The Mariners, Braves and Dodgers are among the teams interested in Brandon Drury, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network.
Drury has seemed like an obvious trade candidate for a few months now, due to a variety of factors. He’s an impending free agent with a modest salary who is playing for a basement-dwelling team. Beyond that, he’s having the best season of his career and is capable of playing multiple positions, making him a fit for many clubs. He is slashing .275/.336/.523 and just hit his 20th home run. That production is 33% better than league average, according to wRC+. He’s also taken the field at all four infield positions this season, in addition to a brief cameo in right field.
The interest from the Dodgers, as well as the Giants, was reported a few weeks ago. As for Seattle and Atlanta, they are likely interested in Drury primarily for second base, despite his ability to play elsewhere. Most of Drury’s work this year has been at the hot corner, with 53 starts there, though he’s also manned the keystone in 20 different contests.
For the Mariners, they’ve given the bulk of this year’s playing time at second base to Adam Frazier, who is having a down year at the plate. After a strong 2021 where he hit .305/.368/.411 for a wRC+ of 114, the Mariners acquired him from the Padres in an offseason trade. Unfortunately, he’s only been able to muster a .244/.304/.312 line for Seattle, amounting to a wRC+ of 81. He’d likely be the infielder most at risk of losing playing time in the event of a Drury trade, with Eugenio Suarez, J.P. Crawford and Ty France occupying the other spots around the diamond. There’s also the possibility of a platoon, as Frazier hits from the left side of the plate and Drury the right.
As for the Braves, their need for help at second base arose when Ozzie Albies suffered a foot fracture in June. He’s been on the shelf about six weeks already and could return in about a month, though he still hasn’t begun a rehab assignment. With Albies out of action, most of his playing time has gone to Orlando Arcia, who is hitting .238/.316/.371 on the year. That amounts to a 92 wRC+, which is just 8% below league average but well below Drury’s work on the year. With Dansby Swanson, Austin Riley and Matt Olson taking up the other spots in the dirt, second base would stand out as the most obvious spot to plug Drury if he were to be put into an Atlanta jersey.
For the Reds, they’re well out of contention and have already begun their deadline selloff with Friday’s Luis Castillo trade. Drury seems highly likely to follow him out the door, with Tyler Mahle, Donovan Solano, Tommy Pham also among those that the club will exchange for prospects. The trade deadline is in about 48 hours, 5pm CT on August 2.
If he gets traded to Seattle they will rename the team the Seattle Reds
Like Preller, when Dipoto starts trading with a team, he continues.
That was my first reaction, West Cincy.
Huh, injuries.
He’s healthy now.
Posted in the wrong place …
Seattle Winkers
Sell Drury he’s a one year wonder, get something for him will be better then him in the future. Very inconsistent and not above average defense.
If I was the Reds I’d extend Drury long term, that position flexibility is nice to have, and nice to have a solid third baseman locked in. Probably can sign him to a good contract. I think the Reds are on the cusp of being a playoff team.
They shouldn’t sell off the entire roster, When Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo get it rolling they’ll have two young Aces. The prospects they got back in the Castillo trade should be up in a year or two, they’ll be right there in the NL Central, if it wasn’t for a horrendous start this season they’d be in the hunt for the playoffs.
except that Drury is 29, and doesn’t exactly have a track record bwmiller. gonna sell him at his obvious peak
That’s my point, make him a nice offer on a four year extension, can’t imagine it would break the bank, worst case scenario, he tests FA and gets a QO and the Reds get a draft pick, so why trade him now.
Drury has not performed well on a ML level until this, his age 29 season. And there should be no confidence that he will repeat it next year or the following year. He most def will not receive a QO, nor would he get a 4 year contract on the open market.
A 4 year deal, QO for Drury? What on earth are you talking about? None of that is going to happen nor would any gm or any sport give him a 4 year offer and can’t believe any fans would think of that either. Just wow.
Amen on Drury. Sounds silly, but other than BB’s, his no’s are the same as Soto’s who everyone is clamoring for. Drury will hit 30 HR’s this year. That consistent power is VERY hard to find. Could he be a flash in the pan? Yep. For that reason he won’t fetch a top prospect. The nickel-dime Reds anxious to pat themselves on the back short term, when the HR play is signing him.. He’d almost HAVE to take a reasonable deal. That lotto ticket has come in. Why not take a chance his ‘light stays on’. rather than trade for another lotto ticket? The farm is already bursting, how about fan consideration to not drain the absolute last dollar of payroll? Reds did the same thing with Josh Hamilton and gave up an MVP. Like that one, Kral WILL regret. losing Drury.
PS: Drury is making only $900 K. Let’s go Brandon!
The East Seattle Red M’s
Him for kelenic straight up. Reds should do that in 1/2 a heartbeat
You’re welcome to him. Signed, Toronto
Yes, we like to spend much more for similar production.
Signed,
Toronto
Ouch…but correct!
