A few items from the National League West…
- Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will choose whether to opt out of the remaining two years and $65MM on his contract after the season ends, and Buster Olney of ESPN looks at several factors that could play into the process. Health is chief among them, which isn’t surprising considering Kershaw’s recent injury issues. The 30-year-old is currently on the DL with biceps tendinitis after missing time during the previous two seasons with back and hip issues. If Kershaw does opt out, Olney wonders if his legacy with the Dodgers will help influence them to give him a megadeal. They’ve shied away from overly long commitments in recent years, including when they allowed Zack Greinke to sign with the rival Diamondbacks for a six-year, $206.5MM guarantee in December 2015, Olney points out.
- The Giants are taking an aggressive approach in ace Madison Bumgarner’s recovery from a fractured pinky finger, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group relays. Manager Bruce Bochy indicated that Bumgarner may only need one rehab start and could return shortly after May 25, when he’s eligible to come off the 60-day DL. Bumgarner hasn’t pitched yet this year, and his debut will be an especially timely one for a San Francisco team that just lost fellow front-of-the-rotation starter Johnny Cueto for up to two months with an elbow strain.
- The Padres’ decision to designate veteran infielder Chase Headley on Saturday opened up a spot for infielder/outfielder Cory Spangenberg, whom they recalled from Triple-A. Now, Spangenberg may be in a do-or-die spot with the organization, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests. The 27-year-old Spangenberg will see more time at third base than the 34-year-old Headley did, per Acee, as the bottom-feeding Padres want to find out if the younger player is capable of emerging as a long-term piece. Spangenberg, who has been with the Padres since they chose him 10th overall in the 2011 draft, has offered roughly league-average offensive production (.262/.319/.399, 97 wRC+) across 1,009 major league plate appearances.
- In the wake of Headley’s exit from the Padres’ roster, Dennis Lin of The Athletic (subscription required) opines that “the jury’s still out” on A.J. Preller’s ability to make trades. The fifth-year general manager took on Headley and his $13MM salary during the offseason in order to acquire righty Bryan Mitchell from the Yankees, and that hasn’t worked out at all thus far. Both that trade and the 2015 swap in which Preller sent infielder Jedd Gyorko to the Cardinals for outfielder Jon Jay “have been duds,” Lin writes.
Giants 0-7 after getting a lucky sweep!
0-6, But it’s fine. Why are you so worried about a team with all minor league starters right now? Plus the Shark, and Holland who are straight up belt high mistake pitchers. Got get at least 1 mistake every 3 pitches with them. If they had ANY pitching it would be an entirely different story. But they have none so…. Not much hope.
If a bunch of teams had pitching it would be an entirely different story! LoL
Pretty sure almost every team besides the giants has MLB level pitching. Only teams I could think of that dont are the reds, marlins, padres, and white sox. Giants have an AAAA rotation right now, and are 20-21. What he meant was if their rotation was at least average, they would be in serious playoff contention.
Seriously. The only established pitcher in that rotation is Samardzija and he’s been awful. Once they get either Cueto or Bumgarner back they should be better in that regard
0-6
Leave it alone man. Lol you’re so hurt. You pay more attention to the Giants than your own braves. Get a life.
Nothing but salt from that guy since! He’s a troll
Did Bochy pork your mom?
I can be the syrup and she can be the waffle. Happy Mother’s Day
mmm salty salty tears
Did the Giants not learn from Samardjiza? He came back raw, his velocity wasn’t there. Don’t do this to Bumgarner too
I don’t know why people are so critical on the Headley Mitchell trade. The padres had money to spend to take on Headley and it was only for one year. They gave up Jabari Blash who didn’t have a spot with the padres. And acquired a lottery ticket in Mitchell. It obviously hasn’t been a success of any means for the padres but they literally gave up nothing. I don’t see the harm. Headley never really took away at bats from younger players in Villanueva and to a lesser extent Spangenberg. To me, this trade should not make or break whether Preller is a capable GM. Maybe the Gyroko/Jay, Kemp/Grandal, and Turner/Myers trades should weigh heavy on him but not this one.
That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard today. Would you rather have a Mitchell lottery ticket for $5M or Solartie? I hope that clown keeps his job long enough to acquire Ellbury but loses it before acquiring Price.
But Solarte wasn’t included in that deal? Plus he was on a cheap contract so if they wanted to keep him they could have.
Or, the Galvis for Enyel De los Santos trade. It is irresponsible to trade the organizations number 12 overall prospect for a year rental shortstop, especially when you are still in the middle of a rebuild.
Galvis has almost identical numbers to Alcides Escobar who was just signed to a 1 year, 1 million dollar deal as a free agent aka no prospect given up. I believe Galvis makes 5.6 million this year and to make matters worse, De Los Santos has a microscopic ERA through 30 appearances so far and would be a huge upgrade in the SD bullpen if Preller was thinking logically.
Yea, I still don’t get that trade at all! They could’ve signed Erick Aybar for peanuts also
and kept their prospect
and the $13 million . Plus they are still paying the Cards $2 million a year for Gyorko to play for them!
Stop commenting
like this
you dolt !
And to add Salt to the wound gyorko is having another all star caliber season.
It’s not my fault Ryan! It’s my phone service causing the problem you douche bag!
