George A. King III of the New York Post relays the tragic news that Yankees prospect Alexander Figueredo, a 20-year-old left-handed pitcher, was shot to death in his native Venezuela. Figueredo missed the 2016 season on the suspended/restricted list for unknown reasons, though the circumstances that led to his suspension seem wholly unimportant in the wake of King’s report. We at MLBTR would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends, loved ones and teammates of Figueredo as well as the entire Yankees organization in light of the talented youngster’s untimely passing.
As we all keep Figueredo’s family and friends in our thoughts, a few items pertaining to New York’s two teams…
- Both the Yankees and Mets are telling agents that they need to move some veteran pieces in trades before they can sign additional talent this winter, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Yankees have been fielding calls on both Chase Headley and Brett Gardner, while the Mets have been listening on Jay Bruce and Curtis Granderson (with a strong preference to deal the former rather than the latter). The Mets and Yankees both have interest in relievers Boone Logan and Brad Ziegler, but neither is likely to head to the Big Apple barring a preceding trade of a notable veteran.
- Trading Headley is likely more difficult for the Yankees than many realize, and not solely due to the remaining $26MM on his contract, writes Sherman in a second piece. While it’s true that Headley is a roughly average player earning $13MM annually, the Yankees are also short on MLB-ready replacements, Sherman notes. Ronald Torreyes is more of a utility option than a candidate to replace Headley as an everyday option. Trading for someone like Todd Frazier would fill the void, but only for one year, and Frazier comes with a similar salary plus the loss of minor league talent that would need to be sent to the White Sox. The free-agent market presents options like Luis Valbuena and Trevor Plouffe, which could leave the Yankees enough money to add a setup man in free agency, but each of those scenarios is contingent on multiple moves coming together, making it difficult to bank on them.
- Mets right-hander Matt Harvey started up a throwing program last month and is progressing well in his recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, he tells Newsday’s Marc Carig. “That’s all gone,” Harvey said of the tingling and numbness he was experiencing in his fingertips due to the nerve issue near his shoulder that necessitated the operation. “My hand was really cold all the time. So, I’ve got some warmth back. No more tingling. And the ball’s really coming out really good right now, especially for December.” Harvey was brilliant in his 2015 return from Tommy John surgery, but TOS limited him to 92 2/3 innings in 2016. In that time, he logged a highly uncharacteristic 4.86 ERA with a diminished strikeout rate and increased walk rate. A healthy Harvey would go a long way toward helping the Mets back to the postseason for the third straight year, though he’s one of many arms that will enter 2017 with some injury question marks. Steven Matz had surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow and also battled shoulder problems this year, while Jacob deGrom underwent ulnar nerve surgery a few months back and Zack Wheeler never pitched in the Majors due to lingering problems in his recovery from 2015 Tommy John surgery.
Valbuena to NYY would be a great fit, I think. Big lefty HR power, some versatility to play 3B/1B/LF/DH.
Agreed. He’d be my choice if they can somehow get a taker for Headlice.
Valbueno definitely gives Girardi more flexibility to tinker with position. (Another binder chapter to be written) But, give me Castro at 3B and Ref at 2B until someone unseats him. Just dump Headley.
Ref is terrible in the infield and can’t hit enough to be a DH or RF option. Headley is solid in the field and, after a terrible April, was more than solid at the plate. 2 yrs of Headley will give league average offense and plus defense.
Valbueno was great for the Cubs and good for the Astros he would in nice for the Yanks every where he went was the main stay till the kids was ready Bryant,Bregman now Torres in a year or sooner
We get: Jay Bruce, Gsellman, R. Montero and Nimmo
Mets get: Headley, Gardner, McKinney, Wilky Garcia – sign Valbuena
Problems solved
We don’t need Gardner.
Okay, I’ll throw in $6mill(?) deal?
LOL
* We sign Valbuena, not the Mets……
We are retooling!
Eat me, Yankee
What problems does this solve? Mets are going to give three of their best prospects for Headley and Gardner? This “deal” also does nothing (for the Mets) to clear cap space.
Yea he didn’t think about it from your perspective. Unfortunately there is no trade that works unless you include a 3rd party to take the salary of both the Mets/Yanks and that is very unlikely.
We talk Bruce and you trade Gardner. Montero is not “a best of : cheap young prospect “, he’s been a bust. Nimmo is maybe a 4th outfielder….. maybe.
