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Rays, Phillies Placing High Asking Prices On Starters

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The asking prices for starting pitching don’t appear to be dipping even as some more supply hits the market, according to reports from ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick and Jayson Stark (Twitter link). Both the Rays and Phillies are said to be seeking significant returns on their best trade assets, buttressed by the idea that they don’t have to sell.

For Tampa Bay, the fact remains that none of its starters are set to reach free agency after the season, so there’s no real urgency to deal. The Rays’ surplus of controllable arms isn’t such a pressing matter that a deal is necessary, and none of its apparent trade pieces is really pitching to expectations. Jake Odorizzi has been steady enough, but the others — Chris Archer, Matt Moore, and Drew Smyly — have at best been inconsistent. Against that backdrop, perhaps it’s unsurprising that appealing offers have apparently not yet developed.

There’s plenty of time between now and the August 1st deadline for that to change, of course, but sources suggest to Crasnick that the odds are shifting towards a move over the winter. The Rays can hope that its starters turn around their performances while still feeling comfortable that the demand will be there given with a weak pending  free agent class. As an executive on a buy-side teams explains it: “There’s no urgency for them to do stuff now. They can set a price, and if they don’t get it, they’ll take it into the offseason.”

As for the Phillies, the deadline is more or less all about one name: Jeremy Hellickson. According to Stark, the Phils are letting other teams know that they will require a top-five type of organizational prospect in order to part with the resurgent righty. Though he’s a free agent, Philadelphia is apparently content with the idea that it can recoup value via the qualifying offer.

That trade stance seems like an interesting gambit that the Phillies organization is well-positioned to try. Hellickson has been lights-out of late, and the rental market is otherwise headlined by an injured Rich Hill and inconsistent Andrew Cashner. Actually holding onto Hellickson is not certain to result in a draft pick — he might fall off in the next several months or could accept a QO — but it’s a plausible enough idea at this point given that Philly has ample financial muscle to actually make him an offer even in the midst of a rebuild.

White Sox Open To Moving James Shields

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The White Sox are willing to trade away righty James Shields, according to Jon Morosi of MLB.com (via Twitter). Shields has split his season between the Padres and the South Siders, who acquired the 34-year-old earlier in the summer.

The swap that brought Shields to Chicago also re-allocated his salary. San Diego is still on the hook for $31MM of the sizable outlay, leaving the ChiSox responsible for around $27MM from the point of the trade (June 4th) forward. Point being: the heavy lifting of re-valuing his contract has already been accomplished. Shields does still have opt-out rights following the season, which is increasingly relevant, though that doesn’t appear to be a major factor in his potential market.

Of primary importance for teams looking to bolster their rotation is the fact that Shields has been quite effective of late. His overall numbers with Chicago aren’t pretty, but that’s heavily influenced by his first three outings in the new uniform — all of which were more or less disastrous.

Since turning in a decent start on June 23rd, Shields has taken the hill six times without allowing more than two earned runs. Though he isn’t generating many strikeouts, and hasn’t regained any of his lost velocity, the veteran has averaged a robust seven frames per outing in that span and has ably managed contact.

While it’s still difficult to imagine a particularly significant return for a pitcher who is no longer the top-of-the-rotation starter, or even the mid-rotation starter, that he once was, it’s not hard to imagine interest developing. Shields is bidding for a remarkable tenth-straight season with 200 innings, is a highly-respected veteran, and has some post-season experience, so there’s added value beyond his current, on-field ability.

Latest On Andrew Cashner

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TODAY, 10:00am: The Giants are still in “active talks” with San Diego regarding Cashner, Morosi tweets, so evidently the market for his services remains wide open.

YESTERDAY, 8:05pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (via Twitter) that clubs eyeing Cashner wanted to see him pitch one more time before deciding whether to meet the Padres’ asking price. Cashner got off to a rocky start when he walked Jose Bautista and gave up a two-run homer to Josh Donaldson, but he recovered quite well, finishing the evening with three runs allowed on four hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six innings.

6:16pm: The Blue Jays/Padres game is underway with Cashner on the mound, so there’s clearly nothing imminent at this time.

3:54pm: Morosi adds that the Padres are still discussing Cashner with multiple clubs, but there’s been enough progress in talks that he could be scratched from tonight’s start vs. the Blue Jays (Twitter link).

