Blue Jays closer Ken Giles has long been considered one of the best relievers who could change hands by the July 31 trade deadline. However, there is now serious doubt that a Giles trade will come together this week. Giles continues to deal with elbow inflammation over a month after the issue forced him to the injured list on June 20, manager Charlie Montoyo announced to Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star and other reporters Monday. It was the second straight day the right-hander was unavailable to pitch.
Teams began crossing Giles off their wish lists when he couldn’t take the mound Sunday, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today, who adds that “his trade value is gone until the winter.” If so, that would be a massive disappointment for the Blue Jays – who could have collected a sizable return for Giles – and for the playoff contender that may have added a dominant reliever to its bullpen for the next season-plus.
Giles, who’s making $6.3MM at the moment, will go through his last trip through arbitration over the winter. With that in mind, the Blue Jays don’t have to trade him this summer. However, considering what Giles has accomplished this season, now may have been the ideal time to move a healthy version of the flamethrowing 28-year-old. Giles has posted good to great production since he debuted with the Phillies in 2014, though this might be his top season yet. Through 35 innings, Giles has notched a near-spotless 1.54 ERA/1.60 FIP with 14.91 K/9, 2.83 BB/9, a sky-high 20.3 percent swinging-strike rate and 14 saves in 15 chances.
Toronto still has other relievers it could move, including Daniel Hudson and Joe Biagini, but nobody in Giles’ stratosphere. If the Jays truly aren’t in position to trade Giles in the next couple days, perhaps it’ll lead teams to step up their pursuits of the other premier relievers who could be available. The Pirates’ Felipe Vazquez, the Padres’ Kirby Yates, the Reds’ Raisel Iglesias, the Mets’ Edwin Diaz and the Tigers’ Shane Greene are among some of the prominent names in the rumor mill. Giants relievers Will Smith, Sam Dyson and Tony Watson looked like prime trade candidates earlier in the summer, but thanks to their team’s recent tear, all three could wind up staying put. Giles may be in the same boat.
Lol that sucks for the Jays front office. The asking price/risk probably won’t be worth it for any contender…
You sure about that? They gave Stroman away for next to nothing.
Easily solved with a PTBNL. Jays pick from List A if Giles pitches x amount of innings. They pick from List B if he pitches less than that.
My immediate thought too on the PTBNL.
That’s still a huge risk for the Jays. Rather than hang on to him and dealing when he’s fully healthy they play a game of Russian roulette and hope he holds up for his new team so they get the return they want.
As a Braves fan I’d love those stipulations for what it’s worth. I just don’t know why the Jays would want to take that risk.
How so? You can ask what you want, but it ultimately comes down to what others are willing to pay. It’s never certain when you trade for prospects either, but they got a lefty who is still breathing that can slot in 3-4-5, and an 18 year old that flirts with triple digits.
Teams are placing a lot more value on prospects now, Jays included, and you aren’t going to pry a top 100 asset loose, no matter who you are selling.
Those two pitchers could be in the top 100 prospects for 2020. So it’s early to call them “next to nothing.”
Blue jays are just going to be raking in those prospects
Hudson and Giles to MN
You won’t get anything for Giles until he proves his elbow is OK, which means not this year.
He’s not really in the same boat, as his possible/probable lack of being traded has nothing to do with his team surging…
They shoulda just traded him a week ago. He’s a reliever and they have been eliminated for a long time. Relievers get injuries frequently. Especially the ones that throw hard. They tried to take it down to the July 31st wire and now they won’t get anything for him. They better hope he comes back healthy this season and shows enough dominance to be traded over the winter. Otherwise no team will trust he is healthy enough to be a solid closer next year. They won’t get nearly as much in a trade for him next deadline as a 2 month rental. Silly Canadians. Short term contract closers are for contending teams.
Yeah, but they dumped Stroman earlier than they had to and got nothing amazing…
Which one of Shapiro or Atkins is a “silly Canadian”? Theyre both American
Shoulda woulda coulda. Silly Canadians was a dumb remark too. It’s shatkins fault but I really don’t think it’s that big a deal. I hate Atkins and Shapiro, ugh, they both really piss me off…. they suck. But whatever it is what it is
Oh btw how tf were they supposed to know he was going to get hurt? Maybe they should hire you and your time machine so us “silly Canadians” can get better.
