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Royals Reportedly Plan To Decline Edinson Volquez’s Option

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The Royals are planning to decline their $10MM mutual option on right-hander Edinson Volquez in favor of a $3MM buyout, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. The decision on Volquez is at least partially driven by a desire to decrease payroll from the 2016 season’s franchise-record mark of $144MM, he writes. Not surprisingly, the Royals are planning to exercise their $10MM option on closer Wade Davis and their $6.5MM club option on shortstop Alcides Escobar, Heyman adds.

There was a point at which some pundits pegged the 33-year-old Volquez as a potential qualifying offer candidate, but that always seemed like something of a long shot, and the veteran’s poor performance down the stretch likely eliminated any such notion on the Royals’ part. Volquez finished up the season with a 5.37 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 51.9 percent ground-ball rate in 189 1/3 innings, but his performance over the final three and a half months was notably worse than that ultimate ERA would indicate. Volquez’s ERA sat at 3.90 after a solid two-and-a-half-month stretch to open the year, but he labored to a 6.58 ERA over his final 104 innings. In that stretch, he surrendered 76 earned runs on 134 hits and 43 walks with just 72 strikeouts.

Ups and downs are nothing new for Volquez, who burst onto the scene as an All-Star and Rookie of the Year candidate in 2008 before trailing off to a roughly league-average starter in the two subsequent seasons and eventually dropping to the point where he was released by the Padres in 2013. Volquez, like many others, had a career renaissance in Pittsburgh in 2014, earning him a two-year, $20MM contract with the Royals that spanned the 2015-16 campaigns. While he delivered in the first season of that deal — 3.55 ERA in 200 1/3 innings — the second season was, clearly, not as successful. He’ll now hit a woefully thin free-agent market for pitchers and seek another resurgence — likely on a one-year deal.

As for Davis, Heyman writes that there’s a belief the Royals will at least entertain trade scenarios for the All-Star this offseason. That’s not a shocking development, as Davis’ name came up in trade rumors for much of the month of July before a forearm strain landed him on the disabled list through the non-waiver deadline. Trading Davis, of course, would be difficult, as the Royals would want to extract full value while other clubs may be wary about a pitcher that battled forearm issues on multiple occasions in 2016. Dealing Ian Kennedy would be an alternative means of shedding payroll, he notes, but from where I sit it’s difficult to envision dealing Kennedy even after a strong finish to the season. Kennedy’s contract is teeming with downside, as any acquiring club would likely would be faced with the risk of Kennedy opting out after just one season if he performs well but would be stuck with him at four years and a total of $62.5MM by virtue of his backloaded contract.

The Royals “aren’t anxious” to trade any of Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas or Escobar, Heyman adds, so Dayton Moore and his lieutenants will need to come up with some creative means in which they can trim some payroll. Kansas City does have Volquez, Kendrys Morales and Luke Hochevar coming off the books, but those subtractions will be canceled out by what figure to be substantial arbitration raises for Hosmer and Danny Duffy as well as built-in contractual raises for Kennedy, Cain, Moustakas, Alex Gordon, Joakim Soria, Yordano Ventura, Mike Minor, Chris Young and Salvador Perez.

Giants Attempted To Acquire Wade Davis

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The Giants aggressively pursued Royals closer Wade Davis in advance of the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline, reports Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). Davis’ name came up in many pre-deadline rumors, but the chances of the Royals parting with him evaporated when the right-hander landed on the disabled list with a flexor strain July 31.

Acquiring Davis undoubtedly would have been costly for San Francisco, though there’s no word on whether any of its trade chips intrigued Kansas City enough to make a deal possible. To cite one report, the Royals were seeking premier pitching prospect Lucas Giolito from the Nationals in return for the lights-out reliever.

A healthy Davis likely would have helped the Giants’ playoff odds – which have been shrinking throughout the season’s second half – more than deadline pickup Will Smith has. In dealing pitching prospect Phil Bickford and catcher Andrew Susac to Milwaukee, the Giants paid a hefty price for Smith, who has since yielded six earned runs on 11 hits in 9 2/3 innings. However, the left-hander has impressed with 12 strikeouts against four walks and hasn’t allowed a run in the seven innings he has amassed since Aug. 18.

