The Padres have signed Ronny Cedeno to a minor league deal, according to Corey Brock of MLB.com (via Twitter). Cedeno was released by the Astros on Sunday along with Carlos Pena.
The shortstop was cut loose by Houston after batting just .220/.260/.298 in 51 games. His departure from Houston cleared the way for the promotion of new starting shorstop Jonathan Villar. Cedeno signed with the Astros in March after being released by the Cardinals.
As we continue to recap the July 2013 trade period, the focus shifts to the National League. We'll start things off with the NL West:
Diamondbacks
Dodgers
Giants
Padres
Rockies
Synopsis
With crickets chirping all around baseball, the NL West certainly played its part in keeping down the trade volume. Most of the above-listed deals involved minor leaguers.
Of course, the Diamondbacks and Padres did pull off one of this year's most interesting swaps. On its face, the Ian Kennedy trade seems backwards, with second-place Arizona sending fading San Diego an established (albeit struggling) starter to acquire a LOOGY, an underwhelming relief prospect, and a competitive balance pick. The deal starts to make more sense when you consider the D-backs' starting depth and Kennedy's underperformance and rising arbitration salary. Nevertheless, as MLBTR's Tim Dierkes explained earlier today, Kennedy is a 28-year-old, cost-controlled, former Cy Young-contending starter who still possesses substantial upside. While Thatcher promises to deliver some value out of the Arizona pen, the most fascinating aspect of this deal will be watching to see whether Kennedy makes the Diamondbacks look foolish for giving up on him over the coming seasons.
On the seller side of the ledger, the division was notable for the absence of deals. The Giants, along with the above-noted Padres, both had various pieces that seemed ticketed for more promising clubs. With the Pads opting to hold onto reliever Luke Gregerson, and the Giants failing to deal any of their potential chips (such as pending free agents Javier Lopez, Tim Lincecum, and Hunter Pence), there was no influx of young talent to the bottom of the standings. Likewise, the Rockies opted to pick up a few minor pieces earlier in the month, but refrained from any major moves in either direction.
In large part, the inaction of these clubs makes sense. The Giants are fresh off of a World Series victory and have the pieces to put together an above-average team next year. The club apparently intends to bring back Javier Lopez and make qualifying offers to Lincecum and Pence. It is understandable that San Francisco would choose to keep a competitive roster together in the meantime while making those plans for the future.
In a different way, the Padres and Rockies had valid reasons to stand pat. Neither is so far out of the picture that a late run is out of the question. More importantly, both clubs have their share of young, big league talent that could continue to emerge in the near future. The pieces most recently discussed as trade possibilities from these teams — players like the Padres' Gregerson and Carlos Quentin, and the Rockies' Michael Cuddyer and Josh Outman — are all valuable big leaguers that are under team control beyond this season. If these clubs hope to contend over the next two seasons, it made sense to retain these assets. Moreover, none seemed likely to bring back anything close to a sure prospect.
Wait, did we forget a team? After a seemingly endless run of major moves, even the Dodgers were relatively quiet this year. Of course, Los Angeles did manage to make the most significant addition among the division contenders when it picked up Nolasco from the Marlins earlier this month. With the addition of Nolasco and the upswing in the team's overall health and performance, there were no glaring needs to address on deadline day. As it turned out, the biggest move the Dodgers made in the final run-up to the deadline was signing former closer Brian Wilson.
The Padres have bolstered their rotation for the present and future, acquiring righty Ian Kennedy from the division rival Diamondbacks for lefty reliever Joe Thatcher, Double-A reliever Matt Stites, and a compensation round B draft pick, according to a tweet from MLB.com's Corey Brock. It's a surprisingly light haul for Kennedy, a 28-year-old who is under team control through 2015 as an arbitration eligible player.
Drafted 21st overall by the Yankees in '06, Kennedy joined Arizona in the December 2009 three-team trade with the Yanks and Tigers, at a time when Josh Byrnes was the Diamondbacks' GM. Byrnes was fired the following year and later landed the GM job in San Diego, while Kevin Towers took over for Arizona. Clearly, Byrnes has an affinity for Kennedy, who tossed 624 1/3 regular season innings from 2010-12 with a 3.55 ERA and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting back in 2011. Kennedy's walk rate worsened this year, en route to a 5.23 ERA in 124 frames. His skills suggest something closer to 4.00 moving forward. As a fly-ball pitcher, Kennedy will likely benefit tremendously from leaving the hitter-friendly Chase Field to a more pitcher-friendly stadium in Petco Park.
Thatcher is a useful left-handed specialist who joined the Padres in a July 2007 trade brokered by Towers. The 31-year-old has a 2.10 ERA, 8.7 K/9, 1.2 BB/9, 0.90 HR/9, and 42.4% groundball rate in 30 innings this year. He's faced 70 lefty batters and held them to a .212/.257/.231 line. Earning $1.35MM this year, Thatcher is under team control through 2014 as an arbitration eligible player.
Stites, a 23-year-old reliever, has a 2.08 ERA, 8.8 K/9, 1.4 BB/9, and 1.04 HR/9 in 52 Double-A innings this year. Prior to the season Baseball America ranked the 5'11" Stites 27th among Padres prospects.
To clear space on the 40-man roster following the trade, the D'Backs have outrighted Nate Adcock to Triple-A Reno, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (on Twitter).
The draft pick headed to the D'Backs is San Diego's competitive balance lottery pick, which is the first pick of Comp Round B (between the second and third rounds). As such, it will likely fall in the 70 to 75 range; Comp Round B consisted of picks 69 to 73 in this year's draft. Those picks carried assigned values of between $808K and $759K, according to Baseball America.