I know. Silly Canadians. They should have traded them a week ago, when there are half a dozen other late inning arms on the market and nobody has any idea of what the market is going to be. I’m surprised you aren’t in the Jays’ front office, what with your 20-20 hindsight.
actually, Giles elbow started bugging him around the all-star. Not saying that he would have been traded prior to the Trade Deadline but the FO most likely were hoping his bulky elbow would settle down long enough to move him.
I think the politically correct term is ‘silly Cnuckastanis’.
Just kidding, don’t bombadier me.
But yeah, that’s a double-edged sword, on both sides. If you sell early, you probably get a little less. If you wait to the last minute, I suspect you’d get more, but you also gamble on injury & performance.
Yeah. I was totally just kidding about the silly Canadians comment. I have nothing against Canadians and I don’t think they are silly at all. What I kinda meant is if a team knows they are out of the race for a relatively extended period of time and one of their big name trading pieces is a hard throwing reliever that doesn’t have the name value of a Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Dennis Eckersly, John Smoltz or Craig Kimbrel then teams would often to be wise to trade those pitchers. Hard throwing relievers have a high tendency to get injured and the only thing that will protect their value when that happened is the superstar status they have earned by their longterm presence in the league like the guys I mentioned before. Sometimes name value matters a lot. Look at the aforementioned John Smoltz. He needed complete shoulder rotator cuff surgery at an old age for a baseball player. Boston still gave him $10 million for one year without seeing him pitch after the surgery. Rotator Cuff surgery is the end of the line for pitchers. They rarely ever come back from that but Boston was still willing to risk $10 mill on it because it was Smoltz. Giles doesn’t have that benefit of the doubt and he was on a horrible team. I know hindsights 20/20 and all but supply and demand was obviously going to play out differently this season. For teams that are out of the race from the onset they should try to sell their player when more teams are in the race and want to buy them rather than wait until more teams are out of the race and other teams are willing to sell. The Braves just gave up multiple prospects and over $16 million for Mark Melancon. Mark Melancon! Imagine what they would have given up for Giles if the Jays has offered him up before the trade deadline. The Jays would probably never do that though because the are angry at Alex Anthopolous for leaving after they told him he couldn’t have any real control over the team even though he made the team that brought them to their first playoff appearance in 20 years. Other teams would have paid a lot for Giles early too. There were a ton of teams in the playoff hunt at the all star break. Toronto didn’t have that problem. They knew they were out. The reason smart teams wait until the deadline is to find out if they have a chance to make the playoffs or not. They should have traded him when his demand was at its highest which was when more teams thoughts they could win.
Speaking of Toronto, if they were smart they would have got more for Stroman. From what I read they literally told Atlanta that Anthopolous would have to pay more than any other team to get Stroman. They know AA isn’t that stupid. Then they settled for what is widely considered to be a weak return for him. Not a single top 100 prospect based on anyone’s opinion. Atlanta went after Stroman and offered more than the Mets but the Jays didn’t taken it because the new guys (that have driven the team into the ground which Anthopolous built up from perennial loserdom) were but hurt because AA left and they wanted to be able to tell him what to do. How do Toronto fans feel about that? Your Front office just turned down a better trade because they were upset at the beat GM your team has had in 20 years. That is not the way to build a franchise. Now the Jays did not get a single top 100 prospect for one of the most highly sought after pitchers or players this season.
Truth be told, the front office being thin skinned does not surprise me. A lot of analytic-first guys are (Keith Law, DePodesta, Ricciardi). They have to blow things up June 2017. They couldn’t for a variety of reasons. The front office is a major problem. The number #1 problem is ownership. They continue to hire the same type with the exception of Paul Beeston, who was only supposed to be there temporarily and stretched it out. He was hired due to his link with the glory years and he was one of the first employees in 1977. Aside from that, Rogers cannot hire winners. Change must start at the very top.
Another win for shatkins lol sell low buy high wait for an injury and say oh well.
This trade deadline for the Jays is taking a big hit. Giles injured, Galvis out with a back issue today, Smoak having a down season.
I can’t believe how poor Tor did in that trade. My first thought on BVW dealing for Stroman, and then wanting to make additional trades in hopes of accumulating talent, was not a good plan. But he’s off to a helluva start. He could flip him right now and pick up one more very good prospect than he gave up.
The Jays went around to every interested team looking for a better offer than what the Mets made and none of them came forward with a better deal. So which team is suddenly going to give up three good prospects for Stroman and why didn’t they give them to the Jays then?
