Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Lucas Erceg “Drawing Significant Interest”

By | at

Hard-throwing Athletics righty reliever Lucas Erceg is “drawing significant interest,” according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.  Erceg, 29, is controllable for five seasons beyond this one.

Erceg, a second round pick by the Brewers back in 2016, had served as a two-way player in college but didn’t get serious about pitching until 2021.  This year, his second for the A’s, Erceg has cut his formerly worrisome walk rate down to 8.3%.  That’s paired with a healthy 26.3 K% and a 98.8 average fastball velocity that ranks 13th in MLB.  Erceg also has a strong 50.5% groundball rate and excellent barrel and hard-hit rates, so the ingredients are in place for an ERA lower than his current 3.68 mark.

Erceg spent a couple weeks on the IL for forearm tightness earlier this season.  He’s shown no ill effects with his fastball velocity, but did struggle for a couple of weeks upon his return.  Erceg’s past three outings have been scoreless, however, including a save Friday in Los Angeles.

Erceg’s bullpen-mate Mason Miller, one of the few relievers in baseball who throws harder, fractured his left pinkie a few days ago.  That moves Erceg up in the pecking order for A’s manager Mark Kotsay, along with fellow trade candidate Scott Alexander.  According to Rosenthal, the A’s have also “exchanged names” with teams on Alexander, a veteran lefty who bears little resemblance to Erceg as a pitcher.

Michael Kopech, who sits just above Erceg on the velocity rankings, landed with the Dodgers in a three-team deal Monday afternoon.  ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel connected the Phillies to both relievers earlier today, though he was unsure how the Phillies’ acquisition of Carlos Estevez affects their interest. Erceg, who will not be arbitration-eligible 2026 at the earliest, could be of particular appeal to teams with competitive balance tax concerns.

Pirates, Red Sox Swap Quinn Priester For Nick Yorke

By | at

The Red Sox and Pirates announced a one-for-one dealing sending right-hander Quinn Priester to Boston and second base prospect Nick Yorke to Pittsburgh. Boston already has a vacancy on their 40-man roster and optioned Priester to Triple-A Worcester. Pittsburgh assigned Yorke to their top affiliate in Indianapolis.

Priester, 23, has pitched in the majors in each of the past two seasons. He has started 16 of 20 appearances, struggling to a 6.46 ERA across 94 2/3 innings. His 15.4% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk percentage are each on the wrong side of league average, the strikeouts especially so. Preister has kept the ball on the ground at a robust 53.9% clip but seen an inordinate amount of the fly balls against him clear the fence. He’s allowing more than 1.8 home runs per nine innings.

While he hasn’t had the most auspicious start to his major league career, Priester isn’t far removed from being one of the top pitching prospects in the sport. The Bucs selected him 18th overall out of high school in the 2019 draft. By the 2020-21 offseason, he’d cracked most Top 100 prospect lists. Evaluators had particular praise for Priester’s curveball during his time in the minors, but he’s had a fairly balanced five-pitch mix (sinker, slider, four-seam, curveball, changeup) in the majors.

Some scouting reports had questions about the quality of Priester’s fastball — specifically whether he had enough movement to miss bats. His sinker and four-seam each sit around 93 MPH and have been hit hard by major league hitters. He’s had far more success in the minors, though. Priester owns a 3.81 ERA over parts of three Triple-A campaigns. That includes a 3.21 mark with 36 strikeouts and just seven walks over 33 2/3 innings this year.

Boston’s player development staff will try to help Priester translate his intriguing raw stuff and minor league production into better MLB results. They’ll have plenty of time to do so. The 6’3″ hurler is in his second of three option years. He has around 133 days of major league service. It’s possible he crosses the 172-day threshold to reach a full service year in 2024, but he’d still be under control for five seasons beyond this one. If the Sox send him down to Triple-A Worcester at any point, that could push his free agent timeline back and give Boston six full years of control.

Priester will begin his Sox tenure in the minors. Boston has Nick Pivetta, Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and recent trade pickup James Paxton in their rotation. The Paxton acquisition nudged sixth starter Cooper Criswell back to relief. Priester probably slots seventh on the depth chart and can move up and down off the MLB roster as needed.

