10:00am: Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets that the Padres have had past interest in Ahmed and points out that San Diego manager Andy Green knows Ahmed well from his time as the Diamondbacks’ third base coach.
9:44am: The Diamondbacks’ offseason infield additions (Ketel Marte and Daniel Descalso) and the spring emergence of Ildemaro Vargas (who is currently on the 40-man roster) have created a willingness to listen to offers on defensive standout Nick Ahmed, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. According to Piecoro, Chris Owings has the inside track on the Opening Day shortstop gig right now, further prompting the team to explore options with its infield depth.
[Related: Arizona Diamondbacks Depth Chart]
The 27-year-old Ahmed does have a pair of minor league options remaining, so there’s no urgency for Arizona to move him prior to the end of Spring Training. Ahmed underwent season-ending hip surgery last August but has looked healthy this spring, per Piecoro. Thus far, Ahmed has appeared in 13 games and is tied for the most at-bats of any player in Diamondbacks camp. He’s hitting just .250/.263/.389 in that small sample, though spring stats are always best taken with a grain of salt, and Ahmed’s value is derived from his glove as opposed to his bat, anyhow.
In parts of three big league campaigns, Ahmed is just a .221/.268/.329 hitter over the life of 842 plate appearances. While that level of offensive output is hardly appetizing, Ahmed also grades out as one of the game’s truly elite defenders, however. Ahmed has logged 1920 innings at shortstop in his Major League career and has posted outstanding totals of +34 Defensive Runs Saved and +20 in Ultimate Zone Rating. That premium glovework could make him appealing as a bench option, at the very least, to other NL clubs that lack the Diamondbacks’ considerable depth at shortstop.
If the D-backs are to find a taker in a trade for Ahmed, a bench role on another club seems the likeliest outcome for him, from my vantage point. That, however, has more to do with the fact that there simply aren’t many teams looking for starting shortstops than it does with Ahmed’s overall ability. The Padres are known to be looking for shortstop help and have reportedly inquired on both Jose Iglesias and Zack Cozart this winter, making them one speculative club that could look to Ahmed as a candidate for more regular playing time. Of course, there’s also the matter of dealing with a division rival, which can often complicate matters. San Diego currently has Luis Sardinas and non-roster invitee Erick Aybar as its top two shortstop options in camp, so there’s certainly room for Ahmed to join the fray and compete for playing time.
Ahmed has not yet reached arbitration eligibility in his still-young career, so he’d be eminently affordable for the upcoming 2017 campaign. He’ll be a virtual lock for arbitration next offseason so long as he spends at least 86 days in the Majors in 2017, though his limited offensive contributions should keep his price tag down even if he does reach arb. Ahmed can be controlled through at least the 2020 season, so he could be a cost-effective depth option for any club looking to bolster its infield defense in both the short and long term. Given his defensive prowess at short, it stands to reason that Ahmed would be well-equipped to handle both second base and third base as well.
If he can’t get his OBP to .300, he shouldn’t draw that much interest. It truly depends on if the dbacks are trying to get value or just get rid of him. Watch for a shortstop injury
The 2015 version of Ahmed spent a good portion of the season (until injury) at or over .300 OBP. Last season he spent the majority of it injured before finally giving in and having microfracture surgery. This season will largely be about establishing which is the real Nick Ahmed. If he is the guy that can keep his OBP at or over .300, combined with his glove, he is a 2.5 WAR player at pre-arb prices, shoring up the defense in an extreme way.
even without getting his obp over 300 he still has somewhat decent value simply because of his defensive prowness.. Before simmons was traded to the angels he posted 2 straight sub 300 obp years in 2013 and 2014. In 2015 he did post over 300, but still netted a top 100 prospect in sean newcomb.
no way ahmed nets the dbacks anything close to what simmons got the braves, but thats not to say ahmed doesnt have any worth and won’t draw trade interest.
he may net them something decent.
He sounds exactly like someone the DBacks should be looking for; solid, relatively young, cheap, controllable.
They aren’t going to be competitive for a few seasons. Leave him in place and address areas of concern – namely, everywhere else.
Except Marte, Drury, and Owings should essentially see all the time up the middle. They brought Descalso in to be the util guy. Ahmed offensively just isn’t very good. It would make sense for SD as they don’t necessarily need to hit they just need to be able to pick it. There’s not much value there, but I can see Dbacks and Padres matching up.
