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Latest On Paxton, Odorizzi, Walker

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10:45am: The Cardinals are indeed in the market for Odorizzi, tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

10:25am: The Phillies and Cardinals are among the clubs who are still active in the free-agent market for starting pitchers, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets. Among the starters being considering are James Paxton, Jake Odorizzi and Taijuan Walker. The Phils have already made some modestly priced additions to their rotation mix, signing Matt Moore ($3MM) and Chase Anderson ($4MM) to one-year deals, but they’re likely to vie for innings at the back of the rotation and perhaps even in long relief. Any of Paxton, Odorizzi or Walker would surely be a set-in-stone member of the starting staff, health permitting.

Those two clubs aren’t alone in their exploration of this market, however. Shi Davidi and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet report that the Blue Jays are also looking at free-agent starters in this tier, noting that the club seems to prefers to keep investments in the starting staff to one year. That’d likely rule out Odorizzi, who is known to be seeking a multi-year arrangement. The Sportsnet report indicates Jays interest in both Walker and Paxton but characterizes Toronto’s current level of interest in Odorizzi as “unclear.”

As for the Cardinals, jumping into this mix would deepen a group that currently includes Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Carlos Martinez and Kwang Hyun Kim. Lefty Genesis Cabrera and righties Jake Woodford and Daniel Ponce de Leon are on hand as depth options as well.

Still, Mikolas didn’t pitch last year due to a flexor strain that required surgery, and Martinez’s standing in the organization has seemingly diminished. He’s oscillated between the bullpen and rotation in recent years. Adding an established starter is plenty sensible, and the Cards look to have suddenly awakened from a dormant offseason in the past week, acquiring Nolan Arenado and re-signing Wainwright.

Any of the three pitchers in question would serve as logical upgrades for this group of teams, but there’s some cause for pause as well. The Phillies, notably, are about $11MM shy of the $210MM luxury tax threshold. There’s been no indication yet that owner John Middleton is willing to cross that mark, which has seemingly come to serve as a de facto salary cap for MLB owners this winter. Even if the Phils could secure one of the three pitchers in question for an annual commitment south of $11MM, doing so wouldn’t leave much room for in-season acquisitions.

The Blue Jays aren’t anywhere close to the luxury barrier, but Davidi and Nicholson-Smith suggest they’re also wary of adding so many veteran options that it impedes the path to innings for younger arms like Anthony Kay and Julian Merryweather. Toronto currently has Matz, Hyun Jin Ryu, Robbie Ray, Nate Pearson, Tanner Roark and Ross Stripling as possible rotation pieces slated for the Opening Day roster, and there are several arms on the 40-man roster in Triple-A.

As such, some in the industry expect the Jays to look to move the remainder of Roark’s contract, per Nicholson-Smith and Davidi. He’s owed $12MM this year, and while it’s unlikely they could convince another club to pay the full freight of that deal, it’s possible he could be movable with the Jays eating some cash or taking on a different contract in return.

With regard to the Cardinals, it’s worth wondering the extent to which ownership is willing to spend. They surely have some money earmarked for their hopeful reunion with Yadier Molina, and despite ample speculation about shuffling their outfield mix, the status quo remains in place. Then again, with the Rockies incredibly agreeing to pay all of Arenado’s $35MM salary this season, the Cards appear to have the payroll capacity to bring Molina back and still explore upgrades in the rotation and/or in the outfield. In its current state, the roster is projected for a roughly $138MM payroll (via Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez) with just shy of $150MM in luxury-tax obligations.

The asking price of all three pitchers matters, of course. Such parameters can vary as Spring Training nears, but as of late January, Odorizzi was reportedly still in search of a three-year deal that’d pay him $12-14MM annually. SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson said in his podcast two weeks ago (audio link, around the 9:30 mark) that the Twins believed Paxton to be seeking a one-year deal in the $12MM range.