The Giants’ team-wide woes began well before the deadline. Since going 57-33 prior to the All-Star break, the club has recorded a dreadful 18-32 mark. At 75-65, the Giants are now in second place by four games in the National League West, a division they once led comfortably, and hold a tenuous grip on a wild-card spot. It hasn’t helped matters that San Francisco’s bullpen has been without its best option, Derek Law, since late August because of an elbow strain. Law should return next week, and it’s possible he’ll emerge as the Giants’ closer down the stretch. Santiago Casilla held that role until manager Bruce Bochy took it away from him Friday.

Looking ahead to the offseason, the Giants and Royals could once again resume talks centering on Davis, who returned from the DL on Sept. 2. Kansas City would have to be willing to listen, of course, and the reigning World Series champions could eschew moving him in favor of taking another run at a championship in 2017. The Royals are unlikely to make the playoffs this year and will face questions on whether to shop Davis, among several other veterans on soon-to-expire contracts, in the offseason. Davis has a $10.5MM club option for next season, the final year of his deal.

AL Central Notes: Sale, Quintana, Davis, Wang, Santana

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Over the weekend, Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago reported that the Red Sox weren’t willing to include Jackie Bradley in a trade for either Chris Sale or Jose Quintana, and this morning, Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports adds to that a bit. “If they didn’t get Jackie Bradley, there was no way they were doing the deal,” a person familiar with the talks told Heyman in reference to the White Sox. While there’s been plenty of speculation (and optimism from fans of other teams) that the Pale Hose could market one of their two ace-caliber lefties this winter, Heyman spoke to multiple people that indicated owner Jerry Reinsdorf still has little to no interest in parting with either Sale or Quintana, as his primary focus is putting a winner on the field right now. Sale, 28 next March, is controllable from 2017-2019 season for $38MM, while Quintana, who turns 28 in January, is owed $36.85MM from 2017-20.

More notes from the division…

  • The Royals are planning to activate All-Star closer Wade Davis from the disabled list on Friday, writes Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. Davis might’ve been activated prior to Wednesday’s contest, he notes, but a rainout at Triple-A earlier this week delayed his final rehab appearance and, thus, his return to the active roster. Davis has been out since July 31 due to a forearm strain, and the Royals’ fortunes have certainly changed since that injury. At the time of Davis’ placement on the disabled list, he was an oft-rumored trade candidate for a Royals team that had fallen quite a ways out of contention in the American League Central and in the AL Wild Card hunt. However, despite lacking one of the game’s best relievers for more than a month, Kansas City has gone 20-8 since Davis was placed on the disabled list. They’re now 6.5 games back in the division and just three games out of the second Wild Card spot in the AL.
  • While Davis is returning, the Royals will lose right-hander Chien-Ming Wang to the disabled list, Dodd notes within that same piece. Wang is being placed on the 15-day DL due to tendinitis in his right biceps. While Wang’s numbers don’t stand out (4.22 ERA, 5.1 K/9, 3.0 BB/9), he’s yielded just two runs in his past 11 innings while working in a multi-inning role. Kansas City is hopeful that he’ll be able to return in the minimum 15 days, though expanded September rosters give Kansas City the luxury of taking things a bit slowly with his recovery.
  • Danny Santana’s season is over, as the Twins utilityman has suffered a Grade 2 sprain of the AC joint in his left shoulder and will require four to six weeks to recover from the injury, writes Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. As Berardino notes, Santana once rated as one of Minnesota’s top 10 to 15 prospects, but his struggles over the past two seasons now leave his future with the team in doubt. Santana, 25, burst onto the scene in 2014 with a .319/.353/.472 slash in 101 games, but his production was largely propped up by a BABIP north of .400. Regression was easy to project thanks to that bloated BABIP, but he’s fallen farther than even pessimistic forecasts might’ve indicated. Over the past two seasons, the switch-hitter has slashed just .227/.259/.308 in 525 plate appearances. Santana is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to remain on the active roster or be exposed to waivers before he’s eligible to be sent outright to the minors.

AL Notes: Davis, Aoki, Jones, Ondrusek, Angels, A’s

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Wade Davis is making progress on his way back to the Royals, as he’s set for an inning of action at Triple-A, as MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets. Kansas City has thrived without their 30-year-old closer, but that doesn’t mean his return doesn’t come with anticipation. The defending World Series champs have clawed their way back into the postseason picture — no surprise for this group — but still sits four games out of Wild Card position and need every advantage that can be found.

