Trade Chatter: Archer, Rockies, O’s, Astros, Steckenrider, D-backs, Kela
With the Padres‘ lengthy rebuilding moving ever closer to its conclusion, the team has been inquiring about controllable MLB pieces to add to its rotation. They’ve already been tied to Noah Syndergaard on the rumor mill, and they reportedly asked the Yankees about Miguel Andujar during Brad Hand talks. Adding to that line of thinking, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes today (subscription required) that an executive that is with neither the Padres nor the Rays tells him that San Diego is pursuing a Chris Archer trade. Rosenthal is careful to stress that neither the Friars nor the Rays confirmed as much, though the two sides have had at least some level of discussions regarding Archer, he notes. As Rosenthal explores at length, however, there are myriad roadblocks to a deal.
Whether San Diego’s interest in Archer is serious or more along the lines of due diligence, it’s an interesting look at the calculus both the Padres and Rays need to consider when weighing future-oriented moves. And it’s certainly another notable data point suggesting that Padres GM A.J. Preller and his staff are beginning to look at improving the big league roster with pieces that could be controlled beyond the 2020 season.
Some more trade talk from around the league…
- In addition to the Rockies‘ previously reported interest in Zach Britton, Colorado has also asked the Orioles about right-handers Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). There’s no momentum in talks regarding Bundy and Gausman, however, Morosi adds. To this point, it’s not at all clear whether the O’s would even consider moving Gausman (controlled through 2020) or Bundy (through 2021). There’s little reason for the Orioles not to seriously entertain offers, from my vantage point, as they’re not likely to contend in either 2019 or 2020 with the Yankees and Red Sox both poised for long-term success. Obviously, that’s not to say they should simply take the best offer presented before July 31, but the Orioles should be amenable to moving just about anyone on the roster for a strong enough return.
- The Athletic’s Jayson Stark cites execs from teams that have spoken with the Astros in reporting (via Twitter) that Houston has been “adamant” about hanging onto its very top tier of prospects in trade talks (e.g. Forrest Whitley, Yordan Alvarez). The Astros’ farm system is plenty deep, of course, and it stands to reason that any of the rental targets they’re pursuing — they’ve been oft-linked to Zach Britton, for instance — would come with a lower price tag than that anyhow.
- The Marlins‘ ask on its controllable relievers appears to be quite high, with Morosi tweeting that Miami indicated to the Red Sox that Jay Groome or Michael Chavis alone would not be enough to land Drew Steckenrider. (Morosi doesn’t suggest that either was ever offered up by the Red Sox — only that the Marlins wouldn’t have considered a one-for-one swap in either case.) While Groome and Chavis are generally regarded as Boston’s top two prospects, Groome underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this summer. Chavis, meanwhile, missed the first 80 games of the season due to a PED suspension and has only logged 10 games since being activated.
- Morosi also tweets that the Diamondbacks have shown interest in Rangers relievers Keone Kela and Jose Leclerc. There’s no indication that talks between the two sides are serious, but the Rangers are reportedly open to moving Kela, who is controlled through the 2020 season. The 25-year-old is currently sporting a 3.18 ERA with 10.9 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 through 34 innings of work and has a 2.97 ERA with better than 11 K/9 dating back to 2017. Leclerc would be tougher to pry away, as he’s controlled for another four seasons beyond the current campaign and currently boasts a 2.06 ERA with a 51-to-18 K/BB ratio through 35 innings.
Indians Claim Johnny Field
The Indians have claimed outfielder Johnny Field off waivers from the Rays, per club announcements. He had been designated for assignment recently.
Field will begin his tenure in the Cleveland organization on optional assignment at Triple-A. If he holds onto a 40-man spot through the trade deadline, he could become an option for an Indians team that has clear needs in the outfield. Of course, he’s also a candidate to be sent back on waivers and stashed if he clears.
The 26-year-old Field received his first taste of the big leagues this year, but struggled to a .21/.253/.373 batting line over 179 trips to the dish. But he has shown quite a bit better in the upper minors, unsurprisingly. He’s a .756 OPS hitter in 805 Triple-A plate appearances and carries a .769 OPS in 697 Double-A plate appearances. While he doesn’t jump off the page in any area, Field is a solid all-around prospect who can play all over the outfield.
Trade Chatter: Braves, Eovaldi, Indians, Mets, Harvey, Moose
Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos suggested today that he’s not looking only to make a minor addition or two. Rather, as Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM tweets, the Atlanta executive says his club “can afford to add a starter and reliever and a bat.” And the organization won’t just be considering adding supplemental temporary pieces; rather, per Anthopolous, “we are looking for acquisitions on players we can control rather than rentals.” Needless to say, those comments tend to expand the conceivable array of possibilities for the Braves. With a healthy array of prospects available to deal from, the Braves could certainly make a run at a player who’d be viewed as a major present and future asset.
