The Marlins are drawing interest in relievers Kyle Barraclough, Drew Steckenrider, Adam Conley and Brad Ziegler, writes Joe Frisaro of MLB.com, but president of baseball operations Michael Hill acknowledges that he’s placed a lofty price on the former three, each of whom has at least three years of control beyond 2018. “You’re talking about trading one-pluses and two-pluses [years of service time],” says Hill. “If I call and I’m trying to acquire a one-plus, or two-plus, I know it’s going to be costly. Our game is about maximizing value, and control of players.” Hill adds that despite the Marlins’ rebuild — or “build” as the organization is terming it — his goal is to win as often as possible. The Indians, Astros, Red Sox and Dodgers have all been previously linked to Miami’s bullpen.
Furthermore, Frisaro notes that while teams will inquire about catcher J.T. Realmuto in the coming weeks, the asking price remain extremely high. Realmuto may even be approached about a contract extension this offseason, per Frisaro, though that may be a tough sell after the Fish shipped out the Marlins’ entire core last offseason.
More trade rumblings from around the league…
- Padres reliever Kirby Yates has emerged as a terrific setup option in San Diego, but ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick spoke to one scout who expressed doubts that the Padres would find someone willing to meet their asking price in a trade (Twitter link). “He’s been really good. But he’s not going to get the return they’re asking for, because he kind of came out of nowhere,” the scout said. “It’s hard to give up a pretty good prospect for a guy who’s had three good months.” Of course, it’s worth noting that Yates performed well for the Friars all through the 2017 season as well. However, he didn’t adopt the splitter that has become a wipeout pitch for him until the current season, which is likely the point to which that unnamed scout was alluding. Yates has a ridiculous 1.51 ERA with 11.4 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 0.25 HR/9 and a 49.4 percent grounder rate in 35 2/3 innings this season. The 31-year-old can be controlled through 2020.
- The Brewers have been in contact with the Twins about infielders Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com. There’s no indication that talks are serious or have extended beyond preliminary stages, though the Milwaukee middle infield has been a weak point in 2018. Brewers second basemen entered play hitting a combined .248/.299/.376, while their shortstops have batted just .202/.255/.300. Milwaukee has been heavily linked to Manny Machado, of course, but either Minnesota slugger would represent a less expensive option — both in terms of prospect capital and salary. Reports have suggested that the Twins are open to selling off pieces, but the Twins have also won six of their past seven and play in a weak division.
- To that end, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN chatted with Minnesota GM Thad Levine about the team’s deadline strategy (Twitter link, with video). Levine acknowledges that the Twins have received interest on numerous players, which he says is to be expected given the number of expiring contracts on the club. However, he doesn’t definitively state that the Twins will be active sellers on the market. If anything, the Twins may move some short-term pieces while also looking to acquire some big league players controllable beyond the current campaign. Levine concedes that “there’ll be opportunities for [the Twins] to make some deals.” Levine also notes, though, that trading pending free agents only creates new holes to fill. “We have numerous times to try to address some of those holes,” he says. “It’s now at this deadline, and it’s this offseason and it’s next Spring Training. We may try to do some of that across all three platforms so we don’t have to do all of our heavy lifting this offseason.”
- Though the Rays have surprised and as of Tuesday sit four games over .500, they’re still buried in the AL East, and Peter Gammons of the Athletic tweets that their goal this month is to extract as much as they can in trades for Wilson Ramos, Nathan Eovaldi and Adeiny Hechavarria. Gammons notes that the Rays have also been getting inquiries on right-hander Matt Andriese, though, as teams scour the market for relief help. Andriese, 28, is controlled through 2021 and has a 3.63 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 0.87 HR/9 and a 51 percent grounder rate. He’s capable of working both in the rotation and ’pen, as well, so teams likely have interest in him in a variety of roles.
I can’t believe Gammons isn’t reporting about all the interest the Rays are getting on Refsnyder…….
The future first-ballot Hall of Famer?
They actually had to make a one time exception for Refsnyder and induct him into the Hall of Fame while he is actively playing. Heard they might be leaning towards doing the same thing for Swihart.
Don’t forget Profar!
No Profar is playing himself out of the Hall of Fame while Harper is playing his way into it
This isn’t Harper’s year.
Steve, Rays, 4.5 games over .500? You probably mean 4.5 out of second wildcard? If not….???
Ha, I just meant four games over .500 — had been looking at the standings and somehow got an “and a half” thrown in there. Thanks!
Yet no analysis of Kirby Yates developing a new out pitch, a split-finger, in 2017? Kind of a relevant development….
Yates didn’t throw a splitter in 2017. He started using it in 2018, as noted above.
mobile.twitter.com/dennistlin/status/1010961617943…
According to Yates he threw a splitter last year.