Pittsburgh has a fair bit of rotation depth themselves. Paul Skenes and Jared Jones had clearly surpassed Priester on the organizational hierarchy. Mitch Keller fits comfortably as their #3 arm. Luis Ortiz, Marco Gonzales and Martín Pérez are rounding out the starting five while Jones is shelved by a lat strain. The Bucs could soon welcome Bailey Falter back from the IL and bump Pérez from the rotation. As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald explored in a post for Front Office subscribers a couple weeks ago, that enabled them to trade a starter for a controllable bat.

Yorke is on the doorstep of the majors. Boston’s first-round pick out of high school in the 2020 draft, he’s having a strong season in the high minors. Yorke hit .251/.325/.366 over 45 Double-A contests and has been particularly impressive since a promotion to Triple-A. Over 38 games for the Sox’s affiliate in Worcester, he turned in a .310/.408/.490 slash with six homers and nearly as many walks (14.2%) as strikeouts (18.9%).

The 22-year-old Yorke has played mostly second base in his professional career. He has a bit of experience in left field as well. The Bucs are presumably planning to use him at the former position. Pittsburgh hasn’t gotten much out of second base all season. Nick Gonzales, whom Pittsburgh took 10 picks ahead of Yorke in the 2020 draft, faded offensively after a hot start. He went on the injured list yesterday with a groin strain that’ll cost him at least a few weeks. That had seemed to push Jared Triolo or Alika Williams into short-term action.

Yorke, despite having no MLB experience, might already be a better hitter than either Triolo or Williams. He’ won’t directly join the MLB roster but could be up before too long. They’ll need to put him on their 40-man roster by next offseason at the latest to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Yorke 13th among Red Sox prospects earlier this month. Baseball America had him 14th in the system on their most recent update. Both outlets praise his hitting feel but write that he doesn’t have great athleticism or defensive chops. He has a chance to be a bat-first regular at the keystone who could make an impact down the stretch. While Yorke isn’t generally viewed as having the highest upside, there’d be ample value in a near-MLB regular whom the Bucs control for the next six-plus seasons.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Red Sox and Pirates were finalizing a trade swapping Yorke for Priester. Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Yankees Designate Jahmai Jones For Assignment

By | at

The Yankees announced that have designated infielder/outfielder Jahmai Jones for assignment and reinstated designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton from the injured list. Joel Sherman of The New York Post reported the moves on X prior to the official announcement.

Jones, 26, was claimed by the Yankees in February. Out of options, he has lasted on the roster through roughly two thirds of the season but didn’t get much playing time in his bench role. To this point, he has been sent to the plate 47 times while appearing in 33 contests. He hit .238/.304/.381 while striking out in 34% of his trips to the plate, lining up defensively at second base, third base and the outfield corners.

Throughout the year, the Yanks have welcomed DJ LeMahieu back from the IL and acquired Jazz Chisholm Jr., bolstering their position player mix and nudging Jones off the roster. They will now have just over 24 hours to explore trade talks but might end up putting Jones on waivers.

Jones may receive interest due to his previous prospect pedigree. He was a second-round pick of the Angels back in 2015 and subsequently got some top 100 love but he hasn’t really had much of a chance to prove himself at the major league level. The Angels added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2019 but Jones has only appeared in 69 MLB games over the past five seasons, bouncing to the Orioles, Brewers and Yankees.

But his work in the minors has continued to be impressive. Over the 2021 to 2023 seasons, he drew walks in 15.2% of his plate appearances, only striking out 21.8% of the time. He slashed a combined .254/.378/.441 in those seasons for a 114 wRC+. He also stole 25 bases in that time in 34 tries. He exhausted his final option year in 2023, which is why the Yankees haven’t been able to send him down this year.

Between his solid Triple-A offense, his past prospect pedigree and his defensive versatility, it’s possible that some club may give him a chance for the final few months of the season, likely a rebuilding club that has playing time to offer. He came into 2024 with less than a year of service time, meaning he can be retained for five seasons beyond this one if things click for him.

Tigers Recall Dillon Dingler, Select Bryan Sammons

By | at

The Tigers announced a series of roster moves today, recalling catcher Dillon Dingler and infielder Ryan Kreidler. They also selected the contract of left-hander Bryan Sammons. One active roster spot was opened by last night’s Carson Kelly trade. The Tigers opened two more spots by optioning left-hander Easton Lucas and placing shortstop Javier Báez on the medical emergency/bereavement list. To open a 40-man spot for Sammons, right-hander Casey Mize was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reported last night that Dingler would be coming up to the majors for the first time.