There hasn’t been much reported on Walker’s asking price, but he’d surely have a case for a multi-year deal given his age and solid results in 2020 — his first healthy season since Tommy John surgery in 2018. He’s something of an interesting case, however, as there are arguments for him to take either a one-year pact or a multi-year deal this winter. At 28, he could take a one-year pact to further prove his health and look to cash in on a long-term deal next winter when he’s still a relatively young free agent entering his age-29 season. At the same time, the security of any multi-year deal would be appealing for a pitcher whose 2018-19 seasons were almost entirely wiped out due to injury.

Starting Pitching Rumors: Odorizzi, Paxton, Arrieta, Walker

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Right-hander Jake Odorizzi’s current market includes the Angels, Giants, Blue Jays, Twins and Red Sox, tweets MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. Most of those clubs have been at least speculatively linked to Odorizzi at some point this winter, although it’s of at least some note that there’s still interest after those teams have added other pieces to their rotation already. The Angels agreed to a deal with Jose Quintana earlier this week, and the Twins inked J.A. Happ on a matching one-year deal. The Red Sox have brought back Martin Perez, while the Giants have brought in Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood. Odorizzi is still seeking a three-year deal, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He and the Twins are still not seeing eye to eye in terms of the length of a potential contract or the total guarantee, Heyman adds.

A few more notes on the market for starting pitchers…

  • Lefty James Paxton is among the rotation targets the Blue Jays are taking a look at, tweets Heyman. A link between the two sides seemed almost inevitable given that the Jays have been tied to most free agents as they cast a wide net amid an aggressive offseason and given that Toronto is regularly at least speculated upon as a landing spot for Canadian-born free agents. Paxton, who threw for teams late last month, missed the bulk of the 2020 season due to February back surgery and then a forearm strain this past summer. Beyond being limited to 20 1/3 ineffective frames while battling those injuries, Paxton saw a drop of more than three miles per hour in his average heater last year. Of course, if he’s healthy, the 32-year-old would rank among the most impactful arms on the open market. From 2017-19, “Big Maple” tossed 447 innings of 3.54 ERA ball with a near-identical 3.45 SIERA. He also posted an outstanding 30.1 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate that sat comfortably south of the league average. At his best, he’s a playoff-caliber starter, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see hopeful contenders pursuing short-term deals with Paxton in weeks to come.
  • From one Scott Boras client to another, right-hander Jake Arrieta is planning to throw for interested teams a week from today, Heyman tweets. Arrieta missed his final few starts of the season due to a hamstring injury — his second straight year truncated by injury. The former Cy Young winner underwent arthroscopic surgery near the end of the 2019 campaign after attempting to pitch through bone spurs in his elbow for much of the season. Overall, Arrieta’s three-year, $75MM deal with the Phillies didn’t pay dividends. After a solid first year in Philly, he logged just 180 innings of 4.75 ERA/4.82 SIERA ball with an 18.1 percent strikeout rate that was nowhere near his 27 percent peak with the Cubs. The Twins plan to watch Arrieta’s bullpen session next week, tweets SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson, although he adds that Minnesota is represented at nearly all showcases of this nature, so this is perhaps more due diligence than it is keen interest in Arrieta specifically.
  • The Mariners have yet to approach right-hander Taijuan Walker with a serious offer to bring him back to the organization, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports. At the time of Walker’s trade to the Blue Jays over the summer, Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto suggested that he might look to bring the righty back to the team in the near future (Twitter link via Jessamyn McIntyre). That has yet to happen, it seems, although it’s also worth noting that Divish reported earlier in the week that Mariners ownership has limited the front office’s payroll flexibility “more than expected” this winter. The Mariners may yet add another arm to the rotation mix, but depending on the extent to which spending is limited, a multi-year deal candidate like Walker might be out of reach.

Tigers Interested In Taijuan Walker

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The Tigers have expressed interest in free agent righty Taijuan Walker, according to Jon Morosi of MLB.com (via Twitter). While the Detroit club has an array of young pitching on hand, Morosi says the intention is to ink at least one veteran hurler.

