Blue Jays Among Teams Interested In Jonathan Villar
Miami and Toronto are in discussions regarding Marlins infielder/outfielder Jonathan Villar, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. It’s unclear whether the two teams are progressing toward a deal, per Rosenthal, though Jon Heyman of MLB Network writes that Villar’s “definitely out there.”
Villar’s the second shortstop-capable player the Blue Jays have been connected to since the weekend, joining the Angels’ Andrelton Simmons. However, Simmons is not an option right now for Toronto, according to Rosenthal. The club’s in the market for help at the position after losing Bo Bichette to a knee sprain two weeks ago. Even if Bichette comes back this year, Villar’s versatile enough to slide to other positions, including second base and the outfield.
Since Bichette went down, the Blue Jays haven’t received much production from fill-ins Brandon Drury, Joe Panik and Santiago Espinal, but they’re still 18-14 and in the thick of the AL playoff hunt. In Villar, they’d be getting a switch-hitting 29-year-old whose offense has hovered around the league-average mark throughout his career. He’s off to a .272/.328/.360 start with two home runs and nine stolen bases in 126 plate appearances this season.
Villar, who’s on a prorated $8.2MM salary, is a pending free agent, so it may make sense for Miami to at least explore parting with him and other veteran trade chips. But even though the Marlins are just 14-15, they’re very much in the playoff race and will enter Monday tied for the final wild-card spot in the NL.
Blue Jays Interested In Mike Minor, Brian Goodwin
Having already acquired Taijuan Walker, the Blue Jays continue to look for additional upgrades as they pursue a playoff berth. Toronto’s targets include Rangers southpaw Mike Minor, according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link), as well as Angels outfielder Brian Goodwin, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi reports.
Minor is perhaps the closest of the two names to becoming a reality, as Grant describes the Jays and Rangers as “actively engaged” in negotiations. Minor would be a pure rental pickup for Toronto since he is a free agent after the season, and he is owed roughly $1.61MM remaining of his prorated $9.5MM salary for the 2020 season. While Minor has a 10-team no-trade clause in the first two seasons of his three-year, $28MM deal with Texas, Grant reports that the clause is no longer in place for this, the final year of Minor’s contract.
Though Minor tossed six shutout innings against the Dodgers in his most recent start, it hasn’t been a great year overall for the 32-year-old. Minor has a 5.60 ERA, 2.69 K/BB rate, and 8.9 K/9 over 35 1/3 innings for the Rangers, with some advanced metrics (4.84 FIP, 4.58 xFIP, 4.49 SIERA, .340 xwOBA against a .314 wOBA) painting only a slightly more positive view of his performance. Still, Minor is only a season removed from a superb year that saw him finish eighth in AL Cy Young Award voting.
Minor has also continued to eat innings, which is no small matter of import for a Blue Jays team that has struggled to get starters deep into games. Walker, Hyun Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, and Chase Anderson comprise Toronto’s current rotation, with Matt Shoemaker and Nate Pearson both on the injured list. The Jays could continue to rely on bullpen games or an opener/bulk pitcher combo for that fifth rotation spot until Shoemaker and Pearson return, or they could opt for a more proven starter like Minor to solidify matters.
In terms of what the Jays might give up, Davidi writes that Texas has shown interest in Toronto’s “young catchers” — presumably in reference to Danny Jansen or Reese McGuire, as Davidi notes that dealing either backstop would then require the Blue Jays to add another catcher to fill the void. The Jays do have an experienced backup option in Caleb Joseph at their alternate training site, and also prospects Riley Adams and Alejandro Kirk within their 60-man player pool, though it may be unlikely that a more prized prospect like Kirk is moved for a rental player.
Goodwin has backed up his impressive 2019 season with another strong showing this year, as the outfielder entered today’s action with a .253/.343/.484 slash line and four home runs over 105 plate appearances. The 29-year-old Goodwin is controllable through the 2022 season via arbitration, and his ability to play all three outfield positions makes him an even more valuable asset.
