The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo recaps the trade deadline moves, evaluates which teams fared well or poorly with their transactions (or lack thereof) and also looks ahead to the August trade market in his latest column. Some highlights…
- “Plenty of teams” approached the A’s about a trade for Sonny Gray, though unsurprisingly, Oakland held onto the young ace.
- The Mariners believe they can re-sign Hisashi Iwakuma (a pending free agent) for one or two more seasons. For this season, the M’s decided to keep the righty at the deadline, though Iwakuma drew interest from multiple teams.
- Mike Napoli could be an August trade candidate, as one GM called him “a guy teams want to see a little bit more of” to see if Napoli can heat up at the plate. The Red Sox first baseman is only hitting .206/.307/.387 with 13 homers over 362 plate appearances. Boston shopped Napoli prior to the July deadline though the Pirates were the only team known to have any interest.
- There was some deadline day speculation that the Padres could make a run at Pablo Sandoval, though no deal materialized.
- The Red Sox pursued Cole Hamels for 18 months but are still looking for a rotation-topping ace as Hamels ended up dealt to Texas. Cafardo wonders if all this wasted time will hurt Boston, as he feels the Sox could’ve matched or topped the prospect package the Phillies got from the Rangers. Now, the Red Sox will have to spent far more than Hamels’ remaining salary to obtain an ace this winter.
- One team evaluator though the Phillies ultimately fared well in their deadline deals for Hamels, Jonathan Papelbon and Ben Revere, though “from where they started in their demands to where they wound up, it’s quite a fall. But if you look around at other deals, nobody was giving up No. 1 or 2 prospects. They settled for quantity in some cases, but they got a fair share of quality, as well.”
- Cafardo was surprised to see the Tigers deal Joakim Soria, “as relievers of this ilk are hard to come by and the Tigers have a history of being unable to identify them. They finally did with Soria and yet they traded him.”
- The fact that the Tigers entrusted GM Dave Dombrowski with trading Soria, Yoenis Cespedes and David Price could be a sign that Dombrowski may remain in Detroit, Cafardo opines. The two sides hadn’t made progress on an extension as of early July, though Dombrowski’s last extension to remain with the Tigers (in 2011) wasn’t settled until August of that year.
- You can add the Nationals to the list of teams that showed some interest in Justin Upton, as Cafardo writes that Washington “considered” a move for the Padres outfielder.
- Speaking of Upton, Cafardo thinks the Padres could move both he and James Shields in August if the team finally decides they’re out of the race. I would think an Upton deal would be extremely difficult, since any number of teams would put in waiver claims to block him from going to a rival and wouldn’t hesitate taking on the roughly $5MM remaining on Upton’s contract. As for Shields, his much longer and pricier contract makes him unlikely to be claimed on waivers, so Cafardo thinks a team like the Yankees could make a move for Shields to upgrade their rotation.
The Yankees weren’t interested in Shields in the off season.. I am not sure they would have much interest unless the Padres eat a bunch of salary to make up for the savings that received this year.. If the Red Sox were able to get a pitcher like Greinke on a 4 year deal would they really have lost a ton of money in passing on Hamels? Greinke is proven in the AL and is having a monster year.. Personally, I would rather have Greinke for $4m or so more a year than Hamels..
Greinke is getting a lot more than you think if you think he’s signing just a 4 year deal.
I believe greinke will opt out and test the market, the dodgers will have some competition to try and bring him back. I think a dark horse team to sign him could be the nationals
The nationals? They are said to be pretty close to their cap with the signing of Scherzer and need to focus on Zimmerman, Span, Desmond, Fister, Strasburg, Harper, Ramos and a few others leaving. I think they will grab a pitcher, but not another ace
Fair enough, But I think that this could be the make or break year for the nationals. As for greinke leaving L.A , I think it happens
It is pretty well known that the Nationals are letting Zimmermann, Span and Desmond go. Probably Fister as well unless he agrees to a shot-term incentive-laden contract – he has not pitched well this year. Strasburg and Harper are not free agents. They will very probably resign Ramos.
The Nationals have a number of young starting pitchers they will promote from the minors shortly. Would not be surprised to see them make a run for Greinke or Price in free agency, or trade for a TOR pitcher. Rizzo loves pitching.
I can see easily see Iwakuma getting much more than 1-2 years, especially after today’s performance. He’s the type of player an aggressive GM makes a 3-4 year offer and hopes he gets two seasons similar to what he did in 2013 and 2014.