3:39pm: The Padres are making progress on a trade involving Andrew Cashner, reports MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). Cashner, widely expected to be on the move prior to the Aug. 1 non-waiver deadline, could even be moved before tonight’s scheduled start against the Blue Jays, Morosi adds. Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller, however, heard otherwise earlier today, tweeting that the Padres are expecting Cashner to start in tonight’s game. However, Miller did add that trade talks surrounding Cashner continue, with the Blue Jays and Marlins “heavily” involved and the Rangers involved to a lesser extent.

Last week, Morosi reported that the Padres were trying to move Cashner before his Thursday start in St. Louis, though obviously those efforts came up short. Cashner threw well against the Cardinals, however, limiting them to a run on three hits and no walks with eight strikeouts across 5 2/3 strong innings, so if anything the delay in finding a trade partner may have caused an ever-so-mild uptick in his value.

Cashner, 29, is currently sporting a 4.79 ERA on the season with 7.5 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 47.3 percent ground-ball rate in 73 1/3 innings. A neck strain and a hamstring strain have resulted in a pair of DL stints and limited his innings this season, further compounding the Padres’ efforts to extract strong value in a potential trade. That said, Cashner’s heater is averaging 93.6 mph this season and has trended upward of late, and he’s still displaying an ability to rack up grounders at a rate that is slightly above the league average. His status as a former high draft pick and top prospect that looked to be delivering on that hype as recently as 2013-14 (2.87 ERA in 298 1/3 innings) creates somewhat of a sense of upside as well, even if the 2015-16 seasons have yielded decidedly underwhelming results (4.47 ERA in 258 innings).

A number of teams have been connected to Cashner in recent weeks, with the Orioles, Marlins, Blue Jays, Rangers and Giants among the supposedly interested parties. Cashner is earning $7.15MM in his final season before hitting the free agent market, and about $2.67MM of that sum remains on his contract through the end of the year. Cashner’s name has been in trade rumors for months, and the right-hander has accepted the fact that his days in San Diego are nearing an end. “I know I’m going to be traded,” Cashner told Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune following his start last week. “It’s just part of the game, part of where the season’s at.”

Central Notes: Sale, Rosenthal, Nunez, Antony

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It still seems like a fairly remote possibility that the White Sox will end up trading southpaw Chris Sale; indeed, rival executives who have spoken with the Chicago front office get the impression that the odds of a deal remain low, according to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. That doesn’t mean that clubs aren’t trying to see what it’d take to reach a deal, though, and ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden provides an entertaining effort at identifying what kinds of trade packages could be negotiated with some major contenders.

Here’s more from the game’s central divisions:

  • The Cardinals seem to be considering how to rebuild fallen closer Trevor Rosenthal, with Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch providing an update after the righty was placed on the DL yesterday. Rosenthal told the team of shoulder discomfort, which suggests there may have been at least some injury considerations underlying his struggles. Meanwhile, the organization is weighing whether to utilize Rosenthal as a starter during his rehab stint. Whether that would put him in line to return to that role, or just permit him to work on his approach in a different manner, remains to be seen, but we’ve heard in the past that Rosenthal would like to return to the rotation.
  • Among the players being “evaluated” by the Indians is Twins utilityman Eduardo Nunez, per Buster Olney of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The 29-year-old has mostly played on the left side of the infield this year, but he also has experience at second and the corner outfield. Nunez has turned his career around over the last two years in Minnesota, as he owns a .293/.326/.440 batting line with 16 home runs and 34 steals over his last 590 plate appearances. Presumably, the interest in Nunez relates primarily to the ongoing struggles of third baseman Juan Uribe, who is hitting just .209/.262/.336 on the year.
  • It’s not yet clear how serious a candidate acting Twins GM Rob Antony is for the full-time job, but he might be back with the organization in 2017 regardless, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets. Team president Dave St. Peter noted that Antony is under contract for the coming season, and seemingly suggested that the club would like to keep him around even if he doesn’t get the permanent gig to replace Terry Ryan. Minnesota’s upper management has also made clear that skipper Paul Molitor will be retained.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/27/16

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Here are the latest minor moves from around the game, all via Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise noted:

  • The Rangers released outfielder Justin Ruggiano, per a club announcement. It had seemed at one point over the winter that Ruggiano would hold down an important role at the major league level for Texas, but the team ended up adding Ian Desmond and the veteran Ruggiano has received a grand total of four major league plate appearances on the year. He has been playing at Triple-A, where he owns a .226/.321/.427 batting line with seven home runs over 190 plate appearances. The eight-year MLB veteran could yet have an impact this year with another organization; he has enjoyed some productive runs in the majors, including a late-season spurt last year with the Dodgers.
  • Outfielder Ronnier Mustelier was outrighted by the Braves. He had received his first major league call-up for Atlanta at 31 years of age, but didn’t see any action. He owns a .300/.362/.399 slash over 357 plate appearances on the season at Triple-A Gwinnett. After leaving his native Cuba, Mustelier joined the Yankees organization before the 2011 season, then played mostly in Mexico and Venezuela last year after New York cut him loose.
  • The Marlins have outrighted right-hander Asher Wojciechowski after recently designating him for assignment. The 27-year-old struggled in a brief stint with the Astros last year — his only taste of major league time to date — and hasn’t really put things together since a promising 2013 campaign. Wojciochowski hasn’t been very effective this year at the Triple-A level, where he has issued too many free passes to keep runs off of the board.
  • Righty Justin De Fratus signed a minor league deal with the Nationals after being released by the Rangers. Now 28, De Fratus was a source of quality innings for the Phillies not long ago. Entering the 2015 season, he had thrown 114 major league innings of 3.08 ERA pitching with 8.1 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9. Things went south from there, however, as De Fratus scuffled to a 5.51 ERA in his ensuing campaign and hasn’t seen the majors since. He had not shown well since moving from the Mariners’ to the Rangers’ top affiliate, walking more batters than he struck out over 9 1/3 innings.

Blue Jays, Mariners Swap Drew Storen, Joaquin Benoit

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10:48pm: The cash considerations going to Seattle in the deal are simply to offset the difference between Storen’s $8.35MM salary and Benoit’s $8MM salary, reports Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune (on Twitter).

10:09pm: The Mariners announced tonight that they have acquired right-hander Drew Storen and cash considerations from the Blue Jays in exchange for right-hander Joaquin Benoit. Storen was designated for assignment by the Blue Jays over the weekend.

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The trade represents a swap of struggling veteran setup men, as each has posted an ERA north of 5.00 this season. Storen’s struggles have been more pronounced, as the former Nationals closer has posted a 6.00 ERA in 33 1/3 innings for the Blue Jays this season after opening the year as the top setup man to sophomore closer Roberto Osuna. Storen has posted a very solid 32-to-10 K/BB ratio in that time and delivered a strong 47.2 percent ground-ball rate, but he’s also experienced a significant dip in his fastball velocity. After averaging 94 mph on his heater last season, Storen has checked in at 91.9 mph in 2016. He’s thrown his four-seamer less often, swapping it out for an increased reliance on his sinker — hence a nearly nine percent increase in his ground-ball rate — but home runs have plagued Storen this year. Over the life of his career, he’s posted an 8.2 percent homer-to-flyball ratio, but that number has more than doubled to a whopping 17.6 percent this season. The shift to the American League East and, more specifically, the homer-happy Rogers Centre, has perhaps contributed to some of the increase, but a rate that high is almost always due for some regression. Abandoning the current launching pad in which he pitches his home games should do Storen some good, especially when considering that he’ll move into the spacious confines of Seattle’s Safeco Field.

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Benoit, meanwhile, has pitched to a 5.18 ERA across 24 1/3 innings in that decidedly more pitcher-friendly environment. Unlike Storen, his velocity is holding strong at age 39 (today is his birthday), but Benoit has seen a significant increase in his walk rate. Benoit experienced some control problems earlier in his career, but he averaged just 2.6 walks per nine innings from 2010-15 as he established himself as one of the game’s more reliable late-inning relievers. In 2016, however, he’s walked 15 batters (one intentional) in 24 1/3 innings and also hit a batter. Those 15 walks are just eight fewer than the 23 total walks he issued in 65 1/3 innings last year, and they’re actually greater than the 14 free passes handed out by Benoit in an excellent 2014 season that saw him throw 54 1/3 innings with the Padres. Benoit, too, has had some uncharacteristic struggles with the long ball, but the control and an inability to strand runners have been his biggest flaws.

From a contractual standpoint, each player is a free agent at season’s end. Benoit is earning $8MM to Storen’s $8.35MM this season, so the cash considerations that are exchanging hands in this deal are fairly minimal.