Dingler, 25, was a second-round pick of the Tigers in 2020 and has been considered one of their top prospects since then. His defense behind the plate is considered strong but there’s more uncertainty with his offense, as he can hit for power but also strikes out a lot.

He has stepped to the plate just under 1500 times in his minor league career thus far, getting punched out in 27.5% of those. But he’s also displayed that power with 59 home runs. Overall, he’s hit .257/.344/.459 for a wRC+ of 114.

It appears he has made notable strides in the strikeout department this year, as he has only been punched out in 20.3% of his 301 Triple-A plate appearances. But he’s still hit 17 home runs and drawn walks at a 10% clip. All that leads to a .308/.379/.559 batting line and 137 wRC+. With Kelly now out of the picture, Dingler figures to get a decent amount of playing time, sharing the catching duties with Jake Rogers.

Sammons, 29, gets the call for the first time as well. He was drafted by the Twins back in 2017 and has never really been a top prospect. But he has been starting in the minors and might be needed to soak up some innings. Jack Flaherty was supposed to start tonight but was scratched as he’s likely to be traded at any moment. Beau Brieske is starting tonight in what is likely to be a bullpen game.

That could leave Sammons taking on some bulk innings. He has made 17 Triple-A starts this year with 84 innings pitched. In that time, he has a 4.18 ERA, 21.8% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 36.4% ground ball rate.

As for Mize, he landed on the IL July 3 due to a left hamstring strain. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that point, which would be early September. Manager A.J. Hinch said it would be a “photo finish” to get back by that time, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic on X, so he might be able to return when first eligible.

Jack Flaherty Scratched From Start Tonight; Trade Expected Soon

By | at

Tigers righty Jack Flaherty is being scratched from tonight’s start in Detroit against the Guardians, according to Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman of the New York Post.  Heyman says a trade “should be expected soon,” so the Tigers aren’t taking any chances.  Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press isn’t aware of a deal in place, but agrees the Tigers “still plan to trade him.”

Flaherty, 29 in October, has a 2.95 ERA in 18 starts this year.  Among pitchers with at least 100 innings, his 32 K% ranks fifth in all of MLB.  Flaherty will be a rental, given the one-year, $14MM deal he signed with the Tigers back in December.  The Tigers enter play tonight 5.5 games out in the wild card race, but their estimated 5.2% chance at the playoffs evidently is not enough to convince president of baseball operations Scott Harris to hang on to his co-ace and just issue a qualifying offer after the season.

Flaherty, a first-round pick by the Cardinals a decade ago, finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting in 2019.  An oblique strain cost him more than two months in 2021, after which he strained his shoulder and had to work out of the bullpen.  Shoulder issues persisted into 2022, a season in which Flaherty tallied only 36 innings.  Amid an unimpressive ’23 season, the Cardinals shipped their former ace to the Orioles in an uneventful deal.  Just shy of a year later, the old Jack Flaherty is back, to the great benefit of the Tigers and his likely new team.  Flaherty missed a few starts in June due to a back injury, but he avoided the IL and has taken his last three turns with excellent results.

If a Flaherty trade is prospect-focused, it will represent a nail in the coffin on the Tigers’ 2024 season.  The club’s rotation depth is perilously thin behind Tarik Skubal and Flaherty, featuring veteran Kenta Maeda and rookie Keider Montero.  Reese Olson is on the IL with an apparently mild shoulder injury, while Casey Mize is working his way back from a hamstring injury.

Flaherty is a top target for many contenders, given his excellence, past success, and availability.  The Padres, Dodgers, Yankees, and Astros have been linked to him, and even the Orioles haven’t been ruled out despite the pitcher’s struggles with that club last year.  That’s likely not a complete list of suitors for Flaherty.

Marlins Claim David Hensley From Astros

By | at

The Marlins announced that they have claimed infielder David Hensley off waivers from the Astros. The latter club designated him for assignment a week ago. The Marlins already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster and don’t need to make a corresponding move.

Hensley, 28, was selected to Houston’s 40-man roster in August of 2022 but has only played in 46 big league games since then, slashing a paltry .177/.273/.274 in those contests. His work in the minors has been better, but has also tailed off lately.

He slashed .298/.420/.478 at Triple-A in 2022, which led to a 130 wRC+ and Hensley getting the call to the big leagues. But he’s hit just .228/.358/.367 in 651 Triple-A plate appearances over 2023 and 2024, with that production translating to an 86 wRC+.