Walker’s career has been hampered by injury issues, but he was at full health for the partial 2020 campaign. He compiled 53 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA pitching over 11 starts.

Alas, the results look a lot better than the underlying numbers. Opposing hitters registered only a .286 wOBA but produced contact quality suggesting a much more robust .325 xwOBA (though Walker did land in the 74th percentile in hard contact rate). Fielding-independent pitching measures weren’t terribly optimistic; Walker checked in with a 4.56 FIP, 4.82 xFIP, and 4.60 SIERA. He managed only a 7.8% swinging-strike rate last year.

Suffice to say, teams considering Walker will likely not be chasing upside so much as hoping for reasonably priced, solid innings. And there’s reason to think he can serve as a useful back-of-the-rotation starter. Walker was healthy enough in 2020 to average 93.5 mph with his fastball, not far off his career average, and he won’t turn 29 until August. MLBTR graded him the 23rd-best available free agent, predicting that he’d land a two-year, $16MM contract.

AL East Notes: Morton, Zunino, Walker, Red Sox, Yolmer

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Charlie Morton “wasn’t surprised” that the Rays declined to exercise their $15MM club option on his services, but the veteran right-hander told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that the team’s decision “doesn’t mean we won’t try to work something out.  If there’s mutual interest, the next step is gauging what that looks like.”  Rays GM Erik Neander indicated yesterday that the team indeed hoped to bring Morton back for a third season.  If an acceptable deal can’t be worked out with the Rays or another club, Morton reiterated to Topkin that he’ll gauge whether he wants to keep playing, weighing such “typical factors” as his health, playing for a contender, and “does it make sense financially and geographically?”

The Rays declined options on both Morton and (at $4.5MM) catcher Mike Zunino yesterday.  Jet Sports Management represents both players, and agent B.B. Abbott told Topkin in a separate piece that there aren’t any hard feelings about the contractual decisions.  “Their first choice was to be in Tampa, and it probably still is their first choice,” Abbott said, but now that Morton and Zunino are on the open market, “they owe it to themselves to see what’s out there.”

More from the AL East…

  • Taijuan Walker figures to get a lot of attention in free agency this winter, but there is mutual interest between Walker and the Blue Jays in a return to Toronto’s rotation, Sportsnet.ca’s Ben Nicholson-Smith writes.  Acquired in a trade from the Mariners in late August, Walker posted excellent numbers (1.37 ERA, 8.5 K/9, 2.27 K/BB rate) in his six starts in a Jays uniform.  Beyond the on-field results, Walker was also impressed by both the Jays’ long-term potential as contenders, and how the club treats its players.  “They have really good staff, coaches, training staff.  For me, it’s all about comfort and people,” Walker said.  “Being connected and having that family, and that’s what it felt like.”  Once one of baseball’s most highly-touted pitching prospects, injuries cost Walker virtually all of the 2018 and 2019 seasons but he has somewhat revived his stock after his solid 2020 performance.
  • While the Red Sox have interviewed several candidates to be their next manager, “the managerial search appears to be centered on determining if Chaim Bloom and Alex Cora can work well together,” the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham writes.  Of course, Cora was already Boston’s manager when Bloom was hired as the club’s chief baseball officer last October, though Cora’s firing and subsequent one-year suspension are undoubtedly considerations for Red Sox ownership and the front office in deciding whether or not to bring Cora back.  While Cora’s return has been widely speculated, Abraham isn’t sure a rehire “is automatic,” opining that Cora could potentially wait to see if another high-profile job (perhaps with the Mets) becomes available.
  • Now that Yolmer Sanchez has been claimed on waivers, the Orioles have some extra depth as they consider other infield moves, as MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski writes.  No decision has yet been made about Jose Iglesias’ $3.5MM club option, and with Sanchez now on hand as a second base candidate, the O’s could potentially non-tender Hanser Alberto, who is projected to earn between $2.3MM and $4.1MM in arbitration (depending on how arb salaries are calculated this winter).  Sanchez is himself eligible for arbitration, however, and his projected $6.2MM arb figure last winter was the chief reason why the White Sox non-tendered him last November.

