the doorstep of the big leagues, but he has spent most of the past two seasons on the injured list. He was limited to 34 innings across 10 starts in Triple-A a year ago and has pitched just three times this season.
Cleveland acquired Kent on Opening Day in a deal that sent international signing bonus space to Texas. While the elbow issue cost him his spot on the 40-man, he remains of interest to the Guards’ front office as a depth starter. Kent has a 3.99 ERA with an above-average 26.7% strikeout percentage over parts of five seasons in the minors.
Rangers GM: Hoping To Be In Buyer Position
The Rangers are the defending World Series champions but they currently sport a record of 46-50 that has them 7.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. They’re five games out in the AL West, where they trail the Mariners and Astros. With less than two weeks until the trade deadline, general manager Chris Young will have some decisions to make but is currently hoping his players make the decision for him.
“We are going to do everything we can to win this year,” Young tells Joel Sherman of The New York Post, though he also left some ambiguity by adding that he “wants to take as much time as possible to make a choice and hope in the next week [the results] make it clear we are buyers.”
The Playoff Odds at FanGraphs currently give them a 12.3% chance at cracking the postseason while the PECOTA Standings at Baseball Prospectus are slightly more optimistic at 18.2%. Young and his staff will presumably be discussing all kinds of trade scenarios with other clubs in the coming days, as the Rangers host the Orioles for three games, the White Sox for four and then cross the northern border to play three in Toronto. They will then start a three-game set in St. Louis but the deadline will be on July 30, after just one game against the Cardinals.
It’s an interesting spot for Young and the Rangers to be in, with potential arguments for buying, selling or some kind of combination. The argument in favor of buying would largely hinge on the club having much better health in the second half than in the first.
On the position player side, both Evan Carter and Josh Jung are currently on the injured list. Carter struggled over the first two months of the season, hitting just .188/.272/.361 while battling back tightness that eventually put him on the shelf. Manager Bruce Bochy later described it as a stress reaction, per Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News, with the timeline still unclear. Jung has only played four games this year before being hit by a pitch and suffering a wrist fracture that required surgery. His rehab assignment was shut down a few weeks ago due to continued discomfort and his ramp-up is also somewhat murky.
On the pitching side, Andrew Heaney has been the only consistent rotation member. Each of Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Lorenzen and Jon Gray spent some time on the injured list, though each is currently active. Max Scherzer had offseason back surgery and began the season on the IL, then had his return delayed by a thumb injury. He has missed most of this season so far but returned in recent weeks and has taken the ball five times this year.
The rotation could be getting further reinforcements, with both Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle working back from Tommy John surgeries they underwent last summer. Dane Dunning and Cody Bradford are also on the IL and could return later in the year.
That theoretically stronger rotation and the possible returns of Carter and/or Jung could perhaps inspire the club to push hard at the deadline, hoping to gain steam for a strong second half. But it could also be an argument for doing some selling. Hypothetically, if everyone were to be healthy at some point in the coming months, the club would have nine rotation candidates in deGrom, Scherzer, Eovaldi, Gray, Mahle, Heaney, Lorenzen, Bradford and Dunning.
The club probably doesn’t want to bank on all of them being healthy at the same time, so they wouldn’t necessarily need to trim the number to five. Dunning has often pitched in relief and can be kept there. Bradford has a 1.40 ERA this year but in a small sample of three starts. Despite the strong results, the Rangers would be justified in optioning him to the minors if he were blocked by their more established guys.
But that still leaves seven solid veteran options that could all be healthy in the weeks to come. Perhaps the club will feel they could trade an impending free agent or two without really “selling” here in 2024 or hurting themselves too much in the future, something that MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently took a look at in a piece for Front Office subscribers. Lorenzen is on a one-year deal and set to return to the open market at season’s end. Heaney is in the final season of his two-year deal.
Scherzer is also slated for free agency at season’s end but has a full no-trade clause. He was recently asked on Foul Territory about waiving it again, as he did to come to the Rangers from the Mets, with that show relaying video on X. Scherzer said “I’m not gonna do that” before elaborating that he thought the club would play better and make it a moot point.
Eovaldi is in the final guaranteed year of his deal though there’s a vesting player option for 2025 he could potentially unlock. There were three ways for him to unlock that player option, though one of them involved making the 2024 All-Star team. Since he wasn’t chosen, he’s down to two paths. His best chance is to get to 300 combined innings pitched over 2023 and 2024. He’s currently at 238 and therefore 62 shy of the line, which he should be able to cross if he stays healthy the rest of the year. His other path to unlocking the player option is to finish in the top five in Cy Young voting. That option muddies any trade the Rangers might consider and he has limited trade protection on his deal as well.
