While all five AL East teams have clear roster needs, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe observes that the division is so closely-packed (and overall mediocre) through two months that one team could break away from the pack simply by getting healthy and playing up to expectations, rather than by making a big trade or two. Here are some hot stove items from Cafardo’s latest Sunday Notes column…
- “I don’t see us making a major acquisition for a pitcher [at this time] but I’m not going to say I wouldn’t do it,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. As Cafardo notes, the returns of Masahiro Tanaka and Ivan Nova could bolster the rotation, and prospect Luis Severino could also provide some late-season help.
- Reds right-hander Mike Leake is considered by one AL scout to be able to “pitch in either league with no problem” and at the trade deadline, “there might be more action on him than any pitcher out there.” The Reds could be looking to deal the free agent-to-be since they didn’t discuss an extension with him during the offseason.
- Leake’s trade value may be improved by the fact that teammate Johnny Cueto and the Athletics’ Scott Kazmir (two more pending free agents) have recently been dealing with elbow and shoulder problems, respectively. Teams will need to see a few healthy outings from both pitchers before their trade interest can be rejuvenated.
- The Dodgers were scouting the Red Sox during their series with the Twins last week. Cafardo notes that L.A. is looking for relief help.
- With Matt Adams gone for possibly the entire season and the Cardinals in need of first base help, Cafardo opines that Allen Craig could be a possible trade fit. Craig’s contract, of course, is a major obstacle, not to mention the fact that St. Louis felt comfortable dealing Craig away last summer. Craig is hitting well at Triple-A but Cafardo writes that it might take “another two weeks of good hitting” for Craig to earn a call-up back to the Red Sox.
- With Trevor Plouffe playing well as the Twins’ regular third baseman, Cafardo wonders if Minnesota would consider a position change for star prospect Miguel Sano. There has already been a lot of speculation that Sano might be not be able to handle playing third over the long term, though Plouffe is also not a great defensive option. Of greater concern for the Twins right now is Sano’s recovery from Tommy John surgery, and the early results are pretty good, as Sano is hitting .247/.346/.488 over 191 Double-A plate appearances.
Craig to the Cards. Do these reporters just write down every name out there?
Cafardo does.
Cafardo is consistent. If the person plays for the Red Sox, he’s immensely valuable. If he leaves, then Cafardo is the conduit for dirt. And if Cafardo wants to see a deal made, he pushes for it. Craig to the Cardinals solves a Red Sox problem–that’s why Cafardo likes it.
Craig to the Cardinals makes a lot of sense if the Sox eat a lot of the deal.
In what universe does Allen Craig start over Mark Reynolds? Have you been in a coma for the last two years? It’s not 2013 anymore.
Did I say Craig would start over Mark Reynolds? I said it ‘makes a lot of sense if the Sox eat a lot of the deal.’ Just in case you haven’t been paying attention for the past, oh, 15 years, I said this because Cardinals management is outstanding at picking solid ‘buy-low’ players and reviving their careers. In this case, the great part of the career happened to be with the Cardinals.
It still doesn’t make sense for two very important reasons:
First, if they could revive him, he wouldn’t have failed so miserably to begin with before they gave up and traded him.
Second, the whole point of trading for a first baseman is to have someone to replace or platoon with Reynolds, and Craig even hits from the wrong side to be an effective platoon partner. If they were just looking for a 1B off the bench, they’d just call up Scruggs from AAA and even he’d probably hit better than Craig would.
The Dodgers were scouting the Red Sox? Don’t both teams basically have the same needs? Pitching?
Craig has hit .345 in the minors so far, but thats in 15 games. Cardinals are a smart organization, they won’t have interest yet.
I’m hugely curious on the market for Leake when he becomes a FA. He could top 100M.. as strangely as that sounds. He has a somewhat better track record than Porcello, hes the same age, and Porcello just got 82.5M
Both need pitching, but the Dodgers just need an inning-eater. The Red Sox lack an ace; they’ve got plenty of mid-rotation guys who could help LA.
Cole Hamels is ready and willing to take Boston into playoffs , FOR A Price !
Cole Hamels is not going to fix this flawed Red Sox roster……I’d rather just hold onto what we have in young cost controlled players and prospects and see if they can get anything out of their triumvirate of young lefty starters…….Owens, Johnson Rodriguez.
You mean Boston is going to sit back and watch NY, Tampa, Toronto make the big moves, the division is for the taking just get Hamels and cut losses with Big Papa.
Hate to be that guy, but Tampa isn’t going to make big moves, they just don’t do that unless they’re on the selling end of things. And Toronto really doesn’t have the financial means to do anything substantial with the payroll as is this year, which is unfortunate for them because that offense is really,really good.
Duquette will make some minor moves and Buck will bring that team home with room to spare.