Neither Randal Grichuk or Teoscar Hernandez is exactly an ideal defensive fit in center or right field, respectively, so Goodwin could at the very least provide some late-game value as a defensive sub. Goodwin does perhaps seem somewhat overqualified for such a role, though a more regular job could emerge if (as one industry source suggests to Davidi) Lourdes Gurriel Jr. could be used as a deadline trade chip. Gurriel was reportedly floated in trade negotiations over the offseason, and his inclusion in trade talks now could open up a lot of possibilities for the Blue Jays at the deadline.
Gurriel has had some injury problems and faced questions about his defensive position and consistency at the plate over his three MLB seasons, though he has settled in as a regular left fielder and has shown more than a few flashes of brilliance as a hitter. Gurriel has hit .274/.317/.487 with 35 homers over his first 722 Major League plate appearances, and doesn’t turn 27 years old until October. Signed to a seven-year, $22MM deal out of Cuba in 2016, Gurriel is still locked up through the 2023 season at the very affordable price of $13.4MM from 2021-23.
A’s, Twins, Padres, Blue Jays Interested In Lance Lynn
4:55PM: The Athletics are “potentially” also interested in Lynn, Morosi notes in an on-air report (Twitter link).
TODAY, 11:30AM: The Twins are also in on Lynn, hears Jon Morosi of MLB Network (via Twitter). Morosi adds that Lynn is “increasingly likely” to be moved before tomorrow’s deadline.
AUGUST 29: Count the Padres and Blue Jays among the teams to have expressed interest in Rangers starter Lance Lynn, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. With the White Sox also cited as a suitor for Lynn earlier today, the Rangers appear to have a robust market forming for their top starter, for whom they’re said to be “entertaining offers,” though that’s no guarantee that they’re determined to deal Lynn prior to Monday’s trading deadline.
Beyond the three teams named above, it seems likely that almost every pitching-needy team will inquire about Lynn, who is coveted not only because of his elite production, but because he’s not just a rental: the 33-year-old will remain under contract through next season, when he’ll be paid $8MM—by no means a steep cost for a pitcher of his caliber. Those factors could make Lynn a hotly contested name during what might otherwise be a quiet trade season.
We’ll have to see just how much the Rangers are willing to part with Lynn, but there’s no doubt they’ll command a pretty high asking price for their top arm. Still, if there are teams who can meet such an asking price, San Diego, Chicago, and Toronto are among them. All three of those teams have substantial prospect capital to pry Lynn from Texas, assuming they’re .
And one might think of that trio in similar terms: all three teams are finally seeing on-field results following years of speculative “potential.” They rely on a core of young, blossoming position players but largely lack veteran pitchers to match. As those clubs look to enter win-now mode (perhaps the Blue Jays to a lesser degree than the White Sox or Padres), Lynn would be a sensible addition to any pitching staff.
Blue Jays Checked In On Andrelton Simmons
The Blue Jays have discussed shortstop Andrelton Simmons with the Angels, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports (Twitter link). Specifically, the Jays “checked with” Anaheim in Morosi’s words, which could imply due diligence more than serious talks about Simmons, though the situation is certainly worth monitoring with just over two days left before the trade deadline.
Simmons is only recently back from a left ankle sprain that cost him over three weeks of the season, so the Blue Jays could very well want to see as much as they can of Simmons in action before deciding on a trade. The veteran shortstop does have at least one hit in four of his five games since returning from the injured list, but his overall slash line for 2020 is only .257/.297/.286 in 37 plate appearances.
While obviously Toronto would like to get any extra hitting it could, Simmons’ biggest asset is his glove, as the four-time Gold Glove winner is widely considered one of the best defensive players in baseball history. Adding that type of glovework at shortstop would go a long towards helping a position that has been a minus for the Jays since Bo Bichette hit the IL. It isn’t yet clear when Bichette might return from his knee sprain, though he did begin baseball activities yesterday.