Here’s more from the American League:

  • The Mariners optioned outfielder Nori Aoki to Triple-A tonight as part of a series of roster moves, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times was among those to tweet. While he has struggled for much of the year, Aoki has actually been quite useful at the plate in August with a .338/.392/.426 batting line for the month. But Seattle needed fresh arms, and so took advantage of the ability to remove the veteran from the active roster for the time being. He’ll surely be back shortly with rosters expanding in a few days.
  • Orioles outfielder Adam Jones left tonight’s action with what the team is calling a hamstring strain. That could be a big problem for the O’s, who not only need Jones’s bat in the lineup but don’t have any ready replacements on their depth chart. But skipper Buck Showalter says that he doesn’t believe Jones will require a DL stint, as Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com tweets.
  • Earlier today, the Orioles designated righty Logan Ondrusek off of their active roster. Unlike a typical DFA, the move simply puts the player on ice while he is passed through optional assignment waives. The procedural step was taken to enable the team to reinstate lefty T.J. McFarland from the DL.
  • The Angels have hired a new amateur scouting, adding former Cardinals cross-checker Matt Swanson, as ESPN.com’s Keith Law reported on Twitter. Los Angeles has continued to experience change in the upper levels of its player intake and development departments, which is no surprise given that GM Billy Eppler only took the helm last October.
  • Just like their AL West rivals, the Athletics are engaged in a complicated ballpark situation, though their’s may be trending away from their current digs at the O.Co Coliseum. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier & Ross recently provided a look at the latest on the search for a new site, with quiet majority owner John Fisher said to be looking closely at a spot in Oakland’s Howard Terminal that is the preferred spot of mayor Libby Schaaf.

Wade Davis Placed On Disabled List

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JULY 31: The Royals announced that Davis has been placed back on the 15-day disabled list with a flexor strain in his right arm. The move is retroactive to July 27, and no timeline has been issued on Davis’ recovery. Lefty Matt Strahm is coming up from Double-A to take his roster spot.

[Related: Updated Kansas City Royals Depth Chart]

JULY 30: Royals closer Wade Davis is flying back to Kansas City to undergo an MRI on his right elbow, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets that the MRI is to examine Davis’ forearm, though regardless of the specific portion of the arm that is being checked out, the test is still an ominous bit of news out of Kansas City. Casey Jones first tweeted that Davis was flying back to K.C. for an examination.

Davis, 30, has seen his name pop up frequently in trade rumors over the past week as the Royals have reportedly begun to consider selling veteran pieces prior to Monday’s non-waiver trade deadline. The uncertainty around his elbow now, however, would seem to all but eliminate the already minimal chances of Davis being moved. Even if the MRI yields positive results, it’d be difficult for a club to meet Kansas City’s exceptionally high asking price just a day or two after the MRI.

Reports over the past week have suggested that the Royals sought names like Lucas Giolito from the Nationals in trade talks or hoped to package Ian Kennedy and the remaining $62.5MM on his contract with Davis in trade talks. That would indicate a daunting asking price even if Davis were healthy and in top form on the mound, but now it looks that neither of those is the case. While Davis has a terrific 1.60 ERA and 21 saves on the season, he’s averaging just 8.6 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 after averaging 12.1 K/0 and 2.8 BB/9 from 2014-15 with Kansas City. His velocity, while still a strong 94.9 mph, is down a full mile per hour from last season as well.

Davis spent two weeks on the disabled list with a forearm strain earlier this month, making the news of an MRI all the more troubling for the Royals. The two-time All-Star, who has a 1.09 ERA in 173 regular season innings out of the Royals’  bullpen since 2014, is earning $8MM this year and has a $10MM club option for the 2017 season.

Royals Attempting To Package Ian Kennedy With Wade Davis In Trades

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The Royals are looking to capitalize on the demand for Wade Davis by attempting to package Ian Kennedy’s contract with him in trade talks, reports Yahoo’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). Passan notes that the Dodgers are one team with noted interest in Davis that could afford to take on the remainder of Kennedy’s enormous contract. Joel Sherman of the New York Post hears the same as Passan — that the Royals are trying to attach Kennedy’s onerous financial commitment to Davis in trade talks — though he gets the sense that the Dodgers wouldn’t be willing to take on that type of money to get their hands on Davis (links to Twitter).

