The Rays and Yankees have joined the Padres in showing some trade interest in Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed, The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro reports. The D’Backs had begun listening to offers for the defensive star thanks to a surplus of other middle infield options, with San Diego already linked due to manager Andy Green’s familiarity with Ahmed in his old job as Arizona’s third base coach.
It makes sense that both AL East rivals would be checking in on Ahmed given how Tampa and New York have both suffered injury setbacks at shortstop. The Rays are still uncertain as to when Matt Duffy will be able to begin full baseball activities in the wake of his extended recovery from Achilles tendon in his left heel last September. The Yankees, meanwhile, will be without Didi Gregorius until the end of April as the shortstop recovers from a shoulder strain.
At first glance, the Yankees would seem to have the lesser need for Ahmed since they already have several other middle infield options (Ronald Torreyes, Ruben Tejada, Donovan Solano, Pete Kozma, Tyler Wade or even second baseman Starlin Castro) on hand, plus they have a rough idea about when Gregorius will be back on the field. Tampa Bay’s timeline for Duffy is much more uncertain, and the Rays were already operating under something of a strained middle infield in the wake of trading Logan Forsythe to the Dodgers.
Tim Beckham is slated to take over at short in Duffy’s absence, leaving the Rays short a right-handed platoon option for second baseman Brad Miller, who struggles against lefties. Daniel Robertson and the switch-hitting Nick Franklin are the other viable middle infield options on the 40-man roster, as it is rather unlikely that top prospect Willy Adames will get an early promotion to the big leagues.
Ahmed hasn’t shown much at the plate (a .597 OPS over 842 career plate appearances) in his brief career and he carries some notable injury history in the form of season-ending hip surgery from last August. On the plus side, he is controllable through the 2020 season, and potentially through 2021 spending on how much more service time he accumulates this season — he has already clocked two years and 54 days of service time in his career. Ahmed has also shown himself to be a superb defender at short, with +34 Defensive Runs Saved and a 14.3 UZR/150 over 1920 career innings at the position.
In another item from Piecoro, he also reports that the Diamondbacks are listening to offers on right-hander Enrique Burgos. The 26-year-old has a fastball that averages just shy of 96mph and he owns an impressive 10.8 K/9 over 68 1/3 career innings in the majors, though Burgos has managed only a 5.27 ERA thanks to control issues (an even 5.00 BB/9). Piecoro figures that the D’Backs are trying to move Burgos in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for Gregor Blanco, Tom Wilhelmsen, or another player who could win an Opening Day job.
Yankees could use some more ML ready SS depth. Tejada and Solano both looked like garbage to me this spring training and Torreyes can’t play every day.
i say trade him for gardner. and get jorge mateo if possible because they won’t trade torres for ahmed
Why stop with Gardner and Mateo? Get us to throw in Torres, Frazier, Bird, Sanchez, Kap, McKinney, Sheffield, Fowler, Andujar, Rutherford, Severino, and Judge while you’re at it. That would be fair imho.
You’ve got to be kidding. That package you just mentioned is ridiculous for a player like Ahmed. Other than Sanchez, there’s really no major league ready talent that is ready to contribute now. Let’s face it, the Yankees might not have what it takes to match up for a trade for Ahmed.
the only way the yanks would give up one of those prospects if it was 1 for 1. the snakes need to get more out of it
“they wont trade torres for ahmed’
“why don’t you get us to toss in Torres”
You’re not even a good homer.
That was clearly sarcasm on his part, anyone who thought he was serious should get their IQ checked
As good as Gardner is, the Dbacks don’t need another outfielder, especially an expensive one. They need pitching prospects. Fans always think teams want the players they want to trade. It doesn’t make sense. If you want a player, you have to think of what that team needs.
No it’s much easier to just make stupid proposals that only work for the team you are rooting for.
Makes sense to me. Lol
Why would the Yankees trade Gardner for Ahmed? That move makes no sense for the Yankees.
You seriously think Ahmed will bring back Mateo? That’s laughable. Ahmed is it that valuable.
ahmed has one of the best shortstop gloves in the league. mateo might not even pan out. so i think that it’s a fair trade
Ahmed is also the worst hitter in MLB. Since the start of 2014, 299 players have at least 750 PA. Nick Ahmed ranks 299th offensively. His best one season would rank 295th. DBacks, keep your glove only player.
The Yankees don’t need him that bad. The guy can’t hit anyway.
Yeah, we already have guys that can’t hit, why would we need him ?
This smells like a refsnyder for Ahmed trade
It doesn’t smell like that at all
I’d also add that Ahmed’s offensive struggles do not mean he’s bad offensively. He’s young and young players usually take awhile to transition. His are glaring because his glove is so good that they let him struggle…and he still turned out a 2.5 WAR. He did pretty well his last year in the minors and his hip ached all last year. So he had one healthy year that had low lows, but it also showed an above average stretch of 60 games and he hit lefties above average. I don’t think the Dbacks are moving him just to move him. Ahmed has a lot of value. I don’t expect Hazen to make the same mistake Towers made with Didi. They need something valuable back.