The Marlins had an open roster spot and there’s little harm in taking a shot on Hensley to see if his results bounce back. Despite the tepid results overall, he’s drawing walks in 15.1% of his plate appearances this year and can play all four infield spots, as well as the outfield corners. He’s also a threat for double-digit steals most of the time with 17 so far this year. He can be optioned for the rest of this year and one more season beyond that. He also has less than a year of service time and can be a long-term piece if he manages to carve out a role.

Braves Interested In Garrett Crochet

By | at

White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet continues to be one of the most interesting names in the lead-up to the deadline. With just over 24 hours left to go, it’s unclear if he will be traded at all, but plenty of teams are interested. He’s already been connected to the Dodgers, Phillies and Padres to varying degrees, with Jon Heyman of The New York Post adding Atlanta to the pile today on X. Travis Sawchik of theScore reported on X last week that the Sox would prefer not to trade Crochet within the division, so the odds of him landing with another A.L. Central team would appear to be low.

Crochet is fairly unprecedented as a trade candidate due to his unusual trajectory. He was quickly called up to the majors in 2020 when he was only 21 years old. The Sox kept him in a relief role the year after and he pitched fairly well, but then Tommy John surgery wiped out most of his 2022 and 2023 seasons.

That left him in a strange spot coming into 2024. He had only thrown 73 major league innings due to the missed injury time and another 12 1/3 in the minors as part of his rehab assignment while coming back from surgery last year. But he collected service time while on the injured list and crossed three years of service in 2023, qualifying for arbitration. Since he had hardly pitched, his salary only got bumped to $800K, barely above the league minimum.

The Sox stretched him out as a starter here in 2024 and the results have vastly outpaced any reasonable expectations. The lefty has thrown 114 1/3 innings, already eclipsing his workload over the four previous years combined. He has allowed just 3.23 earned runs per nine innings, striking out 34.6% of batters faced. He has also limited walks to a 5.6% clip and gotten grounders on 46.8% of balls in play.

Most clubs would be clinging tightly to a pitcher who suddenly became an ace at the age of 25 but there are also factors pushing him onto the trade block. As mentioned, he has already qualified for arbitration and has just two years of club control remaining beyond this one. The Sox are absolutely awful this year, despite Crochet’s contributions, with a 27-81 record that could see them finish as one of the worst clubs of all time.

Given the low point the Sox are at, it’s fair to wonder if they can be competitive again in their window of control over Crochet. They reportedly explored an extension with him but didn’t get far, so he’s likely more valuable to them as a trade chip than as a player.

An ace pitcher with a tiny salary and two extra years of club control should give Crochet massive trade appeal but there are also complications. With the limited workload that he carried into this year, it’s led to questions about the best way to press forward, with some suggesting a move to relief work down the stretch would be the best option.

According to reporting from last week, Crochet prefers to continue in a starting role, believing that would be best for his health. He would want to sign an extension with any new club before being moved to the bullpen.

Relievers work fewer innings than starters overall but they have to pitch more frequently and essentially on-call. Perhaps Crochet believes he can better prepare his body for the regular schedule of starting, whereas bullpen work could involve pitching at any time, even on back-to-back days. It’s also possible that he and his reps are simply trying to leverage the trade interest into locking in some financial security, which is understandable. For a guy that has already missed significant time, it would be nice to have some money in the bank before a club leans on him heavily for a World Series run.

That could perhaps scare off some clubs that don’t want to both send significant prospects to Chicago and also commit notable dollars to Crochet. However, Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reports today that the Dodgers don’t view the extension as an obstacle.

This situation is somewhat analogous to the Tyler Glasnow circumstances from the offseason. While not exactly the same as Crochet, he had some workload concerns and was available in trade, though the Rays reportedly made an extension a condition of trade talks. In the end, the Dodgers sealed the deal, sending Ryan Pepiot and Jonny DeLuca to the Rays for Glasnow and Manuel Margot and locking Glasnow up through 2028.

It’s understandable why they might want to go down that path again, given their pitching challenges. Dustin May and Emmet Sheehan both required season-ending surgeries while Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are each on the injured list as well. Bobby Miller struggled so bad that he got optioned down to the minors.

The club’s current rotation is fronted by Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw. Glasnow has a spotty health track record while Kershaw just returned from a lengthy absence due to shoulder surgery. They are backed up by three rookies in Gavin Stone, River Ryan and Justin Wrobleski. General manager Brandon Gomes has said the club is looking for “impact” additions and Crochet would certainly qualify. They already have lined up with the Sox on one major trade today, a three-team blockbuster that also involved the Cardinals.