Gray and Mahle each have one year left of their deals, making them at least somewhat plausible trade candidates, though moving them would hurt the club’s chances next year. With Scherzer, Heaney and Lorenzen slated for free agency after 2024, the Rangers might want to keep Gray and Mahle in the mix for 2025 alongside deGrom, Bradford, Dunning and maybe Eovaldi.
If the Rangers end up more firmly in the seller camp, they would have those aforementioned pitchers to market, as well as impending free agents David Robertson, José Leclerc, Kirby Yates, José Ureña, Travis Jankowski and Robbie Grossman. Based on Young’s comments, it sounds like it would take a rough performance in the coming weeks for them to sell, but those would be the options. Sherman also floats the possibility of Adolis García or Nathaniel Lowe being available, though each is arbitration controlled through 2026 and it doesn’t seem as though something that drastic is on the table, though it could always come about if some club comes in with an offer that can’t be refused.
Like many other clubs around the league, the Rangers are set for a pseudo postseason push in the weeks to come. With the buyer and seller paths both seemingly on the table, the Texas season will be on the line in the coming weeks, at least to an extent. As Young and his crew have to decide how hard to push in one direction or the other, the upcoming part of the schedule could perhaps define the team for the months that follow.
Jerry Walker Passes Away
The Orioles announced this morning that former All-Star pitcher Jerry Walker passed away over the weekend. He was 85.
Walker, a 6’1″ right-hander, signed with Baltimore out of East Central University in Oklahoma. Even though he was just 18 years old at the time, the O’s sent Walker straight to the big leagues. He remarkably managed a 2.93 ERA over 13 appearances (three starts) down the stretch in 1957. The O’s sent him down the following season and gave him nearly a full year in the minors to build up as a starting pitcher. In 1959, Walker got a shot at Baltimore’s rotation.
During his age-20 season, Walker turned in the best year of his career. He fired 182 innings of 2.92 ERA ball while recording 100 strikeouts. Between 1959-62, MLB hosted two All-Star Games per season. The American League tabbed Walker to open the second All-Star contest in 1959.
At 20 years and 172 days, he remains the youngest starting pitcher in All-Star Game history. (Just behind him on that list are Fernando Valenzuela, Dwight Gooden, Mark Fidrych, Vida Blue, yesterday’s NL starter Paul Skenes, and Denny McLain.) Walker started opposite Don Drysdale and got the win against a National League lineup that included Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Stan Musial.
Walker pitched one more season in Baltimore, working to a 3.74 ERA across 118 innings. The O’s traded him to the then-Kansas City A’s going into the 1961 campaign in a deal that netted them outfielder Dick Williams and reliever Dick Hall. Walker struggled over two seasons in the Kansas City rotation. The A’s eventually swapped him to the Indians for Chuck Essegian (who’d coincidentally gone to K.C. alongside Walker in the 1961 trade before being quickly sold to Cleveland). Walker worked out of the Cleveland bullpen for two seasons. He finished his playing career in the upper minors in 1967.
That preceded a much lengthier second act in various off-field roles. Walker worked as a scout, minor league manager and MLB pitching coach well into the 1980s. He worked his way up to general manager of the Tigers in 1993, leading the front office for one season in which the team went 85-77. Walker held roles in the Cardinals and Reds front offices into the 2010s.
Over parts of eight MLB campaigns, Walker turned in a 4.36 earned run average. He compiled a 37-44 record with 326 strikeouts across 747 innings. Walker tossed 16 complete games, seven of which came during the ’59 season in which he made All-Star history. MLBTR sends our condolences to Walker’s family, loved ones, and various former teammates and colleagues throughout the industry.
The Trade Market Remains Light On Middle Infield Talent
We released our first iteration of the Top 50 trade candidates last week. It was a broadly pitching-heavy list, with 30 of the spots occupied by pitchers. Especially striking is the lack of middle infield talent that'll clearly be available. We listed just four middle infielders among that Top 50.
One of those players, Jazz Chisholm Jr., hadn't actually played an inning in the infield since 2022 at the time of that writing. The Marlins have since begun getting him second base work in an apparent effort to showcase his defensive flexibility for interested teams. Bo Bichette made the back of the Top 50 because he's a marquee name, but the Blue Jays haven't suggested a willingness to deal key players whom they control beyond this season. He's still a long shot to move. The other two middle infielders to make the list: Paul DeJong and Brendan Rodgers, each of whom is at best a low-end regular.
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
- Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
- Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
- Remove ads and support our writers.
- Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker
The Other Marlins Lefty Who’d Like Your Attention
In case you’ve been asleep all season, the Marlins are heading into the July 30 trade deadline as sellers and are all but certain to trade closer Tanner Scott within the next 13 days. Top starter Jesus Luzardo was seen as a near-lock to go as well, before a trip to the 60-day IL tanked his trade candidacy. Center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. — who is completely, 100 percent coincidentally getting his first work at second base since 2022 at a time when Miami is listening to trade offers from infield-needy teams — also seems quite likely to change hands. If the Marlins can find a taker for even a portion of Josh Bell‘s $16.5MM salary, he’ll go too.
But for all the talk on Scott, Chisholm and Luzardo throughout the season, the Marlins have another pretty obvious trade candidate who isn’t discussed nearly as often even though he’s arguably a more appealing trade candidate than Scott. Perhaps that’s because a disastrous start to the season tanked his numbers, but A.J. Puk has not only salvaged his 2024 campaign — he’s been one of the best relievers in baseball for more than a month.
Heading into the season, Miami raised a few eyebrows by opting to stretch Puk back out as a starter. The former Florida Gator was drafted as a starter but had never started a game in the majors. He last started four games in 2021 when still in the A’s organization and hadn’t worked as a full-time starter since 2017.
If you’ve followed any of the reliever-to-starter experiment check-ins I’ve written up this season (one from the quarter mark and one from the halfway mark), you’ll know that the exercise didn’t go well. Puk made the idea look brilliant in spring training when he pitched 13 2/3 innings of 1.32 ERA ball with a gargantuan 41.1% strikeout rate and sharp 7.1% walk rate. It was only four starts in exhibition play, but it’s easy to see why the team was encouraged.
Unfortunately, Puk’s regular-season dalliance with starting also lasted all of 13 2/3 innings over four starts. He was shelled for 17 runs (14 earned) on 19 hits and an alarming 17 walks. He fanned only 12 opponents. That’s a paltry 15.6% strikeout rate and stratospheric 22.1% walk rate. The Fish put Puk on the injured list with shoulder fatigue. He returned as a reliever tasked with the unenviable mission of lowering a 9.22 ERA over a series of one-inning stints. Good luck, Mr. Puk.
Or maybe he didn’t need the luck. Puk’s ERA is down to 4.73 on the season, and while that’s a wholly unimpressive number in its own right, it’s skewed dramatically but that lamentable foray into rotation work. Since he’s moved to the bullpen, Puk sports a 2.39 ERA in 26 1/3 innings. He’s fanned 26% of his opponents against a 5% walk rate. Puk walked five batters in 4 2/3 innings in one start at Yankee Stadium on April 9. He’s now walked five batters total since May 13, all while posting a terrific 13.8% swinging-strike rate and 34.1% chase rate.
Not only has Puk been rejuvenated in his move to a bullpen role, he’s also saved his best work for the summer run-up to the trade deadline. No one has eked out an earned run against the lanky 6’7″ southpaw since June 17. Puk is riding a 12 2/3-inning scoreless streak that’s seen him whiff 18 of the 43 batters he’s faced (41.9%) while walking only two of them (4.7%). Puk, after averaging 93.3 mph on his four-seamer out of the rotation, has averaged 96.1 mph since moving back to short relief. He’s been throwing even harder during this scoreless run, sitting 96.6 mph on his fastball, which has helped him post an eye-popping 20.5% swinging-strike rate and laughable 40% opponents’ chase rate. Everything is working for Puk right now; his four-seamer, sinker and slider have all generated plus results during this hot streak.
Puk looks every bit like he was miscast in his role as a starter to begin the year, but since moving back into the bullpen he’s been electric. And over the past month, he leads all major league relievers in FanGraphs WAR. He’s seventh among qualified relievers in strikeout rate during this current stretch and fourth in K-BB%. Puk hasn’t simply been better since moving back to the ‘pen — he’s been the best version of himself we’ve ever seen. And for a pitcher with more than four years of MLB service who saved 19 games and tallied 22 holds while working to a 3.51 ERA in 2022-23, that’s pretty notable. Puk wasn’t a bad reliever before the ill-fated move to the rotation, but he also wasn’t a great one. Now, he looks like a potentially elite one.
The timing couldn’t be better for a Marlins club that has no hope of reaching the postseason and waved the white flag on their season back in early May when they traded Luis Arraez in a stunning early-season blockbuster. Detractors could argue that the Fish waved the white flag on the season before Opening Day, as their biggest offseason additions of note were Tim Anderson, Nick Gordon, Vidal Brujan and Calvin Faucher (while also subtracting Jon Berti and Steven Okert).
