Last August, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that the Diamondbacks and Marlins were in talks regarding a possible Shelby Miller trade that was ultimately vetoed by D-backs owner Ken Kendrick. Roughly nine months later, FanRag’s Jon Heyman adds some more context to the story, noting that the two sides were in talks regarding right-handers Luis Castillo, Jose Urena and Austin Brice were all being discussed as potential pieces for Arizona to acquire, as was left-hander Dillon Peters (not necessarily all four, though Castillo and Urena were likely the centerpieces). One D-backs source tells Heyman the trade was never close, though Heyman cites others who agreed with Nightengale’s report, stating that Kendrick did indeed veto the deal when it was close to fruition. Miller, of course, remained with the D-backs and looked better in 2017 than he did in 2016 before suffering a torn UCL and undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Heyman’s weekly American League and National League Notes columns reveal a few more interesting hot stove items…
- Despite the fact that multiple reports suggest the bidding price for the Marlins is around $1.3 billion, some have suggested to Heyman that the team’s lack of revenue and significant financial commitments to Giancarlo Stanton, Wei-Yin Chen, Martin Prado and others will ultimately lower the sale price after a full financial examination. Heyman adds that despite prior reports, he’s been told that Alex Rodriguez was never actually offered a spot in the Tagg Romney/Tom Glavine group that is vying to purchase the Marlins. Whether A-Rod was made an offer or not, the key takeaway is that it appears he won’t be involved in the sale.
- Rival executives believe that Pirates ace Gerrit Cole could land on the trade market this summer, per Heyman. The former No. 1 overall pick would make for an extremely interesting addition to the summer trade market, though Bucs certainly needn’t feel compelled to trade him. Cole is controlled through the 2019 season and is earning a perfectly reasonable $3.8MM this season (though that number will spike in his second trip through arbitration this winter). Nonetheless, with two and a half years of club control left, Cole would fetch a significant haul of young talent if he were actually made available. It seems quite likely that the Bucs will listen on Andrew McCutchen and Tony Watson this summer (Watson, like Mark Melancon last year, is a pending free agent), but Cole would have the most significant value of the bunch.
- Even if a closer upgrade were available to the Tigers at the moment, they don’t have the money to make an addition (or at least wouldn’t be willing to spend it). Detroit recently demoted Francisco Rodriguez from the ninth inning in favor of Justin Wilson following a brutal start to the season for K-Rod, and their bullpen has once again been a weak spot. Heyman notes that GM Al Avila at one point made a trip to Triple-A Toledo and “read the riot act” to right-hander Bruce Rondon, who has responded by dropping 15 pounds. Rondon was once viewed as a potential closer of the future, but he’s yet to establish himself and has had issues with his conditioning and effort level.
- Heyman also reports a pair of agency changes, noting that Red Sox top prospect Rafael Devers is now a client of Rep 1 Baseball, while Dodgers top prospect Yadier Alvarez is now repped by Wasserman. Neither has made his MLB debut yet, though both are considered among the game’s top 25 to 50 prospects and could theoretically surface in the Majors within the next calendar year or so (Devers, who is already in Double-A, appears closer than Alvarez, who has just 18 innings in High-A). Both changes are now reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains representation info on roughly more than 2,500 Major League and Minor League players. If you see any inaccuracies or omissions, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.
Ken Kendrick is a fool and has no clue what he is doing. Dbacks would have done really well in that trade
To have just bought unbelievably high and then sell low on Miller. At that point (and this still remains the case) he’s worth hanging on to just to see if he can recoup more value than that.
Should be noted I’m not as high on Castillo as most.
The Pirates current core doesn’t work. No speed, no power means they have to string together a lot of hits, but they have mostly free swingers with no plate discipline.
Trade Cutch (if you can) Watson, Harrison and Cole for AA or AAA prospects only. This can be a Yankees style retool, rather than a Cubs/Astros rebuild.
Toss those prospects into a pile with Bell, Meadows, Glasnow, Kingham, Keller, Newman, etc. and hope that Marte, Kang, Polanco and Taillon can give you closer to their peaks than to what they have been able to this season.
That’s really their only path (hope).
Still confused as to why people thought this team was a Quintana away from contending.
A lot of things that had to go right all went wrong : no Kang, no Marte, Cutch not rebounding, weak bullpen, unproven rookies in the rotation (well, everywhere now ….)
Exactly, was going to post the basically the same thing. Add to that, Freese and Frazier hurt, I still would not have given up what was reportedly asked for by the White Sox for Quintana. In hindsight, he has not been that stellar anyway for the Sox.
The only reason the Yankees-style retool works for the Yankees is because they have money to buy any players they need to fill holes. The Pirates don’t have that as a small market team.
The little green devil rears it’s ugly head!
Pirates fans have to be patient because they have a very bright future. They have the best/deepest pitching farm system in the majors. Even better, they will have a top 12 pick in the 2017 draft and possibly a higher one in 2018.