Crochet’s modest salary is certainly part of the appeal for the Dodgers, as they are slated to be third-time payors of the competitive balance tax and are currently over the top tier. That means they will pay a 110% tax on any money they take on, so someone like Crochet would be more appealing than a veteran who is already making eight figures annually. The theoretical extension would increase his cost but the new deal would start in 2025 and wouldn’t impact his current CBT hit.

Turning to Atlanta, they have their own rotation challenges. Spencer Strider is out for the season due to UCL surgery while Max Fried, Hurston Waldrep and Huascar Ynoa are also on the IL at the moment. Reynaldo López was removed from his most recent start due to forearm tightness and is slated for an MRI.

That leaves them with a rotation nucleus consisting of Chris Sale and Charlie Morton. Sale is having a great season but missed most of the previous four years due to injury and is now 35 years old. Morton is 40 years old and his strikeout rate has been declining for four straight years. Spencer Schwellenbach has been filling in nicely but has ten big league starts to his name.

Adding Crochet in there would obviously be appealing and Atlanta is not afraid to sign extensions, having given multi-year pacts to most of their roster. Crochet’s minimal salary at present is also appealing on account of their CBT status. RosterResource has them at $273MM, just under the third CBT tier of $277MM. Going over that line would result in their top 2025 draft pick being bumped back ten spots, as well as an increased taxation rate.

As for the report that the Sox don’t want to move him within the division, that’s perfectly understandable. Most clubs don’t want to see their best players thriving on clubs that they play more often than others and the Sox should have plenty of suitors even while crossing a couple of teams off the list.

The Royals have a fairly strong rotation and just traded for Michael Lorenzen today, so they will probably be focused on adding offense in the days to come. The Twins and Guardians could use some rotation help but it seems they may have to shop in the non-Crochet aisle. The market also features such guys as Yusei Kikuchi, Jameson Taillon, Cal Quantrill and others.

Yankees Discussing Nestor Cortes In Trade Talks

By | at

The Yankees are firm deadline buyers, but they’ve also been discussing left-hander Nestor Cortes with other teams, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He adds an unexpected name to the starting pitching market — presumably one for whom the Yankees would prefer to add big league talent. (Heyman adds that the Yankees have some interest in Cardinals utilityman Tommy Edman but does not go so far as to suggest the two sides have discussed a Cortes-for-Edman swap.)

On the one hand, it’s always a bit surprising to see a win-now club of this nature discuss an active member of its rotation in trades. On the other, the Yankees went down a similar path just two years ago with another left-hander, Jordan Montgomery, when they traded him to the Cardinals in exchange for center fielder Harrison Bader.

At the time, Montgomery was a quality fourth option in a deep Yankees rotation but not one who was going to make the team’s postseason rotation. There’s similar context here. The Yankees could go with a postseason rotation including a combination of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman, Luis Gil and/or a returning Clarke Schmidt. There’s also the possibility that GM Brian Cashman adds a more impactful arm to the group before tomorrow’s deadline.

Cortes, 29, is in the midst of a generally solid season but has floundered of late. He’s pitched to a 4.13 ERA in 124 1/3 innings, striking out 22.5% of his opponents (right on par with league average) and issuing walks at a tiny 5% clip along the way. However, he’s run into a rough patch of late, failing to complete five innings in each of his past three starts and serving up a total of 15 runs over the course of 13 2/3 innings during that mini-slump.

Like Montgomery in 2022, Cortes is affordable ($3.95MM salary) and controlled for one additional year. A new team would be able to retain him for the 2025 season via arbitration. He’ll be owed a raise of some note but should still see his salary fall well shy of $10MM.

This hasn’t been Cortes’ best season, but he’s solidified himself as a quality big league starter — and taken a unique path to getting there. The Orioles selected Cortes out of the Yankees’ system in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft but designated him for assignment that April and returned him to the Yankees. Just 18 months later, Cortes was designated for assignment by the Yankees, this time getting traded to the Mariners for international bonus allotments. Things didn’t pan out in Seattle, and Cortes returned to the Yanks as a minor league free agent in the 2020-21 offseason.

Since returning to the Bronx, Cortes touts a 3.38 ERA in 439 innings. He’s entrenched himself into the New York rotation, but with their control over the lefty dwindling and a solid collection of alternative options on the big league roster, flipping Cortes for some big league help in the infield — be it Edman or any number of other infield options presently on the market — or an outfielder who could push Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base more regularly could work to the Yankees’ benefit.