Puk suddenly stands as an interesting trade candidate not only because of his recent dominance but because of his contract and remaining club control. He’s earning just $1.8MM in 2024 and will have $600K of that sum remaining as of deadline day. (Right now, he’s at $716K left on his deal.) An acquiring team would then be able to control Puk for two more seasons beyond the current campaign. He can’t become a free agent until the 2026-27 offseason. His early struggles and IL stint — plus Scott’s presence as the closer — have limited his time on the field, his rate stats and his save/hold opportunities. All of that will combine to help keep his arbitration price tag lower than if he’d spent the entire season as a high-end setup man or closer who excels in leverage situations.
Puk is a 29-year-old former top-10 draft pick and consensus top prospect who’s battled myriad injuries. He looked unimpressive as a starter but has quickly reminded everyone why he was a well-regarded reliever and someone former Marlins GM Kim Ng felt comfortable trading away another former top-10 pick (JJ Bleday) in order to acquire. He has two years of club control remaining, and it’s doubtful he’d even cost a new club a total of $10MM over the course of his remaining window of control.
It’s plenty understandable that Scott and Chisholm are drawing attention — but Puk should be right there alongside them. It was a mistake, plain and simple, to leave him off last week’s top trade candidate list. The Marlins seem willing to listen on just about any member of the active roster, and Puk is arguably the most appealing target for other teams as they look at what’s on the menu in Miami. He’s missing a similar number of bats to Scott but issuing walks at a mere fraction of the rate while earning a third of the salary and carrying two extra years of club control. Puk should command a legitimate prospect package, and there will be no shortage of teams calling.
Another Contending Club That Could Have Pitching To Spare
A couple of weeks ago, in a piece for Front Office subscribers, MLBTR's Steve Adams highlighted some clubs that he figured could walk a buy/sell tightrope at the deadline. The teams he featured are all contenders, but with enough starting pitching options that they could plausibly "sell" a pitcher or two while still trying to compete here in 2024. In recent weeks, there's one other rotation that has suddenly become quite crowded as the team has been climbing in the standings.
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
- Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
- Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
- Remove ads and support our writers.
- Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker
Twins Outright Zack Weiss
The Twins have sent right-hander Zack Weiss outright to Triple-A St. Paul, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic on X. He had been on the 60-day injured list but was reinstated and passed through waivers. The club’s 40-man roster count stays at 40.
Weiss, 32, has never appeared in a big league game for the Twins. He was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox in February and then began the season on the IL due to a teres major strain, getting transferred to the 60-day version in early April. He recently began a rehab assignment, making five appearances in the minors since the end of June. He was going to need to retake a spot on the 40-man roster but the Twins decided to put him on waivers instead.
Since he passed through unclaimed, he’ll stick in the organization as depth without taking up a roster spot. He doesn’t have three years of service time, nor does he have a previous career outright, meaning he can’t elect free agency.
The Twins will therefore get to keep a guy who has put up some intriguing numbers in recent years. Over 2022 and 2023, he tossed 27 1/3 innings in the majors with a 3.29 earned run average. His 11.4% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 28.9% of batters. In that same period, he also tossed 91 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.93 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate.
Weiss will report to St. Paul and try to earn his way back onto the 40-man roster. If he succeeds in doing so, he still has two options and less than a year of service time.
Giants Outright Kolton Ingram
The Giants have sent left-hander Kolton Ingram through waivers and outrighted him to Triple-A Sacramento, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle on X. With left-hander Alex Young also being claimed off waivers by the Mets today, the Giants’ 40-man count drops to 38.
Ingram, 27, has been on and off the waiver wire all year but had enough interest around the league to keep getting claimed. Designated for assignment by the Angels in January when that club signed Aaron Hicks, he has gone to the Tigers, Mets, Rangers, Cardinals and Giants via successive waiver claims, though he has now passed through unclaimed. That means the Giants will be able to retain him as relief depth but without using a 40-man roster spot on him.
The lefty has just five games of major league experience, which came with the Angels last year. He allowed five earned runs in 5 1/3 innings, meaning he currently sports an earned run average of 8.44 in that small sample.
The interest from clubs around the league undoubtedly stems from his larger body of work in the minors. He logged 121 2/3 innings in the Angels’ system over 2022 and 2023 with a 2.81 ERA. His 10.4% walk rate in that time was on the high side, but just barely, while his 30.5% strikeout rate was quite strong and he also generated a decent number of ground balls.
This year, he has a 4.30 ERA in 29 1/3 minor league innings with a 22.1% strikeout rate and 16.8% walk rate. Those numbers are obviously less impressive than what he did in the previous two seasons but it’s perhaps fair to wonder if the lack of stability this year has been a challenge for him.
While he’s surely not pleased to lose his roster spot, he might at least get the consistency of sticking with one organization long enough to unpack his suitcase. If he can get back in a good form and earn his way back onto a roster spot, he can be optioned for the rest of this year and one additional season. He also has less than a year of service time and therefore would be controllable well into the future.