Kevin Pillar was expected to be the Blue Jays’ fourth outfielder this season and, until Michael Saunders returned from the DL, only a short-term replacement in left field. After a hot start both offensively and defensively (including an incredible homer-robbing catch last night), however, Sportsnet.ca’s Ben Nicholson-Smith notes that Pillar is making a strong bid for regular playing time even after Saunders is back. Given Saunders’ knee injury and recent hamstring issue, I’d guess that he could see some DH time to keep him fresh, opening the door for Pillar to continue playing in left. Switch-hitting center fielder Dalton Pompey has badly struggled against left-handed pitching in his brief career, so Pillar (a right-handed hitter) could also be used in a semi-platoon situation.
Here’s some news from around the AL East…
- The Orioles are dealing with several roster questions, and MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko notes that the club’s decisions involve both making the team better in 2015 and also looking ahead to who might fill some holes on the 2016 roster. Baltimore has 10 players scheduled for free agency this winter, leaving plenty of room to evaluate players for bigger roles, like T.J. McFarland or Mike Wright for a possible rotation spot next year.
- Also from Kubatko’s piece, the Orioles want to keep Rule 5 Draft pick Jason Garcia as a piece for 2016 and beyond, though keeping him on the roster for all of this season could be tricky. Garcia also has some interest from other teams, as “at least one member of the organization is convinced that the Rays would claim” the young righty if he was put on waivers.
- Grantland’s Jonah Keri explores why the Orioles are keeping Kevin Gausman in the bullpen when the promising youngster and former fourth overall pick could be more valuable in the rotation. One theory Keri has heard is that the O’s are giving their five veterans an opportunity to start in order to showcase them for possible trades, which would then open a space for Gausman. Wei-Yin Chen and Bud Norris are both free agents after the season and the O’s would likely love to rid themselves of Ubaldo Jimenez’s contract, though it’s worth noting that Gausman has thus far struggled (8.31 ERA and a 1:1 strikeout to walk ratio over four innings) in a relief role.
- The early returns on the Yankees’ offseason three-team trade with the Diamondbacks and Tigers aren’t promising for the Bronx Bombers, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Shane Greene, who went to Detroit from New York, has yet to allow a run in 16 innings for the Tigers, while Didi Gregorius has had an all-around rough start to his Yankees career. While it’s still early, one scout tells Sherman that Greene made some strong adjustments and “was the best pitcher he had seen in March.” Sherman also notes that the Yankees haven’t historically had much success in trades with Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski.
Honestly Pillar is a boss. Has a .320+ minor league career batting average, killed it in spring training, is killing it so far offensively and especially defensively. When saunders comes back i would honestly have Pillar in center over pompey
Why don’t they just have EE at first and give Saunders majority of the time at DH to give his legs less wear and tear? That way, they’d be given enough time whether to find out if Pillar is legit, and Pompey is ready.
Honestly I really dont like EE at 1b. Hes best suited at DH personally and I think Navarro probably trumps Pillars bat at this point. I would rather send Pompey to AAA and let Pillar play CF when Saunders comes back tbh.
What is your obsession with Navarro’s bat? He puts up average to slightly above average offensive numbers as a catcher. As a DH or, heaven forbid, a 1b his offensive numbers are downright laughable.
Got no obsession with Navarros bat at all. But its better than Smoaks. But yeah, Im not going to respond to you anymore. Ive already proven my point, and you are condescending. Have a good day.
Navarro’s bat is below average for a first baseman/DH.
I never said it wasnt, all I said is that Navarros bat fits the lineup better than Smoaks. I love Smoaks Defence though.
probably what they will do…
I’d say Edwin’s health is more important than Saunders at this point. The guy has a bad back from playing third base on carpet for all those years, even if it was a horrible third base lol. Plus Smoak’s actually done a fine job saving 4-5 throwing errors from Donaldson/Reyes with his picking/massive height that’s actually made our defense look better than what it is.
Yeah Smoaks defence at first has done us a lot of favours so far for sure.
Not for nothing, his bat hasn’t looked horrible either and with the Orioles wanting the Jays blood in more ways than one I’d rather keep the 6’5 250 pounder on my bench/team incase one of these games gets ugly this year.
hahahaha, think theres gonna be a brawl eh? 😉 Id say it starts with a bautista getting plunked by o’day sorta thing. But yeah, Smoaks bat im not really impressed or happy about at all, rather have Navarro’s bat in there. But the fact I dont want EE playing 1st means that Smoak needs to be in there.