Towers and the Diamondbacks clearly thought Kennedy to be expendable with Trevor Cahill and Brandon McCarthy on the mend and Archie Bradley in the minor leagues. Kennedy scored a near-record $4.265MM salary for 2013, his first arbitration year. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a mild raise to the $5.9MM range for 2014, so there's a financial element to the trade as well. Still, it seems to be an underwhelming return for a pitcher with Kennedy's upside, even in a down season.
As shown in MLBTR's Transaction Tracker, Towers and Byrnes have connected on a pair of past deals for Tony Clark and Scott Hairston back in 2008 and 2007, respectively.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The latest on the Padres, who host the Reds today 20 minutes prior to the trade deadline…
Earlier Updates
28-year-old Diamondbacks righty Ian Kennedy is having an off year, but he is under team control through 2015 as an arbitration eligible player. The latest:
Earlier Updates
12:33am: Cruz has not decided whether he will serve his suspension or appeal it, according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter).
7:17pm: Major League Baseball is preparing 50-game suspensions for Biogenesis-linked players who have not been disciplined in the past, writes Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Players such as Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta, Everth Cabrera, Jesus Montero and Francisco Cervelli are among those facing these 50-game suspensions, as are minor leaguers Fernando Martinez, Cesar Puello and Fautino de los Santos. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports writes that the vast majority of players connected to these 50-game suspensions — including playoff contenders Cruz and Peralta — are believed to be willing to accept the punishment rather than file appeals. Doing so will allow suspended players to play toward the end of September and into the playoffs, though their teams would be at a significant disadvantage down the stretch
Passan also tweets that MLB has threatened to double the penalty for players who do not cooperate with the suspensions, making cooperation a much more appealing option. Additionally, he adds that players who lied during the investigation could receive an additional 15 games on their suspensions, similar to Ryan Braun's case (Twitter link).
Bartolo Colon, Melky Cabrera and Yasmani Grandal are not likely to receive additional suspensions, having already served 50-game bans, according to Heyman. Both Heyman and Passan agree that Alex Rodriguez remains firm in his refusal to cooperate with a deal, as was reported earlier today. MLB would like Rodriguez to serve a suspension through the 2014 season but could pursue a lifetime ban if he does not cooperate.
Less than one day remains until the trade deadline, and relievers have been the most moved commodity in recent days, with Scott Downs, Jose Veras, Jesse Crain and Marc Rzepczynski all changing teams. Here's more on the relief market…
5:53pm: Arizona's main motivation in moving Kennedy would be to free up some cash to accommodate Jake Peavy's contract, writes Danny Knobler of CBS Sports (which meshes with reports from earlier today). Jack Magruder of FOX Sports Arizona was told by an Angels source that there's no match for Kennedy a few days ago, though he notes how quickly that line of thinking can change (Twitter link).
MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez spoke with a scout from an NL West team who said that Kennedy's stuff is still good. The Halos like Kennedy as a buy-low candidate, according to Gonzalez.
It seems odd that the Diamondbacks would be motivated to move Kennedy's remaining $1.4MM, though they could be focusing more on ways to fit Peavy's 2014 salary into the payroll. Despite his poor season, Kennedy would earn a raise on his $4.27MM salary next year, so clearing him from the books would be a more significant benefit in that sense. Arizona is also reportedly shopping Jason Kubel, who is owed roughly $2.7MM for the remainder of the season.
4:49pm: Earlier today, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports wrote that the Angels could be interested in landing D'Backs right-hander Ian Kennedy, as Halos GM Jerry Dipoto is a former Diamondbacks executive who is very familiar with Kennedy. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports now tweets that the Angels are "hopeful" of landing Kennedy, whom the D'Backs have been shopping recently. Steve Gilbert of MLB.com adds that the Padres are also interested in Kennedy (Twitter link), and Buster Olney of ESPN lists the Cubs as a potential landing place as well (on Twitter).
Kennedy, 28, is a buy-low candidate in the midst of his worst full season at the Major League level. Through 119 innings for the D'Backs, he has a 5.22 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 36.2 percent ground-ball rate. Each of those represents the worst full-season mark of Kennedy's career. Kennedy is owed roughly $1.4MM over the remainder of the season and can be controlled through 2015 as an arbitration-eligible player.
The Padres have about a 25 percent chance of making a significant trade deadline deal, a person familiar with their talks tells ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. Crasnick says the Padres' big-picture ideas haven't materialized, so they're focused on moving bullpen pieces such as Luke Gregerson and Joe Thatcher. The Tigers are open to adding another reliever even after picking up Jose Veras this morning, tweets Danny Knobler of CBS Sports, but they felt the price for Gregerson was prohibitive.
The Padres aren't likely to move third baseman Chase Headley, left fielder Carlos Quentin, or closer Huston Street, reports MLB.com's Corey Brock. If they do make a trade, it appears the focus will be on acquiring starting pitching.
3:10pm: MLB.com's Corey Brock noted on Twitter that Quentin has a full no-trade clause as part of the contract extension he signed last July.
12:05pm: The Orioles are giving thought to trading for a bat and one of the players that the club has talked about internally is Carlos Quentin of the Padres, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com. The slugger is signed through 2015 for roughly $24MM in total.
Last night we learned that the Orioles could have more payroll flexibility than they've been letting on and are considering making a major splash before this week's deadline. That significant move could be making a play for a top available starter like Jake Peavy or bolstering the offense with someone like Quentin or Justin Morneau. However, it's not a given that San Diego will part with Quentin as a source told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports last week that they don't plan to trade the veteran.
Quentin, 31 in August, is hitting .278/.366/.500 with 13 homers through 80 games this season. For his career, the two-time All-Star owns a .255/.351/.492 slash line across eight seasons with the White Sox, Diamondbacks, and Padres.
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