DEC. 10: The D-backs circled back with Leake’s representatives last night, reports MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert (Twitter link). GM Dave Stewart spoke highly of Leake to Fanragsports.com’s Jack Magruder (Twitter link), who echoes Gilbert’s report that the D-backs are still in the mix.
DEC. 9: Right-hander Mike Leake has been an oft-cited target of the Diamondbacks, but ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets that Arizona is no longer pursuing him. It was reported early on Tuesday that the Diamondbacks (and Cardinals) were interested in Leake.
Given the day’s events, though, it perhaps comes as no surprise that Leake is no longer in the Diamondbacks’ plans. Arizona continued revamping its starting pitching with a huge trade to acquire Braves righty Shelby Miller, who will join Zack Greinke atop a new-look rotation. The commitments the Diamondbacks have already made to improve their pitching have been substantial, in terms of both dollars and young talent.
Leake, 28, is among the year’s younger free agents and is coming off a solid season and a nice three-year platform spent mostly with the Reds, but his market hasn’t fully come together yet as much of the early focus this offseason was on top names like David Price, Greinke and Jordan Zimmermann. The crowded trade market has also perhaps slowed some of the traction on Leake, though with Miller and those three aforementioned free agents (plus Jeff Samardzija, John Lackey, Hisashi Iwakuma and J.A. Happ) off the board, Leake is increasingly becoming one of the more desirable free agents on the market.
Charlie Wilmoth contributed to this post.
Well yea. Only thing they need now is a bullpen arm or two.
Giants should re-sign or get Kazmir
Kazmir makes more sense at this point.
Yankees could do with him would be a nice fit
Diamondbacks are out is code for they’re about to sign him!
Imagine if they can fit Leake into the budget:
SP: Greinke, Miller, Corbin, Leake, Ray would form quite a tremendous group to back up a fantastic offense and great defensive squad.
What about Bradley? Honestly curious. I remember him being a top prospect, and having a nice season. Just curious why he isn’t in “your” rotation.
Relax bud, your minor league system is depleted. Hope one of them doesn’t get hurt.
Dbacks trade two prospects and their farm is depleted….lol.
Chase Anderson, Ruby De la rossa are still there plus Zach Godley, Archie Bradley and Braden Shipley. If a starting pitcher goes down they have a ton of options.
Bradley sucks
Dynamite drop in, Monty
LOL
This is why we need the upvote back
Hardly. Before he was beaned, he was showing great potential.
st louis will be shut out for dollar agents, they are certainly not free
I really, really hope Miller has the best year of his career in 2016. I’m a Braves fan so I’m obviously pleased with the trade. The D-Backs paid the Braves more than farely for his services.
Normally, the fans of two teams that traded players feel competitive with each other because they want their team to have made the better move. But what the Braves got was so good that Miller could produce an ERA of 2.25 with 200+ innings and I still wouldn’t feel like we were robbed
Given how things have gone so far, don’t be shocked to read “Diamondbacks Sign Mike Leake” in about eight hours.
De La Rosa has pitched 363 innings, Anderson has pitched 267 innings…..and they’re on your “prospect list”? The Dbacks farm was rated about middle of the pack……and that was before they traded their #1/#2 prospects.
Consider that Arizona has a bunch of #4 and #5 starters who probably should be tried out in the bullpen. How else can they find out if they have the next Wade Davis? But seriously, can you have too much starting pitching depth?