While the asking price on Davis, in terms of prospects, has been said to be exceptionally high — Kansas City has reportedly targeted Lucas Giolito in exchange for him, and the Arodis Chapman package reportedly wouldn’t have been enough for Davis — absorbing Kennedy’s staggering contract would dramatically reduce the prospect capital required for any team to add Davis to its bullpen. Kennedy signed one of the most stunning and widely panned contracts of the offseason, securing a five-year $70MM contract that included an opt-out clause after the second year. He’s owed $2.7MM for the remainder of this season and a total of $65.2MM through the end of his deal in 2020. Kennedy could technically opt out after the 2017 season, in which case he’d “only” be owed $22.2MM through the end of next season, but based on his performance this year, that seems unlikely.

The 31-year-old Kennedy (32 in December) has pitched to a 4.41 ERA with 9.2 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a career-low 33.2 percent ground-ball rate in 2016. His 26 home runs allowed are the most in the league, and the dramatic spike he saw in his homer-to-flyball ratio last season hasn’t regressed whatsoever, still sitting at 17.3 percent. Given the increase of fly-balls he’s seen this year, that has made him even more homer-prone than he was in 2015 and resulted in a dismal 2.05 HR/9 rate. The Royals’ signing of Kennedy was a contributor to their franchise-record payroll this season, and the hefty financial commitment they made to him in the long term could impact the team’s ability to retain stars such as Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Davis — each of whom is a free agent following the 2017 season.

Of course, it could be a tough pill to swallow for the Dodgers to take an asset with as much trade value as Davis possesses and leverage him as a means of shedding payroll. The Royals could reasonably ask for a greater package than the one the Cubs surrendered for Chapman — Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford — given the extra year of control over Davis at a reasonable rate. However, the possibility also exists that Kansas City is trying to capitalize in fear of a potential decline or injury.

Davis has already missed time this season with a forearm strain, and while his ERA rests at an immaculate 1.60, the rest of his stats are far less encouraging. Davis’s strikeout rate has dipped from 13.6 K/9 in 2014 and 10.4 K/9 in to 2015 to a more mortal 8.6 K/9 in 2016. He’s also averaging four walks per nine innings this year — a noted increase over the 2.8 BB/9 he logged from 2014-15 — and has seen his fastball dip from an average of 95.8 mph in 2014-15 to 94.9 mph in 2016. Davis’ bottom-line results, of course, remain tantalizing, and his track record is among the best in the game. Nonetheless, there are at least some red flags that could give potential trade partners cause for concern, especially if they’re being asked to take on a contract as unappealing as Kennedy’s in conjunction with Davis himself.

Bullpen Rumors: Davis, Dodgers, Johnson, Hochevar, Nationals, Jays

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Royals closer Wade Davis is “someone who interests the Dodgers,” reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. The Dodgers, of course, have one of the best closers in all of baseball in the form of Kenley Jansen and actually rank first in the National League in bullpen ERA, but as Heyman notes, that didn’t stop the club from pursuing a massive bullpen upgrade this winter when they made a run at Aroldis Chapman. The Dodgers have been plagued all season by rotation injuries, and adding a reliever of Davis’ ilk would lessen the workload from a starting staff that is presently a bit of a question mark for Los Angeles. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is quite familiar with Davis, having drafted him while serving eas GM of the Rays. Davis, 30, has a 1.10 ERA in 32 2/3 innings this season and has a $10MM club option on his contract for the 2017 season. Theoretically, he could step into the ninth inning for the Dodgers next season if a trade does come to fruition, though it’d be a surprise if they didn’t at least attempt to re-sign Jansen.