Correct … although paying more tends to minimize your chances of getting the guy who hits .200/.250/.350, which is what they got from Drury as a Jay.
Sometimes, guys get healthier and improve.
Drury makes sense for the Braves. They could trade Kyle Muller and Tucker Davidson for Mahle, Drury and Moustakas. Drury starts at 2nd and Moose backs up at 3B and 2B.
are the braves willing to make a 20+ million dollar commitment for a year and a little bit bench player especially when the team will be healthy next year.
No
We need to keep Muller! And they can keep moose.
Thumbs down
No chance.
Kyle Muller would be a good get – such a good get that I don’t think there’s ANY chance Atlanta includes him in a trade.
Tucker Davidson’s a 26yo getting shelled at AAA right now.
So maybe there’s a deal to be done here, but I don’t think either of those guys would be involved.
Fwiw, Moustakas’ contract should be a non-issue for the Reds at this point. Their payroll is so low, there’s no point in them giving up value to get it off their books. They’re already $35M under the league average.
…and given the state of the rebuild, it doesn’t make any sense to spend any “savings” right now, anyway.
So, if somebody wants him they can have him, but the Reds won’t (or at least, shouldn’t) add value to a deal in order to unload Moustakas.
MLBPipeline just updated their team prospect rankings and SS Vaughn Grissom leapgfrogged Muller into system #1, fwiw. Interesting. Good time for the #1 (Grissom) and #4 (Shewmake) prospects being SS.
Grissom – looks like the real deal hitting wise and I am sure he will improve his defense – but what’s the deal with the 32 errors at SS in 154 minor league games?
That’s a horrible trade for the Braves. Drury was released how many times in the last few years. He hit a few home runs in Cincy because the park is so small.
And what was your excuse when he hit in Citifield?
Speaking for the Reds, yes please. How soon can our new players arrive in Cincy?
5 years will be the wait time.
They’re all coming from A ball level, so expect 3 years just to arrive for their first callup…
I mean Julio was in A ball this time last year.
I think SF has probably dropped out of the bidding. They’re all set with Dixon Machado
Oh no, please don’t Seattle. Just stick with Frazier if you’re thinking about Drury. Drury can’t hit in the AL…
Lol huh?
Huh what? Look at his career. He is a .270 hitter when playing for NL teams (Arizona, Mets, Reds), but every time he plays for an AL team, he hits .170 (Toronto, Yankees).
That’s absolutely ridiculous. I prefer the AL over the NL personally but if you think there is that big of a gap between leagues these days, that’s just nuts sorry.
He simply had a lot of health issues with the Yankees. That’s probably a better reason.
You’re basing his Yankee lack of production…. Off of 18 games.
We all know that they use anti-Drury balls in AL stadiums
I don’t know what you mean when you say “prefer the AL”… Has nothing to do with that. And so what… Fine, if not the Yankees, what do you say about Toronto after that? That was a 168 games. My point is… It’s not like he’s improved each year after starting in the AL. No, he succeeded in the NL, then was traded to the AL where he failed miserably, and then went back to the NL and succeeded.
Want a recent example… We literally just got Winker. Compare his 2021 as an all-star to his now .220 hitting self. It’s not a “preference of leagues”… It’s simply being used to seeing pitchers and not the others. It takes time to adapt.
It’s just a coincidence. He went to Toronto after not playing much with the Yankees.
Nothing better than a ridiculous take followed by a double down on that take.
“Drury can’t hit in the NL” followed by “he succeeded in the NL then was traded to the AL where he failed miserably” (he had one average season and two below average seasons in the NL).
Do you follow baseball or are you just able to click through on Baseball Reference?
Drury dealt with a range of injuries but is healthy now.
SaWING batter, SaWING!
When he was with the Yankees he had severe migraines and blurry vision.
Lol
Lol, just ask Baltimore about Drury. He hit the game winning home run for the Reds today against an American League team.
Cots Contracts shows that Drury is arb eligible in 2023 before being a free agent in 24. I’ve seen reporting saying he’s free agent after this year AND after next year.
He is a free agent after this season. Use fangraphs or spotrac. They are better sources.
Cots has him and Buck Farmer’s 2023 season backwards, Drury is a FA and Farmer will be 4ARB. That’s assuming of course Farmer doesn’t get outrighted yet again this season.
While they don’t need him, the Yankees should look to reunite Judge & Drury.
Oh thank you for that perfect comment! Ha!
If Seattle was interested in Drury, why wouldn’t they have asked for him as part of the Castillo deal?
I assume they probably did. It didn’t make sense that he wasn’t included in the Castillo trade considering how much Seattle gave up. Clearly Cincinnati wanted more for Drury.
There players hadn’t been injured yet.
How do the Reds have so many good players, yet suck so bad?
Injuries, no bullpen, and then either traded or watched some of their best hitters and starters leave. Why don’t the Angels do well? It’s a team game.