If the Jays did swing a deal with the Angels, their ideal situation would be Simmons at shortstop and Bichette back and healthy in a regular second base role, as Bichette played second base in the minors. That shuffle would likely result in Cavan Biggio playing third base, as Biggio has played the hot corner in the minors and Travis Shaw has struggled at the plate this season.
Yesterday’s trade of Tommy La Stella to the Athletics would hint that the Angels are open for business as deadline sellers, as the Halos are in line for their fifth straight losing season. Like La Stella, Simmons is also a free agent after the season, as the shortstop is winding up the seven-year, $58MM extension he signed with the Braves way back in February 2014. Of his prorated $15MM salary for 2020, there is roughly $2.8MM still owed to Simmons over the last month of the regular season, so the Jays would be picking up a pretty significant bit of salary in this pandemic-impacted year unless some money is sent back to the Angels as an offset.
Blue Jays Option Brandon Drury, Outright Thomas Pannone
The Blue Jays have optioned infielder Brandon Drury to their alternate training site and outrighted hurler Thomas Pannone, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet tweets. The Drury move clears roster space for newly acquired right-hander Taijuan Walker.
The 28-year-old Drury has been a massive disappointment for Toronto, which acquired him from the Yankees for lefty J.A. Happ before the July 2018 trade deadline. Drury, who had his moments with the Diamondbacks from 2015-17, struggled during his brief Yankees stint before they gave up on him. His issues have continued as a member of Toronto’s roster, as he owns a horrid .211/.254/.360 line with 15 home runs in 496 plate appearances. Drury’s minus-6 wRC+ across 49 plate trips this year ranks fifth to last among 300 major leaguers who have amassed at least 40 PA.
The left-handed Pannone, 26, had been in limbo since the Jays designated him Aug. 24, but he’ll stick with the organization after clearing waivers. Pannone, who combined for a 5.43 ERA/5.14 FIP over 116 innings from 2018-19, hasn’t pitched in the bigs this season.
Atkins: Blue Jays Expect To Be “Extremely Active” In Trade Discussions
The Blue Jays have already pulled off one trade, acquiring righty Taijuan Walker from the Mariners to bolster their rotation, but it seems they hope to add more players in the remaining three days before Monday afternoon’s trade deadline. “I would expect us to be extremely active,” general manager Ross Atkins told reporters following yesterday’s acquisition of Walker (Twitter link via TSN’s Scott Mitchell). That certainly doesn’t guarantee an additional move or moves, but if the Walker swap proves to be their only addition, it won’t be for lack of trying.
Per Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, Atkins went on to emphasize that his club’s focus will continue to be on pitching and run prevention. Supplementing the lineup sounds like more of a secondary goal at the moment, although Atkins noted the possibility of adding a defensive upgrade who also adds some punch on the offensive side of the coin.
With Walker joining Hyun Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark and Chase Anderson in the Toronto rotation, there’s still space for the Jays to pick up another rotation piece if they desire. They’d hoped top prospect Nate Pearson would step into the rotation and seize a spot, but he struggled in his two final starts before going on the injured list with what was eventually diagnosed as a flexor strain. Whether he’ll return in 2020 isn’t known, and while the Jays have some upper-level depth that could step into that vacant fifth slot, there’s some sense in picking up another more established arm — particularly if said arm is controlled beyond 2020. They’ve been linked to Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl in Pittsburgh, but they’re just two of many options to explore.
As far as the defense goes, there are myriad possibilities to explore. Simple bench options like Jarrod Dyson or Billy Hamilton could add a late-inning outfield boost to support an already thriving bullpen. A more impactful defender, Andrelton Simmons, is likely available given that the Angels are well out of contention and he, like Walker, is a free agent at season’s end. The Jays are currently without Bo Bichette and could conceivably slide him over to second or third upon returning in that scenario. Help behind the plate could come in the form of Pittsburgh’s Jacob Stallings or a more established all-around presence like Christian Vazquez (if Boston is willing to deal within the division). All of that is speculative, of course; the overall possibilities are expansive.