No. Young players take a while to transition is a dumb narrative here. He has never been and was never scouted as, a good offensive player. Just stop.
He is 27
Is an Ahmed for Franchy Cordero+ plausible?
Plus? What else are you giving us for franchy ? Nick amend plus for
How about Ahmed for Ted Williams’s frozen head. A HOFer for a HOFer, seems legit…
Franchy has the highest ceiling of all center fielders in the padres system not named Margot.
If the Yankees were smart they would put Refsnyder at 2nd and Castro at SS
Or if they were smarter they would call the cross-town rivals and see what it would take to get Wilmer Flores. He could fill in at SS without having to move Starlin and would be pretty affordable. He has no spot in NY behind Walker, Cabrera and Wright. They are pretty high on their young prospect SS as well, Rosario and Cechinni.
Good idea, but he is the backup 1B and he rakes against lefties. The Mets have depth, so it could happen, but I hope it doesn’t.
Wilmer Flores will have more playing time with the Mets than the Yankees because once DiDi comes back, Flores will be the outside man. Mets, on the other hand is more questionable with Wright, Cabrera and Walkers injury, and will probably need Flores more.
If you were smart you wouldn’t make that suggestion.
So are the padres
But really a light hitting short stop with a
.970 fielding
I hope the Padres get Ahmed
Why?
Don’t feed the trolls, expose them to the light and they’ll turn to stone.
Ahmed is just a defensive player, nothing more. They should just stick with Tejada for a month.
Makes a lot of sense for the Rays. Not sure what the return would look like.
Yankees don’t have what the D’backs would want for Ahmed, but the Rays do….young, controllable starting pitchers. Odorizzi or Cobb, even if the D’backs had to add a starter back to the Rays, like Shipley.
It would take MUCH more than Ahmed to acquire Odorizzi or Cobb…
i don’t think so
Well then you’re very realistic in terms of Ahmed’s value.
*unrealistic
Then you have no clue what you’re talking about. The Rangers were discussing Odorizzi for Profar, and the Rays weren’t biting. Ahmed is no where near the player Profar is, and was never even as close to him ever in prospect status.
Profar can’t even crack the starting lineup with the Rangers. Other than being overhyped as a prospect, Profar is nowhere near the player Ahmed is. Highly regarded prospects who never pan out are worthless, and that is a good description of Profar!
Profar not cracking the starting lineup for the Rangers is a bad comparison. He’s nowhere near the player? Wow that’s a bit no actually extremely homerish.
Profar has by far more upside and he’s finally healthy. Add onto that he’s also three year younger. Fact remains Ahmed isn’t currently considered a starter on a team that doesn’t have Kinsler, a big contract, and a HoF 3b. Let’s just stop being unrealistic and realize that Profar was slowed due to injuries nothing more. Which btw there are serious injury concerns revolving around Ahmed also. I’m sure if you were to ask execs they almost unanimously take the next three years of Profar over Ahmed. And no he’s not worthless. But you attack/comment definitely is.
And by Kinsler I meant Odor. But sentiment still remains. It’s a more talented mif that what the Dbacks currently have constructed.
What’s the difference between upside and potential? Answer: nothing. Profar has potential and upside, he’s a top prospect. It’s all saying the same thing. He hasn’t actually delivered on his high potential because of injuries, or players with big salaries blocking his path to the big leagues, or…insert your favorite excuse here. Bottom line, he hasn’t done a thing in the majors. If he was actually as good as you say he is, he would have forced the Rangers to get him into the lineup by his sheer performance on the field. But he hasn’t, because he’s all potential and no substance. We can all name dozens, hundreds of players who never de,ivered on their potential. At this point, Profar is in that group.
No but your main point here is that he wasn’t good enough to crack the Rangers starting lineup. I just find it funny that this was a major point. It was also pretty short sided. Essentially you’re judging his “inability to do anything” based on last year. Fact still remains if that’s the major point of judgement, Ahmed would not have any value either because he’d be unable to crack the Rangers lineup also. You can’t compare apples and oranges and pretend it’s all the same thing. He’s also now viewed as a back up on his own team, it looks as though Owings has taken the reigns. So what does that say about Ahmed? As good as he can be defensively he’s a pretty one dimensional player.
