Justin Turner is “still the favorite” to return as the Dodgers third baseman, but the team is also exploring some other options, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times writes (Twitter links). The Dodgers have checked in on White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier, and McCullough figures L.A. would also explore such Sox options as Jose Quintana or David Robertson if Chicago went into rebuild mode. Given that the Sox dealt Chris Sale earlier today, it stands to reason that more moves could be on the way for the Pale Hose, and the Dodgers stand out as a logical trade partner. Here’s more from around the NL West…
- Rockies GM Jeff Bridich confirmed reports that his team had spoken to the White Sox about first baseman Jose Abreu, speaking with MLB.com’s Thomas Harding and other reporters on Tuesday. “We have been paying attention to any and all avenues of trying to upgrade ourselves at first base, and just like we’re in touch with a lot of teams, we have been in touch with the White Sox about, not just Abreu, but also a variety of their players, because they have expressed an interest in seeing what they can get,” Bridich said. This is just my speculation, but with the Rockies looking for both back-end relief help and starting pitching, Robertson and Quintana would stand out as obvious players of interest on the Sox roster. Bridich also said he had talked with the Royals “about a number of different things a number of times,” with Harding reporting that Wade Davis was one player under discussion.
- Rockies owner Dick Monfort spoke of a payroll increase earlier this offseason, and Bridich confirmed that the team is still prepared to spend in the right circumstance. Given that Colorado has been linked to such pricey names as Edwin Encarnacion and Mark Trumbo, it would indeed seem like the Rox have some money to spend.
- The Giants aren’t in ongoing negotiations with Madison Bumgarner about a contract extension, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. In October, Giants CEO Larry Baer cited a desire to keep Bumgarner in the fold well past 2019 (the star lefty’s last year of control under his current contract), though the lack of talks shouldn’t necessarily indicate a change in the team’s thinking, as most teams often wait until offseason business is concluded before focusing on extensions.
- In another tweet from Schulman, he reports that the Giants are exploring possible trades for left field help, with free agency a less likely avenue. San Francisco’s “plan A” for left field, however, is a platoon of youngsters Mac Williamson and Jarrett Parker.
What would it take to get Jose Quintana?
2 top 50 prospects plus one or 2 other prospects
Clark K could not be any more right.
Yea no way that happens
Yeah, that’s pretty much what Sale got. I wonder what the Rockies could give up that would equal that.
I think Clark that you pegged what it would take. Right on the money
Everybody wants to deal with the White Sox now that they are in rebuild mode. I can’t recall a time when a team had so many desirable assets and actually undertook a full rebuild rather just a retool or reload.
I remember when Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley tried to sell 3 big time stars, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi for cash back in the 1970’s but had those deals overturned by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who deemed them “detrimental to baseball”.
The Reds in 2014, I think. They had a good core in Phillips, Votto, Cozart, Frazier but still went into rebuild, trading away their two co-ace Cueto and Latos, who was good with the Reds.
As a giants fan Williamson and Parker platoon is the last thing I want in LF, both are sub par and there’s a lot of other options out there. Cutch, Braun, Martinez, can all be had through trade. Bautista, Desmond, and Fowler through FA Trumbo may be a reach. I perfer Desmond due to versatility and ability to steal and hit for power.
I prefer Desmond too or even Gomez before he resigned with TEX.
However, Duvall wasn’t consider as high as prospect he turn med out to be with 30 HR (yes in hitter friendly CIN) compared to both Parker and Williamson.
Parker is considered to be 20-80-80 guy, while Williamson is considered to be a 20-70-90-15 guy. As they aren’t getting any younger they should be given an opportunity to play.
Plus if they are mediocre and or fail, SF can trade at the deadline.
We were the best team in baseball at the break and blew 30 saves in second half and got a record of 30-42. Melancon should help I am not saying it would have been 60-12. But with Pagan in the line up as full time LF we did fine. Let’s hope one of the kids claims the role
As i a Dodger fan i hope you guys fail 😉
The dodgers are a bunch of pansies
We will try our best, unfortunately in recent history we win too much
And OFs failing market is more localised to LA
#evenyear
^^that was sarcasm^^
We had the best record in baseball at the break.
I fixed that for you.
Also, what are those numbers that you are listing? Prospects’ tools grades?
GO CUBS! !!!
Remember when the Red Sox won the WS for the first time in eons in 2004 and they quickly went from being the lovable losers to having the most obnoxious fan base in the game ? Congrats, Cubs fans, you’re following in their footsteps.
I’m not a huge fan of Williamson or Parker either. But I do think both could do a lot better with more playing time. It’s really hard for any player to play part time and put up decent numbers. Plus the way Bochy manages he tends to give veterans a longer leash and is quick to flip younger players which SUCKS as a player to have sporadic playing time. If the plan is for Parker/Williamson to play, then SF should pick one and just let the kid play for a decent amount of time. The idea doesn’t excite me but platooning them isn’t going to make them great players, maybe “serviceable” players. If we want to see what they can do, then give them some familiarity and comfort of knowing they are going to play most days.
Williamson, yes. Parker, no. Parker is a classic AAAA player who looks decent in AAA and then misses balls by two feet in the majors.
Considering that the Giants window is now, if the money is there, upgrading LF shpuld be a bigger priority than Evans appears to be making it.