Additional Context On Padres’ Flurry Of Trades

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The Padres were the most active buyer at the 2020 trade deadline — arguably of any trade deadline in recent history — reshaping their roster with additions of Mike Clevinger, Austin Nola, Trevor Rosenthal, Mitch Moreland and Jason Castro, among others. The dizzying sequence of additions hearkened back to the days when Matt Kemp labeled A.J. Preller a “rock star” GM during Preller’s frenetic first offseason on the job, but the biggest trades swung by the Padres over the weekend didn’t necessarily come together in straightforward fashion.

Preller, in fact, was informed Sunday evening that his Padres were “out” of the Clevinger bidding, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (via Twitter). The Indians told the Padres that they were sitting on a better offer and likely to proceed in another direction. That call prompted the club to reconvene and alter its package, ultimately adding infield prospect Owen Miller and catcher Austin Hedges early Monday morning. Those pieces put San Diego’s offer over the top, it seems, as word of Clevinger’s trade to the Friars was out several hours before the 4pm ET deadline.

Hedges and Miller, the final two pieces of the Padres’ six-player package, added quite a bit more near-term value to the arrangement. Hedges is considered one of the best defensive catchers (if not the best) in the game and is controlled through the 2022 season. The 23-year-old Miller has yet to make his big league debut, but he slashed .290/.355/.430 in a full season at the Double-A level last year while playing three infield positions. He’s in Cleveland’s player pool now and could conceivably be an option this month. If not, he’ll certainly be in consideration for a call to the big leagues come 2021. With Cesar Hernandez playing on a one-year deal, it’s possible that Miller could be in the mix for regular playing time next season.

But the Clevinger blockbuster wasn’t the only Friars swap that required some persistent iterations. Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto told reporters after trading Nola, Austin Adams and Dan Altavilla to the Padres that he didn’t expect to trade Nola this summer (as opposed to Taijuan Walker, whom the M’s fully anticipated moving).

“They had called repeatedly on Austin Nola and we had repeatedly rebuffed that interest until the return just became too big for us to pass up in our minds,”  Dipoto said Monday (link via MLB.com’s Greg Johns).

The key element of the trade for the Mariners was getting both infielder Ty France and outfield prospect Taylor Trammell in the deal. Dipoto didn’t hide his affinity for either player, revealing that he’s contacted the Padres on France repeatedly over the past couple seasons and been similarly drawn to Trammell dating all the way back to the 2016 draft. “As many phone calls as A.J. made to me this last week about Austin Nola, I have made as many to him over the last couple of years regarding Ty France,” said Dipoto.

With Nola and Castro now on hand, the Padres have completely remade their catching tandem midseason, but changes could yet be coming. The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports (subscription required) that the club is contemplating a September promotion for 21-year-old Luis Campusano — a top-ranked catching prospect who was an in-demand piece himself at this year’s deadline. Per Lin, both the Indians and Rangers asked the Padres about Campusano in trade negotiations, but the Friars clearly weren’t inclined to include him in a deal. Cleveland initially sought Campusano and Luis Patino as centerpieces in the Clevinger deal, while the Rangers were interested in that pair as well as shortstop CJ Abrams when discussing Lance Lynn and Joey Gallo with the Padres.

The 21-year-old Campusano has yet to play above Class-A Advanced, but he tore through the pitcher-friendly California League last year, slashing .325/.396/.509 (148 wRC+). If the Padres do bring him up, they could rotate him, Nola and Castro through the catcher slot while maximizing Nola’s versatility with reps at any of first base, second base, third base or the outfield corners.