I want you to reflect on your Smoak comment at the end of the year just to realize how ludicrous it is. Navarro’s offensive value is tied to him being a catcher. Putting him at DH makes him a below replacement level player, not to mention cripples the lineup if Martin goes down when he’s DHing. Justin Smoak is hands down the better offensive option over Navarro and also allows the Jays to DH Edwin while providing plus defense at first.
Absolutely not. Smoak is a career .224 hitter that has only cracked 20 bombs once. His Obp is barely even cracks .300 on average. Ove the last 3 years Navarro has hit .290, .300 and .274. You also have to take into account what type of team the toronto blue jays are. Edwin, Bautista and Donaldson all have huge power. We dont need another all or nothing type hitter in the lineup. What we lack is a contact hitter, which is what Navarro is. Hes also clutch and offers some pop. The only part of Smoak I like is the defensive value he adds at 1B. The reason we have to have Smoak in the lineup is so Edwin can DH. Thats the only reason he is getting at bats over Navarro. So, no, its not ludicrous.
Smoak was a .224 hitter basically because the majority of his games hitting in Seattle have been horrible. His away splits have been drastically better however, We’re talking about a guy who’s hit .243/.318/.410/.728 on the Road for his career with an average of around 20 homers per 600PA’s. That’s not bad considering the guy is actually pretty competent with the glove and saves errors like crazy.
Although I’m not disagreeing, I’ll continue to point out that Adrian Beltre didn’t hit very well in Seattle and metrics point he was simply a different guy there compared to what he was in L.A/Boston/Texas ect. Let’s see what Smoak can do over an entire season in the homer dome before we dismiss him.
Yeah idk im truly not sold on smoak. I have a good buddy whos an Ms fan and hes really glad to be rid of him. I think Smoak could potentially get it figured out here in Toronto, but do we want to risk that seeing as how its an extremely important year? I love Smoak defensively though, with reyes’ arm especially. Ive also heard hes absolutely brutal from the right side of the plate, although I havent looked up the numbers to support that. It could be totally wrong. But yeah, as I said earlier though, the jays offence needs a guy who can hit for a high average with all of these other sluggers on the team. Thats just my opinion though.
Thank you for conveniently cherry picking Navarro stats to support your argument. Dionner Navarro career OPS is .687. Justin Smoak’s is .689 and that’s playing most of his career in Seattle which is a power hitter’s graveyard. Smoak’s 1b defense and his power upside playing in AL east ballparks makes him an absolute no-brainer to start over Navarro.
I’d also like to know how you have come to conclude that Dionner Navarro is “clutch”?
I conveniently used logic and reason to dismiss everything you said. Like I stated earlier, I would rather have Navarros bat because of the type of hitter he is compared to Smoak. The blue jays dont need a guy that will hit .220 and hit 15 homeruns. They need a guy whos gonna crack .270-.300 to add stability to the lineup. I would have loved a James Loney type 1b honestly. And well, the reason i conclude Navarro is clutch is from his stats with risp in 2014. He slashed a .343/.382/.500 line with risp. Thats pretty clutch to me.
Oh sorry you said saunders at DH, i read it as pillar, my bad lol. And well, that could work I guess, but then what do you do with Smoak and Navarro? I still say itd be better to just send Pompey down to AAA and polish his skills some more. Pillar is 26 while Pompey is what? 21? 22?
That could work. Regardless, it it gonna be a tough decision for them to make, unless Pompey’s struggles continue, or Pillar regresses.
Pillar has had a heck of a start to the year, and it’s hard to slag a guy who’s put up 0.9 WAR in 9 games. But… to play Devil’s Advocate, his plate discipline is still not there and I just don’t see his hitting being sustainable. I think his batting line will regress very close to his 2014 line given enough time. His defense has been off the charts however, and I hope he proves me wrong with the bat.
Hes always had to prove people wrong his entire career because of his unorthodox swing. And yet still, has a ridiculous track record in the minor leagues of being able to hit at every level. That being said, i know its the minor leagues. You are right about his plate discipline though, the walks arent there. But that might come with some more PA’s.
Hated that Greene/DiDi trade from the start. And the signing of Stephen Drew made it look even worse, even though Drew has primarily been at 2B.
Didi’s glove is too big. Plus, he hasn’t looked like the slick fielding shortstop that everyone said he was.
Not “everyone.” That category certainly does not include anyone who watched the NL West when Didi was in AZ. By major league SS standards, he’s OK. And fielding is his strength.
It was a deal they had to make, it was fair for all sides. It’s too early for there to be conclusions on how the deal worked out.
They re-signed Stephen Drew. They could have put him at SS, Pirela at 2B, and kept Greene.