Whatever route they choose to pursue upgrade, the Blue Jays look to have an increasingly clear path to a postseason berth in this year’s expanded format. At 15-14, they’re in possession of the No. 8 seed in the American League, and the teams most closely trailing them are the Tigers and Orioles — each of whom is likelier to sell assets between now and Monday than to add. Forgive the cliche, but the Jays even control their own destiny to an extent in that regard, as they’re scheduled to open a four-game set against Baltimore tonight that could put further distance between the two teams in the standings. The Tigers, meanwhile open a four-game series against the first-place Twins.
Seven Games Postponed On Thursday
6:23PM: Tonight’s game between the Marlins and Mets will not be played. As relayed by several reporters, players on both teams took part in a powerful symbolic moment, with Mets players taking their usual positions in the field and the other Mets and Marlins players standing outside their dugouts. After a 42-second moment of silence in honor of Jackie Robinson, all players tipped and waved their caps at one another before departing the field, with a Black Lives Matter t-shirt left atop home plate.
5:41PM: The game between the Orioles and Rays will also not be played. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter site) was among those to note the lack of normal pregame activity between the two clubs, and equipment being packed up from both dugouts.
5:06PM: Tonight’s game between the Rockies and Diamondbacks has also been postponed, as per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link).
3:51PM: Players on the Nationals and Phillies collectively decided to postpone tonight’s game, as per a Phillies media release.
3:21PM: The Red Sox have decided not to play their game against the Blue Jays tonight, Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe reports (via Twitter).
3:04PM: Tonight’s game between the Twins and Tigers will also be postponed, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Twins and Tigers players each voted against playing the game, as respectively reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and MLB.com’s Jason Beck.
1:42PM: Phillies players have voted against playing their scheduled game versus the Nationals tonight, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports (via Twitter). ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that the Rangers/Athletics game will also be postponed tonight. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweeted shortly prior that the A’s were giving strong consideration to opting not to play. Passan tweeted earlier that Red Sox players were also considering a decision not to play against the Blue Jays.
Today’s decisions follow several clubs who declined to play yesterday in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In total, three MLB games — Brewers/Reds, Mariners/Padres and Dodgers/Giants were postponed yesterday. All three are expected to be made up in doubleheaders today.
Last night, Major League Baseball issued the following statement in response to teams’ decisions to protest:
“Given the pain in the communities of Wisconsin and beyond following the shooting of Jacob Blake, we respect the decisions of a number of players not to play tonight. MLB remains united for change in our society & we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice.”
Similar protests were made in the NBA, where the scheduled postseason games Wednesday and Thursday were all postponed. The current expectation is for the NBA to resume play Saturday (link via HoopsRumors).
Pirates Claim Anthony Alford
The Pirates have claimed outfielder Anthony Alford off waivers from the Blue Jays. Alford was designated for assignment by Toronto last week.
Alford is still only 26 years old, and was still garnering top-60 prospect buzz as recently as the 2018 preseason. Over nine pro seasons, however, Alford’s production has been inconsistent, though his development has been hampered by multiple injuries. Alford has a .265/.358/.393 slash line over 2098 career plate appearances in the minors, along with 34 homers and 114 stolen bases (out of 146 chances). At the big league level, Alford has appeared in each of the last four seasons, though he has played in only 46 total games and amassed 75 total plate appearances (with only a .454 OPS over that small sample size).
The Bucs are hoping that a change of scenery can help unlock Alford’s potential, and it’s possible Alford could immediately jump onto the Pirates’ roster as a backup outfielder. With the trade deadline just around the corner, it also isn’t out of the question that Alford could see more playing time if Pittsburgh opted to move another outfielder in a future deal.
