Twins owner Jim Pohlad has given GM Terry Ryan carte blanche this offseason, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN. That shouldn’t be read to mean that Minnesota will compete to sign Jason Heyward and David Price, but it could signal a more aggressive stance from the club. After years of rebuilding, the team finally has a potent young core headlined by Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton. They entered 2015 with a $108MM Opening Day payroll about half of which went to Joe Mauer, Ervin Santana, Ricky Nolasco, and Phil Hughes. They’ll all return with similar contracts. I would anticipate a modest increase in payroll with veteran bench depth and the bullpen as top priorities.
- Minnesota should upgrade at catcher and in the bullpen, writes La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune. The club has sufficient rotation depth even if they lack star power. However, the bullpen was a serious problem where only Glen Perkins stands out – and he’s dealt with neck injuries in the last two seasons. Catcher Kurt Suzuki regressed in 2015. Per Ryan, “Kurt, on his behalf, had a very nice 2014. This year was a bit of a struggle. And that’s an area I feel like I need to help the cause. Maybe take some of the workload down a bit. But we need to improve back there.” Former Twin A.J. Pierzynski could be a target to help shoulder the load.
- The Indians should be open to trading starting pitcher Danny Salazar for the right offensive return, writes Katrina Putnam of FanSided blog Wahoo’s On First. Salazar is coming off an impressive campaign despite starting the season in the minors. He posted a 3.45 ERA with 9.49 K/9 and 2.58 BB/9 in 185 innings and is club controlled through 2021. It’s widely thought that Cleveland will use its rotation depth to improve the lineup, although most analysis focuses on Carlos Carrasco or Corey Kluber. In my opinon, since Salazar is a pre-arbitration player, dealing him could be a challenge from a payroll perspective. They would have to acquire similar pre-arbitration talent.
I would like the Dodgers to go after Salazar. Would they be interested in Puig? or Ethier?
I am not a GM, but I can guarantee you that they’d have zero interest in Ethier.
Isn’t it crazy how far Puig’s stock has fallen since he came into the league? He was labeled as the next Bo Jackson, yet now a large portion of Dodger fans, as well as general baseball fans, either can’t stand his cockiness/selfishenss or simply are through dealing with his injuries. I just find that crazy how much can change.
No.
Just speaking as purely a fan here, I love Trevor Plouffe and feel he is highly under-appreciated. He might be traded because of Sano, as well as somewhat of an influx of highly talented players coming through their system, and if he is I would love him to be on my home team.
Twins should deal him with a weak 3B market. A good return of a young contributor at a position of need should be achievable.
A deal consisting of Plouffe/Cashner and some spare parts could work
To be honest i could see some trade involving them going down.
Some high profile SD names for Plouffe n prospects or others is very plausible.
I just love Plouffe so I might be bias.
Him n Grady Sizemore just make me blindly giddy with euphoria.
Puig, frias, and vanslyke for Salazar and Chisenhall
Puig, frias, and Van Slyke for Salazar and Chisenhall
The Indians and the Cubs match up well. The Cubs need a young arm that is cost controlled. The Indians need a young bat with a high ceiling.
Baez for Salazar. Cubs stick Salazar into the rotation and the Indians get their third baseman with a big stick and a great glove and he is 22.
As a Cub fan id be upset at the front office if they did that trade. If they dangle baez out there this offseason they better get someone better or at least more established than Salazar.
Personally I think the Cubs and Mets agree on a castro for wheeler trade.
I think you’re looking at that trade as a Cubs fan because no way Mets would trade Castro for Wheeler. They initially wanted Gomez for Wheeler remember. And they would ha e to take on a significant amount of money as well. Baez for Salazar would be a pretty fair deal I think.
Baez for Salazar is the trade.
My goodness gracious Cubs fans have taken a left turn into radical homerism … Baez barely gets a back-end AAAA starter right now, let alone Wheeler or Salazar, who was one of the best starters in the AL last year. There aren’t enough “less than” signs in the world to express how much less Baez is worth than Danny Salazar.
And the funny thing is, Baez is actually worth MORE than Castro! Yeesh.
If the Cubs want Salazar or Carrasco, Bryant, Russell or Soler have to be on the table. Maybe a big package of prospects including McKinney.
Soler or Baez for Salazar gets the trade done
No it doesn’t. It isn’t even close.
Why do you think Salazar is this high and mighty prize? Is he good? Yes. But he isn’t even the best SP on your team and has a run for money for being the second best with Carrasco. On the Cubs, at the moment, he’d be their 3rd best starter. Once they sign either Price, greinke, cueto, or Zimmermann he’d be the 4th best pitcher on the Cubs. Soler has his first full season under his belt and did pretty solid. Even better in the playoffs. He’s got the potential to be a .280-.290 hitter with 25 HR power and has some speed…. but leg issues may hinder his SB production. If his leg problems are behind him he’s a 20-20 candidate. Baez bounced back this year. He cut his k-rate significantly in both triple A and on the big league team. He can hit .265-.275 with 30 HR power and he too has 20 SB speed. And he’s a well above average fielder….. all this at shortstop. Two potential annual all stars year in and year out and you think a #3 SP is too valuable for that. Ok. Whoever on here said baez is worth a quad A type player is crazy. That’s like saying lindor would only be worth a 5th starting pitcher quality arm.