Yes I know the Drew signing was after, but that choice would have been much better.
When Stephen Drew is your answer at SS every day, you look for external options. Putting Pirela at 2nd every day wouldn’t have served the Yankee’s desire, they want to have Pirela man multiple positions as he seems to hold the most value as a utility player, on top of his lack of MLB experience. Greene was good last year, and has looked good thus far, but he’s not proven yet, he doesn’t have a large number of big league innings under his belt. It really wasn’t a bad deal, it just looks better for DET based on less than a month of results.
Do not know how many blunders the Yankee GM has to make before you Yankee fans stop making excuses for him. Greene looked real good last year. There was no big reason to trade him.
Honestly I think the yankees gm is one of the worst in the league.
I wouldn’t go that far. Among GMs that have been a GM for their teams over 5 years, he’s the only GM in baseball who has never had a losing season under his tenure. $ helps yes, but it doesn’t mean success at all.
Again, I’m not saying he’s great, or even very good, but to call him one of the worst is a bit of a stretch. I would Gladly bet you that if Epstein, Cherington, RAJ, AA, or Anderson were the GM of the Yankees, they would have had several losing seasons already (assuming they ran the Yankees the same way they currently run their clubs)
Yeah but its not hard to be a GM with 200 million to spend you know? Its not like he has to be crafty and intelligent or anything. Plus all the brutal contracts hes given to aging and injury prone players is pretty bad.
“Yeah but its not hard to be a GM with 200 million to spend you know?”
Hence why I said $ helps. But it doesn’t guarantee success. The Phillies and Red Sox the last 3 years (6 total seasons) have had 4 losing seasons and another .500 season
Red Sox can thank Jim Leyland’s bullpen mistake (bringing in Benoit to face Ortiz instead of bringing in Phil Coke) for that WS title, though no doubt they were a great team that year. Still doesn’t exclude the fact that they’ve finished in last place twice in the last three years with a $170+ million payroll
John Mozeliak has never had a losing season in 7 years as GM.
Wow, I stand corrected. I thought he was GM since 2006 and I knew the Cards had a losing season a year after they won the WS.
By the way, I think he’s the best GM in baseball.
Yeah the team had been trending in the wrong direction and finally after 2007 they parted ways with Jocketty and promoted Mozeliak.
I like him and I think he’s a great fit for a middle of the pack payroll team like the Cardinals. He doesn’t have any terrible deals to his name. I thought the Rasmus trade would be, but it never worked out that way. It’s difficult to rank GM’s because of the different challenges different markets present. I’m comfortable saying he’s a top 5 GM.
Many Yankee fans wanted him fired awhile ago. I’m indifferent. I don’t think he’s great, but I don’t think he’s terrible.
Also if they keep Greene they could have kept Prado to back up 2B/3B/OF.
Greene/Drew/Prado
>>>>
Evoladi/Didi/Drew
I think the Eovaldi/Prado trade was a good one. Yankees needed younger SP and they got it. Technically they needed younger position players too and the got one in DiDi, but he was never anything special (only according to Kevin Towers).
I had wish they kept Greene. Rotation would look a lot better with Tanaka, Pineda, CC, Greene and Eovaldi, with Warren as a long reliever or possibly setup man even
Greene = Porcello for 1/20th the cost in 2015 and 1/40th the cost in 2016. And he is under control for one more year than Porcello. They are the same age. Greene’s Career ERA is better than Porcello’s best year out of 6.
But Greene does not even have to be as good as Porcello. Even 75% of Porcello, makes Greene a steal.
That is definitely looking like one of those DD miracle deals if only the guy could build a Pen like he does a rotation. They keep purging pitchers like Fister and Smyly and replacing them.
Greene has only pitched in 1 season and for 78 innings, A small sample size to be comparing him to porcello. That being said, he could be as good as porcello, but only time will tell.
Wow, how quickly Porcello has fallen in your eyes. Porcello was once superior to Cespedes. Still fell that way?
For one year… YES, because of the qualifying offer (which does not matter anymore with the extension). But not as the highest paid Red Sox in AAV after that.
It is not that I do not like Porcello. It is that I do not like Porcello getting $20MM+ per year.
Do you think that Porcello will be able to outpitch Greene over the next 3 years at 30X the salary? Perhaps, but enough to justify the price difference?