The fact remains Profar is still a better overall player than Ahmed period. He’s also a much younger player. And if we’re truly trying to be objective here we would say they are both unproven. The difference here being that Profar has shown he can hit and has an elite hit tool along with above average defensive chops in the minors. Ahmed, well he’s shown he can pick it and is 27. So spare me the narrative that Ahmed has absolutely put his stamp on the league so much so that he has developed extreme trade value. That’s the equivalent of me as Dodgers fan claiming a player such as Puig has enough trade value to obtain Odorizzi. Let’s be realistic and objective here.
And just to clarify the analogy was made not to compare trade value but expand on wishful fan value v actual value.
Scottaz.. Depending on who you listen to, the Yankees have either the best, or 2nd best, farm system in all of baseball. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have arguably the worst system in all of baseball. To say the Yankees don’t have what the D’backs would want for a glove-only type player, is laughable at best.
MurderersRow27, what you wrote is true about both team’s farm systems, however, the D’backs aren’t looking to rebuild their farm system by trading Ahmed. Those types of trades occur at the trade deadline, when a team is trading a pending free agent. Ahmed is controllable for several more years, not to mention the fact that he is arguably the best defensive SS in baseball right now. You can argue this last fact, but if he’s not absolutely The best, then he’s in the top 2 or 3 best defensive SS in baseball. Both of those facts make Ahmed much more valuable than trading him for prospects.
Top 2 or 3? Not even close. Simmons, Crawford, Lindor, Russell, so on so on. He’s a very good def SS but his offensive short comings make him suited for a backup role. He’s not a franchise type SS that is going to bring back anything substantial. He is also not going to bring back an Odorrizi type.
Ahmed’s glove is closer to Simba and Crawford than it is to most of the rest of baseball. When Ahmed and Simba were both still in the ATL organization, there was a great deal of open speculation as to which of the two would actually be the better defender at the MLB level.
It would help if you read what I wrote before commenting back. I wrote that Ahmed “is the best DEFENSIVE SS in baseball”. You tried to refute it by talking offense. I never said offense.
No I didn’t refute it with offense. If you read the post, I presented superior defensive options. I then commented that his defensive abilities are tremendous, but his offensive abilities limit him to a util/ def replacement rather than a regular. That factors significantly into his “perceived value.”
Your right. He’s not in the top 2 or 3. Hes listed over the past 3 seasons as number 4 in Fangraphs.
Russel cannot even clean Simmons jock
Simmons is the best glove first short stop in the game
Russel is avg
Seagar, story, dude in Seattle, Tulo and the braves new short stop are arguably way better than russel
Ahmed isn’t arguably the best defensive SS in baseball, nor is he in the top 2 or 3. Brandon Crawford, Andrelton Simmons and Francisco Lindor are much better than Ahmed defensively. Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Freddy Galvis, Addison Russell, J.J Hardy, Alcides Escobar, Jose Iglesias and even Zack Cozart are arguably better SS than Ahmed. As for farm system altering trades, they don’t always go down at the deadline, just look at what the White Sox did with the trades of Eaton and Sale during this past offseason for example… TOTALLY farm system altering for them. Again, Ahmed is a very good fielding SS, but when you factor in his total lack of offensive production, he’s not worth much at all (even with his 3-4 years of team control remaining). Ahmed isn’t fetching the D’backs an established MLB starter (Odorizzi or Cobb as examples because they were mentioned), nor would he fetch any top prospects. You can keep dreaming with your over evaluation of him, but when you come back down to reality you’ll realize that he wouldn’t be worth more than a B-/C prospect (a prospect from some team’s top 20-30 range maybe) or even some organizational fillers.
Don’t trade for this guy. Torreyes is fine as well as Castro. This team is ready.
Why don’t the Yankees just play Wade. The guy has been good this spring.
A-Rod plays SS, and is technically a FA!
Plus, the Yankees are already paying him!
Why not just play Castro at SS and let Refsnyder play 2nd. Best case scenario, Refsnyder hits well and can fetch you something later when Didi comes back.
Me like this
There’s no way in hell the Yankees trade any good prospects for this guy. Everyone that’s even pretending like that will happen should just stop.
According to fangraphs (uzr) Ahmed was 3rd best defensively in 2015. 2016 he was hampered with his hip and was still 6th. didi was 31st I think. Considering he plays a critical defensive position, is cost controllable for 4 seasons and IS elite defensively you will be surprised what he returns for the diamondbacks if they move him.
Where did you see those numbers? Looking at fangraphs for his 2016 season, he wouldn’t have been ranked 6th. Going by fielding percentage (he had a .975 fp), he would’ve been ranked 11th. If you want to go by UZR (his UZR was 8.6), he would’ve ranked 10th.
He might be a good defensive SS, but when you factor in how terrible he’s been offensively through the 249 games he’s played at the MLB level, he won’t fetch much in return. He’s a career .221 hitter with an OBP of .268. Those numbers are terrible, no matter how you look at it. (Sorry for the double reply, but the site wouldn’t let me edit my response after I posted it.)