A few more notes on the market for relievers…

  • The Braves are getting some hits on right-hander Jim Johnson, per ESPN’s Jayson Stark. With Lucas Harrell traded to the Rangers and little interest in names like Erick Aybar and Gordon Beckham to this point, Johnson could seemingly be the next Braves chip to move. He’s toting a pedestrian 4.58 ERA on the season but, as Stark points out, has pitched to a much improved 2.49 ERA since coming off the disabled list in early June. His strong 56 percent ground-ball rate and respectable marks of 7.6 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 lead ERA estimators to project a mark more in the mid-3.00s than his current figure, and Johnson’s $2.5MM salary figures to be appealing to clubs looking for an affordable middle relief arm.
  • Royals righty Luke Hochevar is a potential target for the Giants as San Francisco searches for relief upgrades, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Hochevar’s name hasn’t been out there much, but the mutual option on his contract means that he’ll almost certainly be a free agent at season’s end, as such options are rarely exercised. The former No. 1 overall pick has settled in as a quality bullpen arm in Kansas City and has recovered nicely from 2014 Tommy John surgery, as he owns a 3.86 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 36.1 percent ground-ball rate in 37 1/3 innings this year. While his velocity isn’t at its 95.5 mph peak from the 2013 season, he’s still averaging a strong 94.4 mph in 2016, and SIERA pegs him at a more favorable 3.16.
  • The walk-off loss suffered by the Nationals last night following a blown save from Jonathan Papelbon has only intensified their pursuit of a dynamic late-inning relief arm, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Washington has been tied to a number of bullpen arms as of late, including Davis, Andrew Miller and David Robertson. FOX’s Ken Rosenthal writes that the Nats considered Joe Ross, Lucas Giolito, Trea Turner, Reynaldo Lopez and Victor Robles untouchable in Chapman talks, so one can imagine that they’d be reluctant to part with any of those names in other trade talks (though Miller’s two years of control beyond 2016 might at least make such an idea more palatable).
  • Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told reporters, including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (Twitter link), that following yesterday’s acquisition of Joaquin Benoit, Toronto is “probably” more likely to pursue rotation help than additional bullpen depth.
  • ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets that given the high asking price for impact relievers and the desire of clubs like the Nationals and Giants to acquire such an arm, it makes sense for the Pirates to listen to offers on Mark Melancon. Left-hander Tony Watson could step into the ninth inning in his stead, and Melancon would be a highly sought-after commodity that could bring back a significant return for the Bucs. Earlier this morning, I discussed that very possibility with Josh Taylor of TribLive Radio in Pittsburgh (link), suggesting that the Pirates have the pitching depth to absorb the loss and could recoup greater value right now than through a potential qualifying offer, which seems unlikely from the budget-conscious Pirates anyhow. There’s yet to be any concrete word that Pittsburgh will market its closer, however.

Pitching Rumors: Chapman, Ervin, Hill, Hellickson, Ubaldo, Blue Jays

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Joel Sherman of the New York Post walks readers through the winding process the Cubs took to reach an agreement on an Aroldis Chapman trade with the Yankees. Per Sherman, the Cubs never wanted to pursue a rental pitcher but weren’t able to convince the Yankees to back down from their demand of Kyle Schwarber. Chicago then turned to the Royals, only to find the asking price on Wade Davis to be even higher than the asking price on Miller. The Cubs weren’t willing to deal from their big league roster to upgrade the ’pen but were willing to deal from their infield depth, parting with Class-A shortstop Gleyber Torres largely because of the presence of both Addison Russell and Javier Baez on the Major League roster. (Notably, Chicago also dealt from its first base depth in moving Dan Vogelbach for another left-handed reliever: Seattle’s Mike Montgomery.) Sherman adds that owner Hal Steinbrenner still wants to win in 2016 despite approving the Chapman swap, which calls into question whether the club would entertain even an overwhelming offer for Miller.

