The Cardinals and Orioles are among the teams that have interest in acquiring Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Both clubs have seen their starting catchers go down with significant injuries, as Matt Wieters is out for the season following Tommy John surgery, while Yadier Molina is out through mid-to-late September with a torn ligament in his thumb.
Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently reported that the Twins have had extension talks with Suzuki, but the two sides are far apart. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN reported yesterday that the first-time All-Star was looking for salaries commensurate with those achieved by Carlos Ruiz and Jarrod Saltalamacchia this past offseason — a significant step up from the one-year, $2.75MM deal that Suzuki inked with Minnesota over the winter.
It’s not a shock to see Suzuki ask for a sizable raise, nor is it surprising to see clubs with a need behind the plate showing interest. The 30-year-old is enjoying one of the finest seasons of his career, batting .308/.367/.393 with a pair of homers in 331 plate appearances. Suzuki’s contract contains $500K of performance incentives, per Berardino, but even if it’s assumed that he maxes out his earning potential, he’d be owed roughly $1.17MM from now through season’s end — an affordable sum for nearly any contender (Minnesota could, of course, simply pay the remaining salary to make him that much more enticing to clubs).
Currently, the Cardinals are using the light-hitting Tony Cruz behind the plate, while the Orioles have gone with a combination of rookie Caleb Joseph and trade acquisition Nick Hundley.
As long as it doesnt cost harvery gausman bundy rodriquez i would welcome a trade for suzuki.
As a rental on a break out year I don’t think he will cost anything ridiculous like that. Probably more on line with what the O’s gave up last year with Krod a guy outside of the top 100 with lots of upside.
The guy in the K-Rod trade was in the low minors with a ceiling of an average 3rd baseman…I wouldnt say that is much upside.
We should keep it in perspective.
Low minors projections are a crapshoot and can often be wrong, both in positive and negative directions. Also, if you told me a low minors prospect is going to be a starting 3B in the majors, albeit an average one, I’d say that’s pretty strong value.
Do you realize how many thousands of prospects projected to be all sorts of things who never even get a cup of coffee, every year? An average 3B is maybe .250 ish AVG with a .700-.800 OPS, around 20 HRs. I’d take it for a rental.
That was MLB.com and their scouting reports that said that…and if you ever read them they are very very generous. I don’t think he is likely to hit that
Well, you said that an average 3B wasn’t much upside. I was just saying that if you get an average-MLB at any position, considering the larger odds, it’s worth a lot.
I’ve followed the minors for 30+ years and I just have an appreciation for how good an athlete even the bench guys are on an MLB team. I understand how we can easily take it for granted. But many of the bench guys on a MLB team were elite picks or top prospects at some point too, and physical specimens. If you see them in minorleague games you realize what freaks of nature and big they are. It doesn’t seem like much if we just pay attention to the majors. So I get that.
That said, I think what really happened with Delmonico is that, internally Duquette’s Player personal guys evaluated him to carry a thin chance as a MLB player. So rather than wait a year, risking that other clubs came to that conclusion too, they got value for him last year. That’s my guess.
would love to see the Tigers get a decent catcher
Would be awesome to have him on the O’s for the rest of the season. If they don’t have to give up anything ridiculous (Bundy/Harvey/E-Rod/Gausman) then they should by all means pull the trigger on this one.
Or Walker or Alvarez.
ehhhh at that point your saying I want something for nothing
Not really. Something like Berry and Ohlman would be fair.
i dont think that would be high way robbery but idk if thats quite enough but thats just me.
He’s not bringing back any top 100 guy his history is not that good. He’s a two month rental, with little power. 12 years of control vs. 2 months (and they won’t extend a qualifying offer). I honestly think that is about what he is worth.
probably right i just feel contending team get robbed at trading deadlines more offten than not
That’s usually because they try to make a big splash. The Orioles over the last few years have only targeted mid-tier guys in trades that won’t cost much. Feldman, Morse, Joe Saunders, etc.
No, No, No!!!
I agree except for one name. No to Bundy, Gausman and Hunter, but don’t think with those three giving up Rodriguez is ok with me
Rodriguez for a 2 month rental of a catcher having a break out year? pass
3-6 record in Bowie? Come on. More hits than innings pitched.
Sense when do wins and losses have anything to do with prospect projection?
A Top 100 prospect who happens to be a left-handed starting pitcher for a pending free agent with a .691 career OPS (and a meager .760 OPS in his age-30 “breakout” year)?
Pass.
BTW, Rodriguez is nearly four years younger than the average AA ballplayer. Give him some time, will ya?
Want some more fuel for the fire? I say trade for Suzuki, resign Cruz and trade Wieters. On defense, Joseph is as good as Wieters and Cruz’s bat is better than Wieters. Oh, and resign Suzuki.
I’m fine with trading for Suzuki. Just wouldn’t give up much for him. Maybe Tim Berry. I’d maybe even extend him too, but not for the kind of money he’s looking for.
And trading Wieters? What, now, while he’s on the DL? You want to get absolutely nothing in return?
I’d wait on Cruz also. He’s been pretty miserable for the past month and a half.
I actually like that scenario you just gave! Weiters might be gone soon anyway but to say Joseph is as good a defensive catcher as Weiters is crazy talk!!!
