“At the end of the day it’s going to come down to, what are they offering?” Rockies interim GM Bill Schmidt said of his team’s deadline plans, telling MLB.com’s Thomas Harding and other reporters that the front office isn’t under a mandate to cut payroll. To this end, it’s possible a prime trade chip like Trevor Story isn’t moved at all, if no club makes the Rockies an acceptable offer.
Story is reportedly not planning to re-sign with Colorado when he enters free agency after the season, though if the Rox didn’t trade him at the deadline, the team wouldn’t be left completely empty-handed if Story departed. Since Story would assuredly reject Colorado’s qualifying offer, the Rockies would be in line for a compensatory draft pick after the first round of the draft. “I trust our ability to make a good pick,” Schmidt said, noting that Story himself (as well as Nolan Arenado and Ryan McMahon) were all selected by the Rockies within that general range of the draft order. Of course, this could also very well be gamesmanship on Schmidt’s part, letting trade suitors know that they’ll need to top the value of a first-round sandwich pick in order to land Story at the deadline.
More from the NL West…
- John Brebbia underwent Tommy John surgery a little over a year ago, and the right-hander is making steady progress in his recovery. The right-hander has already made six appearances for the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, and Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group writes that Brebbia’s next step is pitching in consecutive games, which he is scheduled to do tonight and Tuesday. After the Cardinals non-tendered Brebbia last winter, San Francisco signed Brebbia to a one-year, $800K contract, and he is still under team control via arbitration through the 2023 campaign. That could end up being a very shrewd acquisition for the Giants, especially if Brebbia is indeed able to make a relatively quick return from TJ surgery (the normal recovery timeline is 13-15 months) and match the solid numbers he posted out of the Cards’ bullpen from 2017-19.
- The Padres are moving Ryan Weathers to the bullpen, as the team will return to a normal five-man rotation and use Weathers to boost the heavily-worked San Diego relief corps. Manager Jayce Tingler told reporters (including Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune) that the other starters had the benefit of a recent off-day for extra rest, but added that while the Weathers move is “going to help the team…it’s not necessarily permanent.” After appearing in the NLDS last season, Weathers made his regular-season MLB debut this year and has posted a 2.44 ERA over 44 1/3 innings, starting eight of 13 games. Despite that nice ERA, Weathers has a 4.49 SIERA, and has been aided by an 87.2% strand rate and a .225 BABIP. As Tingler noted, it is quite possible Weathers will again be used as a starter should injuries or circumstances dictate, but for now, the Padres will go with Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove, Chris Paddack, and Dinelson Lamet as their starting five.