Blue Jays Acquire Taijuan Walker
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.
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).
Pitching Notes: Hader, Bumgarner, Pearson, Dodgers, Beeks, Wright
On a night in which White Sox ace Lucas Giolito fired the first no-hitter of 2020, let’s check in on several other notable pitchers…
- The Brewers are “listening” to offers for star reliever Josh Hader, but it’s not likely the club will trade the 26-year-old left-hander before the Aug. 31 deadline, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes (subscription link). Milwaukee was also willing to entertain proposals for Hader last winter, but it elected to retain him heading into this year – his first of four potential arbitration seasons. For a bargain price this season (a prorated $4.1MM), Hader has given the Brewers 9 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings with 13 strikeouts and five walks. He’s obviously not someone the Brewers are going to give up for anything less than a massive offer.
- After throwing a 70-pitch bullpen session Sunday, Diamondbacks southpaw Madison Bumgarner could be closing in on a return from the injured list, per Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. Bumgarner has been on the IL since Aug. 9 with a mid-back strain, but he came out of his bullpen session unscathed, which manager Torey Lovullo called “very encouraging news.” The former Giant’s first season as a Diamondback has been anything but encouraging, though. After inking a five-year, $85MM contract in the offseason, Bumgarner has logged a 9.35 ERA/8.79 FIP with 6.75 K/9, 3.63 BB/9 and a 23.7 percent groundball rate in 17 1/3 innings. The 31-year-old averaged a career-worst 87.8 mph on his fastball during that four-start stretch, but Lovullo revealed Bumgarner’s “velo ticked up a little bit” during sim games.
- Right-hander Nate Pearson, whom the Blue Jays placed on the IL on Aug. 19, has been diagnosed with a flexor strain, according to Scott Mitchell of TSN. He’s hoping to play catch this weekend, Mitchell reports, though it remains unclear if the rookie will return in 2020. Pearson struggled to a 6.61 ERA/7.60 FIP with 7.71 K/9 and 6.61 BB/9 over four starts and 16 1/3 frames before going on the shelf.
- Dodgers righty Joe Kelly has been on the IL since Aug. 10 with shoulder inflammation, and a return isn’t imminent for the reliever. Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com) that Kelly remains “a ways away” from rejoining the Dodgers. When Kelly does come back, he’ll have to serve a five-game suspension stemming from a July 28 dustup with the Astros. Meanwhile, Dodgers lefty Alex Wood won’t come off the IL before the end of the month, Gurnick tweets. Wood, who’s also dealing with shoulder inflammation, has only made one appearance this year (on July 25).
- The Rays’ injury-laden pitching staff may have lost yet another hurler Tuesday, when southpaw Jalen Beeks left their game with an elbow/forearm issue. Manager Kevin Cash didn’t come off as optimistic afterward, saying (via Juan Toribio of MLB.com), “It sounded similar to Kitt, but we don’t know anything yet.” Cash was referring to righty Andrew Kittredge, who went on the 45-day IL on Aug. 12 with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament. A similar fate would be a season-ender for Beeks, who has been terrific in 2020. The 27-year-old has notched a 3.26 ERA and a much more impressive 1.74 FIP with 12.1 K/9 against 1.86 BB/9 across 19 1/3 innings.
- Veteran knuckleballer Steven Wright hasn’t taken a major league mound since July 13, 2019, but the former Red Sox righty informed Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that he’s not ready to call it a career. “I just don’t want to sit back in a few years and wish I had tried it,” said the soon-to-be 36-year-old Wright, who threw 35 pitches from a mound last week and told Abraham, “I’m throwing two bullpens a week and I’m feeling healthy for the first time since 2016.” Wright was an All-Star that year, but he then faced knee problems, Tommy John surgery, a performance-enhancing drugs suspension and an arrest on domestic violence charges (which led to a 15-game ban) during the ensuing seasons.