All that said, it’d be somewhat surprising if the Yankees moved Cortes and didn’t backfill the rotation with a different addition. Cole has only made seven starts after spending the first two months of the season on the injured list with an elbow issue. Gil looks to have recovered from a rough patch he hit in June, but he’s up to 107 1/3 innings after pitching only four innings last year while mending from Tommy John surgery. Schmidt has been on the injured list since late May due to a lat strain. Rodon, like Gil, hit a rough spot in June and has righted the ship of late — but his track record in New York is spotty, to put things lightly. Stroman’s results have been solid (3.64 ERA) but he’s sporting career-worst strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates (leading to a 5.22 FIP and 4.85 SIERA).

There’s some sense to moving Cortes to address needs in another area — but only if they’re also adding a starting pitcher who’d more concretely slot into a playoff rotation and make up the remainder of Cortes’ innings for the balance of the regular season. That’s a tricky tightrope to walk, but it’s one the Yankees have navigated in the very recent past.

Reds Acquire Ty France

By | at

The Reds announced Monday that they’ve acquired first baseman Ty France and cash from the Mariners in exchange for minor league catcher Andruw Salcedo. Seattle designated France for assignment last week. Cincinnati also placed catcher Austin Wynns on the 10-day injured list due to a lat strain, selected the contract of catcher Eric Yang from Triple-A Louisville and transferred righty Graham Ashcraft to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot. Their 40-man roster is now at capacity. Seattle is reportedly sending around $1.29MM to cover part of France’s remaining salary.

Entering the season, the notion of the Reds acquiring a first baseman would’ve seemed silly. Cincinnati had an infield surplus and a particular glut of first basemen, with Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Spencer Steer and offseason signee Jeimer Candelario all standing as options at the position. However, Encarnacion-Strand’s season ended early due to wrist surgery, while Steer has seen significant time in the outfield. Candelario has spent much of the year at third base but has been at first base more frequently since Noelvi Marte returned from an 80-game PED suspension. France figures to slide in at first base — certainly against left-handed pitching — while Candelario could see increased time at designated hitter.

Originally drafted by the Padres, France went to Seattle alongside Andres Munoz in the 2020 trade that sent catcher Austin Nola from Seattle to San Diego. He broke out immediately with the M’s and for several seasons was one of their most productive hitters — even earning a well-deserved All-Star nod in 2022. From 2020-22, France posted a combined .285/.355/.443 batting line. He belted 42 homers despite playing in the game’s most pitcher-friendly park, adding 68 doubles and three triples along the way. He didn’t walk much (6.5%) but also went down on strikes in only 16.7% of his plate appearances.

France’s bat took a step back in 2023, when he hit .250/.337/.366 with a dozen homers. His bat-to-ball skills remained strong, however, and his batted-ball metrics remained in line with those that he’d posted during that strong 2020-22 run. A dip in his homer-to-flyball rate was at least partially to blame, and the Mariners tendered France a contract despite the down year, understandably betting on his track record and the ostensibly fluky nature of his ’23 downturn.

The rebound the M’s had expected never manifested, unfortunately, and this year’s struggles are more alarming. France’s contact skills have dipped noticeably. After making contact on 91.2% of pitches in the strike zone in the three preceding seasons, his contact rate on balls in the zone has dropped to 87%. He’s chased off the plate less but also swung less in general as well, dropping from a 52.5% swing rate to a 48% mark. As he’s gotten more passive and made contact in the zone less often, pitchers have attacked him more (58% first-pitch strike rate in 2021-23; 61.2% in ’24). The change in approach hasn’t worked out, as France’s strikeout rate has spiked to a career-worst 24.4%.

The Reds, in dire need of an offensive jolt, will send a low-level catching prospect to the Mariners in hope of turning France around. He’ll move from one of the worst settings for a hitter (Seattle’s T-Mobile Park) to one of the best (Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park) — and that swap alone should help France in the power department. The Reds will hope that the change in scenery and some new coaching input and new data from their front office can help France get back to his prior form. They’ve received an awful .215/.266/.363 slash from their first basemen this season, so France will have a low bar to clear when it comes to providing an upgrade..