Suffice it to say, we could’ve seen any number of permutations of the Padres’ deluge of deals this past week. Such is the nature of a win-now team with a deep farm system. The club’s minor league system undoubtedly took a hit with this wave of trades, but San Diego also managed to hang onto the majority of its top-ranked prospects while clearly placing themselves in a better competitive position both now and into at least the 2022 season, after which Clevinger is scheduled to become a free agent.

Mariners Acquire Alberto Rodriguez From Blue Jays

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The Mariners have acquired minor league outfielder Alberto Rodriguez from the Blue Jays to complete the teams’ trade for right-hander Taijuan Walker, Seattle announced.

The two teams swung the deal for Walker on Aug. 27, though Toronto included a player who was not in its 60-man player pool. His identity was unknown until now as a result.

Still just 19 years old, Rodriguez spent the first two professional seasons of his career playing in rookie ball for the Jays organization. He batted .274/.356/.392 with seven home runs and 34 stolen bases on 42 attempts over 458 plate appearances during his time in Toronto’s system.

Blue Jays Acquire Taijuan Walker

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The Blue Jays have grabbed the first notable starting pitcher of deadline season, acquiring righty Taijuan Walker from the Mariners in exchange for a player to be named later. Both clubs have announced the trade. The PTBNL, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link), is someone not currently in Toronto’s 60-man player pool.

To make room for Walker on the 40-man roster, the Blue Jays transferred righty Trent Thornton from the 10-day injured list to the 45-day injured list. He’d been diagnosed with loose bodies in his right elbow and will now miss the remainder of the 2020 season.

Taijuan Walker | Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Walker, who turned 28 earlier this month, was the No. 43 overall draft pick by the Mariners back in 2010 and spent six years in the organization before being traded to the D-backs in the 2016-17 offseason. He returned to Seattle on a one-year, $2MM deal this season after missing the vast majority of the 2018-19 seasons in Arizona due to injury. That figure is prorated to about $720K in the shortened season, with about $344K of that sum yet to be paid out. Presumably, the Jays are on the hook for that portion of the deal.

Though the reunion was short-lived, Walker looked plenty healthy in his five starts to begin the season. He’s pitched to an even 4.00 ERA with a 25-to-8 K/BB ratio, five homers allowed and a 36.8 percent ground-ball rate. Walker’s most recent outing saw him hold a tough Dodgers lineup to three runs — all solo homers — on four hits and a walk with eight punchouts over seven frames. He’s averaged 93 mph on his heater thus far in 2020, and that number has crept upward of late; Walker sat at 92.6 mph as recently as July 31 but averaged 93.3 mph in his two most recent outings.

Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto said in a radio appearance on 710 ESPN Seattle (Twitter link via 710’s Jessamyn McIntyre) that he hopes to eventually discuss another reunion between the Mariners and Walker. Given Walker’s status as a pending free agent and the Mariners’ distance from postseason contention, however, the move was widely expected. Dipoto added that he’s happy to send Walker somewhere that he’ll have the opportunity to pitch in the postseason.

The Jays will add Walker to a rotation that recently lost Nate Pearson to an elbow injury and has generally struggled beyond top starter Hyun Jin Ryu. Veterans Matt Shoemaker and Tanner Roark have matching 4.91 ERAs — each with an FIP greater than 6.00. Righty Chase Anderson has been solid in a tiny sample, but he only just returned from an oblique injury and has yet to top five innings in a single appearance this year. The Jays have ridden an unexpectedly strong bullpen into the AL Wild Card mix, but it’s been clear that rotation upgrades would be needed for the team to hang onto that opportunity.

General manager Ross Atkins made that much clear a week ago when he acknowledged his plans to focus on win-now moves — specifically those that would reinforce his team’s starting pitching. The Jays were also recently linked to Pirates righties Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl, and it stands to reason that they could yet look into acquiring another starter. For now, Walker represents an affordable rotation upgrade who could conceivably make six or seven starts over the final 32 days of the regular season. He’d likely factor into the club’s playoff rotation as well, should the Jays ultimately qualify.