Marte, Owings and Ahmed are all AAAA types. I guess you can deal Ahmed and see what you can get for him, but all of the advanced metrics in baseball can barely tell them apart.
This is the DBacks version of surplus to demands..
Marte is a 2B waiting to happen. He doesn’t have the glove to stick at SS. He also still is bi-polar with the bat. He may be much better at the plate than Ahmed, or he might be just as anemic.
Owings is the team’s best utility player, and also the best 2B they have. Of the three, he is also the only one who should see time at SS, though Marte will still get some reps there.
Drury can hit, but he is a defensive liability in a pretty remarkable way when playing anywhere other than 3B.
Of all the team’s infielders, only Ahmed grades anything over very average at SS defensively. In 2015 his bat was just potent enough to not drag down his glove and to make Ahmed worth over 2 WAR.
Marte should move to second, that’s where he played until Cano was signed and I think he would be much better there.
If it weren’t for the team trying so desperately to get Drury consistent ABs at only one position, Marte would be a 2B now. But since the team is going to try forcing the issue of converting Drury to a 2B, Marte is left without enough ABs there. There’s still a good chance Marte starts the year in Reno. If he does, he probably slides back over to 2B. His glove just isn’t strong enough for SS, especially not in Chase Field.
I don’t think so. His glove was worth half a win last year at ss. If he can play average+ defense at short and progress some with the bat he can be a decent player. But I don’t think his bat will ever progress enough to play 2B.
If the team is moving Ahmed then I think they are committing to see if Marte can play SS, backed up by Owings and Descalso.
Of those other options though, only Owings rates as even average defensively at SS. The rest are 2B guys, or in the case of Drury, a corner guy.
When your infield options are Ketel Marte and Daniel Descalso you might want to just hold onto your depth, seeing how neither are particularly good.
That depends if its 2015 or 2016 Ketel Marte that shows up. And while Descalso isn’t good, hes a fine guy to have as your back up infielder and is probably better than Ahmed
That would depend on your deffinition of “better”. Ahmed doesn’t hit much, but his glove is better by many magnitudes. In 2015 Ahmed’s bat was also much better than his career line indicates. He ended 2015 injured and was injured for all of 2016 before he cut his season short and had microfracture surgery. With a .300 OBP, Ahmed is a better SS than either Marte or Descalso, neither of which who should be playing SS at all.
MArte will get reps at SS, but he is a 2B waiting to happen. Unfortuantely, Marte’s bat is so light that he’ll never hit for high enough OPS to be a typical 2B, especially for a team with a light-hitting SS and catcher.
He’s better than Ahmed with a bat sure, but Ahmed is unarguably the better defender.
I’d prefer to have Ahmed over Descalso starting, the man is a wizard with a glove. Even if Descalso out hits him
in 2015 Ahmed was worth 2.5 WAR, despite his bat. His season ended early due to injury. He was also injured all of 2016 before he finally went to the DL to get surgery. If he returns to 2015 levels with the bat, he’s a 2.5-3 WAR player with one of the best gloves in the game. Given that Owings is the only other MLB-ready player they hae that plays SS at an average level, they should be careful about trading away SS depth rather than 2B depth.
Marte was battling mono for half the season in 2016. You can pretty much throw out his post all star break numbers.
His glove is still sub-par at its best when playing SS, and his spring traning has not exactly been all that good, though he has started to come on of late. Until just a day or two ago though, Ahmed was out-hitting him.
Yes, the small sample size of spring training stats are SOOO important when evaluating a hitter vs. their regular season history.
Well Ahmed had 4-5 years of team control left, isnt much of a hitter, great defensively.
Not sure what Arizona would want for him.
Maybe Nick Torres, Austin Allen, and Jorge Ona for Nick Ahmed, Cody Reed, and Matt Koch.
Arizona doesn’t seem to have a lot of OF surplus in its system and padres are gutted with OF talent- Renfoe, Margot, Jankowski, Reed, Gettys.
So makes some sense for the padres to trade from a position of depth to fill a position of need, ahmed for ss, and pick up some pitching- can never have enough pitching.
