The Braves have pulled the trigger on a number of painful trades in recent months, and David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that some hurt more than others. It’s still an open question whether dealing the controllable Evan Gattis made sense, and the timing of Craig Kimbrel’s departure was tough to bear for fans. But the swaps that still carry the most uncertainty in terms of their baseball wisdom, says O’Brien, are the two deadline deals. Parting with Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson for a relatively unexciting return left the club badly exposed down the stretch. And the risky swap that brought in Hector Olivera could end up looking really bad (or really good) in retrospect. But just-minted GM John Coppolella says that he likes the players that came over from the Mets quite a bit, and adds that the organization still believes Olivera delivers “really good value for what we think he will be.”
- Meanwhile, Mets skipper Terry Collins says that he sees the team’s acquisition of Uribe and Johnson as a key spark to the season, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman writes. “I believe that was the trade that set things where we started to go,” Collins said. “They provided two professional bats in that lineup and [experience] in that clubhouse. All of a sudden guys are looking at their jobs saying, ’Oh my gosh, I’ve got to step up here’, and they did. I think that to me is when we started turning things around.”
- The Yankees were not able to add that kind of impact at the deadline, as it turned out, but the club doesn’t regret its summer trade activity, as MLB.com’s Barry Bloom writes. Manager Joe Girardi said that he feels “the organization made the right decision not giving up … your top prospects, your blue-chip prospects just for a two-month rental.” As he noted, the team got big contributions from young players who might theoretically have been trade chips: in particular, first baseman Greg Bird, starter Luis Severino, and second baseman Rob Refsnyder. GM Brian Cashman made clear that he feels the same way. “No, I don’t have any regrets.”
- It remains to be seen how the Red Sox will attack the offseason under new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, but Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe explains that the club has plenty of trade chips if it opts to pursue that route. That creates a situation where we should expect the unexpected, in the estimation of the veteran scribe. He ticks through the trade value and status of many of the organization’s assets, focusing on those who reside on the 40-man.
Severino looks like he might be a keeper, so a cheap, controllable young arm on a pitching staff that has too many older medical cases seems like a smart move. the Yankees limped into the wild card game, lost it, and went home. Would they really have been much better if they had traded prospects for more expensive aging vets? I don’t think so. They need an overhaul, and they can only do that with those older contracts coming off the books–and those older players no longer needing to be on the field. You could sit a 20M player–maybe–but you can’t sit several of them.
The Mets traded their “Severino” (Fulmer) and got a monster bat that is carrying their team on his back (Cespedes).
The Yankees were clearly a better team than the Mets on July 31st. That is obviously not the case right now.
The Mets’ Severino was not Fulmer. It was Matz. They traded a lesser prospect, and more importantly, a lesser needed prospect. They did not Fulmer, and may not need Fulmer because of their ridiculous rotation. They needed a big bat. And that’s exactly what they got.
Yankees needed rotation help. Two very different scenarios.
In case my point got lost, Fulmer was expendable while Severino was a necessity.
Severino is ahead of Fulmer in terms of getting to the Big Leagues. However, their books have not been written yet. Check back in 5 years and lets see who ends up being the better pitcher (reference: Chamberlain, Hughes…).
And don’t forget that the Tigers also had PRICE who was traded for Daniel Norris.
Looks like you missed the point. Fulmer was expendable since they already had a great rotation. Severino was not expendable because the Yankees rotation was not looking good outside of of Tanaka and Pineda.
Had the Mets traded a highly touted hitting prospect, you could have compared the situation. But both teams did what was right for the organization, one by trading, one by not.
@bobbleheadguru
Disagree. Severino was a top 30 prospect in all of baseball. Michael Fulmer *might* be a top 100 prospect right now. He also has issues with remaining healthy. By the way, Severino is younger and already in the majors while Fulmer might be ready in 2016, could be 2017.
Also, as the other poster pointed out, the Mets were dealing from a position of strength. They’ve got deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard, Matz, Wheeler, Montero, and others. The Yankees did not have that luxury.
