The Cubs aimed high at the trade deadline but ultimately settled for pitchers Dan Haren and Tommy Hunter, writes Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. According to club president Theo Epstein, “the two main players we focused on late ended up not getting moved.” Epstein went on to say that he was aggressive in offering both quality and quantity for top major league talent.
Sources tell Wittenmyer that the two players the Cubs focused upon were pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Tyson Ross. Neither was traded. It was rumored that the Indians were merely gather information about Carrasco’s value while the Padres have been criticized for not knowing “what they really wanted.”
Since signing a four-year, $22MM extension over the offseason, Carrasco has pitched to a 4.03 ERA with 9.90 K/9 and 1.91 BB/9. ERA estimators believe he should be at least a full run better than his ERA, as evidenced by a 2.84 FIP. The 28-year-old also has two affordable option years. It’s hard to imagine that the Indians don’t view Carrasco as a building block. However, it is pragmatic to entertain offers at his physical peak.
Ross agreed to a $5.25MM contract in his second year of arbitration. As a Super Two player, he’ll be eligible for free agency after the 2017 season. Ross has followed up a breakout 2014 with a solid 3.38 ERA, 9.66 K/9, 4.30 BB/9, and a 63 percent ground ball rate.
The Cubs also aggressively shopped shortstop Starlin Castro, but they found few takers. Javier Baez was one of the players discussed as part of a Carrasco package. Meanwhile, the Braves expressed interest in Jorge Soler while discussing Julio Teheran and other young pitchers. Overall, it’s clear that high quality, club controlled pitching is a top priority for Chicago.
I’m glad they didn’t move Baez or Soler for either of these guys. There are better pitchers available in the off season that won’t cost them anything but money.
I’m tired of people saying that. A team like the Cubs can win this year, why not go for it?
Not even mentioning that Carrasco will cost you a good 180M less than David Price.
Maybe, the Cubs COULD win. Who knows in October. All they need to do is win a wild card spot, win the ALDS, the ALCS and the series… No pressure. Or if the Cardinals choke (not gonna happen, but since we are discussing hypotheticals), They would play 3 rounds against the Mets, Dodgers, or whomever else shows up. All in all, incredibly tough matchups make this October one to remember.
They aren’t good enough this year. Still holes on offense and in rotation.
because they are set up to win every single year moving forward.
Teheran doesn’t look right plus his ERA has outperformed his peripherals his first couple years. I don’t want the Cubs to touch him.
@Brixton this team wasn’t a Carlos Carrasco or Tyson Ross away from winning a World Series this year, you obviously must not watch the team.
they could be a hot hitting javy baez away though. am i right?!
Possibly… Any team making the playoffs has a serious shot. I thought in lieu of a major pitching deal that they might bring Fiers in…someone like that. Can’t really fault them for not shipping Baez or anyone for Price…they can sign him over the winter and give up no one.
“The Cubs also aggressively shopped shortstop Starlin Castro, but they found few takers.”
This is stated as if it were a fact, when the only source on this is a Jayson Stark tweet that refers to “clubs” with no specifics.
it’s fairly well known they want to move russell to shortstop, which would involve shopping castro. it’s tough to move him off and somehow hurt his value even more.
I’m not sure what that has to do with the veracity of the statement I quoted.
Castro has hurt his own value. Hes just so borderline on that contract… Hes a risk. Last season he seemed to be turning a corner. But he’s still young even though it seems like he’s been around forever. Maybe they deal him over the winter. Some of that might be determined how Baez continues to look.
Castro is 25 years old in his 6th ML year. We pretty much have an idea of what he is.
I think Castro has been so all over the place that maybe we actually DON’T know what he’s going to be in the next few prime seasons of his career. He looks like he.has it all together and then he looks like he’s fallen apart. Alex Gordon had this similar trend. Castro might not have his long stellar career…but he might have some solid years in his late 20’s. Hes just hard to invest in or trade at this point
Nobody wants Castro- package a few prospects or send some cash along if you’re desperate to move him. He’s not a centerpiece to any deal what so ever.
They must not have tried very hard to acquire them. They have the necessary pieces to get a deal done
Problem is the Cubs might have been dealing with an erratic SD front office that wanted to attach Gyorkos contract to every deal. I just can’t fathom why SD couldn’t get some players moved.
SD didn’t want to get ripped off, or merely stuck with someone else’s baggage, as per the SD norm in previous years. Preller is adamant about not being Theo’s or Cashman’s or anyone else’s subsidy.
In addition the last month has seen an uncharacteristic streak of solid hitting and fielding from Gyorko, giving SD hope that he might finally be on the verge on pulling his weight.
let’s be real. Preller is a terrible GM, but he can’t be delusional. He knows this team is bad. He knows he has almost no payroll flexibility to bring back Upton or to bring in quality free agents. He knows the farm system is non-existent right now.
Further – he knows other teams minor league systems. The guy comes from player development so it’s a bit ridiculous to think he doesn’t have his eye on that part of the business.
So what does it mean when the Padres are being criticized for not knowing what they really wanted? It doesn’t mean the Padres didn’t know they wanted to move guys. And it doesn’t mean they didn’t know who to ask for. It means that they didn’t knownif they wanted to trade guys for prospects or for payroll relief. The reality of baseball in 2015 is that teams taking on multi-year deals via the trade market will base their prospect package around financials. The Yankees offered a lesser package but said they’d pick up Kimbrels contract. The Cubs offered a better prospect package but required the Padres take on Castro’s contract in return. But the Padres couldn’t decide which was better because Preller is living in the 90s where teams are willing to take on gobs of payroll while sill offering huge prospect packages. It doesn’t work that way anymore. Even Philly had to agree to take back Harrison’s contract to get the prospect package they got for Hamels. Until Preller acknowledges that reality, the Padres are going to be stuck.