Onlookers may be a bit surprised to see the return as a PTBNL not in the Blue Jays’ 60-man player pool, although that hardly means the Mariners’ return will be negligible. No team can fit all of its noteworthy prospects into the 60-man pool, of course, particularly given that most clubs — contenders in particular — have some of those slots allocated to veteran depth pieces. (Toronto, for instance, has Ruben Tejada, Caleb Joseph, Jake Petricka and Justin Miller in its pool.)

Furthermore, the expectation throughout the industry has been that the return for rental players such as Walker will be even more tepid than usual in a given season. Clubs are typically reluctant to part with high-end prospects even for a full two-month rental of a player in a 162-game season, and parting with notable prospect(s) for half that time is obviously an even tougher sell.

That’s not to say the return for Walker will be negligible. He was among the likeliest pitchers to change hands and surely drew interest from virtually any contender in search of rotation upgrades, so the Jays are presumably parting with a prospect of some note to acquire him. The likelihood is that said prospect was omitted from the 60-man pool either due to a lack of proximity from the Majors or a current injury.

The player’s identity won’t be formally announced by the team until after the season and might not even be settled upon yet; it’s not uncommon for teams to provide lists from which a trade partner can select a PTBNL. There’s also been some speculation that conditional trades — i.e. the PTBNL is X if acquiring team makes the playoffs or Y if the acquiring team does not — could be of increased popularity given the truncated nature of the current season.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the trade (Twitter links).

Latest On Yankees’ Search For Pitching Help

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8:13pm: The Yankees have called the Giants about righty Kevin Gausman, according to Martino. Gausman, whom the Giants signed to a one-year, $9MM contract last winter, has tossed 31 innings of 4.65 ERA ball (with a far shinier 3.10 FIP) and recorded 12.19 K/9 against 1.74 BB/9 this season. The 29-year-old spent 2013-18 in the Yankees’ division, the AL East, as a member of the Orioles.

8:50am: The Yankees find themselves in a familiar position with just six days until the Aug. 31 trade deadline: battling for first place in the AL East with a pitching staff that has been thinned out by injuries. Luis Severino won’t pitch this year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and James Paxton just landed on the IL after weeks of shaky results with diminished velocity. Just as Aroldis Chapman returned for his season debut, Zack Britton went down with a hamstring strain. Tommy Kahnle had Tommy John surgery. Southpaw Luis Avilan is out with shoulder troubles. On top of the injuries, Domingo German’s suspension removes him from the depth chart for 2020.

New York still possesses a deep bullpen, even with Kahnle out for the year and Britton sidelined into September, but the rotation is much shakier. Gerrit Cole has been excellent thus far, but Masahiro Tanaka hasn’t thrown more than 71 pitches in a start. Jordan Montgomery has been shaky in his four starts, and J.A. Happ has yielded nine runs in 12 2/3 frames with more walks (10) than strikeouts (6). Cole and Jonathan Loaisiga, who has thrown a total of 5 1/3 innings, are the only Yankees pitchers who have started a game this year and currently carry an ERA under 4.60.

Unsurprisingly, the Yankees are in the market for arms — both in the ’pen and more importantly in the rotation. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Yankees could be particularly intrigued by deals that could allow them to acquire a starter and reliever in one fell swoop. Most clubs are expected to be a bit more averse than usual to parting with prospects at this year’s deadline, given the shortened amount of time they’ll control the players in 2020 and the fact that ownership groups are less willing to take on salary. The Yankees are no exception, so doubling up in a single deal makes some sense.