On the flipside, if the Mets didn’t already have deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard, and Matz, Fulmer would have almost certainly been pushed more quickly. The team took their time with Fulmer because they had the luxury.
The yankees have a older rotation? News to me…
Yankees have one of the youngest rotations in the league. What are you talking about? The only teams younger than them were the Rays and Braves.
CC 34, Tanaka 26, Pineda 26, Eovaldi 25, Severino 21
Unless you’re counting Capuano, who is 36, in the mix for some reason. But that would be odd. The team would use Nova, 28 or Warren, 27 before Capuano.
Yankees need to quit signing aging vets and throwing millions of dollars at lower tier free agents. Look at Ellsbury’s contract. Over $150 million for a player who is on the downside of his career.
That’s why they brought up players like Severino and Bird to handle big time spots.
That’s exactly what they’re doing.
Looking at the Sox rotation, ERod is the only pitcher with a definite locked up spot for next year. We should put Joe Kelly in as long relief, trade Pablo for Shields, trade Swihart for Sonny Gray, and build a package around Rusney for Chapman. Also sign JP Howell for the bullpen
What’s the big deal with trading Uribe/Johnson? An ATL team that was already trending down when they traded them, got top-20 prospects for guys that wouldn’t be on a 2017 team. Really like Uribe and think he’s a great clubhouse presence, but that shouldn’t offset flipping him for a gain unless we really wanted to stick it to NYM.
Because they kept the Braves line-up alive and really helped the team win games. They were a spark and without them the Braves became dismal. It’s quite possible that the line-up won’t continue this trend, but that’s still how the players and the fans feel about this team right now even though the front office knows what’s up.
All will be forgiven and forgotten if this team can start hot next year. Their young guys need experience.
When Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe are your spark plugs, then it’s time to pull the plug on the season. The two were prototypical trade chips. When you remember that Hart got Uribe as part of the Alberto Callaspo trade earlier in the season, any value extracted from trading Uribe away looks all the more better
The Braves got a better draft pick moving forward. At the end of the season, if the team misses the playoffs, the fans don’t care so much if the team won 70, 75, or 79 games if the resulting draft pick becomes an impact player a couple of years down the road. Getting a top pick is huge.
All of MLB has been so tired of the Yankees “sign all all-stars even if they have better players in the minors and the players aren’t a good fit on the team.” It made zero sense to sign Ellsbury and pass on Cano, either re-sign Robbie or let them both pass and go younger and cheaper. The fact that they appear to want to keep their good young players is refreshing. They won 4 titles by going the farm system+adding vets who are a need/fit route, and only 1 in 15 years with the “buy everyone whos available and played in an all-star game.” Turning down Beane’s offer of Zobrist for Refsnyder & Warren is how all teams need to be run. The Yankees have been a flawed team for a long time and STILL are contending/being well over .500 even with a poor rotation. I think now its more clear what they’re needs are and next season is what they’re gunning for. If they can move A-Rod (TB?) so Tex can DH and Bird can 1B they will be in excellent shape. Moving Beltran so Judge can come up should be imperative too. They’re only a couple SPs away from owning the East again, but those SPs need to be Keuchel or other sinkerballer-types, not power arms.
The yanks are going to pay tens of millions for arod to pay for tampa?
Gattis’s production alone this is enough to justify the trade. 27 home runs can only get you so far, especially when its paired with a painful .285 obp. An OPS+ of 101 is not what you want to see out of your cleanup hitting DH. His WAR of 0.0 (per fangraphs) sounds about right. I wouldn’t want him anywhere near a glove either. Now I’m pretty low on Folty panning out as a starter for the braves, but the bar is pretty low for them to win that trade
@bruinsfan94
Just like the millions the Red Sox will pay to make Big Panda go away?
The difference is Arod is productive. I’m not sure why the yankees would ever trade of their better hitters to tampa while paying him.
Yea I’m not sure what you mean. Those situations are very different. I’m saying that its very unlikely that Arod would be traded to tampa. Arods salary is like 40% of Tampas current payroll, and they have said that its unlikely the Rays payroll will even be that high next year.