If France is indeed able to return to form — or at least more closely approximate his peak form — he’ll be a multi-year option for Cincinnati. He’s not currently signed to a contract for the 2025 season but is arbitration-eligible one final time this winter. The Reds would owe him a raise on this year’s $6.775MM salary, though his early struggles in Seattle should tamp down the weight of any salary increase and keep him shy of $10MM. If not, France would be a trade or (likelier) non-tender candidate in the offseason.

As for the Mariners, they’ll bring in a 21-year-old catcher who’s played parts of four seasons in the Reds’ system. Salcedo carries a .246/.347/.330 batting line in a still-small sample of 98 professional games. He’s fanned in 27.5% of his plate appearances but also walked at a hearty 11.4% clip. He’s not regarded among the Reds’ top prospects, but that sort of low-level lottery ticket return is to be expected for a veteran player on a notable salary. In the meantime, they’ll continue to give regular playing time at first base to top prospect Tyler Locklear while also scouring the market for an additional bat to add to the mix after acquiring Randy Arozarena from the Rays last week.

Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reported the specifics of the cash considerations.

Padres Hoping To Add Starter, Have Discussed Jack Flaherty With Tigers

By | at

The Padres fortified their bullpen with their weekend acquisition of righty Jason Adam from the Rays, but they’re not done yet. Dennis Lin and Chad Jennings of The Athletic report that San Diego is hoping to add “at least” one starter and is still open to bringing in additional relief help. They’ve had discussions with the Tigers about Jack Flaherty, per the report, and have indeed at least checked in on a potential Blake Snell reunion (as was reported last night).

Flaherty, 28, stands as one of the likeliest trade candidates on the market. He’s on a one-year, $14MM contract with a Tigers club that faces a 12-game deficit in the AL Central and a 5.5-game gap in the chase for the final AL Wild Card spot (with four teams to leapfrog in that hunt). The Tigers could hold onto Flaherty and make him a qualifying offer — he’s a lock to reject and at least net them a draft pick it after his brilliant 2024 rebound — but the demand for pitching should allow Detroit to extract a better package than that potential comp pick.

In 106 2/3 innings since signing with Detroit, Flaherty boasts a 2.95 ERA with an exceptional 32% strikeout rate and an outstanding 4.6% walk rate. Among the 80 pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched in 2024, Flaherty has the fifth-best strikeout rate, the seventh-best walk rate and the second best differential between those two marks (trailing only White Sox ace Garrett Crochet). He’s also keeping the ball on the ground at a solid 43% clip, and this year’s 93.5 mph average fastball is his best since 2021. Flaherty also has the sixth-best swinging-strike rate among those 80 pitchers, trailing only Crochet, Cole Ragans, Tarik Skubal, Dylan Cease and Chris Sale — an impressive collection of some of the game’s top arms.

The Friars’ once-outstanding farm system has been thinned over the years by president of baseball operations A.J. Preller’s insatiable appetite for marquee trades. San Diego recouped some of the value they lost when trading five top prospects for Juan Soto in the offseason when they traded their final year of control over Soto to the Yankees. However, the headline prospect in that trade never threw a regular season pitch in the Padres organization; right-hander Drew Thorpe was instead packaged with three other farmhands in a trade to acquire Dylan Cease during spring training. Preller has since further thinned the system with trades for Luis Arraez and the aforementioned Adam.

Catcher Ethan Salas and young shortstop Leodalis De Vries still rank among the sport’s elite prospects, but all indications to this point have been that both are close to untouchable. Lin recently wrote a separate piece on that subject, and veritably any report connecting the Padres to a high-end trade target has suggested that Salas and De Vries aren’t expected to be in play. That’s likely all the more true when it comes to a rental like Flaherty (or a high-priced star with an opt-out clause, like Snell).

The Padres have been without right-hander Yu Darvish for weeks as he tends to an undisclosed personal matter. He’s on the restricted list indefinitely. Right-hander Joe Musgrove has been out since May due to a bone spur in his elbow and is on the 60-day injured list. They currently have Dylan Cease, Michael King, Matt Waldron and Randy Vasquez in the rotation, but Vasquez has spent much of the season flirting with a 5.00 ERA while King has already set a new career-high for innings pitched. Adding Flaherty or another arm to the mix would both help to bridge the gap until Musgrove and/or Darvish are ready to return and also give the Padres another impact arm for a potential postseason rotation. A theoretical group fronted by Cease, Flaherty, Musgrove and Darvish would be formidable, assuming all four are healthy and active.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top