Thanks to a recent surge that has helped them climb over the .500 mark, the Pirates have ruled out trading either outfielder Andrew McCutchen or utilityman Josh Harrison prior to the deadline, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (video link). However, they’re not necessarily going into the deadline as full-blown buyers. Rather, the team could both buy and sell, as it did last year, and is willing to listen to offers for complementary players such as left-handed setup man Tony Watson, righty reliever Juan Nicasio, third baseman David Freese and first baseman/outfielder John Jaso. As for starter Gerrit Cole, the likelihood is that he’ll stay put, though the Pirates could still entertain offers for him, per Rosenthal.
More from Rosenthal:
- The Astros appeared to be making a serious push for Athletics righty Sonny Gray at one point this week, but they’re not aggressively involved in the sweepstakes for the 27-year-old right now, according to Rosenthal (FanRag’s Jon Heyman issued a similar report Thursday). Given the recent success of starters Mike Fiers and Brad Peacock, Houston could pursue an elite reliever instead of another piece for its rotation, suggests Rosenthal, who adds that prospect Derek Fisher will likely take over in left field next month if the team doesn’t trade him. Baseball America’s 54th-ranked prospect, the 23-year-old has slashed .311/.380/.584 with 21 home runs and 16 steals across 375 Triple-A plate appearances this season. Fisher got his first taste of big league action last month and swatted two homers in just 21 trips to the plate.
- As one would expect, the Rangers will have an “awfully high” asking price for ace Yu Darvish if they do market him, relays Rosenthal. Even though Darvish is an impending free agent on a team that doesn’t look likely to make the playoffs, trading him isn’t as obvious as it might seem, contends Rosenthal. Not only do the Rangers “have an unusually close relationship” with the 30-year-old and a desire to keep him for the long haul, but retaining Darvish for the stretch run will give them a better chance to make up a 4.5-game deficit in the wild-card race. Also, they’d lose the ability to make Darvish a qualifying offer after after the season, which Rosenthal regards as a formality. The Rangers will net a pick after the second round if they issue Darvish a QO and he rejects it.
- If the Braves trade lefty Jaime Garcia, they might use the money they save by dealing him (up to $4.7MM) to acquire a controllable reliever, says Rosenthal, who lists the Orioles’ Brad Brach as a possibility. Brach may not be a realistic target, though, given that Orioles general manager Dan Duquette shot down the idea of trading veterans Saturday.
I would be surprised to see the Astros land Sonny. They usually make a strong but firm inital offer and aren’t willing to go above what they see as fair value.
Then again, they’re a legit contender for the first time in forever, so I wouldn’t bet the farm on Luhnow staying with his usual course of action.
Couple years ago they were legit contenders
They wore down in the last few weeks and lost to Toronto I believe
They were early in becoming competitive coming out of a rebuild. They were not legit contenders as much as they were a surprise.
I mean, they were one misplayed ground ball from knocking off the eventual world series champion.
No. They didn’t lose to Toronto
I don’t think any of the Pirates rentals have enough value to find another Felipe Rivero. They are probably better off keeping them.
The one exception would be if someone was willing to ignore his bad month and offer up something decent for Tony Watson since he’s a lefty reliever who can face right handed batters, too.
Trading Watson for a prospect and then flipping him while adding one of their own prospects to try to get Justin Wilson would be impressive.
They need to either trade for a reliever or find another Happ/Nova/Volquez type reclamation SP and then move Chad Kuhl into the bullpen. He’s routinely touching 98 mph this year as a starter and could throw 100 mph as a reliever. He and Rivero could be a sick tandem at the back end.
Will Craig is very expendable now that Bell has established himself as a fixture. Offer him around the AL for a RP.
Also, one more bench piece. Someone like Eduardo Nunez (especially if he can still play some OF) who could play 3B or spell Mercer at SS..
None of these things break the bank or empty the farm.
Or go big and try to get Julio Teheran. That would work, too.
tldr.
What’s your Teheran offer? Would really have to blow away Coppy to make him bite on an offer. Doubtful the Pirates would feel strongly enough to do that
Huntingdon almost certainly would not but….I’d consider offering a deal based on Cole for Teheran. JT has an extra year of control already and (assuming he’s not a Boras guy) he could possibly be extended at some point unlike Cole who will not. Cole has shown a higher peak in his career while Teheran has an extra year of control, so not sure if either side would need to add a small extra piece but it seems like the value is close.
Or I’d consider a deal involving Austin Meadows…IF they can extend Cutch.
The idea of Searage working with Teheran’s stuff is pretty intriguing.
Zero chance Cole is the centerpiece. Meadows could be interesting, but would his bat play in a corner spot? Ender is locked into CF for at least 4 more years after this one
The Pirates have no chance to make playoffs because Wild Card Teams will be Diamondbacks/Rockies. So Harrison/Watson for Bentz,Swihart,Owens and so on?
Freese can DH/Cole to Royals for Dozier future 3B,Starling,Skugland and so on?
Gray/Liam H. or Casila or Axford to Dodgers for Minor Leaguers. Orioles are out of it so will sell so maybe Tillman/Britton to Dodgers?
Garcia maybe Royals or Astros.