SNY’s Andy Martino writes that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has already been in touch with the Indians, who are said to be at least “open” to offers on recently demoted right-hander Mike Clevinger. The 29-year-old has been excellent dating back to 2017 (2.97 ERA, 10.2 K/9 in 464 2/3 innings) and has two years of club control remaining beyond 2020. However, he also angered his organization by violating health-and-safety protocols and taking a flight with the club before the team learned of his actions. Clevinger was limited to 21 starts last year due to a teres major strain and an ankle injury, as well.

Elsewhere, Jon Morosi of MLB.com writes that the Yankees are among the many clubs to have inquired on Mariners righty Taijuan Walker. ]Walker is among the surest bets to move between now and Monday afternoon’s deadline, so it’d be more surprising to learn that the Yankees haven’t kicked the tires, but the initial interest is still worth noting. Walker is on a one-year, $2MM deal in Seattle this season and has pitched to a flat 4.00 ERA with a 25-to-8 K/BB ratio in 27 innings. Once one of MLB’s top pitching prospects, he pitched just 14 innings from 2018-19 due to injuries but has looked healthy thus far. Walker’s most recent start saw him hold the Dodgers to three runs on four hits and a walk with eight punchouts in seven innings.

There are obviously plenty of other places for the Yankees to look, but Cleveland and Seattle represent a pair of logical trade partners. If Clevinger is to move, the Indians will assuredly want immediate Major League help. They’re in second place in the AL Central and in clear win-now mode. Affordable outfield help will be paramount on the team’s wish list, as their current group has woefully underperformed. Speculatively speaking, Clint Frazier is a former top draft pick by the Indians. If Cleveland believes Miguel Andujar can play a competent left field, perhaps he’d be of interest as well. For a pitcher of Clevinger’s caliber, even with his stock down, they’d likely seek some additional prospect value rather than a straight-up swap, though. The rebuilding Mariners, meanwhile, may not be quite as insistent on adding MLB-ready help given that they’re not in the 2020 playoff picture. However, they’re beginning to see the fruits of their rebuild emerge at the big league level, so players who could help in the next year or two still seem likely to be an area of focus.

Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto On Trade Deadline Expectations

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The expanded playoff field and the tightly bunched middle class of MLB clubs, so to speak, leaves few defined sellers, even with under two weeks until this year’s Aug. 31 trade deadline. It’s become increasingly common in recent years for analytically driven front offices to wait until the final day or two to make significant moves anyhow, but that could be all the more true in 2020. Baseball’s most active general manager on the trade front, Seattle’s Jerry Dipoto, spoke with Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM recently (Twitter link, with audio) to discuss that notion and his expectations for a unique deadline season.

“A lot of teams are still trying to sort out whether they are actually in this or not and how much they want to push the chips into the middle of the table,” says Dipoto. “We’ve received a handful of phone calls, particularly on the pitching, which is where we may have some attractive targets toward the end of the month. We’re open, as we always are, to any type of inquiry and discussion.”

Seattle indeed has some arms that seem like obvious targets. Righty Taijuan Walker is healthy again and out to a decent start while playing on a cheap one-year deal. Reliever Matt Magill was blown up for five runs in his latest outing, but he’s pitched well for Seattle since last season outside of that nightmare appearance. It’s overwhelmingly unlikely that a team would be able to pry Marco Gonzales away from the M’s — he’s signed affordably through 2024 with a 2025 club option — but it’s only logical to think that clubs have at least inquired (and been rebuffed).

Dipoto, though, gives the impression that around the league — and not specifically with the Mariners — there could be a different vibe and a different trend at this year’s deadline. Without directly acknowledging the revenue losses brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic (but clearly alluding to them), Dipoto suggests that arbitration-eligible players and those on expensive, guaranteed contracts aren’t likely to change hands all that much. There’s already been plenty of speculation about a huge wave of non-tenders this winter as teams look to recoup their losses, and picking up such mid-range players only adds another pricey line item to an ownership group’s budget.