Here’s more trade chatter from the day …
- MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand pegs the Cubs as a possible Nathan Eovaldi suitor. It’s easy to see the connection: the Rays right-hander holds out some real promise of being a weapon down the stretch, but his injury history and thin recent track record will likely limit the return the Tampa Bay organization can achieve. Meanwhile, the Cubs are arguably well-positioned to take a risk on a dynamic arm, as they have a decent array of at-least serviceable hurlers already on hand and also perhaps lack the upper-level prospect capital to chase down a more valuable commodity.
- Unsurprisingly, Feinsand further reports, the Indians are working hard to make an outfield addition. The club would prefer a player that’s capable of playing both center and right field, he notes. Perhaps the slate of targets depends most of all upon the degree to which the club feels it needs innings up the middle. Certainly, there are quite a few outfield possibilities listed among MLBTR’s top 75 trade deadline candidates. Among them, though, only a few really have significant experience in center. And the most obvious candidates that do — Curtis Granderson and Adam Jones — perhaps aren’t optimal up-the-middle defenders at this stage. (That’s not to say that either of those two names is currently of interest to Cleveland, though the organization has previously been tied to Jones.)
- While the focus is on the pitching staff, the Mets are getting some hits on mid-season acquisitions Jose Bautista and Devin Mesoraco, per Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). Both players are headed for the open market at season’s end, though they are in different contractual situations otherwise. Bautista is playing for the league minimum, while the Mets owe Mesoraco some real cash. (Per reports at the time Mesoraco was acquired for Matt Harvey, the Reds sent money sufficient to pay down the difference in the two players’ salaries, suggesting that the Mets still are responsible for the balance of a $5.6MM annual salary.) It seems reasonable to anticipate that both players will be moved. Since joining the Mets, Bautista has produced a strong .235/.396/.432 batting line and Mesoraco has sported a league-average bat while lining up behind the dish.
- Speaking of Harvey, he’s also a potential trade chip after a mostly sturdy showing thus far with the Reds. ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick runs down the latest on his market, noting that the Mariners and Brewers have poked around a bit on the former ace. Both teams, presumably, see Harvey as a potential upgrade over internal options, though certainly there’s not much to commend him as a front-line hurler at this stage. Through 68 frames in Cincinnati, Harvey is carrying a mid-nineties heater. But he still hasn’t rebounded in the swinging-strike department and owns only a 4.50 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 2.0 B/9.
- The Brewers are evidently open to being rather creative, as MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that they have actually considered the idea of bumping Travis Shaw to second base to facilitate the acquisition of Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas. That’s a bit of an eyebrow-raising concept at first glance, given that Shaw — who’s listed at 6’4 and 230 pounds — has never lined up at second base as a professional. While Moustakas figures to help out some contending organization, it’s not as if he’s a unique piece on the market. And there are quite a few accomplished hitters available who have experience up the middle.
Rays Place Blake Snell On Disabled List
The Rays announced Monday that they’ve placed top starter Blake Snell on the disabled list due to left shoulder fatigue. He’s already undergone an MRI and been cleared of any structural damage, the team added. Righty Chih-Wei Hu is up from Triple-A Durham to take his spot on the roster.
The absence of any structural damage is obviously a major sigh of relief for the organization and fans alike, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that Snell looks to be in line for only a minimal DL stint. In the short-term, Snell’s absence and the likely trade of right-hander Nathan Eovaldi within the next eight days will further change the composition of what has already been baseball’s most unique pitching staff in 2018.
With Snell out, the Rays will lean on Eovaldi and Chris Archer in traditional starting roles. As an impending free agent, though, Eovaldi is all but assured of changing teams before the non-waiver trade deadline, at which point Archer will be the lone arm that’s been utilized as a starter this season. Ryan Yarbrough is still fairly stretched out, having made a four-inning appearance just this past weekend, and he could be asked to soak up more innings as the state of the Rays’ roster changes.
The Rays have been utilizing Ryne Stanek in their newly created “opener” role with a great amount of success, though they’ve had a fairly wide cast of relievers start games on the remainder of the team’s “bullpen days” over the course of the season. Sergio Romo, Wilmer Font, Matt Andriese and Andrew Kittredge have all started multiple times this season, and rookie Hunter Wood is slated to make his second start in that unorthodox role later tonight.