Apples and oranges. One is still under team control and the other had free agent years bought out. Do you think Justin Verlander is worth 55X what you’re paying Greene? How about 2.24X what the Red Sox are paying Porcello this season? I guess we’ll find out, but my money is on Verlander having another off year, Greene regressing to a 3.5 ERA and Porcello having similar numbers. But comparing guys who are in vastly different positions and the salaries they’re making doesn’t make any sense. We’d all take Corey Kluber at $600,000 over CC Sabathia at 24.4, but that’s not the way this works.
Verlander was a mistake, likely made by Ilitch (Tigers Owner). But I would still rather have Verlander at only $8MM/year more than Porcello. JV’s floor is about the same level as Porcello’s ceiling. Look up their FIP numbers and consider Verlander still has 2+ pitches and even his diminished fastball is still better than Porcello’s. I would rather overpay a superstar than an average player.
As for Shane Greene, they basically got him for Doug Fister (via two trades). They will save $50MM+ with this swap and perhaps a slight downgrade in performance. Money does not matter to the Red Sox (who are able to charge $75 for a RF seat, angled so you have to turn your head 90 degrees for the whole game, with less leg room than a kindergarden desk, directly behind a pole), but it does to the Tigers.
Money doesn’t matter to the Red Sox and it does to the Tigers? I beg to differ there. Money matters to every single team, and if the Red Sox weren’t making it they couldn’t be spending it. Look at Porcello’s FIP over the past two seasons, and look at Verlander’s from last year. If that’s the new normal for him, he will most definitely not be worth 8 million a season more than Porcello and he may in fact be worth a million or two less than Porcello. But that’s a risk you take in signing long term big money deals to aging players. The Red Sox have chosen to give higher AAV to younger players on shorter term deals. In the long term, that will prove better for team health. Porcello will never be the pitcher Verlander was in his heyday, but neither will Verlander anymore. Looking at one deal for Greene when he’s pitched two games, albeit well, and ignoring other contracts like Verlander’s is a bit short sighted.
We can go on and on. I suppose we shall see.
1. I think Verlander reinvents himself to a solid #2 pitcher. Not worth his salary, but not a complete sunk cost.
2. Verlander pitched while he was injured last year. There was a reason for his diminished performance. I suppose, In the eyes of “experts”, his stock would be higher now, if he simply sat out last year, instead of contributing by at least eating innings.
Also, the Tigers defense is much better at SS, and all OF positions this year. He may get fewer Ks, but still put up solid numbers that were not possible with a poor defense. His FIP was lower than Doug Fister (for example) last year, but his ERA was 2 full runs worse.
3. I believe that Verlander > Greene = Porcello for the next 5 years. We shall see! Verlander at 32 is still better than Porcello at 26.
Really? Because Verlander at 31 wasn’t better than Porcello at 25. Improved infield defense may help him, but he’s not really a ground ball pitcher. 40.1% rate for his career which would probably put him at about the middle of the pack. I wouldn’t be surprised if he and Porcello had a similar value this season. But that largely depends on how much time Verlander misses. If he doesn’t pitch much it really doesn’t matter how good he is. Also keep in mind when doing your final calculations that Porcello is only making 12.5 million this year and Verlander is making 28 million.
Verlander was nearly identical to Porcello last year (Ricky’s BEST year, JV’s WORST year), while pitching injured if you look at their FIPs (3.74 v. 3.67).
I think you have proven my “JV’s floor = Porcello’s ceiling argument” with your last comment.
JV will lose strikeouts as he gets older. But a solid defense will help counterpoise that.
Porcello is also on the way up while Verlander is on the way down. I wouldn’t hold my breath on him being a better pitcher than Porcello going forward.
Id like to see if verlander can bounce back before we say hes on his way down.
He’d have to play in order to bounce back. And this is his age 32 season. Power pitchers don’t tend to improve at that age.
Maybe I can clarify this debate with some history. Detroit had discussions with Porcello’s agent regarding a new contract. They did not feel comfortable paying over $18 mill per year for what they saw as a solid #3 SP.Most of the Tiger fans liked Porcello and thought he was “dismissed” by others as to his value. Most of us Tiger fans did not think a Porcello/Cesepedes straight up trade was fair. Detroit did get Wison and Speiel as the extra needed to balance out the loss of the QO draft choice and Boston’s desire to land Porcello.
Detroit then got Greene to replace Porcello. They expected him to fill a #4-5 SP spot this year with lots of upside, team control, and much lower salary.The key to this move is the “much lower salary”.
Boston needs ground ball pitchers and Porcello was a perfect fit. Grew up on the East Coast and would be a good contract extention candidate. After losing out on Lester, they thought Porcello would be a good bet to overpay an AAV for a younger pitcher even if he may not be as good as Lester.
Both teams made business decisions based on the needs of their respective teams and I believe they will both profit from it.