It’s unlikely Cody Reed is available. With Arizona’s farm being as depleted as it is, trading away one of the best pitching prospects in the organization is not going to do it any favors. If Ahmed gets traded, it will probably be in a 1:1 swap with very littel of note coming back to AZ, probably a lotter ticket sort of player with a high ceiling, but still back in A+ ball, leaving plenty of time for the prospect to flame out.
Lord only knows what Preller and Co. would/will do, but I find it hard to believe the Padres would deal Ona right now. As I am sure you know, they just signed him for $7M ($14m with penalty), why would they want to trade him before he has even taking a swing for them in professional ball for a glove 1st, possible utility player?
lol they’d had to give up their farm for something like that
And their farm is crap
Wasn’t very long ago that both Ahmed and Owings rated higher than Gregorious and as it turns out he was by far, the best of those three at the time. Hindsight is 20/20, but I remember how many weren’t high on Gregorious and for some of us, it was easy to see he was going to be the more complete player going forward.
DBacks would be smart to package him with Koch or someone similar and try to pry some talent from the Padres system.
Won’t happen
Koch is a very trade-likely piece for the Diamondbacks. What is unclear is whether or not SD would have any interest in Ahmed+Koch if the return has to be much more than just Ahmed alone.
It doesn’t need to be a premium piece, Diamondbacks can use depth. And a solid player that might contribute in a couple years would benefit them greatly.
One would figure it would just be a matter of ceiling. For Ahmed alone, the Diamondbacks probably get a low minors lottery ticket, unless they are looking for near-future contribution. For Ahmed+Koch, I figure the return would be about the same, but the potential ceiling might be higher. Would SD want to give up that ceiling though just to get Koch added into the deal?
With a good season Koch might become one of those guys that become fashionable at the trade deadline and could net more.
Sd isn’t in the place to sell off pieces
If they were going to deal it be something of little value like cossart sardines Clemens or one of the rule five type players
I doubt trading to a division rival is a concern, the Padres aren’t 1 Nick Ahmed away from contenting in that division lol
The real question they should be asking is “How much can we get for Paul Goldschmidt?”
any teams top 3 or 4 prospects, at least. He’s cheap with 3 years of control left and is the best all around 1st baseman in the game. Braves, for example, would have to give back Dansby plus a lot more to get him (obviously, Braves have Freeman and wouldn’t be interested). Yankees would probably have to give up two of Frazier, Torres and Judge plus at least another pitching prospect like Kaprielian.
How many teams does he fit on?
Not talent-wise, he can play for anyone. But what team has the need that makes the cost in prospects worthwhile? And then has the farm to make a trade like that happen?
It’s a short list.
Which is only part of the reason why he isn’t going anywhere. DBacks aren’t going to start selling guys off unless this year ends as bad or worse than last year, which is doubtful. Even then, trading Goldy would be the best way for them to lose much of their fan base’s interest in the team. He’s Arizona’s version of Mike Trout and won’t be going anywhere unless someone offers their entire farm system for him.
The DBacks are a 75 win team, which means they are 15 wins away from being competitive and with no way to close that gap. You need to move talent to get talent back.
There’s no way that a competitive Diamondback team has Goldschmidt in their uniform. Angels are facing the same dilemma in LA, at some point they have to move Trout.
If something like a long-term injury happened to Goldschimdt, or something he wouldn’t make a 100% recovery from, you might as well turn south and play in the Mexican league.
Lol
Except he is about 2-3 levels below him
No they’re a 69 win team (which is what they won last year) that looks just as flawed this year.
Angels situation with Trout is different in that ownership has money to spend to bring in free agents. The Dbacks are way over budget already.
Ahmed is fun to watch in the field. His value is probably near its low point b/c of the the injury. I guess if they insist on moving him, they can move him. It has been suggested they have middle infield depth, but it is mostly one-way or meh players. If the hip is good his value will likely improve w/ PT. Recently, it seems as though when the Dbacks trade guys from a perceived area of strength/depth it comes back to bite them/was the wrong choice.
I like nick ahmed
Pirates really don’t have a backup SS at this point. All of their bench INF options (Gosselin, Frazier, Hanson) rarely play short. I wonder if they might be interested. Hurdle has used late inning subs at SS before: Clint Barmes, John McDonald
Mainly because they have renfoe margot as the CF RF of the future with gettys reed jankowski and future draft picks for LF if not dickerson.