Ok, the deal still does nothing to help the Mets even if you take the stance that the prospects aren’t good (which I disagree with, and I’m a Mariners fan so theres no homer bias here). Gardner does nothing to fix the Mets left-handed hitting outfield jam (as they would still have to trade Granderson or sit one of Conforto/Granderson while still having Lagares on the bench). Also, at the price of trading three young assets at the cost of additional salary (Gardner is worth his salary, Headley is not) the Mets would be better off just keeping Bruce.
‘Take our expensive garbage and give us your cheapest best assets’
‘Take our expensive garbage and give us your cheapest best assets’
The refrain of many a homer fan….
Who are they talking about Theo never beat the Yanks in a trade. Which now that Chapman deal should’ve went for the Pitcher Miller Cubs gave more and got less than Cleveland.now who looks smart :My vote Cashman
lol. Good luck with that. The Mets don’t want an expensive piece in Gardner and a bunch of spare parts. Bruce admittedly has limited value, but Gsellman has a lot of upside…..2.42ERA after being called up to pitch down the stretch.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Todd Frazier, Jose Abreu, Melky Cabrera, and Jose Quintana for a package including Chase Headley, Brett Gardner, Greg Bird, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, Tyler Austin and more
yeaaaaah, nooooo, yeaaaaah, nooooo
The White Sox won’t do that.
I do really hope this was a bad joke
you would have to send Austin judge and severino and probably bird just for quaitana and to be honest they wouldn’t even take that for him. they would need your number one and two prospects as a start and judge and severino are no longer those
Doesn’t really change your evaluation of the players mentioned. Tim Anderson wouldn’t become less valuable if Dansby Swanson went to the White Sox. If you think a player is a 55 or 60 FV, that doesn’t change just because their team acquires a 65-70 FV player.
That’s true, but Judge was the only prospect they had with some real value, Judge has some solid upside but a top 25 ranking was probably a bit optimistic, Bird, nor Austin, were ever really highly regarded MLB prospects.
Severino has struggled in his showing in the majors. Judge has done the same.
Those 4 for Q simply doesn’t happen. And that’s just for Q, that’s not including Frazier AND Abreu.
Torres, Frazier, Austin, Judge, Bird, Severino just gets that convo started. It doesn’t get the job done, not for all that MLB talent.
I don’t know why Yankees fans think it would be more than enough, but it’s not.
The CWS are gonna want Torres + for Q. They are gonna want Frazier + for Abreu. They are gonna want two of those guys for Frazier. Then Melky is worth a couple guys.
Sorry, but all those guys are gone for that package, plus a young arm like Chance Adams.
Bird won the AFL MVP and absolutely hammered baseballs in the big leagues before injuring his shoulder. He’s a highly viable hitter. Severino is a change up away from being a dynamite starter, or they could throw him in the pen with Burdi right now and lock down games at the big league level. These are legitimately valuable assets, cheap and controllable.
Not even close my dude
Nooooooo, just Nooooooo. Get the Braves in as the 3rd team with Markakis going to NYY and still nooooooooooo.
Who wants a 33 year old, decline phase 1-win outfielder for $11,000,000 the next two years?
How about Frazier and Quintana for Sevy, Judge, Mateo, Headley, Gardner & 16 mill. ( I get Headley an Gardner aren’t prospects but they give you replacements for Frazier and Eaton for two years while your prospects develop). Headley can also easily play first base when Moncada comes up and allow you to trade Abreu) first base They can also trade them again later for more albeit lesser prospects).
still not enough they have Quintana for 4 ore years of control and they see him as an ace and the toddfther won’t be cheap
For one year Frazier equals Gardner and Headley. Frazier and Headley have the same War and Gardner has 3.5-3.6. even if the sox stay prospect greedy. If the yanks throw in Clippard that could be a cheap replacement for Drob.
That’s a terrible trade. Would never do that as a Yankee fan. They are rebuilding, not trading those prospects for Frazier and Quintana.
This would be good minus Abreu and Quintana/ make it simple Frazier for Headley and McKinny
I wouldn’t mind Headley on the Braves. Send over Ruiz and Vizzy for Headley and McKinney.
To be fair I understand why you offered those two players. The Yankees don’t want an unproven Ruiz. They may as well play Andujar. We also don’t need Vizzy. We want a reliever with a sub 3 ERA not one that is close to 5.00ERA.