I could see Baltimore making marginal moves, was just addressing the mentioned teams, and the comment was referring to big moves anyhow.That being said, I really don’t see any of the teams taking it with much room to spare, each team has it’s well establish flaws,Baltimore included.
and my blue jays continue to falter. AA always bolsters the team where we dont need it although donaldson and martin are our best players. Ive really come to learn that bautista and edwin just arent good in situational purposes. Theyre horrible at moving runners over or getting sac flies. And they usually mash off bad pitchers. Martin and Donaldson hit good pitching and arent streaky. Jays truly need a starter and some bullpen help or this season is going to go down the drain fast.
It’s really a shame because your Blue Jays are one of the premier offenses in the league in my opinion, but there’s little room financially for them to really nab any impact pitchers unless AA somehow finds a way to get creative somehow and relieve some of that salary in a deal, which isn’t a very easy task to put on him. In theory, they could try to move one of those bats for a high end pitcher, but who’s to say they feel any inclination to do that, either? Seems like a real mess.
#1 in runs scored in the mlb if im not mistaken. Basically THE premier offence in the league. I have said for a long time to move joey bats+ a prospect… maybe a miguel castro? for a hamels/papelbon and 20M. That sounds more than fair to me and AA is getting fired if we dont make it this year, thats basically a fact. Losing stroman was a big loss, but who knows, weak ALE, we could still somehow pull it off. But the pitching just isnt cutting it… its definitely a mess. Bright side though, we have donaldson and martin locked up for quite awhile.
Edit: The phillies probably dont want bautista, but on the other hand, he as a cheap option that can be picked up next year and then they could flip him for another prospect. So nvm yes, they should want him.
Why should the Blue Jays ownership approve more spending? The Blue Jays ownership invested in the team and they failed miserably. Why keep throwing good money after bad?
Well they failed miserably because of injuries for the most part. Although id say the biggest disappointment was josh johnson. Still cant believe he was that bad for us. i always liked AA as well, but now im starting to truly question him as a gm. He never fills the holes that need to be filled. Im thinking its time for a new gm to come in and help build this team.
Jays and Padres are under the gun if they don’t start to turn it around.
The Rays won’t have to make any moves if they start to get some of their injured players back. They have 3 position starters and at least one of their SP expected back from the DL at some point this summer. Those 4 players have averaged a combined 8.5 fWAR over the past 3 seasons. That is a nice shot in the arm for a team that is already surpassing expectations.
Oh, you won’t get any argument from me, I think those additions of injured players will be an interesting addition because as you said, they’ve played better than most would have expected as is. I was just saying not to look for them to make a splashy move, that’s not really in their nature. I don’t know that those additions will put them over the top, but who knows.
Providing the ownership doesn’t decide to go on a fire sale, which I expect will happen if attendance doesn’t improve. Why bother spending money if nobody will come to the games?
Their entire situation is so unfortunate and there’s not a whole lot they can do about it for the time being, I hope it doesn’t begin creating problems to that degree for the sake of competitive spirit if nothing else.
Move to Havana !
Rays need to be relocated to Charlotte!
Tampa’s likely to be selling regardless of whether they’re in contention or not because of factors outside of the game (mostly the stadium issue and future commitments being impossible for the Rays to afford.)
Oh yeah….that would make them front runners for sure. The whole rotation is flawed as is the bullpen. The offense has been pretty blah. After today’s loss they would need to win at a .613 clip the rest of the way to get to 90 wins and a 598 clip to get to 88 wins. Just adding Hamels and his mediocre interleague record isn’t going to help that much……especially when you consider the asking price for Hamels. Eat Big Papi’s contact….Why? So we can take on Howard too? Nah.
The Red Sox could add Kershaw and one of the Royals 3 top relief pitchers for 2 below average Class A prospects and it will not get them over the hump.
But don’t you want to give all of those Great Boston Prospects a chance ,or stay with fat overweight X-Juciers
I’m not against moving on from Ortiz at some point but that has nothing to do with rebuilding the Phillies farm system in exchange for Hamels. You’ve got heavy prospect envy don’t you William?
Right. And the Red Sox are probably better off not paying that price!
I don’t know if we see Leake pull in that kind of money, even considering what Porcello got, that deal was less years with higher AAV, which isn’t common, from a team with a lot of money and a noted tendency to avoid long term commitments to pitchers, I question if he would have pulled off the same deal had he reached FA. Unless that starts being a more common type of contract structure, of course.
I could see a 5/90 for leake.
It will certainly be interesting to see how his market develops! I don’t see him eclipsing $100M unless its a longer deal, but then again, $90M doesn’t sound all that far off either.
Im wondering if the porcello deal set the precident for young starting pitching. Personally, I dont think so because its widely known porcello got overpaid unless he performs very well this year.