They have OF talent. And plenty of it.
At the time they signed ona ss options with good team control 4+ years werent available.
Who knows how ahmed will do if padres trade for him.
But ona in the deal meant theyd be getting reed and koch back as well by swapping allen and ona with arizonas supposed pitching depth as they have shipley, bradley and banda, young, clarke, keller working through the minors who are projected to be ready by 2018.
If you just want ahmed then torres and another player like mark zimmerman make sense.
Torres has 4th OF floor if he doesnt tap into his power potential.
Some of these guys need to be smacked
Ahmed isn’t worth anything in our top 30.
Slow down. It’s a nice farm system but not elite. You have a few guys that are clearly outside the scope of a Nick Ahmed trade, but anyone outside the top ten is in play if the package is right and benefits both sides.
Lol, according to everyone else it is elite
I’d take Ahmed in a heartbeat, I think he’s undervalued/underrated
Didn’t say I wouldn’t take him but he isn’t worth anything on the padres top 30
Brendan Ryan, eat your heart out
Based on the fact that they got Robbie Ray for Didi Gregorius, who was pretty much a glove only guy at the time, the DBacks could probably expect a pretty decent return for Ahmed. Maybe Cal Quantrill from San Diego? He’s still enough of a wild card due to his tommy John recovery
Or maybe Morejon or Lauer might be more realistic. Still, Arizona shouldn’t let him go for nothing
Haha it doesn’t work like that. Especially when you are comparing a 27 to at the time a 25 year old who clearly had more offensive upside and outperformed Ahmed. San Diego would clearly hang up before laughing to hard. No one is questioning Ahmed’s glove. Defensively he can pick it. Offensively leaves more than desired and places him at risk to being just a back up/ util. inf. So I’m not sure your expectations aren’t warranted you could be looking at a RP type flyer, but most likely nothing more.
lol you’re funny
Cossart is more realistic
The lowest I’d consider would be buddy reed for Ahmed and your number 1 or 3 in your prospect list
As a Diamondback fan, I don’t share your optimism that Ahmed pulls a top 100 prospect. He’s a low-end regular at best. I’d be shocked if a player of Morejon or Quantrill’s pedigree comes back
Nothing like that comes back
Just because he has a lot of team control doesn’t mean he is worth a feature #2 pitcher, or cal who will be in the show this season if not next
Anyone else not able to reply to other comments? Everything that I post goes to the bottom as a new post
Nah, just close the app and try again
Quantrill or Morejon?
HaHaHa…. Preller is an odd one but he would hang up the phone so fast all of his hidden medical reports would fly across his office!
So is everyone else not named Kershaw.
Yanks will give the dbacks ARod as a instructor for this season for Ahmad. Nothing more then a insurance policy for the infield. Little to no chance he would take a opening day spot tho
Is he middle eastern?
Its top 5 but you seem to ignore the value of defense in this league. Ahmed is easily a top 10 if not top 5 defensive short stop and a perfect buy low candidate for the padres to spend the next couple years evaluating while other guys like Guerra and Urias develop.
Hes got 4 years of control and giving up someone in a ball isnt gonna break the system.
Nick torres for ahmed makes sense. Torres has no place with renfoe jankowski dickerson and margot and projects as at worst a 4th of type if he doesnt tap into his power potential. Hes mlb ready and at worst is mlb ready in 2018.
Trade to division rival issue? If you’re worried about having to face the Padres after they acquire Nick Ahmed, just demote your franchise to AAA & be done with it. Makes space for a new Montreal Expos franchise. Everybody wins.
That’s the rays
True, Nick Ahmed’s defense is elite, which is why he’s the starter, not a back-up. He’s so good defensively that he’s a 2.5 win player when his offense is terrible. Imagine what he’s capable of as his offense improves. All that said, this story is nonsense because the new front office is open to talking trades involving everyone but Goldy.
Don’t hold your breathe on those offers Dbacks. Christ
Baseball America has you at 9. The system is loaded with a bunch of projected solid MLB talent but little superstar potential.
Cracking the top third is far from elite.
Ba says we are at 3
Ken says we are at 2
Nice try try
MLB.com says we are at 4
You lose