Tampa Bay does have both Jake Faria and Yonny Chirinos on hand in the minors as options to come up and step into a more traditional rotation role, although at this point it’s difficult to forecast exactly how the organization will proceed with its pitching staff in an increasingly experimental season. To the Rays’ credit, while they’ve taken their share of flak for so aggressively moving away from conventional pitching roles, the team sits at 50-49 in arguably the toughest (or at least the most top-heavy) division in all of Major League Baseball.
Passan’s Latest: Mets, deGrom, Rays, Ervin, Drury, Choo, Healy
Yahoo’s Jeff Passan has a landslide of trade chatter in his latest “10 Degrees” column, but he first kicks off with a look at what he terms “new depths of dysfunction” among the Mets‘ front office and ownership. Passan echoes previous reports which have suggested that COO Jeff Wilpon is as caught up with whether the cross-town Yankees win or lose as he is with his own team’s success, and he also explores the startling lack of organizational communication that became increasingly apparent with this weekend’s Yoenis Cespedes debacle.
Passan also notes that a GM from another team and another exec from a second team have both wondered to him whether Wilpon is so concerned with the public perception of his team that he’d push for a trade of Jacob deGrom in an effort to engender some positive P.R. among a fanbase that has clamored for a rebuild. Most still expect the Mets to hang onto both deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, he adds, but even the notion that some teams feel Mets ownership could plausibly be leveraged or taken advantage of in that manner has to be unsettling for Mets fans.
Some more highlights from a column that anyone who follows the trade market should check out in its entirety…
- The Rays aren’t planning to operate as a strict buyer or seller over the next eight days, Passan writes. Tampa Bay is marketing rental pieces like right-hander Nathan Eovaldi and injured catcher Wilson Ramos to other clubs but is also willing to part with prospects to acquire affordable, controllable pieces that can be retained for years to come. Passan spoke to someone familiar with the Rays’ talks surrounding Chris Archer who said he’d be “completely stunned” if Archer were actually traded this summer given the three reasonably priced years of control he has remaining on his contract.
- While Ervin Santana hasn’t pitched in the Majors this season after undergoing surgery to repair a tendon in his right middle finger this February, scouts are planning to closely watch the Twins right-hander’s 2018 debut this week, Passan notes. Santana likely only has enough time to make a pair of starts before the non-waiver deadline, and that may or may not be enough to convince a team of his ability to help down the stretch. But he’s also owed the balance of a $14MM salary this season — about $5.2MM through season’s end — which could allow him to clear waivers in early August and emerge as a trade candidate next month.
- The Yankees have been tied to multiple rentals this summer, but they’ve also been inquiring on controllable relief arms and, in some cases, showing a willingness to include Brandon Drury in those trade talks. Drury was added as a depth piece late in the offseason and opened the year as the Yankees’ third baseman, but the near-immediate success of Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar made him relatively superfluous in the season’s early stages. Drury has appeared in just 16 games for the Yankees this season despite the fact that he’d established himself as a solid contributor at the big league level over the past two years with the Diamondbacks.
- The Rangers are willing to pay down a “significant” portion of Shin-Soo Choo‘s remaining contract — he’s still guaranteed about $7.4MM through the end of 2018 plus $21MM in each of the next two seasons — but his lack of defensive value is a roadblock to a deal. Choo fits best on an AL club where he can serve as a designated hitter, but there’s no American League contender with much of an opening, and teams in both leagues would likely be reluctant to use him in the outfield.
- A bit more surprisingly, Passan reports that the Royals are “poking around” on Mariners first baseman Ryon Healy in case he’s deemed redundant once Robinson Cano returns from his 80-game suspension. The Mariners have already expressed a desire to keep Dee Gordon at second base, which could push Cano to first base once he returns. That’d take away at-bats from Healy, who is showing impressive power but dismal on-base skills, with a .244/.274/.466 and 20 homers through 325 plate appearances. Healy is controlled through the 2022 season and won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season, so while the Royals are obviously a rebuilding club, he could be a long-term piece for them if they’re able to boost his on-base percentage to a passable level.
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/22/18
The latest minor moves from around baseball…
- Braves utilityman Danny Santana has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett, per Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Braves designated Santana on Thursday, less than a month after they selected his contract. The 27-year-old Santana has hit .279/.300/.539 with 11 home runs in 232 Triple-A plate appearances this season, but he has only managed a .179/.281/.286 line in 32 major league PAs. Santana was similarly woeful between Minnesota and Atlanta last year, when he batted .202/.243/.357 in 178 attempts.
