For those who need further convincing that the Marlins are serious about extending Giancarlo Stanton, president of baseball operations Michael Hill told reporters, including the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo (Twitter link), that teams aren’t even bothering to call and ask about Stanton’s availability anymore. Joel Sherman of the New York Post expands on that quote from Hill, noting that there are some indications that the team is willing to break its policy of not giving out no-trade clauses in order to lock up Stanton. Hill wouldn’t directly state that the team is willing to give Stanton a no-trade clause, but that could certainly be inferred from his comments: “It’s been an organizational policy, but you are talking about a star talent. You look at the marketplace and what other stars have gotten. It will be a topic of discussion.”
More from the NL East…
- Braves president of baseball operations John Hart tells David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he doesn’t envision an extension for Jason Heyward this offseason (Twitter links). That’s not due to a lack of interest on Atlanta’s behalf, but rather due to Heyward’s proximity to free agency. With Heyward set to hit the open market next winter, Hart said that his assumption is it’s “probably the wrong time,” though he said the team could still try to sign Heyward as a free agent.
- Nationals GM Mike Rizzo acknowledged to James Wagner of the Washington Post that he’s been in contact with Asdrubal Cabrera’s agent as the team looks at all options on the second base market (Twitter link).
- Wagner also tweets that the Nationals and right-hander Jordan Zimmermann aren’t engaged in any form of extension talks at the moment. The ace righty is slated to hit the open market next winter after pocketing a $16.5MM salary in 2015.
- Marc Carig of Newsday provides a breakdown of where the Mets are in their pursuit of a shortstop. The Mets aren’t big on the idea of multi-year deals for either Jed Lowrie or Asdrubal Cabrera, and looking to the trade market has been difficult thus far. Arizona’s asking price on Didi Gregorius is high — GM Dave Stewart said the return would need to be “earth-shattering” in terms of controllable pitching — and the Cubs haven’t given indication they’ll part with Starlin Castro. The Mets are concerned about Alexei Ramirez’s declining range, and while they briefly floated the idea of pursuing Jimmy Rollins, that notion went nowhere when they learned that Rollins wouldn’t waive his no-trade rights to go there. A trade for Troy Tulowitzki is considered an extreme long shot, he adds.
- Matthew Cerrone of SNY.tv’s Metsblog has some highlights (and the audio) from the Mets’ conference call announcing Michael Cuddyer’s signing today. Within, he notes that GM Sandy Alderson admitted to being caught off guard by the Rockies’ qualifying offer, but they ultimately decided that they’d prefer to sacrifice a draft pick rather than sacrifice a current minor league prospect in a trade for an outfielder. That makes some sense, considering they figure to do so in order to acquire a shortstop at some point.
- The Phillies are willing to trade anyone, writes Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, but they may have to wait until the free agent market pans out a bit further before seeing some big deals come to fruition. If they’re able to find a taker for Ryan Howard, it may not come until big bats like Victor Martinez, Nelson Cruz and Melky Cabrera are off the market. The same could be said regarding Cole Hamels in relation to Max Scherzer, James Shields and Jon Lester; GM Ruben Amaro Jr. might find teams more willing to part with a significant prospect package when there are no longer ace-caliber alternatives in free agency.
heyward or justin will be trade who though is the question
I actually will disagree. It makes a lot of sense to wipe them for prospects, but Braves won’t spend that money anywhere and already have 15 to spend loosely on the bullpen and CF. I could see a trade if they get an amazing deal or have a trade for a starter in the works, but not just for prospects.
so maybe heyward or j up for latos? something like that?
J-Up for Latos with prospects to either side + BJ for Edwin Jackson + lefty bat with money and prospects to and fro + Gattis at Left + 10-15 million for the bullpen and you can call it an off-season
interesting no doubt
Braves really need to find a way to extend Heyward.
agreed but if they cant then they have to trade him so they wont lose him for nothing
Braves will still gomp pick if he goes, but might make it harder to resign him if they trade him.
i would try to resign him as much as i can and if hes too expensive trade him for some good prospects
He’s going to get a qualifying offer before he leaves. Guys who are that talented defensively have a ton of value in a big ballpark.
i would rather seem them feel get two or 3 maybe 4 good prospects then a draft pick
How many prospects do you think teams would be willing to part with for Heyward? He’s been great defensively but his bat hasn’t been what we all thought. He’s not going to get a huge haul.
id say because of his defense at least 2 or 3
2 maybe 3 at the most. But they’re not going to be guys who are a year or less away from the majors. You’re going to see 1 solid prospect, a career minor leaguer, and probably a reliever. I just don’t think he’s going to get what everyone thinks. The biggest trade chips this team has are Gattis and Kimbrel.
hmm we shall see
Declining range? He seemed to have great range to me.