Verlander and Cabrera are future HOF entrants and will go in with the “Old English “D” on their hats. That’s the business decision to their hugh contracts and anything positive Verlander can contribute on the field going forward will be a plus.
He used to get on here talking about how great Porcello was ALL THE TIME. Funny how one trade can all if the sudden make him not as good. Haha
Before he was traded, he was a complete unknown (from “flyover country”), that I thought was a solid #3 and was worth Cespedes PLUS other players in a trade with the Red Sox. I was mocked for that.
Nothing is changed. Except the trade that I thought was fair actually happened ….. and now, I do not think that #3s should get $20,000,000 per year (more than ANY other Red Sox player).
You actually said he was worth more than Cespedes and the QO. That is what you were mocked for.
Shane Green hasn’t even thrown as many MLB inning as Porcello did in his rookie season. That is basically like calling Corey Kluber Felix Hernandez’s equal based on 2014 alone.
Neither of those two pitchers are in the same hemisphere as Kluber or Felix. However, they are basically interchangeable with each other.
Porcello’s track record may point to a solid #3 pitcher for the next 5 years. Good guy to have, but not as the highest paid player on your team in AAV.
I think Greene can come close or even beat that performance at a small fraction of the cost.
Platooning Pompey this early in his career would be a mistake. The only way he’s going to learn to succeed against lefties in the majors is to face them. If you start hiding him against left-handed pitchers, you complete tarnish his value to the organization.
In a contending year they don’t have time to see if he can learn to hit lefties though. Give him month of April and if he is still struggling against them you start the platoon. Otherwise you risk losing a crucial game or two.
The O’s are also keeping Gausman in the bullpen because he was going to be on limited innings this year (150-160 is the number I saw reported during spring training a few times), so this is one way of doing that while keeping him in the majors. Unfortunately, he hasn’t looked good out of the pen. His command isn’t particularly good at this point in the season, although he hasn’t been any worse than the rest of the pen, who as a group have allowed at least one run in every game this season.
I’m gonna get blistered for saying this, but the rumor was the Rockies wanted Gausman (who is from CO) last year for De La Rosa, and everyone on this board and everywhere else laughed at it. Orioles should have done it, and as a Rockies fan I’m now glad they didn’t.
Based on 6 innings this year? That is what one would call a small sample size. I’d take the cheap 24 year old with a lot of upside and team control over the 34 year old roughly replacement level player making 12.5 million a year on the disabled list. De La Rosa career ERA+ 99, last year 104.
Gausman threw roughly 150-160 innings last year and he doesn’t have any innings restrictions for 2015. Showalter was asked about this in Spring Training and said without hesitation that there were no restrictions on him this year. Perhaps you’re thinking of Dylan Bundy having restrictions since this is his first full season post-TJ surgery. He’s certainly limited innings-wise for 2015.
Why do the Orioles want to rid themselves of Jimenez? They signed him to a nice contract. They gave up a draft choice to get him. Makes no sense. Quite frankly, I want him to stay.
Like I said before though not on here.
I would trade Chen or Norris and send the remaining one to the pen and insert Gausman into the rotation.
Or like I said yesterday trade Davis and Norris to the Marlins for Latos. Provided Latos is healthy.
I agree on Jimenez, he’s probably a better option that what we could trade for anyway. As for Norris I really wish the O’s would have traded him over the off season.
If this was written about Jimenez last summer then I totally get the reasoning. But if Jimenez is able to follow up last Saturday’s start with another similar outing, there won’t be a single person wearing O’ merchandise who will want him going anywhere anytime soon.
Trading a 26 year old rookie SP who was never even a prospect for even a slight chance at a young, cheap solution for a long term SS is a risk worth taking imo
Don’t know too many 26 year old rookies who are 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA over 16 innings to start the season.
You go broke with that kind of strategy. Healthy young SP’s with some solid major league experience are hugely valuable in an era when pitchers go down seemingly every day. Meanwhile, anyone — and I mean ANYONE — who watched the Dbacks at all the last couple years could tell you that Didi is not an impact major league player. Utility guy at best. Never rely on public prospect valuations. They’re usually not worth the paper they’re on.
Might be a long shot, but how about slowly transitioning/training Bautista to be a 1B, and then have an outfield of Saunders, Pompey, Pillar. Would be AWESOME defensively, so long as Joey Bats can figure it out at first.
Pompey is too valuable defensively to get rid of entirely, and his plus speed makes him dangerous in combination with Reyes (hopefully he can become a regular #2 hitter if he can pick it up with the bat)