- The Nationals announced that they’ve reinstated reliever Koda Glover from the 60-day disabled list and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse. The move gives the Nationals a full 40-man roster, and it puts Glover in better position to return to the majors in the near future. Glover, who served as Washington’s closer for some of last season, combined for 39 innings from 2016-17 and registered a 5.08 ERA/3.72 FIP with 7.62 K/9 and 2.54 BB/9. The hard-throwing 25-year-old hasn’t pitched in the majors this season on account of right shoulder issues, though he could be up soon, Dan Kolko of MASN tweets.
- Rays right-hander Ryan Weber cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Durham, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Weber, whom the Rays designated July 14, has already been outrighted twice this season. The 27-year-old has spent the majority of the campaign in Durham, where he has recorded a sterling 2.05 ERA with 6.27 K/9, 2.05 BB/9 and a 51.9 percent groundball rate in 74 2/3 innings. The St. Petersburg native has scuffled with his hometown club, however, as he has yielded three earned runs on five hits and two walks (one strikeout) over a small sample of 5 1/3 frames.
- The White Sox have released outfielder Mason Robbins, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets. Robbins, 25, had been with the organization since it selected him in the 25th round of the 2014 draft. He only recorded a .688 OPS during his time in Chicago’s system and was even poorer this year as a member of its Triple-A team, with which he batted .265/.289/.367 in 226 plate appearances.
Trade Rumors: Abreu, Brewers, BoSox, Twins, Royals, Dodgers, Brach, Treinen
As an established veteran on a cellar-dwelling team, White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu has come up often as a speculative trade candidate, but the club’s “strongly inclined” to retain him, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. The 31-year-old hasn’t exactly boosted his trade value this season, having hit a career-worst .250/.312/.435 (101 wRC+, compared to 139 from 2014-17) and accounted for a replacement-level WAR across 407 plate appearances. Regardless of whether the White Sox keep Abreu, he’s slated to go through arbitration once more over the winter. In the meantime, he’s on a $13MM salary this season.
More trade-related items as the countdown to the July 31 deadline continues…
- The Brewers’ interest in Royals second baseman/outfielder Whit Merrifield has been known for a while, and Robert Murray of The Athletic (subscription required) explores the possibility of Milwaukee acquiring him. The Brewers haven’t pursued Merrifield as aggressively as they did during the winter, according to Murray, who hears he’d be rather expensive to pry out of Kansas City. Landing Merrifield would require “three higher-end prospects, at least,” an executive told Murray. Milwaukee happens to have a quality farm system, though it’s unlikely to trade its best prospect – second baseman Keston Hiura – suggests Murray, who goes on to run down farmhands the team could deal for Merrifield. The 29-year-old Merrifield has upped his stock during a terrific season in which he has hit .305/.375/.429 with five home runs and 17 steals through 412 PAs. Adding to his appeal, Merrifield’s on a near-minimum salary this season and won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 campaign.
- The Red Sox sent a high-level executive, senior vice president of baseball operations Frank Wren, to scout the Royals–Twins game on Friday, per Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press. It’s unclear which players Wren focused on, though it’s worth pointing out that Boston has shown reported interest in both Merrifield and Royals teammate Mike Moustakas. And with the Twins likely to sell at the deadline, Buster Olney of ESPN doesn’t rule out the Red Sox pursuing second baseman Brian Dozier.
- Along with Baltimore’s closer, Zach Britton, the reliever-needy Dodgers are interested in Orioles setup man Brad Brach, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. The Dodgers have also scouted the Marlins and Rays and “monitored” Athletics closer Blake Treinen, Shaikin adds, though it seems improbable he’ll go anywhere with the A’s making a major push for a playoff spot. Conversely, as a pending free agent on a rebuilding team, the 32-year-old Brach is a good bet to end up in another uniform in the coming weeks. The problem for Baltimore is that Brach is in the midst of his least effective season in a while, with a 4.34 ERA/3.61 FIP and a 4.34 BB/9 in 37 1/3 innings. On the positive side, Brach has struck out upward of nine hitters per nine and generated swinging strikes at a solid clip (13.2 percent).
Latest On Chris Archer
JULY 21: There is “significant interest” in Archer, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (video link), though he doesn’t specify which teams are pursuing him. Regardless, there’s no guarantee a trade will happen, as Rosenthal says the pitcher “would almost certainly need to show” a return to form in his final two pre-deadline starts for a deal to occur.
JULY 20: Rays starter Chris Archer has been one of the most consistently discussed potential trade chips in baseball for several years, yet he has stayed in Tampa Bay even as many rotation mates have been traded away. Now, though, it could finally be time for a deal to go down, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.