He was delusional putting this roster together… and I don’t believe that to be an overstatement.
I’ve rewritten this post a number of times, not to change what I say but because I’ve had a different interpretation of what Preller might be doing each time. Honestly I’ve just reached the same conclusion as the writers: He doesn’t know.
I don’t think they can take on much salary. They have about $30MM coming off the books with Upton, Kennedy, Venable, Kelly, Morrow and Josh Johnson departing. However, the money from the Dodgers for Kemp was front-loaded; the Padres will be on the hook for $18MM of it next year compared to $3MM this year, so there goes half of that money. With arbitration raises including for Tyson Ross as a Super Two and a somewhat disappointing season this year relative to expectations, I doubt they have the ability to take much payroll on. In that sense, it makes sense to wait to talk trades of guys like Ross or Cashner until the offseason, when teams have a fresh payroll to work with and more flexibility.
But it explains absolutely nothing about why they would take $0 of relief and zero prospects for Upton, Kennedy, Venable and any of the other FAs they could get something for. With the rough year for Kennedy, I can’t even see them offering a QO so they may literally get nothing for him. For Upton, it’s hard to believe no team in baseball was offering a prospect roughly the equivalent of a mid-30s lottery ticket.
Now they are in a position to start next season with a worse farm than this time last year, a worse team than this year, and little money to spend.
Maybe he pulls some deals in August, but right now I really don’t know what he’s thinking with some of his trade chips.
Kennedy has actually pitched well the past few months. Only reason things look “bad’ for him is because he had an awful start to the season being injured his first start and having a bad april/may but pitched excellent in June and July. If he has a good 2nd half he’s getting a QO.
There has been plenty of indication from the owners that payroll will increase next year. The national media has based a lot of assumptions on the guess that there is no payroll flexibility.
You don’t offer a large payday to Sandoval and Tomas thinking they will say no. You’ll be on the hook for that money, plus any other move you make, if they say yes. Ownership was ok with that scenario.
You can argue with the moves/non-moves, but the evidence is that SD is not acting like a small market, low payroll team anymore.
Josh Byrnes was a terrible GM, at least AJ tried his 1st year. On paper this team looked pretty good, sure we don’t have a true leadoff guy or table setter. Also, we got rid of some big prospects but they were not Preller’s picks. He has faith in this team still, and I haven’t quite given up yet either! Maybe he wanted Ross to stay and didn’t like the offers on the table. We will see what happens the rest of this year, and what he can do in the offseason to fix things.
I can be hard on Rany…but his critique of Preller at Grantland was 90% spot on. The team really DIDN’T look good on anywhere but paper…it looked like names being thrown together in hopes of winning.
Would have been funny if Phillies offered Hamels for Carrasco and got shot down
Justin – you are very sharp…but Preller loving in the 90s would be an example of being delusional.
As I’ve commented before, I think if you’re as stuck as the Padres are right now, you hang on to your guys…in the end you believed in them more than anyone else going in, so you presumably still value them more than anyone else – for better or for worse.
The alternative is to be like the Marlins, careening down the road with no map and alienating a fan base.
I don’t think anyone was going to accuse te Padres of being like the Marlins had they jumped the shark and looked at acquiring prospects. The Marlins are unique in that they promised they’d act a certain way once they were given a new stadium, and they clearly reneged on that. The situation with the Padres is really just a case of a team trying one thing, failing, and then reversing course.
It’s an interesting take to think they believe in their players, but I don’t know how true that is. This plan, to me, was clearly a one-year Hail Mary. They had Upton for one year. They took on Upton Jrs money, but that was basically a wash this year since the Braves took back Quentin and Maybin. They signed Shields but all that money is backloaded. They got enough money back from LA to basically off-set Kemps money this year. Really – it’s next year when the money becomes real to them. honestly, I thought they’d blow up this team in the off-season even if they won big this year simply because of the money owed to these guys moving forward.
Padres did two things…they put together a bad lineup and defense while shelling their minor league system…all the while taking on financial bloat
As for the comment about him not being delusional- I meant about his team’s chances. He knows the team is bad. But you’re right. He’s delusionsal for thinking baseball is still operating under the 90s model
He’d have to be delusional to spend those prospects and cash assuming this team would compete… Granted it’s been a TOTAL flop… But he still didn’t account for a post flop direction. It’s like he went all in all wrong
Frankly, no one can fault Preller for making the Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, Derek Norris deals. The team desperately needed a boost in offense, dealt from it’s pitching depth and that would have been enough to excite the fan base.
But he really went just too far with the Meyers, Kimbrel/BJ, and Middlebrooks deals. They already had a closer, solid bullpen. Meyers had huge red flags tied to him regarding his Wrist and was not going to. Middlebrooks red flags as well. At least by keeping Trea Turner, they would have had a young controllable SS long-term. A platoon of Maybin and Venable in CF would have been just fine and Carlos Quentin as bench/1b option was not going to hurt this team financially either. They would have been able to mix and match with Gyorko/Spangenberg/Solarte at 2b and 3b.
The Justin Upton deal only looks better because the Kimbrel deal was so ghastly…I mean..this has been a major fail for SD…there’s just no talking that one away
It’s as if Preller took SD from being the Diamondbacks to the Phillies while completely bypassing the “compete” window. He was asking for WAY too much to break right.