Metrics say his defense has been declining every year since peaking in 2010/2011. This would seem to jive with the fact that he is 33 now.
fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5133&posit…
He is below average now. Didn’t use to be, but it makes sense he’s less rangy as he ages.
The Marlins are just trying to save face with anyone that still believes they’re in the majors to compete. Wait until his last year of arbitration and let’s see if they don’t change the memo on trading Stanton. Does nobody remember his stance from the 2012 off-season shenanigans where he publicly voiced his outrage? I think he made up his mind a long time ago.
Also, they haven’t kept anyone under a long term contract throughout the duration of their franchise history. Why is that suddenly going to change? They’re not going to be able to pay Stanton $25M+ a year when they couldn’t possibly build a team around that.
This was my thought as well. With the money they typically spend on a team, why would they want to tie up such a large % of that salary on one player for such a length of time? Seems like he’s a player everyone wants, and would command multiple top prospects in return. Those prospects could be good MLB players to help build a team around, and who would be under team control for years. Unless they plan on spending $100mm+ on payroll from here on out…
Letting Heyward walk will be a huge mistake for this franchise. He should have been extended last off-season and if they want to act like he was too expensive, explain the Chris Johnson and Andrelton Simmons extensions… If he has another healthy season, he will play his way out of Atlanta. Living close to Atlanta and knowing the fanbase well, they don’t respect the value that J-Hey brings to the club. I’d say at least 2/3 of the fans who support the Braves don’t appreciate everything he does for this team and it’s so frustrating.
agreed as a braves fan i know he is our leader and no doubt our best all around player
I’m fine with the Simmons extension. It could have waited a season or two and focused on Heyward more. The Chris Johnson extension just never should of happened as the Uggla extension.
agreed smh huge mistakes
You have to wonder why Hill would even say that. You know its not true. They don’t have a choice in trading Stanton. They cant afford him THIS year, let alone signing him long term. Here is the reality of the situation. The Marlins have the lowest revenue in baseball of about $150 million and no chance of increasing it before 2021 when their current TV contract goes up for negotiation. With that revenue they can only afford a major league payroll of $75 million and Loria has shown no indication he will lose money EVER. Stanton will make $13-14 mm in 2015 and $22-24 in 2016 if he goes to arbitration and more then $30mm after that. Even if he takes a discount on the arbitration years, even 2015 would be more than 20% of their total payroll. Not a tenable situation for any team as NO team has ever went to the playoffs with more than 20% of their payroll going to one player & only 1 team ever with 1 player making more than 15%. You can be sure his agent knows these facts.
You make so many assumptions here that are surely not facts. The very first team/player I looked up was the Chicago White Sox, who made the 2000 playoffs with a 31~ MM payroll, while Frank Thomas represented 22.75% of the payroll expenditure. The 2010 Giants won the World Series with deadweight Barry Zito occupying 19.2% of the payroll. The Marlins also have shown the capability for a 100 MM payroll as recently as 2012, and actually made good baseball moves with their last firesale. The perception of Miami as not being able to afford a Stanton extension is pretty presumptious. You don’t manage their finances to my knowledge, or know if Loria is going to stick to spending half the revenue on payroll, or if their revenue is even actually just 150 MM. You’re very off base on the 15% part, by the way. Very many teams I’ve found going to the playoffs in the 15-20% of payroll range.
The Marlins revenue is closer to 190 million.
Thanks! So using the 50/50 rule of thumb they should be able to sustain something closer to 90-100 MM. A Stanton extension is still a huge portion of their payroll, but if he’s going to give them 6 WAR, that’s a big deal to pass up on.
If braves are trading upton what do they need in return for him. Pitching? If so please call John Mozeilak.
heyward for shelby miller plus?
No Shelby Miller.
who do you think then that would be fair?
y not
Needs to develop his third pitch otherwise his contract is going to be bad if he ends up in the bullpen.
Shelby Miller doesn’t have a guaranteed multi-year contract. He’s on a year-to-year basis, and is team-controlled.