So to put it in perspective. You want McKinney our 17th. And Headley( given we eat about 4 mill a year for two years) so he’s worth about a 10-15th ranked prospect.
I’d say wentz is equal to McKinney
And Weigel is about in the middle of that.
I’d ask for a higher ranked prospect instead of both but I’m sure that wouldn’t be acceptable.
So here are a few alternatives
Wentz/muller/minter ( none are ranked above 15th)
Weigel/sims
Or
Wilson/muller/wentz
Why? So the Braves can win 77 games instead of 76?
Same reason they got colon and dickey. Giving their farm time to improve. It will allow Riley or Demeritte the time they need. Not every move is made for a team to contend. Sometimes you have to think for the long term.
They want to give Riley and demeritte time to develope. They want McKinney because they need OF prospects. One good prospect for McKinney and another good one for Headley is a fair trade.
Why not just play Ruiz at 3B while Riley/Demeritte develop? They still have a long way to go to being even league average major leaguers. Take that money and reinvest it in something that might help when the Braves are closer to competing.
I was about to have a panic attack after mistakingly reading Ronald Torreyes as Gleyber Torres.
That’s why the Cubs got rid of both of them. Too confusing to the fans, especially to “Voyager” fans who throw in B’Elana Torres.
So many teams seem to be near the top of their budgets right now – Yankees, Mets, Tigers, Angels, Rangers, Dodgers. It’s making for what seems like a slow offseason.
Angels? Why would you say they are at their budget?
They had about $30m come off the books and haven’t spent nearly that amount thus far. I’d love for them to get involved on Headley.
Exactamundo. Angels about to give Joey Bats 5/125. Hambone 2.0
Lols
Headley & 5 mill/ year & Romine for Bedrosian.
I’m open to counter offers.
Give up two great players for a guy who’s value comes from his glove. Why would the angels not just pay Valbuena 8MM
?? What are you talking about? He’s saying Headley(plus 5 million per year) AND Romine for Bedrosian. Your post makes no sense.
I think the Angels are content to keep targeting competent players on expiring contracts (Maybin/Espinosa). Keep trying to build the floor up.
He said he wanted a player. I’m merely suggesting a trade. While I agree with you Headley is only a two year contract. Their farm will not produce anyone worthy of a replacement that fast and machado and Donaldson aren’t FA’s for 2 years.
Yunel Escobar is already penciled in at 3rd. Doesn’t really benefit the Angels to trade for Headley only to displace Escobar.
Haha so many crazy trade ideas. These are bad people it’s like me saying
Kaz,McCarthy,Segedin,Baez to NY
(10M from LA)
Headley, Garner to Ana
Escobar, Hicks to LA
They sound good in your head (and in fantasy) they just don’t work in reality.
Yeah brainstorming trades are entertaining but not meant to be taken seriously. I like this one for LA and Seattle.
Kaz and McCarthy and Cash to SEA
Willie Calhoun to MIN
Prospects from SEA to MIN
Dozier to LA
Wow that’s selling Dozier extremely low.
I don’t see the Ms giving up anything at all it’s have to be just a dump and run. But hey who knows.
I imagine one of the Seattle prospects going to the Twins being Kyle Lewis. And even then I think the Dodgers need to add in another prospect to the twins as well.
Ultimately it could be something like this (in my head) ;
SEA gets Kazmir, McCarthy, Cash ($5-7M)
LA gets Dozier
Twins get Willie Calhoun, Josh Sborz, Kyle Lewis, Joe Rizzo
I can see Seattle (ha) being willing to part with Lewis and Rizzo because those two are unlikely to contribute to their current core. Idk if they surrender them in a deal for Kaz & McCarthy though…. This is JeDi we’re talking about though he seems to value MLB-players over prospects. Maybe swap out McCarthy for one of the other LA SP like Wood?
The twins need pitching and high ceiling pitching to boot. The Ms aren’t giving that up to take on two injury prone mid-back end pitchers with two years of control. I can see and I think we’ve seen DiPoto filter out Zs prospects, but Lewis is a no go and then adding Rizzo makes no sense for them. The Dodgers can and probably will try to turn it into a three way trade but that’s not getting it done.
The Twins need high-ceiling players period. They’re still early enough into their rebuild where they don’t need to zero-in on one particular area for growth.
Seattle needs pitching (primarily a #2/#3 SP).