“It’s likely to be a little bit more young-player driven than normal trade markets,” Dipoto says. “…I think you’re going to see a lot of the typical moves where a pending free agent is moved on at the trade deadline, and you’re going to see at least some rumblings about young-player-for-young-player ’challenge’ deals, because the middle ground — the established veteran players either in the arb system or already generating high-level paychecks — I think those guys are likely to stay still. But the pending free agents and the younger players, I think have a chance to be movers in these last two weeks.”

Dipoto is but one general manager of course, and it’s notable that his club in particular doesn’t have many arb-eligible players who’d represent trade pieces at the moment. Injured players like Mitch Haniger, Tom Murphy and Carl Edwards Jr. aren’t going to be moved, and Mallex Smith was optioned to the team’s alternate training site yesterday after a dismal start to the year. J.P. Crawford is considered a long-term piece. That said, Dipoto surely has a sense of what’s going on elsewhere in the league, and a slow-moving market for arb-eligible players aligns with previous reports and speculation.

Viewed through that lens, perhaps this will be a relatively quiet deadline in Seattle. A deal involving Walker certainly seems feasible, but it’s tough to see the Mariners agreeing to part with much in the way of young pitching. Justus Sheffield is pitching well but is also controlled through 2025, just as Gonzales is. Parting with either would be more a step backward than forward. Swapping out a promising young arm who’s struggled (e.g. Justin Dunn) for a position player in a similar rut could fit the “challenge” deal mold that Dipoto referenced, but that’s reading pretty heavily into what appeared to be a broader statement about the league as a whole.

Whether the Mariners play a prominent role or not, trade chatter figures to ramp up considerably in the coming days. Dipoto’s comments offer an interesting glimpse into the type of rumors that could begin to swirl and the deals that could come together.

Pitching Notes: Teheran, G. Holland, Taijuan

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The latest on a few well-known major league hurlers…

  • The Angels have placed right-hander Julio Teheran on the 10-day injured list for an undisclosed reason, J.P. Hoornstra of the Orange County Register was among those to report. “I have not heard from him specifically and I have not heard from the medical group either,” manager Joe Maddon said of Teheran. “For me, there’s been no contact.” That obviously doesn’t sound encouraging for Teheran or the Angels, who signed the ex-Brave to a one-year, $9MM guarantee in the offseason. The 29-year-old Teheran has effectively chewed up innings for the majority of his career, which is one of the reasons the Angels added him to a staff that has been low on reliable options in recent seasons. But it’s now unknown when Teheran will be in position to make his debut with the club.
  • Once among the game’s elite relievers during his younger, pre-injury days with the Royals, righty Greg Holland is now fighting for a chance to make the team. Holland, whom the Royals reunited with on a minor league contract in the offseason, looked as if he’d earn his way back during the spring, but it’s up in the air whether he’ll do enough in Summer Camp to crack the club’s 30-man Opening Day roster, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com writes. Fortunately for Holland, he has a fan in pitching coach Cal Eldred. “What I’ve seen here is just as good as his body of work was in spring,” Eldred told Flanagan. “Actually, the ball is coming out even better. I think he’s been really sharp. I think he’s in a great spot.” The 34-year-old three-time All-Star hasn’t pitched in the majors since last August, when the Diamondbacks released him after he tossed 35 2/3 frames of 4.54 ERA ball with 10.35 K/9 and 6.06 BB/9.
  • Mariners righty Taijuan Walker took the hill for the first time at camp Tuesday and was hitting 90 to 93 mph with his fastball, per Greg Johns of MLB.com. Walker has averaged 94 mph on his heater during his career, but serious arm injuries limited him to just 14 innings with Arizona from 2018-19. He’s now back in his old stomping grounds in Seattle, where he was once a top prospect and a capable starter. And as Johns explains in his piece, while many players are understandably nervous about participating this year because of the coronavirus, Walker’s champing at the bit to reestablish himself after two lost seasons. He’ll open 2020 in what figures to be a six-man M’s rotation after signing a one-year, $2MM pact in free agency.
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