Yes we all know Red Rooster is West Coast Ryan!
Ryan isn’t even my name r-tard
Santos pitching lights out also
Wow well said!!
Yes, the Galvis trade should also be pointed out as being a bad one. I still don’t understand why they did that when they could have just signed another one-year stopgap. I’ll never understand what was going through their minds when they did that.
As far as other trades go, the Turner trade does not look very good, and neither does the Grandal trade (though I’ll cut Preller some slack on that one since that trade seemed to be motivated more by ownership than anything else).
Agreed with all your points. Let me add a couple more, Trade deadline 15’ Preller Holds on to Justin Upton when the Mets offered Michael Fulmer for him but Preller said no and the Mets pivoted and Traded Fulmer to the Tigers for Cespedes which has been a great trade for both sides. I think the Padres selected Hudson Potts as the compensatory pick from the Tigers for signing Upton, so the jury is still out but that looks like a bad loss of a trade as well.
Lastly, not trading Chacin at the deadline last year. There was no reason to keep him to make what? 10 more useless starts down the stretch in a Padres uniform? They could have gotten something useful for him, but they used the whole “we value him and want him in the organization” as a phony pitch to try to re-sign him this offseason in which of course didn’t work and he left in free agency.
This team just shots itself in the foot with every opportunity they get. It’s beyond frustrating.
Agreed. Preller’s non-trades (Chacin, Upton, T.Ross in 2016) are as bad as his actual trades.
Green overuses the Pads biggest asset (Brad Hand) as well. Just waiting for that injury, to nullify any trade value.
Mitchell wasn’t going to make the Yankees and was out of options. Therefore, he was going on waivers. Headley was owed $13M. So, the Padres lost $13M to move up a couple places on the waiver wire for a chance that a guy who had good stats in the IL, a pitcher’s league, could replicate that in the majors. If it were my $13M, I’d be very critical of this trade.
Good break down. I never really looked at that trade in that way. Makes it look really bad for Preller and co.
Yea but Mitchell wouldn’t be a Padre lol
you could look at it like the padres paid 13 million to move up a few spots in the draft order by trading for Mitchell… but in all seriousness I think that is the most overlooked aspect of why this deal was bad. There was virtually zero chance the Yankees could keep the out of options Mitchell. If Mitchell had an option left and the Yankees didn’t have an urgency to get rid of him as well then this deal may have been a little bit better.
In what world would Kershaw not be able to top 2 years 65 mil on the market? Its a no brainer at this point he is going to opt out
In the world where teams realize he is breaking down more and more every year.
As does every player.
It’s called aging.
Not every player at his age. He’s not 37…
His back is older than 37.
He’s been hurt for sure, but I still cant see him getting any less than 65 over 2 on the open market. When he’s healthy, he’s still the best pitcher in baseball. He could go down as the greatest pitcher of all time.
That title belongs to Max, with Verlander not far behind.
Greatest choke post season pitcher of all time maybe
He will never go down as the greatest because of how insanely bad he is in the postseason.
I felt this way for a while. I guess the only question is, if he has an absolutely horrible year in terms of injury and performance when he returns, is a $65 million pillow contract better than a one year deal with a player option if he is betting on himself to return to form and secure a big contract after age 31, 32?
But personally I just don’t see it. Probably one of those media creations for content and clicks. But I don’t fault MLBTR for reporting on the topic as it is being legitimately discussed for some reason!
The way I remember the Grienke sweepstakes, the Dodgers and the Giants were both in with big offers. The DBacks topped them both at the last minute. I would not characterize that as shying away from long term deals by the Dodgers, just having a limit.
“They’ve shied away from overly long commitments in recent years, including when they allowed Zack Greinke to sign with the rival Diamondbacks for a six-year, $206.5MM guarantee in December 2015, Olney points out.”
I just think they aren’t as insane as the Diamondbacks were under that leadership group.
No one can be successful in every trade
How about 1 good trade?
The jury is also still out on whether or not the other GM’s trust Preller enough to trade with him. Actual trades, not agreeing to take two players they don’t want.
Yeah, it shall be interesting if he can twist Headley into something other than a salary dump. Let’s have some fun here, Headley is owed $13 million this season, the Yankees paying $1 million so Padres owe $12 million, and the season is 1/4 of the way over so subtract that and Headley is currently owed $8 million.
The Padres are way too cheap to let him go for that so I guarantee they try to find a scrap heap starter owed similar on a team that could use some corner infield help. Or even likelier, a former skipper may have interest which could mean Bud Black or Bruce Bochy. I don’t see an immediate vacancy for Headley on either the Rockies or the Giants though however.
If I’m a team like Miami who has a few bad contracts on the books still, or a team like Kansas City who has some expensive pieces on an obvious non-contender, I would be blowing up Prellers phone seeing if they could turn one of their bad contracts into Headley.
Jury isn’t out on Preller trade acumen he stinks
If Kershaw turns in anything close to his normal production this year he will opt out and his name will pay off. If he has middling results he will have to make a serious consideration of staying in. As it stands now he’s getting more than 65 million on the market, even if it’s not from the Dodgers.
Preller will sign Kershaw loves to overpay
Jon Jay is a dud.
1/2 year of Jay and paid down Gyorko contract who’s a decent player great trade