I think Evans says that to fool the other GM’s, and he is trying to be sly. They will get someone. I am all for Bruce and Turner, they crush the ball at our park. But Braun works, and others we can trade for. I don’t want Martinez for just one season — and have to give up valuable farm players.
Something is brewing. Several OFers can be had for cheap enough right now. Evans will move.
This is not true. He gave Niekro a lot of chances, Schierholtz as well, just look at his usage patterns by perusing his game stats, he benched Roberts in order to keep starting Freddy, benched Rowand to start Torres.
This is a meme that carried over from his time with the Padres, and so I have been watching his usage patterns since he started managing us. I was not sold on him as our manager until I saw that he had a killer’s instinct in the 2010 season, benching Rowand for Torres, and then the biggest move of all, leaving Zito and his big contract on the sidelines during the playoffs. Then he impressed even more by being able to still work with Zito, allowing Zito his heroics in 2012.
He has not been a strict “bet on vet, rookies suck” manager. He goes with whoever performs.
Just look at how he and the Giants handled Belt. As much as people moaned about Belt’s handling, through leaks of information regarding how Belt was fighting all the efforts by the Giants coaching staff to fix flaws in his hitting, and how his hitting improved once he took to their teaching, culminating in his wrist adjustment because Meulens suggested that he talk to the Phillies young slugger who did the same thing, and found success, it’s clear the Giants know how hitting works. And their success with pitchers show they know pitching as well.
Similarly, look at Crawford. Sure he got sent down that first season, but he’s been up since, and his hitting was up and down a lot too. Bochy stuck by him during his ups and downs, he was apparently more coachable, plus didn’t get into bad stints of just striking out a ton, like Belt. I studied their contact rates over 10, 20, 30, 40 game stretches in their early career, and his ups and downs was not as bad as Belt.
Look at how Schierholtz was used. When he was hitting well, he got the starts. But he would go really cold, and you can’t do that as a MLB starter, you need to have a high floor. But look at all the DL stints he had, he would come back and the Giants would give him some time as the starter to get it going, only benching him when he’s unable to. Freddie too. They got traded once the Giants realized that they were never going to change.
For the ultimate example, see how the McGehee-Duffy battle worked out. If you look at the stats, while McGehee was horrible, Duffy actually wasn’t hitting all that well initially either, just that McGehee (who I would note, had a horrendous bruise on his leg that affected him, but he played anyway) was not hitting at all. Duffy eventually figured some things out and eventually won the job from McGehee, who was released. Duffy was given the leash, McGehee, really not that much it seems, after the fact.
Bochy will stay with prospects who show that they have some skills. And of course vets will get a longer leash, they have provided more evidence that they can produce at the major league level. But not if the young player is howing more skills than the vet at that time.
Bochy is a genius, no doubt. But even geniuses get cocky, senile or whatever is was that happened the last 30-40 games of last regular season. You have to admit there were some strange decisions in between. Belt and Crawford weren’t among the strange decisions. I’m thinking more about the whole Casilla affair, taking too long to implement changes in the team when it was obvious that changes were needed, or that strange big league debut of Blach’s where he pitched to rookie Brown (okay, Posey needed the break but why time it like that?).
Admittedly, had those bets paid if we would all have looked stupid for criticizing Bochy’s positions. Just like the guys at the roulette table laughing at the guy who puts his entire pension fund on number 19 when number 19 comes out. But Bochy’s bets wee long shots and 19 didn’t come out this time.
I’m happy to have Bochy manage next season. Just hope he spreads out a bit more.
Giants are already over the payroll tax threshold of $195M, reporting it to be either $200M or over $200M. They get taxed 50% on anything over $195M. Either way, adding a big player in the $15-20M range means a tax in the $7.5-10M range. I don’t see the Giants doing that.
In addition, getting a player in that caliber will deplete the last of our best prospects in the farm system, Arroyo and Beede. And they probably want Arroyo to take over 3B in 2018, as Nunez is a free agent after the 2017 season. And with Cain likely not to be retained after 2017 either, especially if Beede shows that he’s ready in AAA in the 2017 season, they probably want to keep Beede, as he could be a top of rotation guy given his skill set. Blach is nice, but we need to keep the top of rotation starter prospects, as Bumgarner is not getting any younger, Cueto is also probably gone after 2017, opting out, and you never know when injury will take your good pitcher (see Cain) away from from plans for the future.
Meanwhile, looking at Williamson and Parker in a vacuum, yes, you would not want them platooning in LF, but expanding your view to the lineup, we got Span leading off (or perhaps Nunez), Panik, Posey, Belt, Pence, Crawford, LF, and Nunez/Span. That’s a pretty good top 6. So we are talking about upgrading the 7th hitter by paying a penalty in the $10M range and losing some of our top prospects. I don’t see the benefits of that.
Meanwhile, I’ll point out Duvall as a good reason to give Williamson and Parker a chance. For all the comments about the Giants making a mistake on Duvall, the reality is that he was not a highly rated prospect, and the Giants under Sabean has done a pretty good job during his tenure of keeping all their prospects that they thought were good until they proved otherwise. This was the first miss on a hitter under his watch, where they let him go (let alone let go for little). Meanwhile, Beane has gave up Ethier, CarGo, Russell already, among others. And as the other commenter noted, the Giants could make a mid-season trade to pick up somebody, plus, I like what Gorkys was showing, he could pull a Torres and push Span out of CF into LF.
the giants should look at the cubs outfielders, I’m sure they can find something there.