[Related: Updated Blue Jays and Mariners Depth Charts]

In some respects, this trade is reminiscent of a swap that Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto made in his days as GM of the Angels, sending struggling closer Ernesto Frieri to the Pirates in exchange for their own underperforming ninth-inning arm: Jason Grilli. Essentially, the trade boils down to a swap of comparably priced assets that had faltered in a similar role despite lengthy track records of success — albeit with other organizations. Both Storen and Benoit were in the first season with their respective, now-former teams, having each been acquired in an offseason trade. Toronto sent Ben Revere to the Nationals in order to acquire Storen, who had spent his entire career to date in Washington. The Mariners picked up Benoit in a trade that sent minor leaguers Enyel De Los Santos and Nelson Ward to the Padres.

Entering this season, Storen had a career 3.02 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 334 innings with the Nationals, who selected him 10th overall out of Stanford back in 2009. Benoit, on the other hand, reinvented himself with the 2010 Rays after shoulder surgery caused him to miss the entire 2009 season. From 2010-15, he pitched to a brilliant 2.35 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 379 innings for the Rays, Tigers and Padres.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pitching Rumors: Chapman, Ervin, Hill, Hellickson, Ubaldo, Blue Jays

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Joel Sherman of the New York Post walks readers through the winding process the Cubs took to reach an agreement on an Aroldis Chapman trade with the Yankees. Per Sherman, the Cubs never wanted to pursue a rental pitcher but weren’t able to convince the Yankees to back down from their demand of Kyle Schwarber. Chicago then turned to the Royals, only to find the asking price on Wade Davis to be even higher than the asking price on Miller. The Cubs weren’t willing to deal from their big league roster to upgrade the ’pen but were willing to deal from their infield depth, parting with Class-A shortstop Gleyber Torres largely because of the presence of both Addison Russell and Javier Baez on the Major League roster. (Notably, Chicago also dealt from its first base depth in moving Dan Vogelbach for another left-handed reliever: Seattle’s Mike Montgomery.) Sherman adds that owner Hal Steinbrenner still wants to win in 2016 despite approving the Chapman swap, which calls into question whether the club would entertain even an overwhelming offer for Miller.

A few notes on the pitching market…

  • Twins interim GM Rob Antony has expressed an openness to moving Ervin Santana if approached with a strong offer, but he tells Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he’s not shopping the right-hander (Twitter link). “I’ll be honest,” said Antony, “I’m not calling anybody trying to move him.” As Antony explained yesterday in a Q&A with MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, his feeling is that he couldn’t sign a pitcher of Santana’s effectiveness to a two-year, $27MM contract with a third-year club option (the remaining commitment on Santana’s deal after 2016) on the free agent market this winter and, as such, believes there to be enough value that he needn’t shop Santana to other clubs. Antony again stated that he’s not under any type of ownership mandate to trim payroll, suggesting that shedding Santana’s salary may not be all that appealing.
  • Pitching is the Twins’ biggest priority on the trade market this summer, according to Antony (Twitter link via Bollinger). While the club is clearly open to trading veteran pieces to acquire young pitching help, Antony said he’s also talked to other teams that are considered to be sellers about acquiring big league pitching — presumably MLB arms that are controllable well beyond the 2016 season.
  • Athletics southpaw Rich Hill believes he’ll be able to pitch on Sunday after throwing 50 pitches with protective covering over his blistered left hand and another 20 without the cover, tweets John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. Hill has scarcely been able to pitch since late May due to a groin strain and this newfound blister issue, but he remains a highly intriguing rental option thanks to a 2.25 ERA with 10.7 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 50 percent ground-ball rate through 76 innings out of the Oakland rotation this season. That would obviously give rival scouts just one more opportunity to look at Hill before Monday’s non-waiver deadline, but that could prove crucial given his limited recent exposure.
  • Both the Rangers and Orioles were in attendance for Jeremy Hellickson’s scoreless six innings for the Phillies against the Marlins last night, per ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. (The Marlins — Hellickson’s opponents — also obviously had evaluators on hand and have long been linked to Hellickson.) There’s no clear frontrunner for Hellickson’s services, Crasnick notes, but it’s a “virtual lock” that he’ll change teams on or before next Monday.
  • The Padres asked the Orioles to include minor league left-hander Garrett Cleavinger and minor legaue righty Jhon Peluffo in the trade that would’ve sent Ubaldo Jimenez to San Diego in exchange for Melvin Upton Jr., according to MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko (on Twitter). However, FOX’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that the talks broke down over finances, and Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller adds (also via Twitter) that owner Peter Angelos had a late change of heart and altered the nearly agreed-upon deal — specifically the amount of money that would have changed hands. The Padres ultimately shifted course and sent Upton to the Blue Jays.
  • Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins says he’s not done making moves after swooping in and acquiring Upton earlier this morning, via Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (links to Nicholson–Smith on Twitter). Atkins’ comments seemingly focused on pitching upgrades, with the GM indicating that the market for relief help is more robust than the market for starters at present. Atkins says he’s talked with all 29 other clubs on multiple occasions and is now focused on a smaller group of teams that could potentially upgrade his pitching staff. Asked specifically about the Padres — the Jays have been linked multiple times to Andrew Cashner, who tossed a quality start against them tonight — Atkins replied, “They have interesting pitching as well.”

