With just 10 days until the baseball trade deadline, we know this:
Teams looking for a difference-making starting pitcher — the Yankees, Twins, Brewers, Rays and Braves — might have a hard time finding one.
Any other suitors looking for relief help will have no trouble filling that need – the market is full of quality relievers whose talents are wasted on losing or really bad teams.
The Rays, in need of starting pitchers AND relievers, have the deepest prospect pool of any team in baseball and therefore, if they choose, they have the resources to draft whoever they want.
The Giants, who have a proven but faded starting pitcher in the “big game” in Madison Bumgarner, and two high-end relievers in closer Will Smith and setup man Sam Dyson, must decide whether their recent surge in the wild card race should now exclude them. prevent them from trading those assets and giving beloved manager Bruce Bochy one last chance at playoff glory (and a lifetime record over .500) en route to Cooperstown.
The Dodgers are clearly the best team in baseball, but if they don’t move closer to the deadline to replace Kenley Jansen, they will still be looking for their first World Series title since 1988.
Starting with the starters, because that’s where most of the trade rumors have been generated throughout the season, with none of the pitchers being mentioned – Bumgarner, Toronto’s Marcus Stroman, Detroit’s Matthew Boyd, Mike Minor of the Rangers, Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer, Miami’s Caleb Smith. or the latest “flavor of the month,” Arizona southpaw Robbie Ray – would you put him in the true No. 1 category, like Justin Verlander, Jon Lester and David Price, to name three of these guys who have been moved during the previous mid-season. offers. Everyone loves Ray’s arm (11.76 strikeouts per nine innings), but he’s always had command issues, has an ERA near 4.00 and leads the majors in walks. He is, however, controllable through 2021. Bumgarner is a free agent after the season, but that doesn’t stop the Giants from asking for premium prospects for him, which is one reason why Yankee general manager Brian Cashman, looked elsewhere in his quest. for an entry.
The Yankees like Stroman, a New York native, but view him as a No. 3, which wouldn’t really be a rotation upgrade. Same with Boyd, despite his major league-leading 6.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio, for whom the Tigers are also looking to make a haul. The 31-year-old Miner has the best overall record of any potentially available frontline starting pitcher (8-4, 2.73 ERA, 122 innings in 19 starts), but the fact that the greatly improved Rangers have a decent chance in nature card and he’ll make a modest $9.5 million in 2020 and 2021, so it’s very unlikely they’ll trade him. Last Wednesday, Minor said he was tired of trade negotiations. “It’s almost like I signed just so they could trade me.”
Of all the potentially available starters, the one who comes closest to being a difference maker might be Bauer, averaging 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings and leading the majors in innings. And it appears the Yankees have embraced that idea since Cashman had his top assistant, Tim Naehring, overseeing Bauer’s start against the Twins last Saturday. Like the Giants, the Indians must decide if another World Series is realistic for them and if they can catch the Twins for the AL Central title. Even so, they know they won’t be able to afford the $20 million Bauer is likely to get in arbitration next year. If they decide to maximize Bauer’s trade value by moving him now rather than during his free agent year, there are the building blocks for a potential matchup with the Yankees. After letting the popular and productive Michael Brantley leave as a free agent last winter, the Indians were left with one of the lightest outfields in baseball. As the linchpin of any deal they make, they need a powerful, controllable young outfielder – someone like the top prospect they traded to the Yankees for reliever Andrew Miller three years ago: Clint Frazier.
The Twins and Braves realize this is their year of opportunity to return to the World Series – but only if they get another reliable veteran starting pitcher to bolster their thin rotations. Both are waiting to see what the Giants decide to do with Bumgarner and the Rangers with Minor, but in recent days the Braves in particular have shown keen interest in Boyd, who they like more in the sense that he is controllable until in 2022. The Rays, meanwhile, are looking to Ray, Stroman and Minor because of their controllability (through 2021) and affordability. They won’t sell any of their chips for rental like Bumgarner or prohibitive arbitrage like Bauer. If they hit in the starting field, the Rays will most certainly make a move for a back reliever, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they go all-in on old friend Kirby Yates, the closest and longest stop important to the Padres. leader, who only makes $3 million and can’t be a free agent until 2021. Yates, who is having a career year, was originally signed by the Rays as an undrafted free agent in 2009, so they know. The Padres will want high-end prospects for Yates, but no team has more of them than the Rays.
As for the Dodgers, the deepest team in baseball, they only have one vulnerability, but it’s a significant one. It doesn’t matter that Jansen, who makes just over $18 million per year through 2021, is the team’s second-highest paid player behind Clayton Kershaw. He’s no closer to a tighter lock with a 3.72 ERA, four blown saves and six home runs allowed already this season. The Dodgers know they need to be a reliable closer. It’s unlikely they’ll be able to trade within their division with arch-rivals the Giants for Smith, or even the Padres for Yates. Right now, the Dodgers are aiming high — Pittsburgh’s Felipe Vazquez and the Indians’ Brad Hand — but if it turns out neither is available, they’ll focus on the Blue Jays’ Ken Giles and Ian Kennedy of the Royals. In all of these cases, the Dodgers face stiff competition from the Nationals, who also believe they are just one of the closest to mounting a serious challenge against the Braves for the NL East.
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IT’S A MAD, MAD WORLD
Last week, Edwin Jackson has been designated for assignment by his record 14th major league team, the Blue Jays, and we can only wonder if this is finally the end of the line for baseball’s all-time journeyman, or if he there is still a 15th new team (the Yankees?) in his future. If this is the end for Jackson, 35, we can at least say he was well compensated for all of his trips – a total of $78.95 million. … With the Nationals having passed them into second place in the NL East and their point differential now in the minus column, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler feels the heat, but we apparently shouldn’t expect him to boil over in expletive-filled rage. “I’m not a fucking king Dallas Green“, Kapler said last Tuesday after the Phillies were eliminated 10-2 by the Dodgers. “Who are the managers that stand out in history and are respected in these situations? It’s Lou Piniella. It’s Dallas Green, right? Well, it’s not a personality. I don’t think it’s the best way to motivate people so I don’t do it. I’m not going to apologize for that. In other words, if Kapler is fired at the end of the season, he’ll get off easy. …RIP to Ernie Broglio, a good-natured guy who never shied away from being joked relentlessly about being on the wrong end of one of the most one-sided exchanges in baseball history. Broglio, who died last Tuesday at the age of 83, dominated the majors with 21 victories in just his second year in the big leagues, with the Cardinals, in 1960. But what he will forever be remembered for of him is to have been traded by the Cardinals to the Cubs in June 1964 for Lou Brock. At the time of the trade, Brock was a below-average defensive outfielder and no one knew Broglio had a bad elbow. Brock, of course, went on to become one of the greatest base stealers in baseball history and a Hall of Famer with 3,023 hits, while Broglio won only seven more games with the Cubs and was out of baseball by 1967. “You live with that,” Broglio said in a 2016 interview. “I mean, here we are 50 years later and we’re still talking about a trade 50 years later . I told Lou Brock once that I better go before you because you’re in the Hall of Fame and you remember well. I am only remembered for business.