If Cora can work his interpersonal skills on Diaz to get his head on right. He is our best potential closer. He fits the price, has great stuff when right and it would make the Mets feel great about sticking it to the Yankees. What to give for him?
To answer that you need to look at the Mets roster. Their payroll is $160M in a big market. So, if they really don’t believe they can win this year they can dump salary and go after Lindor next year, a position that is deep around baseball but not a great strength as expected. Philosophy-wise, the new GM knows the game from an agent angle so he might be able to observe what most NY GMs miss and that is players who get injured often are terrible investments. So maybe moving Syndergaard and Wheeler to go after Lindor and Cole makes allot of sense. Personally, getting Cano and his salary made no sense except to gain some short-lived headlines. Cano is an albatross but if he puts people in the seats then ok I can live with the move. Lindor will put many more people in the seats if he is smart enough to go get him. Also, can you imagine DeGrom and Cole as their 1-2 punch in pitching?
So, should they trade Diaz? As an agent he might see that Diaz doesn’t have the make-up to close in NY. That is about the only logical reason I could see it making sense. Also, maybe he plans on shipping Syndergaard to San Diego and getting Yates back in the deal. Then Diaz becomes expendable. So what to ask for that will help the newly constructed Mets?
Definitely need a top prospect like Dalbec who could play 3B. Don’t complain about his defense. The Red Sox proved they could take a guy with great hitting potential and play him at 3B making an error every 5 games for 2 years and still make it work out. Next, they may need to add cheap depth at specific positions or maybe replace injury prone players with reliable players. Jackie Bradley would be a great defensive addition that doesn’t get hurt like Lagares, Nimmo or Cespedes. It would mean Comforto could be the other injury free OF and then you could use the others as depth with Cespedes as the starter next year.. Throw in a bat off the bench like Steve Pearce and you have a decent haul for a guy who isn’t working out too well and looks to be replaced. Boston gets a closer who Cora can try to fix and everyone is happy.
It makes me sad all this typing and no one will read it because it’s in a Giles thread.
And is he talking about Francisco Lindor? Lol, they won’t be trading him.
They might. He’s as good as gone for CLE, so might as well recoup something for him.
Totally agree with you puigpower. I gave up on the second sentence. Not sure what this has to do with Giles. The title of this is clear.
The Red Sox headlines sell on MLBTR.com—put one up and you will get 100-200 comments.
A team needing a CF should make an offer of Diaz for JBJ add Conforto and Dalbec to the mix–Expand further and get Barnes..
Please, Just Don’t Trade For Prospects–
Nothing wrong with Diaz skills.
He has the same problem basically the whole Mets staff has. Ramos sucks and they can’t work the bottom of the zone. Watch him he sets up high for every pitch and he can’t block the plate.
That’s why DeGrom & Thor both have said publicly they don’t like pitching to him.
As a Brave fan I hope they never get a defensive minded catcher. This staff would be amazing. Talent all over the place.
Maybe they should not have let him pitch 3 in a row one week after his first DL stint a month ago…
Nobody can predict for certain how a player from the minors will turn out. I think when the jays traded Boyd to Detroit he had a start or two and wasn’t predicted to do much. Now look at him. Teams wondering how The Mets did it, need to ask themselves why they didn’t if they thought they had more to offer. I’m glad the Jays are focused on young controllable pitching, even if it’s not the sexy high end prospects everyone thinks they know. Time will tell.
With Marcus comes the “Stro show” and his HDMH business he pushes. He was a good pitcher, but some Jays fan base won’t miss the antics on the mound and in the press. He’s an angry little man with a chip on his shoulder all the time. Hope it works out for him. It’s water under the bridge and yesterday’s news. Go Bo!
Boyd was the #2 prospect in that trade. He wasn’t expected to be the best out of that deal, that was Norris, but he wasn’t predicted to not do much either.
That is the whole point for getting multiple prospects in trades. Nothing is guaranteed about prospects, but when you get more than one you have a much better shot of one of them working out well.
Norris was projected to be a top of the rotation arm. I was devastated to see him go.
We didn’t get the right Price for those prospects.
Will have to hold Giles and deal him in the offseason. The best case scenario at this point.
Can we wait to see what other prospects are dealt and whether teams are willing to move them before we say that the Jays gave Stroman away? The trend of not trading top 100 prospects is now well into it’s second year “experts”.
We waited. The Jays gave Stroman away.