Latest On Nationals’ Search For Late-Inning Reliever

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The Nationals were in the mix for Aroldis Chapman right up until the end of the Yankees’ negotiations with the Cubs, reports ESPN’s Jayson Stark, and general manager Mike Rizzo and his staff are still on the hunt for a relief ace that could anchor the back of the bullpen and provide an upgrade over Jonathan Papelbon. Citing rival clubs that have spoken with the Nationals, Stark reports that Andrew Miller, Wade Davis and David Robertson are all on the radar for the Nats.

The asking price on Miller and Davis is said to be otherworldly, of course, as evidenced by a recent report from Yahoo’s Jeff Passan which stated that the Royals kicked around Lucas Giolito’s name when internally discussing the notion of trading Davis. Beyond that, Stark reported yesterday that the package sent from the Cubs to the Yankees in exchange for Chapman — Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford — wouldn’t have pried Davis away from Kansas City. The price on Miller, as has been the case since discussions about potentially trading him surfaced back in May, is exceptionally high. The Yankees were said to be fixated on Kyle Schwarber in talks pertaining to Miller, and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports again emphasizes that the Yankees would want MLB-ready talent from the Nationals in exchange for Miller, suggesting that names like Giolito and Joe Ross could surface in talks.

According to Stark, the Nationals aren’t willing to part with Giolito, Trea Turner or Reynaldo Lopez in their quest to upgrade the bullpen, which makes the addition of either Miller or Davis seem decidedly unlikely. Robertson, on the other hand, would perhaps be another story given the facts that he’s owed roughly $29.15MM through the end of his contract and hasn’t seen his results with the White Sox match up with his otherwise pristine track record.

Robertson has managed an excellent strikeout rate both this year and last, and his 2016 ground-ball rate of 46.7 percent is the second-best of his career. However, he’s sporting a troublesome 4.46 ERA with the Sox this season and has a 3.82 mark since signing with the team. Robertson has struggled with location, leading to an increase in walks (4.7 BB/9) and home runs (1.3 HR/9, 14.3 percent homer-to-flyball ratio) in 40 1/3 innings this year. Optimists can point to the fact that 16 of the 20 runs yielded by Robertson since Opening Day have come across just four disastrous outings and he’s been otherwise excellent, but the bottom-line results haven’t been as consistent as the ChiSox would hope.

Beyond the prospects the Nationals would have to surrender, finances also have to factor into the equation. Washington reportedly struggled to attract free agents this offseason because the club had to factor deferred money into nearly all of its offers, in part due to the longstanding dispute with the Orioles over the shared MASN television network rights fees. (The Nats also convinced Papelbon to take a slightly lesser 2016 salary than his club option called for in exchange for exercising it immediately upon completion of last summer’s trade.) Robertson’s salary is the most prohibitive, but Davis is slated to earn $10MM next season via a club option, and Miller is owed $9MM in each of the next two seasons. None of the three is an insurmountable sum, but the finances involved with each reliever in question add another layer to the calculus of negotiating a trade.

Orioles Designate Julio Borbon

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The Orioles announced today that they’ve designated outfielder Julio Borbon for assignment and reinstated Hyun Soo Kim from the 15-day disabled list. The club has also reinstated right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez from the paternity list, and he’ll take the spot of Dariel Alvarez, who was optioned out last night.

Borbon, 30, appeared in five games for the Orioles and totaled 11 plate appearances, going 2-for-9 with a pair of sacrifices. The former Rangers outfielder has spent the bulk of the season with Double-A Bowie, where he’s batted .289/.353/.373 with 20 stolen bases in 29 attempts. The brief big league stop with the O’s was the first taste of the Majors for Borbon since 2013, but he does have a fair amount of experience; in 874 Major League plate appearances, Borbon is a .272/.317/.346 hitter with 47 steals in 61 attempts.

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