Joseph leads all mlb catchers with 50% caught stealing
Yes because win-loss records for pitchers are the best stat to evaluate them.
You’re going to give up a Top 100 prospect whose injuries have probably resulted in his lack of progress more so than a lack of “stuff,” for 2 months of Suzuki?
don’t forget the O’s aren’t alone with interest – price might go up w/ Cards and maybe others interested in the trade too..
There aren’t many trades where there is only ever one team interested in the player. Usually a player is traded for because he is good. Good players are usually in demand at the deadline. So that really shouldn’t result in this being an “over pay.”
I would also consider the Cards interest as “passing” at best considering Molina will be back this season.
The Os won’t go into a bidding war for Suzuki. They’d just pass. It’s their MO for the last several years.
The Twins are on their way to another 90-loss season—they should make the most of it. They should trade any player that’s the least bit enticing to contending teams, bring up some of the better prospects to let them get some MLB seasoning, and fire everybody on the coaching and training staff except for Molitor and maybe Brunanski.
couldn’t agree more. especially think Anderson should be fired, how do you have this many bad starting rotations (w/ completely different guys every year) and watch people leave like Liriano and Worley leave and find success w/ other clubs.
How’s Liriano doing this season?
He’s been hanging his hat on “fixing” Santana for nearly 10 years.
And I think the same can be said for Gardy. He likes to put it on the personnel he’s been given, but these are all professional athletes he’s working with and he simply can’t motivate them to compete. Nobody wants to win for him.
I believe he hangs his hat on producing above-average bullpens, year in and year out. He’s terrible at working with starters, but his success with relievers is really hard to deny.
He didn’t even “fix” Santana. Bobby Cuellar was the one who taught him the changeup.
Worley has made only 6 starts and Liriano went back to being Liriano once again.
Liriano has been injured this year – I still think it is time for a change in the management area for the Twins. Give the team to Molitor.
The Hundley pickup was a stupid move by the Orioles. Joseph and Clevenger were fine. I was hoping the Os would pick up Suzuki before the season but it’s too late to do the right thing now.
It’s best to stick with two of the three we’ve got now rather than have Duquette make yet another bad trade.
I agree, I don’t think Suzuki is much of an upgrade……..I like our guys……
It wasn’t a stupid move. Clevenger was not up to Buck’s standards defensively. Hundley was always a good defensive catcher with an adequate throwing arm (career 28%, which is league avg). This year, his arm has disappeared. That isn’t something that just happens usually, so the team had no way of predicting that would happen.
Considering what the O’s gave up, why was the deal for Hundley a bad one? Patton was having an awful season and showed no signs of turning it around. Since he was on course for being DFAd, why not flip him to get a catcher when you needed another?
We did not need another catcher. Why trade for something you don’t need?
Hundley is neither a good hitter nor a good defender.
He did not give us anything we did not already have. So getting him was stupid.
The fact that the Orioles are considering trading for Suzuki confirms that they realize this was a useless pick up.
I was hoping they would sign Suzuki as a backup in the off-season, when they could’ve had him fairly inexpensively.
Now he will not be inexpensive.
Dan Duquette’s mid season trades have generally been overpays for underperformance.
If they trade for Suzuki, past history indicates they will pay too much, and get too little
they have to deal him for any decent prospect.. Another losing season, need all the help they can get it.
I can’t imagine the cost for Suzuki would be too high. He’s got a limited market as few teams are really in need of catchers. He’s in a walk year with an expiring contract. The Twins haven’t been able to extend him which makes me think he wants to test the market to for what could be his last shot at a multi-year big money (for Suzuki) deal. And on top of it all Suzuki isn’t fantastic defensively and hasn’t consistently hit like he’s doing this year. A mid-level prospect or two, low-level prospects ought to do it.
Yeah I think a B level is about right, maybe B level and a throw in. The guy is hitting .310 which is 8th or 9th in AL. How many .300 hitters do the Orioles have? Its always nice to have guys on base when the sluggers come up. He will be in demand because he is a difference maker. How many.300 hitting catchers are out there? Yeah some team is gonna pay to get ahead it is just a matter of which one.
there are plenty of better defensive catchers out there though. Suzuki is pretty poor behind the plate throwing out baserunners.
I don’t think anybody would argue with you about Suzuki behind the plate. Average at best; a liability more often than not.
Again I agree. I would say average to slightly below average defensively and if you believe in pitch framing he appears to be near the bottom there. I feel like he did a good job defensively for MN. I didn’t feel like teams could run at will on him. No question there are better defensive catchers but it is very nice to have a solid bat on your side instead of a black hole. Not many guys hitting .300 that qualify. I think if you can add that to your team it can make a big difference.
As much as I would like to see a fire sale, I can’t imagine the trade offers for Suzuki are going to knock anyone’s socks off.
If the Twins are forced to just give him away for a mediocre A/AA prospect, they might as well keep him so he can teach some tricks of the trade to Alex Meyer and Trevor May when they’re called up next month.
Furthermore, the fans like him a lot, and last I checked, the Twins are still charging for tickets.
The Twins won’t accept a lowball offer for Suzuki. He’s the only tradeable player they have that could get a decent prospect in exchange.