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.”
This is exactly why the Twins will never be good…
Yep… Rob Antony is scared to do anything… the GM change, while needed came at a puzzling time… The team has parts that other teams want/need… My guess is they do nothing. As for Rob Antony, he isn’t getting the GM job anyways; he’ll be a special assistant to whomever the new GM is.
Atkins whole plan should be based on what they’re going to do with Sanchez. If they move Sanchez to the pen, they should be set there with him, osuna, Cecil and grilli in high leverage situations, and a reliever would only be a luxury if he acquired one. Hopefully Estrada continues to be the ace like he’s been the past two years, and his departure to the later innings won’t be as hard to swallow. If they have a change of heart though and keep him in the rotation, they’ll have to try and acquire guys like thornburg or Logan, cause we defiantly aren’t getting Davis or Miller.
They got Benoit. Crasnick might not want any more Trades to happen this week and have all happen on Weekend. Teams need to send in final offers for like Miller,Lucroy,Cargo,Sale,Archer and so on who could be move.
Can Steinbrenner stop being delusional? We’re not winning a damn thing this year. Time to do this the right way. Move Beltran, Miller, Nova, etc. Stock up the farm, move some salary, and set yourself up for the future.
Do you think it’s posturing to get a better deal, or is he really that divorced from reality to not see this current team is not a winning one?
Well, that explains a little bit about the padres situation with upton jr.
The orioles wanted ubaldo to be part of the deal to offset salaries, which was somewhere between 4 and 5 million in order to facilitate a trade which is what the padres kept in the deal with they jays.
Had he gone to the orioles the padres would of received a 22 year old whos the #30 prospect in the orioles system working primarily as a reliever in a ball and a 19 year old not ranked in their top 30 on mlb but posting decent numbers in 5 starts this year- has he been injured or something for only 5 starts?
The orioles had a change of heart and preller took the next best deal, assuming, where he received hensel rodriguez for roughly the same amount of money as it would of been to acquire ubaldo.
Ubaldo peluffo cleavinger or rodriguez.
Given those were the top offers its safe to say teams didnt value upton jr as much considering two teams were set on the pay majority of his salary for lesser guys.
Good analysis. Preller was quoted on mlb.com saying they scouted Hansel 6 times and the staff could all agree on him. If Padres can develop some secondary pitchers for him (touches 97), this trade may look better down the line?
Agreed. Imo opening up an everyday spot for Renfroe was more important to Preller than anything else. His eye for amateur talent is universally acknowledged as being one of the best. Eating that much salary without getting much in return shows how much he liked Hansel (for some reason every time I see his name I get Zoolander flashbacks). He must have decent movement on his fastball if they are using him as a starter without secondary pitches. The Padres paying all but $5m of Upton’s salary for a little known prospect doesn’t make much sense to me. Especially, since he appeared to have rebuilt some value. Surely, he would get a contract that would pay him more than $3.5m per year on the open market. I guess this is exactly why I don’t work for an mlb team. I am looking forward to seeing the BP write up on the Padres farm next spring.
Sounds like Preller had a good sense of the market and took the best deal out there even if it turns out that the market for Upton was less than what we all thought it was. And I agree that it was also about opening playing time in the outfield, but I’d say we let Dickerson and Jankowski play this year and hold back Renfroe and Margot. No sense in starting their clocks when all of our talented pitching is a few years away in A ball.
In schwarber we trust
You know the Cubs gave up a massive overpay for Chapman when not one Yankee fan is complaining about the trade. I think most of us are still in shock at how much the Cubs gave up. I was hoping for Happ but Torres is still a stud prospect. It should be interesting to see who puts up better numbers next year between Torres and Mateo.
It was a fair deal if Chapman signed an extension, but for a pure 3mon rental…wow. Yes, Torres is a prospect/young and blocked, but talent is talent. Warren is servicable too. The other two are lotto picks, who knows if they’ll do anything…but at least there is that chance.
The Yankees front office made another great deal…unfortunately.
Oh so its a bad deal because you think two “lotto” picks have a “chance” so Cubs should have them instead of Chapman??
Yankees fans aren’t complaining because they still think it’s a lock that they resign Chapman in the offseason lol
The Blue Jays should trade Bautista. JB’s contract request is absurd, he’s beginning to decline, and, not to be overlooked, Bautista is an insufferable whiner. Restock the shelves, Jays, then focus on resigning Encarnacion. Don’t let Bautista walk like the Mets did with Reyes, be proactive. The Jays prolonged struggles, prior to last year, were largely the result of getting no return on top talent (Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, Roy Halladay, etc). The Jays should have learned their lesson by now – trade Bautista.
Which contender is going to give up anything of value to us, and why would he waive his no trade clause when he has a shot at a world series. That “insufferable whiner” is beloved in that city, so no, he is not going to be traded
Typical short sighted, homer, Jays fan response. What does “beloved” have to do with properly arranging the future of your franchise? The “beloved” Bautista is going to walk in free agency. If the Jays are interested in their future, ship Bautista. “Insufferable whiner” is putting it lightly, Bautista is entirely unlikeable, in my opinion. Wells, Rios, Halladay – have Jays fans learned nothing from the past? Restock the shelf in a timely fashion. Toronto sports fans need to stop drinking the Rogers media kool-aid. Take the Sox trade of Nomar in 2004 if you want to focus on “beloved,” business is business. Bautista wants $150 million, that’s absurd. Ship Bautista, sign EE. Jays fans are precious, borderline adorable. Accept change.