I don’t understand the Padres and Panda link.
I could see Toronto making Dombrowski an offer he can’t refuse to become their President of Baseball operations to replace Beeston. They finally get a DD for the job after all.
Detroit, Toronto, Boston could all be looking at Dombrowski. Detroit would be smart to extend him before the others can talk to him if they are keen on holding onto him
There is only a few teams that can trade for sonny gray, dodgers cubs and the red sox. they have the right prospects to snag him from the a’s.
Nationals and others have th prospects as well. And Rizzo has a track record trading with Beane.
So could the Astros, Yankees, Jays, Twins, Pirates, Phillies or Braves…
Yup, for the teams that wanted Hamels, but valued all their top prospects, this is the moment of truth. Now you gotta pay darn near close to 30mil for 7yrs for a player who’s contract won’t end until his 36,37,38 years of age. It will get up their, due to all the teams bidding .. Everyone values prospects, so a good amount of teams will be willing to get their ace by spending. But if your prospects don’t pan out, then you lost out on a cheaper ace which would allow you to have sold your prospects high and given you greater financial flexibility in terms of pitching. Time will tell, but for an example, a few years back Hamels was rumored to be headed to Texas for Olt and Profar ….. Did they get the better deal now or then? Hamels for Olt and Profar would have been highway robbery, I doubt this trade will workout so well. Will see, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Good luck to all the teams
I can see Alfro and Williams up next year. But I don’t think Hamels will pitch well in texas. Just pitching in that place on hot summer days and in that stadium, I thought the dodgers were the best fit for him
You are the first person I’ve seen bring that up, and I think you’re correct.
Hamels is not a blow then away / K guy. The humidity in Arlington has made is a hitters park since its inception. Hamels hope is that he wind games 4-3 and 5-4 instead of 3-2 and 2-1.
He has pitched in a hitter’s park throughout his entire career
I Agree, Dodger Stadium would have been perfect fit for Cole Hamels, He a Strikeout , Flyball pitcher, Even Citizens Bank Park , was better for him than Hot Air Texas Stadium, Two flyball that barley make it out in Texas might have been caught or off the Wall in Phila. He Smart and he’ll adjust to Park,by throwing more Junk and keeping batters off his Fastball as he ages.
It might even be good for him in the Long Run , I bet though that Rangers Trade him Late next season to Dodgers or Giants if he not effective .
TAC, the market spoke, and the Phillies did reasonably well, but not the haul RA expected. Assets are worth what other people are willing to pay for them. The alternative was for the Phillies to hold, and fairly obviously, they choose to take the best offer on the table rather than take any additional risk. The deal the Phillies got was what Hamels was worth.
No one knows what Amaro expected, but Phillies’ fans were told no one would give up top 40 prospects for Hamels and they got three players in BP’s top 40. The Phillies ended up with more than the fans expected.
Total stupidity on Bostons part for taking the cheap on getting Hamels.
There’s also the whole thing about Hamels not being willing to waive his no-trade rights to go to Boston but hey, why pay attention to that when you could just hate on Boston right?
While Hamels wouldn’t waive his no trade for Houston there’s no evidence that the Phillies ever presented him with a Boston option. The Phillies were looking for a power hitting outfielder and a catcher at AA or above and the Red Sox weren’t offering either.
Hamels has been quoted multiple times recently as saying that the only AL teams he would waive for would be New York or Texas.
He was never quoted once saying that. He said that he’d be open to whatever the team presented him with and consider it then. There were a couple of times where an inside source said he thought Hamels wouldn’t go to Houston, but there was no attribution and nothing on Boston.
He couldn’t waive his no trade for New York or Texas since neither were on his no trade list. He was traded to Texas without his permission.
Trading Soria for an A ball shortstop they don’t need when they still had an outside chance at the playoffs was a huge mistake.
I wouldn’t say they can’t identify relievers. They’ve identified Grilli, Rodney, Andrew Miller, Benoit, Valverde, Furbush and Knebel.
They just can’t get them to pitch consistently well in the playoffs in a Tiger uniorm.
i havent seen any red sox fan saying that?
How many times are you going to say that exact same nonsense? No one has ever said that beside you.
” the Padres could make a run at Pablo Sandoval”
seriously?
if the Sox put him on waivers, he won’t be claimed
Don’t think anyone is interested in trading for Shields when he’s making $21m a year the next 3 years. And with Upton it might be better to just take the extra draft pick.