Too often overlooked in the general talk about Justin Verlander’s contract serving as an impediment to a theoretical trade is the amount of leverage that Verlander’s no-trade clause gives him, opines ESPN’s Buster Olney. Verlander currently can’t become a free agent until after his age-36 season, but his recent return to form would give him the ability to hold out for a contract extension in order to green-light a move to another club. (One middle ground, speculatively speaking, could be to push for his $22MM vesting option for the 2020 season to be exercised in advance.) A strong finish could make that all the more true if the Tigers hold him and look to move him this offseason. Verlander’s last seven starts have resulted in a 1.71 ERA with 9.6 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9, though he’s still received some help in terms of BABIP (.229) and strand rate (91 percent) in that time.
More from the AL Central…
- Andrew Miller is scheduled to make a minor league rehab assignment on Wednesday this week, and the Indians are expecting him to need just one appearance before being activated, per Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. If all goes well, that seems to point to a total of roughly two weeks on the shelf for Miller, who hit the disabled list back on Aug. 3. Hoynes also notes that outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall began a rehab assignment on Sunday, so he could return from a lengthier absence (on the disabled list since July 9) in the relatively near future as well.
- The White Sox will monitor Reynaldo Lopez’s workload over the rest of the season, manager Rick Renteria tells Brian Sandalow of the Chicago Sun-Times, though the skipper declined to divulge a specific innings cap on the ballyhooed young righty. “I think everybody is very cognizant of pitch counts,” said Renteria. “Like we talked about last night, he has wipeout type stuff. He can strike out a lot of guys. Those guys tend to elevate in their pitch counts sometimes. We will be mindful of that.” Lopez totaled 153 1/3 innings between the Majors, Triple-A and Double-A last season. He’s currently pitched 127 innings between Triple-A Charlotte and his lone start with the ChiSox.
- Following last night’s trade of Tyler Clippard to the Astros, the White Sox don’t have a single player on their roster with a save in 2017, as MLB.com’s Scott Merkin points out. Clippard, David Robertson, Dan Jennings, Tommy Kahnle and Anthony Swarzak have all been dealt to other clubs in the past five weeks, while excellent setup man Nate Jones is out for the remainder of the 2017 season. Merkin suggests that Jake Petricka and rookies Brad Goldberg and Aaron Bummer could all be candidates to get some save opportunities. Petricka, who has 16 career saves after spending part of the 2014 season as Chicago’s primary stopper, seems to be the logical candidate for saves of that bunch. However, each of the three has struggled considerably at the big league level in 2017. Of the others currently in the South Siders’ bullpen (depth chart), Greg Infante and Juan Minaya have had the best results this season.
There’s something about having a guy named Bummer for your closer.
I was thinking the exact same thing
At least his last name isn’t chapman
I agree he was so hot last night then that HR smh but I blame a lot of it on how Girardi works him too
Joe Girardi’s got nothing on what Joe Maddon did with Chapman in the final two games of the World Series last season. If ever a team won a championship in spite of their manager, it was the 2017 Cubs.
“If ever a team won a championship in spite of their manager…”
That team was the White Sox with Ozzie Guillen.
“Sour grapes make bad whine.”
I don’t think it is as great as Grant Balfour or David Riske, but Bummer is still pretty sweet.
Idk, goldberg reminds me of the goalie from the mighty ducks. Makes too much sense. Goalies rack up saves in hockey, closers rack up saves in baseball.
Lol i have to agree with you on that one
I feel like having atrocious pitching for a rebuilding club is the way to go and the sox bullpen is most definitely atrocious. If only Burdi didn’t get hurt he’d be gearing up for the closer role most likely
With Lopez on an innings cap it wouldn’t be the worst idea to see him close. Feel like he’d be an excellent closer but I’m sure they want him developing as a starter full time. Maybe If the chisox had a decent team this year that’d be an option. Carson fulmer had a rough year starting, might not be the worst idea to see what he can do out of the pen.
Yah, that would be pointless this year. They’d be much better off shutting him down at some point rather than screwing with his development as a starter. They don’t need someone good to close out games right now, and he has far too much promise as a starter to switch to closing. If he eventually fails as a starter, then they can try him at closer in a few years.
Fulmer was by far one of my favorite prospects coming out of his draft class and mechanics aside it’s odd to see his AAA performance this year being the true Fulmer. Lot’s of control issues and gut feeling he may be trying too hard to impress the front office.
Fulmer is still young, he could still settle in as a mid-back rotation guy. I’m sure his innings will be capped soon. He’s not a power arm so I don’t know if the bullpen will do him better but the Sox could use some pen arms and I don’t think it’d hurt to see him up.
I wish I shared your optimism on Fulmer. I was not a fan of the pick at all. That being said, at the time, there wasn’t really anyone available that I liked a lot. Outside of the top 3 shortstops (loved all 3 – knew they wouldn’t last), the only 2 guys I was really interested in were Tucker and Benentendi. Unfortunately, they both went before we picked too. Still hoping for the best though!
I expect absolutely nothing from Fulmer at this point. Not even hoping he can be even a low-end middle relief guy.
If he does find some success it will be pleasant surprise, but I will no longer find any disappointment in him not doing so.
Have to have save opportunities to get saves.
Steve Adams Jeffrey Loria my distant and I do mean distant cousin would never hire you for GM. Your solution to the Tiger dilemma with Verlander is to pony up another 22 million for 2020 , hoping that would help the Tigers move him in the off season.
They have not been able to move him because of his 2018-19 salary. A reasonable trade would have the acquiring team pay 30 million of his 2018-19 salary and a couple of low level prospects. My guess is the Tigers do not really want to trade him.
Thanks for the thought, TigerFan1968, but if I had a team, I’d rather have Steve Adams as GM than some of the others out there.
And your being related to a Capo of the Selig/Loria Swindle Team is nothing to broadcast, especially among fans who care about integrity in baseball or in society.
Honestly, I don’t see anything in there to imply that Steve’s saying that exercising the 2020 option would boost Verlander’ s value (it certainly would not). My understanding is he’s repeating Olney’s argument that that may be a necessity given Verlander’s NTC.
I do agree though that Verlander demanding that that option be automatically picked up to approve a trade would render a trade impossible, because I can’t see any acquiring team being willing to take that on, and the Tigers will need him off the books ASAP, so they wouldn’t do that
How many times do the Tigers have to say they do not need to cut payroll? Yes they want to be under the cap, and they will be this off season when 40+Million will be coming off the books. They don’t need to move JV. Aces are costly. If you don’t have one and need one, you will pay for one, or you wont get one. Or you can pay even more in prospects for someone you hope will become one.
Sorry, worded that wrong. Didn’t actually mean ASAP in the sense that they need to move him, but I can’t see any way they commit to picking up an option year to have him play for another team
If you are going to name drop, do it with a name people care about. Not being hired by your cousin is something to be proud of. Jeffery Loria was one of the worst. As a baseball fan I am happy he is gone.
Good riddance to Loria. And as long as we are airing grievances from baseball’s racketeers, it’s nice to have Bud Selig in our rear view mirror, too. He was the Jeff Loria of the prior generation.
How many opportunities do the ChiSox expect to have?