Wouldn’t we wait for the contract to expire before evaluating whether or not it was an over pay?
The only BP pieces I can see Boston moving are the ones barely on the roster with a job anyway.. Breslow, Ross and then several and Pawtucket in Spruill, Hembree, Hinjosa and Eveland. None of which are above low quality at best.
I can’t see them moving any of Taz, Barnes, Koji, nor possibly Ogando, tho the last would be the least likely to have solidified his LT “stay” in the pen with the recent work of Barnes.
Maybe the Dodgers were scouting the Red Sox relievers? Dodgers need relief help more than they do starting pitching. Starting pitching has been pretty solid. I still think they will trade for a starting pitcher tho w/ Ryu done for the season. Perhaps Cueto or Kazmir.
Hmm, I’d trade anything not Urias, Pederson, Seager, De Leon, Holmes, Cotton, possibility Bellinger for Buchholz if I were the Dodgers. He’d be a perfect #3 for them.
That’s assuming the Sox continue to play like this.
The Dodgers would probably have to overpay a bit for him.
I think the Dodgers have moved on from pursuing Hamels. Cueto or Kazmir can be had for cheaper.
Craig to the Cardinals legitimately makes sense but my guess is that the Cardinals will expect Boston to chow down on a good amount his contract.
My guess is that the Red Sox will just stash Craig in AAA until he is ready to come back up. If he is hitting well at the big league level, they will just sit back and see if the market develops for other teams in need of help at 1B/OF/DH. That will give them the most leverage in terms of saving money on Craig’s contract and getting a better return in terms of prospects/players.
We also need to see how Mark Reynolds does with the everyday job for the Cardinals. If his bat heats up in the summer and he actually hits his weight and then some, the Cards might not need to make any moves.
Why would Craig make sense when they already have Reynolds? They traded him away in the first place, because he just can’t hit MLB pitching anymore. Even if Reynolds’s batting average regresses back to barely over the Mendoza Line of the last two years, his power still makes him a better hitter than Craig. Heck, even their AAA 1B Xavier Scruggs is likely a better option at this point!
“…. though Plouffe is also not a great defensive option.”
Trevor Plouffe worked extremely in the offseason, and has been playing 3B as well as anyone else in the AL. Probably was looking over his shoulder at Sano – but, whatever works.
Agree, he improved dramatically last year and has looked pretty good by my unsophisticated eyes this year. He made two smart plays today (that won’t show in the metrics), one potentially saving a run by going home instead of attempting an unlikely double play.
Best part of the link is in the comments:
1. Twins and Plouffe, “a great example of being patient with a kid”
2. “It’s time for the Red Sox to trade Jackie Bradley Jr. … “
“though Plouffe is also not a great defensive option.” Plouffe has been an above average defensive 3B the last 3 seasons according to Baseball Reference totaling 1.6 dWAR.
I don’t see Cashman getting another pitcher unless Tanaka is out for the rest of the season. If Tanaka and Nova come back and pitch well the Yanks will have a good shot of making the playoffs. They were 20-12 before Tanaka went down. On the other hand if neither is healthy the Yanks will get a top pitcher at the deadline. I could see them picking up a player like Zobrist or Clippard at the deadline to sure up 2nd and their relief pitching.
Jays AA needs to make the right moves before the deadline or he is toast!
Wouldn’t trading for Mark Trumbo make so much more sense for the Cardinals? He would be an awesome fill-in at 1B for now, then move to RF next year (let Heyward walk, or trade him at the deadline). Trumbo might be cheaper in the long run, and provide better power numbers…….
Ignoring the fact that Trumbo has now already been traded, the Cardinals would prefer not to add a guy with multiple years remaining on his contract. They’ll have Adams back next year and Grichuk and/or Piscotty likely ready to take over RF if Heyward walks.
I posted that the day before he was traded……and the Cards could have just let Heyward walk, use Trumbo in RF and as a Fill in for Adams vs lefties………but it’s all moot now.
Yes, but the point was that the Cardinals already have Grichuk and Piscotty as potential replacements if Heyward walks at the end of the season. Do you think Trumbo would be happy in a Mark Reynolds type role (what it was before Adams’s injury, anyway) as a bench player and pinch-hitter who draws an occasional start against a tough lefty?
What? Im confused? When and where did I say they werent clutch or blamed them? I just said they arent good situationally compared to other elite players in the league. Of course they are great players, but honestly what I said is true. especially of bautista. He mashes off bad pitching, not aces. and if you watch the games, youd know its a fact. That being said, the offence isnt the problem. I still say trade bautista for an arm.
I dont believe in every saber metric out there. You have to have baseball IQ and actually watch the games and you can get so much more information from that. Bautista is the pop up king. Good hitter, not a great hitter. Very overrated. Alot of padding of the stats with him.