LA doesn’t really have any needs that I see. They have a surplus of both SP and high-upside prospects. Ultimately in a very good position imo. They could use an upgrade at 2B and maybe another arm in the pen but I wouldn’t classify those as glaring holes on that team.
I’d imagine the Dodgers 2nd base projection won’t look too special with the players they have currently.
headley to st louis for peralta, straight up
Why do we want peralta? He can’t field.
Headley & 8 mill for Wacha or Rosenthal.
Or
Gomber & Hudson
I think that’s mostly a lateral move, except St Louis takes in more future money. I doubt the Cardinals would be interested in that.
I can see not getting Wacha or Rosenthal but the cards have excess pitching and both are injury prone.
The point with peralta is it improves the cardinals defense. It does nothing for the Yankees. The medium would be to trade Headley for prospects. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. The cardinals need to improve their defense. That why they got fowler and that is also why also why the moved Matt Carpenter to first. Headley would greatly improve their defense over Peralta and give Dejong 2 years to get to the bigs.
Cards won’t have excess pitching if and when their starters and RP staff have more arm troubles. Waino, Lynn, Wacha, throw Rosie in that mix too. Plus, they’ve lost two or three relievers for the season with arm surgeries.
They’ll all come back. Yes a couple might have issues but not all 6 or 7 . You still have a ton of pitchers besides that. They’d only be asking for one. I you don’t want it to be a mlb one then have it be a MLB prospect like Alcantara or Gernandez who are not as close to the MLB. Or Hudson and Gomber if you are.
Never said nor implied that they would ALL have arm troubles. A good half of them have already had arm troubles and/or surgeries. Recovery is not a given for any of them.
Plus, Waino has been in decline, is aging, and has lost a step or two on his velocity.
“They’ll all come back” is highly unlikely.
Gardner to the Dodgers for Alex Wood give or take prospects from either side. Give Tyler Austin full time at-bats in left, like his swing a lot. Wood was injured last year but is young and proven to be a good pitcher.
Most respectfully put, the Dodgers don’t need another overpaid OF who is deficient hitting LHs they have enough and have entirely way too many OFs. So no there’s no chance.
Gardner is not overpaid.
Well he’s had a 3 year decline in production, and at 33 I’m hard pressed to think he’ll somehow stave off the impacts of time. I don’t see how Gardner is an upgrade over Toles/Thompson (Kiké?), especially when you factor in salaries.
Gardner is better fielder then Toles and a leadoff hitter. He fills the role that Utley left empty but can hit lefties and get on base more while still stealing 20-25 bases a year. yes he is older but he is basically adam eaton but older and asking him to play LF not CF.
They would pay down gardener’s contract. 4-5 mill per year for 2or 3 years. He also hits lefties as well as righties. He’s leadoff hitter that you need that gets on base. He’ll still steal 20-25 bases a year. He’s a great defensive GG left fielder.
While I’d accept prospects instead of Alex wood.
Beuhler or Sheffield would be okay.
Haha you must be delusional. His hits lefties as well as righties which isn’t saying much because all his value comes from his base running and defense. They aren’t trying to replace Utley. They are trying to upgrade from Utley. In the upgrade they are looking for power aginst LH pitchers. In other words his .707 OPS is not what they’re looking for. Simply put the Dodgers have way to many OFs in which they need to thin out. They already have a high obp guy in Ethier and he provides way more pop. So Gardner is not needed in any sense of the word especially not for 7 M and especially not for Buehler or Sheffield. There is a reason why they cant move Gardner.
You could make an argument in which Buehler and/or Sheffield goes in a Dozier/Forsythe package and I would understand and agree that it makes sense. It would make sense and it would fill a need. And would provide significantly more value and salary sense than Gardner.
You’re crazy if you even think beuhler and Sheffield can get Dozier. It would take de leon or bellinger to headline at the very minimum and then those two. Two top 100 prospects. Neither of those two are ( shef, beuhler). Gardner warrants a #7-10 team prospect. McCann got the 7 from the Astros who have at least as good of a farm as the Dodgers. Beuhler and shef are 7,8 respectively. So it’s really not that far fetched.
I talked about replacing Utley as a leadoff hitter which you have not done yet. Who is going to leadoff?
I only mentioned he can hit lefties because you spoke of it. If you want to keep ethier and his slow more power hitting ass in left by all means do it. Enjoy all extra runs scored as he does.