There are numerous articles from the San Diego Union Tribune from last season talking about him throwing a splitter. There is a quote from Yates in an article titled “Talking with … Padres reliever Kirby Yates” on May 12, 2017 where Yates says, “I’ve incorporated a splitter”. Another quote from him on July 4, 2017, from “Kirby Yates making most of opportunity with Padres” where he says “(The splitter has) become, to me, a lot easier than throwing a change-up, because the change-up’s kind of like a finesse pitch. Whereas a splitter, you’ve kind of got to get through it and it’s like a hard pitch. I can just grip it and throw it like a fastball”.
I think pitch recognition systems misclassified his splitter as a changeup. If you look at the average velocity for the previous three seasons, he was sitting 84 on his changeup and last year his changeup sat 87, which is what his splitter averages now.
Steve, you do a great job, really appreciate your work here, and your constant contributions. Don’t expect you to be tracking pitch selection on every reliever. I just get miffed when lazy scouts, who probably should know better, feed the media spin, which is what it sounds like Heyman received. I would remind that sample size was the chief complaint on Brad Hand last year. Real scouting is catching a breakout realtime, not 2 years after the fact.
Yates has been excellent in 1.5 years in San Diego. It’s not a small sample size but in the game today, people love top prospects and if you were never one at any point in time then you look kind of like a fluke.
Can see the alleged asking price going down as we approach the deadline.
What’s a legit comp in a trade that we can expect for Yates? Possibly the framework of the Will Smith trade to SF? Both guys had about this much of a dominant stretch with about equal service time so can the Padres expect a return similar. 1 top 100 prospect and a guy who is possibly blocked at the next level (Bickford and Susac).
Will Smith had an extra year of control, was 5 years younger, and left handed. We’ve also seen other relievers like Alex Colome who had 2.5 years of control remaining traded this year and the return was nothing close to a top 100 type of prospect. All things considered, I wouldn’t expect a top 100 for Kirby Yates.
If Yates asking price needs to go down Preller will just keep him.
The advantage of having these guys signed to multiple seasons.
Why give him(or Stammen or Hand) away this year when you might get nearly the same return 365 days from now?
I love the way that the Padres have been able to develop relievers. They turn guys who should be just about out of baseball into complete studs.
I came here to comment the exact same thing. It’s impressive, really.
Darren Balsley is the most underrated pitching coach and just overall coach in the game. He has been working this magic for many years!
I have a suspicion the Rays announced their new (possible, not yet financed, might be pie-in-sky) stadium just before July 31…..gives them an excuse to move all of the above, plus Archer and KK (existing 2019 contracts) plus Cron and Duffy (Arb-eligible guys)……
Not that I suspect Stuie Stienberg has profit-driven motives of course……I also suspect water might be wet…….
Or they have a very strict deadline to get financing done and presented to the city of St. Pete or they are no longer allowed to leave Tropicana field. So the quicker you get models and interest started the quicker you get sponsors and business interest for funding
If that were the case, why the song and dance? All of this stuff costs money, you know. If he just wanted out, there wouldn’t be any news at all I’d say, just hemming and hawing until the lease was up.
MLB isn’t going to let Stu carpet-bag the Rays out of Tampa. They believe in the market, and relocation would suppress franchise values for the inevitable 2-team expansion. Not to mention eliminating one of the potential sites, and the amount of areas that can support a MLB team are quickly shrinking.
Stu will be out of Tampa (forced out, like they did to the previous owner) before the Rays will be out of Tampa.
The bottom line is that whatever money the new stadium will generate will just lessen the amount of Revenue Sharing they receive. John Henry (Boston) and the Steinbrenners (NY) will profit more from a new venue in Tampa than Stu will.
Are you a Yankee or Red Sox fan who is still upset that Rays had a good run and are poised to do it again? Your comments are always filled with inaccuracies about and shots at the Rays and I’m trying to figure out what is the motivation for your anti-Rays agenda.
The Marlins have made abhorrent trades over the last several years, either giving up way too much, or getting very little back. As a Marlins fan, I have no reason to think they’ll get anything even decent if/when they make any moves to trade any of these guys.
Check out Yates’ 2016 peripherals with the Yankees. He and Blake Parker for that matter showed signs of being very good.
As for Yates it was mainly bad luck in ’16, while Parker had one bad outing that inflated his ERA and FIP. Either way, it’s difficult to say he came out of nowhere when there have been serious indications that he would find success.
2016- 3.97 FIP, .340 BABipa, and a 0.8 mph improvement on his average fastball
His 10+ K/9 was a big indicator too.
Good relievers come seemingly out of nowhere all the time…you will learn that from idk…watching baseball…but that’s not what people do here
This proves nothing. Consistency is key with Relief. Most volatile position.
Why do you think they (still) got paid a pretty penny, this slow offseason, including Holland (bad advice? Should’ve ACCEPTED QO or Rockies OFFER….)
I wonder if the pitchers the Padres Darren Balsley “fixes” are worth the price without his being around to tweak them as he recently did Tyson Ross? That being said Yates has been throwing that excellent splinter over a year now, and if I was Cleveland I would go after him!