The $150 million demand was debunked back in the preseason. I mean come on, I know you’re 120, but get with the times Scully.
Why would we trade our third best hitter for prospects when we have a chance at the World Series. By your standards, we shouldn’t have traded for price last year, since we had no chance to sign him. You’re an idiot, just because you don’t like a player, doesn’t mean he can’t have a chance to win. And I don’t care if you don’t like Bautista, but stop making up lies. It was reported by both sides that Bautista has never asked for 150 million. Jesus we have a good team this year, and if we really do start to fall off in the future, will just get a haul for Donaldson. You can say I’m an adorable Jay’s fan, but at least I have a brain and wouldn’t trade a very important piece of a good team for prospects when our division is well within reach.
Please tell me this, how many teams that are trying to win a World Series trade productive players off their roster for prospects?
You are a typical Jays fan, word for word. The $150 million was not debunked, at all. Bautista is singularly worried about only himself. His pronouncements in Spring Training were poorly timed and in bad taste – a reflection of character. You clearly have an extremely limited understanding of roster construction – you’re happy to let Bautista walk for nothing at year’s end? Typical Jays fan. When did I limit a potential Bautista trade to “prospects?” Sox traded Nomar in 2004 – look into that deal. Sox got Cabrera and Mientkiewicz, great deal that was perfectly timed and took organizational courage to undertake. Second, look into the Royals and Dayton Moore’s approach to timely deals in the effort of roster construction. Further, the Jays are not winning anything with their pitching staff at present. Your David Price comparison makes no sense at all. In fact, the Price deal illustrates exactly the type of aggressive move I am advocating. But, since the Jays farm system is limited, trading Bautista provides a natural remedy to limited trade chips. Give your team credit, the Jays offense is potent enough to support a JB trade. “Idiot?” Please. Your facts are so thin you resort to name calling? Please. Jays should trade Bautista. Look how well your team did with JB on the DL – trade from strength like the Yankees did with Chapman. Typical Jays fan.
Ok, so tell me what contender is giving us a top pitcher for him then. Next, Bautista himself said that that number was false, so you are wrong. Third, we would get a first round pick if he walked. Fourth, we have 3 of the top 9 AL starters in ERA, so again, your pitching comment is wrong. Typical uneducated fan, making up lies to try and prove others wrong. I guess Boston should trade big papi, since there’s no way he’s going to be back next year rofl. And finally answer me this, why would Bautista waive his trade rights when he has a chance to lead Toronto to a pennant this year
Look I’d love it if we could get a couple top prospects for Bautista, but I’d love a World Series even more. And having Bautista doesn’t guarantee a World Series, not even close, but it gives us a better chance. It just doesn’t make sense for Bautista to waive his 10-5 rights and imo the jays to move him
Now you’re stealing my “typical” approach. You lack creativity. “Uneducated?” Ha! Typical Jays fan backed in the corner. One good year in 20+ seasons and Bautista is untouchable. 1. Bautista debunked the asking price? Of course he did, his ask was absurd – the team did not debunk anything. Bautista debunked the $150 million ask to save face. Come on, man, how is it Jays fans don’t see the selfish, whining nature of this guy? 2. Sanchez is going to the ‘pen (due to poor organizational timing) and Estrada’s back is not in good shape. I suppose you still blindly defend the Syndergaard trade, too, don’t you? What is it with Toronto sports fans? Oh, yes, Rogers media, that’s right. Think for yourself. I suppose you are one of those Jays fans that thought Stroman would win the Cy this year? Typical. 3. You continue to miss the central point. The Jays need to be aggressive in roster construction if they are to avoid another 20+ year run of mediocrity. Here’s hoping we don’t return to the JP Ricciardi “small market” excuse making era again – I can take no more of same. Get a trade in place and approach The Whiner – why not? Force his hand like Bautista called out the organization in Spring Training. Not at all sure what you mean by the Big Papi reference, free agency and retirement are different matters. I’m done with this cause, explaining baseball to Jays fans is, while precious, irritating (it’s like explaining free trade to a dog – futile). Good luck to your Jays.
The Syndergaard trade is pretty much unanimously panned by Blue Jays fans. Even at the time, without the benefit of hindsight, most Jays fans hated it, so you don’t have much credibility acting like there’s some notable group of fans who defend it. Anthopolous overpaid thinking Dickey was the final piece of his contending team. It was a bad trade, not much more to be said about it; Syndergaard should’ve been untouchable.
And getting syndargaard for ra dickey. There’s no question the Mets won that trade. for one ra was 38 – 39 at the time. Talk about desperate.
I heard j bats wants like 75 mil over 3 years. Probably more than that. He’s like 37-38. He won’t get more than 30 mil over 2 years at that age. And stay in the AL
“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.”
Once again we see that the Orioles greatest challenge is not who they field, who they sign (or can’t sign), who their opponents are…but it is the man who owns the majority stake in the club. This team will never rise above the ownership.
Baez and soler and Schwarber are way too much for miller. For one the oldest is 24 miller is 31. Brian cashman is insane for wanting anyone from the cubs 40 man roster. Cubs probably should have gotten Chapman for Torres and McKinley straight up the Yankees always have to be greedy and get more. Luckily the other two were throw ins and Crawford will never make the show.
I’m sick of hearing about hill