When did I say Sheffield/Buehler would be the only proponents of a Dozier/Forsythe trade. It obvious that DeLeon and Stewart will be a part of the package but there is going to be another two pieces. My point being The Dodgers don’t need a Gardner type. He doesn’t fit this team plain and simple. Who is going to lead off? Well my assumptions being depending on how they view the two spot. Are they going to stick with Seager in the two spot or bump him down? Against lefties it probably be Dozier if they can acquire if it’s against righties it’ll probably be Toles. A .706 ops against lefties isn’t much to say he hits lefties well it barely enough to say they should be willing to trade when they have a bounce back candidate like Revere on the market.
Pop up video adds? Great
The Mets are always frugal, playing, as they do, in a small market with limited revenues. Cashman, I think, is being cagey. Every additional dollar out the door for the Yankees is one multiplied by the Luxury Tax, so they may very well be thinking that complimentary pieces aren’t worth the additional price without offsetting salary elsewhere.
Alexander Figueredo is the second Yankees prospect to die this year, 18 year old Sandy Acevedo was killed in a car accident in April.
lets not overstate facts…harvey was not brilliant when he came back from TJ surgery…the first 2 years he was brilliant when he first started in the league, but not when he came back from TJ….this is fake news
2015 Harvey (29 games started):
2.71ERA (8th in MLB)
1.02WHIP (8th in MLB)
K/BB 5.08 (8th in MLB) …Mets had 3 of the top 8 pitchers
WAR: 4.3 (T-14th in MLB, for pitchers)
That’s pretty damn good.
versus
2013 Harvey (26 games started):
2.27 ERA
0.931 WHIP
K/BB 6.16
WAR 5.2
So? Harvey still pitched to brilliant numbers in 2015. Basically no one comes back from Tommy John surgery and returns to form right away. Yet Harvey was not too far off his career year and was among the best pitchers in baseball in 2015.
considering he spent way more time than normal recovery process and started pitching in and out of 6 man rotations, you’re wrong.
Why do so many of you feel the need to add personal attacks at the end of your statements on a baseball topic? Just state your case. I edited the insults out and the substance is the same.
His recovery time was longer than average, but he had medical professionals tell him it would be helpful. I’m trusting the specialists. ANY team in the league would take his performance in exchange for a slightly quicker return.
As for the rest…your argument is that his 29 games pitched in 2015 were not comparable because a portion of it the Mets pitched 6 pitchers? He pitched 29 games in 2015 and 26 games in 2013.
ps. I’m a BASEBALL fan who has followed the Mets for 30 years. I don’t see any homerism in the stats I posted, but I’d welcome someone to point the homerism out.
Fangraphs has the Yankees rated as a near wildcard worthy team but looking at their roster, it just seems like a stretch. In fact, it kind of seems like a stretch that *anyone* will make the playoffs other than the Red Sox, Indians and Astros at this point. The Yankees need relative health out of their starting rotation (considering we’re talking Tanaka and Pineda, that’s far from a certainty) and a true MVP caliber season from Gary Sanchez. The second best regular on the team is Didi Gregorius and that’s a little scary. If Gregorius is your fourth or fifth best regular, you are a serious playoff contending team but as the second best, it’s a little scary.
Take the Angels, who I think are being a little underrated. They have Mike Trout, who by himself means the rest of the team doesn’t have to be as good to make the playoffs, as their best player. After Trout, I believe Andrelton Simmons is their second best regular. Now, of course you’d like someone other than Simmons as your second best regular BUT Simmons is better than Gregorius in real value. Which is to say the Angels have a pretty big advantage over a team like the Yankees amongst their position regulars.
Of course just like the Yankees, the Angels are relying on he health of their pitchers but really, are the Angels pitchers that much worse than the Yankees? Richards is really good at the top and Shoemaker and Skaggs are potentially far above Pineda and Sabathia.
So if he Yankees are a near playoff level team, I’d say the Angels are also. The race for the wild card in the AL is going to be fun this year.
I think I’ll place any playoff-team bets I do on the Yankees over the Angels.
When you gave the edge for the entire roster to the Angels based on Simmons over Gregorius, you nailed your own logical fallacy. Maybin…. Espinosa…. Cron….? Yanks have a MUCH better regular roster over the Angels’ one-star-and-a-bunch-of-placeholders.