A few notes on the pitching market…

  • Twins interim GM Rob Antony has expressed an openness to moving Ervin Santana if approached with a strong offer, but he tells Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he’s not shopping the right-hander (Twitter link). “I’ll be honest,” said Antony, “I’m not calling anybody trying to move him.” As Antony explained yesterday in a Q&A with MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, his feeling is that he couldn’t sign a pitcher of Santana’s effectiveness to a two-year, $27MM contract with a third-year club option (the remaining commitment on Santana’s deal after 2016) on the free agent market this winter and, as such, believes there to be enough value that he needn’t shop Santana to other clubs. Antony again stated that he’s not under any type of ownership mandate to trim payroll, suggesting that shedding Santana’s salary may not be all that appealing.
  • Pitching is the Twins’ biggest priority on the trade market this summer, according to Antony (Twitter link via Bollinger). While the club is clearly open to trading veteran pieces to acquire young pitching help, Antony said he’s also talked to other teams that are considered to be sellers about acquiring big league pitching — presumably MLB arms that are controllable well beyond the 2016 season.
  • Athletics southpaw Rich Hill believes he’ll be able to pitch on Sunday after throwing 50 pitches with protective covering over his blistered left hand and another 20 without the cover, tweets John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. Hill has scarcely been able to pitch since late May due to a groin strain and this newfound blister issue, but he remains a highly intriguing rental option thanks to a 2.25 ERA with 10.7 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 50 percent ground-ball rate through 76 innings out of the Oakland rotation this season. That would obviously give rival scouts just one more opportunity to look at Hill before Monday’s non-waiver deadline, but that could prove crucial given his limited recent exposure.
  • Both the Rangers and Orioles were in attendance for Jeremy Hellickson’s scoreless six innings for the Phillies against the Marlins last night, per ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. (The Marlins — Hellickson’s opponents — also obviously had evaluators on hand and have long been linked to Hellickson.) There’s no clear frontrunner for Hellickson’s services, Crasnick notes, but it’s a “virtual lock” that he’ll change teams on or before next Monday.
  • The Padres asked the Orioles to include minor league left-hander Garrett Cleavinger and minor legaue righty Jhon Peluffo in the trade that would’ve sent Ubaldo Jimenez to San Diego in exchange for Melvin Upton Jr., according to MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko (on Twitter). However, FOX’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that the talks broke down over finances, and Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller adds (also via Twitter) that owner Peter Angelos had a late change of heart and altered the nearly agreed-upon deal — specifically the amount of money that would have changed hands. The Padres ultimately shifted course and sent Upton to the Blue Jays.
  • Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins says he’s not done making moves after swooping in and acquiring Upton earlier this morning, via Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (links to Nicholson–Smith on Twitter). Atkins’ comments seemingly focused on pitching upgrades, with the GM indicating that the market for relief help is more robust than the market for starters at present. Atkins says he’s talked with all 29 other clubs on multiple occasions and is now focused on a smaller group of teams that could potentially upgrade his pitching staff. Asked specifically about the Padres — the Jays have been linked multiple times to Andrew Cashner, who tossed a quality start against them tonight — Atkins replied, “They have interesting pitching as well.”

Latest On Nationals’ Search For Late-Inning Reliever

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The Nationals were in the mix for Aroldis Chapman right up until the end of the Yankees’ negotiations with the Cubs, reports ESPN’s Jayson Stark, and general manager Mike Rizzo and his staff are still on the hunt for a relief ace that could anchor the back of the bullpen and provide an upgrade over Jonathan Papelbon. Citing rival clubs that have spoken with the Nationals, Stark reports that Andrew Miller, Wade Davis and David Robertson are all on the radar for the Nats.

The asking price on Miller and Davis is said to be otherworldly, of course, as evidenced by a recent report from Yahoo’s Jeff Passan which stated that the Royals kicked around Lucas Giolito’s name when internally discussing the notion of trading Davis. Beyond that, Stark reported yesterday that the package sent from the Cubs to the Yankees in exchange for Chapman — Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford — wouldn’t have pried Davis away from Kansas City. The price on Miller, as has been the case since discussions about potentially trading him surfaced back in May, is exceptionally high. The Yankees were said to be fixated on Kyle Schwarber in talks pertaining to Miller, and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports again emphasizes that the Yankees would want MLB-ready talent from the Nationals in exchange for Miller, suggesting that names like Giolito and Joe Ross could surface in talks.

According to Stark, the Nationals aren’t willing to part with Giolito, Trea Turner or Reynaldo Lopez in their quest to upgrade the bullpen, which makes the addition of either Miller or Davis seem decidedly unlikely. Robertson, on the other hand, would perhaps be another story given the facts that he’s owed roughly $29.15MM through the end of his contract and hasn’t seen his results with the White Sox match up with his otherwise pristine track record.