I didn’t know Bryce Bentz was still a thing
Pirates could easily take the division, its currently in shambles. None of the teams are particularly better or worse than any other team, other than Cinci being the worst.
Plus the Rockies have a lot of young arms in their rotation that could easily falter down the stretch. There is no veteran SP there to settle things if they start to skid, either. They are far from a sure bet.
As a Royals fan I would take that deal for Cole in a heartbeat but I would highly doubt the Pirates would be willing to. Dozier is too old to be viewed as a stud prospect, Starling has not been consistent enough, and Skogy is likely going to top out as either a #3/4 or maybe a nice bullpen arm. It just doesn’t seem like enough to blow the Pirates away when they have a chance to compete this year.
Brentz and Owens aren’t even close to being legitimate prospects anymore. But sure the Pirates will give you their All Star 2B who plays multiple positions and under contract for 3 more years for them.
Keep it up pirates
The Braves low minor league teams are really starting to have several cluster you know whats lol…
They either need to add a Short Season A-ball team next season, and add another DSL team for that matter….Which are both highly unlikely, and the latter wouldn’t solve much of anything…OR they need to start trading away some of their “younger” assets..And by younger, I don’t mean their collection of 19 and 20 years olds that are tearing up AAA and AA… (Albies 20, Acuna 19, Soroka 19, and Allard 19)…
…2018 will be the season of rookies for the Braves, as that’s when they should really see the fruits of their labor over the past few years…
The following 5-man rotation and line-up is very possible for some point next season…
Inciarte CF
Albies 2B
Freeman 3B
Kemp LF
Adams 1B
Acuna RF
Flowers C
Swanson SS
With Camargo being their do it all, super utility man, and Dustin Peterson and Rio Ruiz acting as capable and young bats off the bench…
Then their rotation very well could end up being
Teheran
Foltynewicz
Newcomb
And then some combination of Soroka, Allard, and Sims since they will most likely want to keep their innings fairly down…
Should be really fun to watch and follow the Braves next season…Then, once these guys develop, take their lumps, and grow in 2018 and early 2019…Then, the Braves can make some key trades to fill-in their missing pieces…
That’s what makes the most sense to me…Trading away their farm now, makes no sense, because, RIGHT NOW, they really don’t necessarily know what this team will need moving forward…
Once they figure things out, then some combination of their other prospects, both highly-rated and those rated as middle of the pack, can and should be packaged and traded away to help improve some of their weaknesses moving forward..Although, other than Albies, Acuna, Allard, and Soroka, I’d still like to see them hang onto Riley, A.Jax, Toussaint, Wentz, Anderson, Bryse Wilson, Pache, Severino, Gutierrez, YDR, W. Contrearas, D. Waters, Wright, and of course Maitan….
Which, you might be saying, dang there’s no one left…Well, the Braves’ farm system is truly just THAT deep, but honestly they can just pacage their other guys to get some smaller additions to round out their roster..They will have a young enough team, that they can aford to get their big signings done in Free Agency, if need be…They would still have plenty of quality guys like Weigel, Muller, Fried, Withrow, Pike, Mader, Cruz, Cumberland, Herbert, Wilson, Soto, Castro among others that are middle-tier prospects that can be packaged together to get some fill-in pieces…
I still think you’ll see Atlanta go out and get a frontline veteran leader to head up the starting rotation.
verlander is available
Bravesfan88.
Ever hear the word brevity. Short and sweet. No one is going to read that long rant
Some people do indeed read things that are intelligently put together even if they don’t always agree with all the content. Please don’t attempt to speak for everyone.
I started to read it, but it went on and on and on. I usually assume it’s not worth my time once people start predicting future lineups and rotations. God forbid they pound out the bullpen and bench.
At least it made sense. Sometimes when the comments are that long, they talk about nothing. This guy obviously has great knowledge of his favorite team.
verlander..
The only way the Braves take on that contract is packaged with Fulmer. What kind of haul would it take to land those two?
I read it, buddy
He’s not hip to it.
If you think you’re keeping Adams and making FF play 3rd for a whole season… Freddie plays first and Camacho will probably take over 3rd. He looks like he can play anywhere. Good defensive instincts, smooth hands. You guys shouldn’t bench him. He’s way better than Dansby, but they can coexist.
Yeah. Adams may be somewhere else by Sept. 1. The Braves aren’t going to weaken their defense that much by expecting Freddie to play 3B an entire season.
Braves would certainly have the pitching prospects the orioles would look for to deal brach. Don’t know if I really see a huge amount of upside for ATL to do that though brach is only under contract for one more season.
What would the return look like if the Braves trade for Carlos Martinez?
Not happening, but hey …
Albies or Swanson, plus another decent prospect and …
Viz? Teheran (though I don’t see swapping an ace for a #3 unless you lack pitching depth).
Martinez could anchor a staff for a decade. He wouldn’t be cheap. It’s why he’s not going anywhere.
Braves could trade with Tampa. Blair,Muller,B.Wilson,Pache,Seymour and Demeritte. FOR. Archer and R.Stanley.
Derek Fisher is NOT taking over LF next month. Josh Reddick has doing nothing but rake since he came back from the DL last month.
Reddick is the right fielder. The Astros have been basically platooning LF between Beltran/Marisnick/Aoki/Gonzalez.
Fisher is an upgrade over three of them right now.