I thought he got a extension?
no he controllable for the next 4 years
the second half of 2014 Shelby through a much better curveball as well as a sinker which he learned from justin masterson and was very good at the end of the season. The Miller of 2015 will be much better than the 2014 version
I didn’t realize that, good to know. I figured he was inconsistent and when he didn’t have one pitch working well he was getting hammered.
Eh as a cards fan I’d have to say no to that, maybe carlos martinez.
hmm maybe
As an outsider, I think I’d rather keep Carlos Martinez long-term than Shelby Miller. Besides, I think Grichuk/Holliday/Jay/Bourjos is good enough to take care of the 2015 & beyond outfield there.
I’m torn on the question of Miller versus martinez, but a bird in the hand is worth more than 2 in the bush. We’ve now seen that Miller can be a good starter, with Martinez it’s yet to be seen. As far as the cards outfield, Molina, Holliday are starting their decline. Cardinals desperately need a middle of the order bat to stay competitive long term. that should have been Oscar, RIP.
Aim for something different. Shelby’s a question mark.
yeah im think about other teams who have good pitching hmm
*waves at my screenname* I don’t want Heyward for just a year, and the Braves would never trade intra-division unless they’re truly punting 2015, but yeah..
if we did do that we would aim for maybe wheeler or i dont know your farm system well
I wouldn’t want to acquire just one year of Heyward, but we do have young pitching talent like Wheeler, Harvey, deGrom, Niese, Gee, Matz, Montero, Syndergaard all in the fold. Noah and Matz are the only ones with zero MLB experience, and all but those two and Montero have already experienced varying degrees of legitimate MLB success.
we could have a trade here if heyward agrees to resign with ny
Braves traded for Uggla.
I agree. Its a waste. We have a full outfield already with the cuddyer signing. Even hypothetically speaking I wouldnt have liked it had we not signed cuddyer
I said this last year and I’m saying it again now. TRADE KIMBREL. The Braves will not be able to afford him when the time comes. He and Gattis are really their best trade bait. They need to unload him now while they can and get a good return. The Braves have bullpen arms for days and can afford to let Kimbrel go. Is anyone else as good? Of course not, but hell, your offense has to get runs for the closer to matter. I really wish they’d part ways with him now while they can get something for him
I agree. To me, there is no point to having the luxury of an elite closer if you are having payroll problems and roster spots to fill.
What’s the point of the Rockies’ having an all-star SS when a) the player doesn’t want to be there and b) the team is nowhere near contention. Best to start fresh and unload like the Cubs did.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to play there – he doesn’t want to play there and lose.
Chiming in here as a Mariner fan. A lot of fans are looking at the Braves as potential trade partners because we desperately need an OF bat and our front office seems hell bent on giving up on Michael Saunders.
As a Braves fan, what would you guys think about Saunders, Ackley, and a decent reliever?
I wonder what it take to acquire Sardinas from Texas. Seems like a logical fit for the Mets.
Is he any more MLB ready than what they already have? The Mets have quality SS prospects but they’re still about 2 years away, Sardinas seems like he would be more of the same.
Yes he is. Good glove, speed, and could hit for contact on a team who’s in it to win now. He also provides filling that void in the leadoff spot. They wont go for Tulo or Ramirez because of the money owed, in addition to other factors (health, giving up pitching prospects, splits, etc).
Mets were worried about Alexei’s declining range? One of the only SS’s with better range is that magician playing shortstop in Atlanta.
Since the mets seem aren’t so enamored with the shortstop options that Craig listed, maybe that indicates they’ll go after Yoan Moncada? If i’m sandy i trade montero + a b/c grade prospect from A-ball for alexei ramirez and use him as a stopgap for a year until moncada is ready.
Yoan Moncada is what, 17 years old? It would be at least 3 years until he hits the Majors, best case, and another year or two for him to be good at the Major League level. So it’s definitely talent but it’s on a different timeline. Alexei Ramírez for Montero would be a no-brainer but I’m not sure the White Sox accept that. Conversely, Ramírez would probably be a significant offensive downgrade from Wilmer Flores.
He’s 19. You have to remember this is not your ordinary “pretty good prospect”. He’s elite. his tools are off the charts. Given how quickly top talent can reach the majors, he could be in the majors in 2016. Even if he doesnt get their until 2017, You could always resign ramirez, go with another stopgap, or let Flores give it a shot.
The ideal would be get Moncada and separately trade for someone who would be better than Flores. I’m not convinced Alexei Ramírez is that guy, especially considering his poor offense and deteriorating defense. Brad Miller would be a better option.