If Mcutchen were to be traded then they would definitely get a good prospect for him, likely a pitcher who can shift around spots in the bullpen, but can still be effective. Gerrit Cole will not want to stay with the pirates due to the failing relationship with the front office. Once they trade him,whenever that may be, they will undoubtedly get a haul for him. I can’t see Tony Watson not being traded this year, and a trade for him would likely bring in a decent prospect being that he is a very capable reliever.
Something that people aren’t thinking about also is the aging rotation of the cubs and the aging in general for the Cardinals. I can’t see the Reds or Brewers being legitimate contenders for a while being that there farm systems aren’t up to par with a lot of teams.
Once you factor all of this in, the Pirates have a very bright future and will become a dominant team in the MLB.
so far Dansby Swanson is hitting .168 so I guess we will wait yet another year to determine who lost this trade
Still the Diamondbacks. Inciarte was part of that trade too, so even if Swanson never lives up entirely to the hype (and I’m pretty sure this is just rookie slumping), the Braves still got a 3.5-4 WAR per season CF out of the deal. Though Miller’s revamp attempts this year did look decent before he got shelved.
The same kind of “slumping” as Profar and Buxton, huh?
profar had shoulder surgery and lost all semblance of power after that. Do you actually pay attention to what happened to these players ore just look at prospect ranking? (this is a serious question).
But the dbacks lost this horrible trade. And that great get took people’s attention away from the terrible moves the braves front office made in trades. I still remember hearing they were gonna compete this year or be .500.
Yes, the same kind of slumping as Bryant and Jackie Bradley. He’s a rookie who’s playing premium D. His upside and controllability hold incredibly more value than the level he’s performed to so far this year.
Yeah, cuz Kris Bryant and his 2016 NL MVP are surely comparable. The same KB who is “slumping”, but worth 2.0 more war through 160 pa than Swanson right now. yeah, that one. That is a great analogy.
So many braves fans that post here are a joke. Don’t let facts get in the way of your narratives.
Point of order: I DON’T expect Swanson to be part of the super shortstop wave. He’s not Lindor, Correa, or Seager. He just doesn’t have that kind of offensive track record behind him. But he’s a well above-average defender at a premium position, so he has high value. And given what he did last season, even despite a good deal of it coming off an elevated BABIP, there’s room to be optimistic as far as his bat goes. At worst, I expect Swanson to be a 2.5 – 3 WAR per season player when he hits his stride. More likely he’s 3.5 – 4 WAR, about the same as Enciarte, provided he can get his K% down and his BABIP up to the norms he had in the Minors. I think .260-280 BA with 10-13 HR’s a season isn’t unreasonable in the future for him. He’s just really raw.
Swanson is absolutely NOT playing premium D at all. Simmons played premium D speaking of horrible trades.
Guessing you haven’t watched Buxton play and just parrot things you hear. Buxton started off horribly but has been pretty solid offensively since about mid April and even better the past couple weeks batting, .292/.320/.542. With his defense I think he’ll be okay, so yeah, if Swanson is “slumping” like Buxton then he’ll be okay.
What trades are you referring to? Trade for Gohara/Pike and Alex Jackson already paying off. Luke Jackson still up in the air, but bullpen depth. Demeritte has seen early returns and still needs to develop. Yes, that Olivera trade was bad, but we needed a mid-order bat desperately and got one when we used him to get Kemp. Signings of Colon/Dickey are becoming more baffling as the days roll on – wish we rolled the dice on some younger arms whose stock was low and could have more trade value. For the price of Dickey/Colon you could have thrown out a few smaller contracts with more risk and higher reward, in my opinion. But you know what they say about hindsight.
Didn’t say he was playing premium D. I said he was playing ABOVE-AVERAGE defense at a premium position. Which is true. He’s above average and he plays shortstop. Reading comprehension, y’all.
Not a Braves fan at all and I’m comparing his first 50-100 ABs of his career to those of profar et all… as is the comparison made above. Relax.
Yup swanson sucks,,,,might as well cut him. You’re kinda a joke yourself chester and a not very funny one at that.
“above-average defender at a premium position”
ABOVE AVERAGE DEFENDER……………………………..AT A PREMIUM POSITION
Hope that helps.
good point I had completely forgot about Inciarte being part of that trade
Did you forget that Ender Inciarte was also a major piece in that trade? He certainly hasn’t been bad this season
don’t forget about Aaron Blair either!!!!
I’m pretty sure people would like to forget Aaron Blair after how bad he was last season (and he’s been almost as bad in Triple-A this season), but there’s probably some glimmer of upside there. Somewhere.
Didn’t we already know the D-backs were going to, but the ownership nixed it like last August or September? I feel like I heard reports of discussions for Miller for Castillo last year, probably on this site.
Rondon is a classic case of not knowing how blessed he is. Immaturity has been his weak spot for years. Perhaps he needs a mentor in the off season to help him keep his weight down and learn conditioning.
Considering Heyman’s long history as a pipeline for Boras, one wonders if Cole and Boras are pushing for a trade to someone who can give him a lucrative extension.
Would have to be a huge extension for Boras to recommend Cole sign it, no matter who the team is. He will push Cole to hit the market to drive his price way up. Only way the Pirates trade Cole is if they get their socks knocked off with an offer.