Robertson has managed an excellent strikeout rate both this year and last, and his 2016 ground-ball rate of 46.7 percent is the second-best of his career. However, he’s sporting a troublesome 4.46 ERA with the Sox this season and has a 3.82 mark since signing with the team. Robertson has struggled with location, leading to an increase in walks (4.7 BB/9) and home runs (1.3 HR/9, 14.3 percent homer-to-flyball ratio) in 40 1/3 innings this year. Optimists can point to the fact that 16 of the 20 runs yielded by Robertson since Opening Day have come across just four disastrous outings and he’s been otherwise excellent, but the bottom-line results haven’t been as consistent as the ChiSox would hope.

Beyond the prospects the Nationals would have to surrender, finances also have to factor into the equation. Washington reportedly struggled to attract free agents this offseason because the club had to factor deferred money into nearly all of its offers, in part due to the longstanding dispute with the Orioles over the shared MASN television network rights fees. (The Nats also convinced Papelbon to take a slightly lesser 2016 salary than his club option called for in exchange for exercising it immediately upon completion of last summer’s trade.) Robertson’s salary is the most prohibitive, but Davis is slated to earn $10MM next season via a club option, and Miller is owed $9MM in each of the next two seasons. None of the three is an insurmountable sum, but the finances involved with each reliever in question add another layer to the calculus of negotiating a trade.

AL Deadline Notes: Aroldis, Miller, Red Sox, Buchholz, Royals, Davis

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Dealing away closer Aroldis Chapman was “an easy call” and “the right call,” GM Brian Cashman told reporters including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. The club was able to “trade from an area of strength” and receive quality assets for a short-term piece, he emphasized, saying that “the total package was something that we targeted and strived to get.” The Yankees did explore extension possibilities with Chapman’s camp in early June, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. Obviously that did not gain much traction, but the club could still look to bring back the high-powered reliever when he hits the open market this fall, as Cashman acknowledged in his comments. Interestingly, the veteran executive also stressed that parting with its closer didn’t mean that the club was fully abandoning hopes of contention this year, as Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. With the club still sitting in reasonable position, that could lead to an interesting couple of days in the run-up to August 1st.

Here’s more out of New York and the rest of the American League:

  • It remains unclear whether the Yankees will really entertain the idea of trading Andrew Miller now that Chapman is gone, but ESPN.com’s Buster Olney argues (Insider link) that the Indians should force the issue. Cleveland, he suggests, needs to take advantage of its opportunity. While it would be painful to give up its best pre-MLB talent, the club might hope to deal away Miller’s remaining two years of contract control over the winter, hopefully recouping a decent portion of the value it would take to get him right now.
  • Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski suggested today that the action is heating up, but that his team isn’t close to striking any major new deals, as Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter links.) Boston’s chief baseball decisionmaker said that he has fielded five new trade proposals today alone, with other organizations seemingly looking to make off with some of the team’s prime prospect assets. But while ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark cited rivals as suggesting that the Sox were aiming to do “something big,” via Twitter, Dombrowski said that the team doesn’t feel pressure to pull off another move.
  • One area that the Red Sox have some obvious room for improvement is the bullpen, particularly with Koji Uehara looking like a major question mark down the stretch and Craig Kimbrel still working his way back. But with Kimbrel seemingly progressing well, Dombrowski suggested that the organization doesn’t feel compelled to add relief help, as Abraham further tweets.
  • Meanwhile, though Red Sox righty Clay Buchholz isn’t filling much of a present role, Dombrowski says that he’s still an important part of the team’s rotation depth, as Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com reports. With Dombrowski also saying he is impressed with the way Buchholz is throwing the ball, it doesn’t seem as if there’s any momentum towards a deal involving the veteran.
  • Royals GM Dayton Moore discussed his team’s uncertain deadline stance, as Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports. While acknowledging K.C.’s tough spot, and the need to listen to offers, Moore suggested that it’s still possible that the club won’t act as a seller. “We’ll evaluate what a team is potentially offering,” Moore said. “We’re not going to just dismember our team because players are free agents.”
  • Of course, the Royals’ best players aren’t set to hit the open market for at least another season after this one, and that seems to have a major role in the team’s approach. As Dodd further tweets, Moore emphasized that the club would keep the 2017 season firmly in mind in any deadline dealing. It’s no surprise, then, that Kansas City suggested to one Wade Davis suitor that the package which landed Chapman wouldn’t have sufficed for the Royals’ closer, as Stark tweets. He comes with an additional season of control, raising both his market value and his function for his current team.
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