I think you’re all high. The Cubs in 2014 traded a red hot samardzija and equally red hot jason hammel to the A’s for Addison Russell, billy Mckinney, quad A pitcher in Straily, and a PTBNL. At the time samardzija had a 2.83 ERA and Hammel had a 2.98 ERA. Two pitchers having better seasons than anything Salazar has sniffed at and it netted the Cubs a top prospect and a mid level prospect…. that’s it. Fans of the Indians and Salazar, the A’s and Gray, the Mets and Harvey, the Padres and Ross, the Wsox and Quintana, and any other pitcher on the block and his fans think that said pitcher will net their team like 2+ top prospects…… no. No it won’t. 25 year old #3 (#4 if on cubs) starter in Salazar for 25 year old castro who plays a premium position that is thin leaguewide is fair. Why indians fans want a cubs SS is puzzling in and of itself. Do you all not like lindor? Baez for Salazar though…… no. Top prospect for a middle of the rotation arm? That’s how GMs get fired.
its pretty obvious that you can’t be taken seriously with your absurd cubbie homerism. castro? hahaha. no one wants a ss that has a wRC+ of 80 in 2 of his last 3 years, plays poor defense and is going to be paid 40M over the next 4 years. that has little to no trade value. brett gardner straight up is about the best you can hope for at this point.
your mentioning of what the cubs got for shark and hammel completely contradicts your argument and shows that you lack any ability to gauge player value. your only measure of player value came from a single season’s worth of performance without any regard for age of players, years of control, contract amount and future projected performance.
lets do a real comparison:
age:
salazar 25, shark 29 (at time of trade), hamel 31 (at time of trade)
years of control:
shark 1.5, hammel 0.5, salazar 5 (more than twice the amount of the other 2 combined!)
price:
shark 15M over 2 years, hammel 6M, salazar: league min and 4 years of arbitration
future projection:
both shark and hammel were having career years with very little chance they’d repeat. hammel with his career mid 4 something era over 7 full seasons all of a sudden has a sub 3 era? yeah, that won’t last. shark? his 2015 performance is all that needs to be said. salazar on the other hand, is just getting better. he added a 2 seam fastball this year that really propelled his jump this season. he has also added velocity to his fastball.
there is no doubt salazar has more value now than shark and hammel had combined last july. and the later package got a top prospect (who many of you now call untouchable a year later) and another top prospect in mckinney. baez won’t be close either. more like schwarber for salazar.
Castro for wheeler just won’t happen. Wheeler may seem to have little value now, but the mets know he’s one good season away from being a top trading chip. Wheeler won’t move.
The Mets eventually have to move one of their starting pitchers. Of DeGrom, harvey, syndergaard, Matz, and wheeler….. 3 already have injury Laden pasts including tommy john surgery. For a team with little too no positional player prospects and every other team knowing this no one is going to our should overpay for potentially damaged goods. Despite one of his worst years castro still hit .265 with 10+ home runs. And that was a bad year. Hard to find even that from an every day shortstop on a good year in today’s game. Not to mention castro INCREASED his value IMO by showing he can also handle playing 2B this year. While im not a huge castro fan myself he is a .280+ hitter who’s no stranger to hitting .300. He has more power than most SSs, about 15/year. He gets grief for his fielding, but he actually has excellent range and doesn’t cost his team too many if any runs. He’s averaged about a 2 WAR per season in his career. That’s not bad (despite me hating the WAR “stat” I’ll use it because everyone else does….. even though it isn’t a real stat).
The Cubs don’t HAVE to trade anyone this offseason. They can wait until next July to trade a middle infielder. If castro is hitting near .300 with a .340 OBP and about 7-8 HRs come July 31st his trade value will just be that much higher. But whoever they trade it almost certainly won’t be anyone other than baez or castro. Soler has an extremely slim chance of being moved. If he is though I can tell you it is highly unlikely it would happen this offseason.
I’m a cub fan and Baez for Salazar is perfect.
What would you expect to get for Baez? He hasn’t proven he can stick in the bigs. Salazar proved he could this year.
That is not enough for Salazar. He is coming off a very good season, while Baez’s stock is still quite low. I could see something like Baez and Soler for Salazar but otherwise, I think the Indians would be wise to hang up. They can do much better than just Baez.
Never going to happen.
Danny Salazar for Trevor Plouffe???
Molitor talked about moving Sano to LF. I think they are concerned about his size at 3B and say he’s too young to be a fulltime DH. I guess all that means Plouffe is staying at 3rd?
i saw that but if they can get a stikeout pitcher for him why not they already have plenty young outfield depth with breakout players like kepler and walker, and potential bounce back players like arcia and buxton
Buxton isn’t really “bounce back”, he’s one of the top if not the top prospect in the game. He just had a rough AA-to-MLB jump for his debut last year.
It doesn’t seem too far apart value wise. It would be an inter-division trade though and that makes it much less likely.
twins not afraid to trade in the division he has done it before: Willingham, young, thome, Liriano
Salazar for Khris Davis (MIL) and a reliever?
As a Brewer fan I would love that trade, however I think it’s very lopsided. No way Salazar is that cheap unless you include Will Smith and a prospect too.