Archer, who turns 30 later this season, expressed a desire to “experience winning” in comments to Topkin. Though Archer chose his words carefully and hardly issued anything approaching a trade demand, the right-hander perhaps at least hinted that it might be best for the sides to part ways — depending, at least, upon the Tampa Bay organization’s intentions. As he put it:
“If I’m going to be here. I want the process of not going to the playoffs to be expedited. … I’ve seen the transition. I’m not saying I’m not happy, but I know that we are still transitioning. And the faster we can speed that up and get back to the 2008 through ’13, ’14 days, the better.”
Ratcheting up the contention timeline hardly appears to be the present priority for a Rays front office that has been hard at work moving large contracts and adding future-oriented assets. While the team’s solid play has been quite a pleasant surprise, the postseason seems out of reach in a monumentally stratified American League.
It came as no great surprise, then, when the Rays shipped out Alex Colome and Denard Span earlier in the season. And the club’s focus at the trade deadline figures to be on finding homes for a few pending free agents while also weighing bigger potential swaps. With the Rays having perhaps already placed emergent starter Blake Snell out of reach, the attention seems likely to end up on Archer.
To be sure, Archer has not been at his best this year — or, in truth, for the past two seasons either. Despite still-strong K/BB numbers, continued mid-nineties velocity, and a steady ~12-13% swinging-strike rate, Archer has allowed more than four earned per nine since the start of 2016. And this year, he’s allowing hard contact at a career-worst 41.5% rate.
Along with the less-than-exciting results, the cheapest years of Archer’s early-career extension are now in the past. But he certainly still remains a respected arm who comes with an appealing price tag. The deal promises him $7.5MM next year and includes $9MM and $11MM options that come with $2MM in cumulative buyouts.
With the end of the deal now in sight, and Archer no longer nearly the incredible value as he once was, the stars could be lining up for a move. It doesn’t hurt that, given the shabby state of the market for rental starters, teams in search of higher-end arms will be forced to go after pitchers whose present clubs are not compelled to make a move. That could drive prices up, though at some point there’ll presumably also be enough demand to interest one or more selling organization. Archer is one of several starters in the same general boat, as we covered in our recent ranking of the 75 top deadline trade candidates.
As Topkin notes, at the end of the day the Rays will need to see enough of a return to make it worth their while to part with a player who still holds plenty of upside. Particularly given that Archer only just returned from the DL, his next few outings my help determine whether another organization puts a compelling offer on the table.
Rays Promote Justin Williams
The Rays have promoted outfielder Justin Williams to the major league club for the first time, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. To make room for him on the active roster, they’ve optioned lefty reliever Hoby Milner to Triple-A.
Williams, who’ll turn 23 next month, was the Diamondbacks’ second round pick in the 2013 draft. He came to the Rays as part of the return for sending right-hander Jeremy Hellickson to Arizona, and has posted above-average offensive numbers at every level of the minor leagues since then. At the Triple-A level so far this year, Williams has posted a .276/.323/.392 slash with a 6.7% walk rate and a 21.0% strikeout rate. At the Double-A level last season, he managed to hit .301/.364/.489 across 409 plate appearances.
MLB Pipeline ranks Williams among the club’s top ten prospects, checking in at #8. Though he hit a career-high 14 home runs last season, the publication notes that scouts expect him to develop more pop in his bat due to the fact that he still hits a lot of ground balls; something that could change as he continues to improve his swing. Baseball America describes him as a hitter who makes consistent contact and manages the strike zone well, in part due to improving pitch recognition. BA goes on to say that he turns on inside pitches well but may need to make some adjustments in order to do a better job covering the outside of the plate.
Rays Designate Johnny Field
The Rays have designated outfielder Johnny Field for assignment, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter links). That opens 40-man space for the team to select the contract of catcher Adam Moore.
Field, 26, debuted this year and posted a .213/.253/.373 slash line with six home runs in 179 MLB plate appearances. Clearly, that’s not going to get it done, though it was only a first attempt at the game’s highest level. Field, who is capable of playing in the corners or up the middle defensively, has a .270/.320/.436 batting line in his 805 career plate appearances at Triple-A.
As for the 34-year-old Moore, this represents a return to the majors after a one-season absence. He had appeared in every one of the prior eight MLB campaigns, yet saw action in less than one hundred total games. Outside of a lengthy run in 2010, in fact, Moore has taken just 74 total plate appearances. H carries a .215/.259/.309 slash in 158 plate appearances this year at Triple-A.