Because they have the cheapest owner, worst GM, and absolutely the worst field manager in baseball. Plus, they will sell or trade anyone not nailed to the floor, if it saves them 85 cents.
Let’s be real here, the White Sox have the worst Manager. But fair points otherwise
Spot on bobcat! Braves and reds were both rebuilding at the same a few years back. Braves won it last year and reds are already rebuilding again. Worst ran franchise in baseball
If a good player starts to cost a little, they are automatically gone. Not a recipe for a winner. They will be constantly in a rebuild mode.
Bad teams have good players …
And the team was decimated by injuries
It should be MANDATORY that the next deal the Reds make with the Mariners they HAVE to take Moose as part of the deal ! lol
Why? The Reds should just eat his contract and then once it’s over everybody in Cincinnati can debate whether his or Eric Milton’s was the worst in franchise history.
Forcing another team to take him will diminish returns and as of right now the Reds have zero guaranteed money on the books for 2024. They’re not going to be competitive next year so it makes more sense to let it play out, as much as it might suck for Reds fans to accept that
Rumy’s Ghost…as a Reds fan I completely agree, they’re in a position to eat that contract.
Spot on Rumy
No debate, Moose’s contract was far more damaging than Milton’s.
How dare you gloss over Homer Bailey’s bad contract?!?
Moose is still owed approximately 28M$ including the last 40% of this season, next year, and the 2024 buyout.
He’s hit: .213 – .299 – .383 in a Reds uniform and already collected 36M$ from them.
Rumy…honorable mention: Ryan Madson, who signed for 6 or 8 million….never threw a pitch for cincy. tommy John early in spring training
So bad that I forgot about it, good one.
As a Reds fan, yes please
Taylor Trammel for Drury and the Circle of Life is complete…..Mufasa!!
Never trade for a player who’s been traded before.
What active major leaguer has the most world series rings?
Casey Stengel
active. Stengle isn’t very active any more.
Casey Stengel? Who let grandpa use the internet?
Hahaha! And take your trivia elsewhere Gpa…lol
lmao!!!!!!
Bumgarner?
Yes Bumganer and Pujols with 3
Pablo Sandoval had 4 but hasn’t played in the majors this year.
Too bad he is playing in Mexico now but if he was still in MLB Pablo Sandoval would have been the player with the most rings with 4
3 from the Giants and 1 from the Braves.
@gibson. Pablo Sandoval (4).
All but confirms Drury is not going to Braves
Maybe if Ms get Drury they can hit with risp.
The Seattle Redlegs are going to be really good this year.
Cincinnati Mariners just doesn’t roll off the tongue… Cincinnati Seamen better?
Gross
No, thank you. This seems like the 2021 Adam Frazier trade to the Padres.
Signing Arcia to that 2yr 2 million dollar deal has worked out well. He has been a surprisingly underrated fill in at second base and he doesn’t get any credit. He’s a good guy to have on the bench.
*3 million
Buyer beware on Drury: 241. .310 .468 away from Cinergy. The SLG is ok but other two not so hot. At home he’s .294 .348 .544. I wouldn’t trade much for him.
His Cinergy stats probably don’t matter too much. It was imploded almost 20 years ago
FWIW, Truist (ATL) plays similarly to Great American Ballpark (CIN). GAB is rated as #2 on Statcast Park Factor’s leaderboard (#1: Coors Field, of course), while Truist is #6 from 2020-22.
If just counting HR hit per park, Great American Ballpark is #1 and Truist is #4, though there are a lot of factors that go into it (quality of pitching, hitters, etc.).
That being said, Braves love guys they are familiar with (i.e. from their system), like Charlie Morton, which Drury is one of, not to mention that his floor is higher than the ceiling of either Arcia or fill-in Cano. Having him in the bottom-3rd of the lineup with Harris II could be interesting.
Didn’t understand how Seattle didn’t get him in the Castillo trade as an add in with so much given up
There were at least 10 teams in on Castillo so the Mariners had to overpay and were in no position of asking for an extra player in the deal. The Reds pulled the trigger on the deal because the Mariners were willing to give up more than everybody else. Some deadlines certain players have that much more value than everybody else available at their position so it puts the selling team in an advantageous enviable position of what they can command for that player alone.
Yeah good point there
The competitive offers for Castillo dictated the final price. At least, that’s what I took from it.
This trade deadline sucks
It’s been really slow, Soto is holding everything up. If he doesn’t move it’s going to be such a disappointing deadline
Would also go Kyle Mueller and Vaughn Grissom for Mahle and Drury.
The Braves need to keep Grissom. They might lose Swanson after this year.
You have to give up talent for talent.
That’s true, but not always a wise decision.
Reds need to make the Drury trade like the Dan Straily trade that brought Castillo to the Reds.
Do you think the M’s would give up Castillo for Drury? I’d do that deal if I were the Reds.
All teams should ask too much for their players, at least a little too much. You don’t get what you don’t ask for.
Whether or not it’s Drury, the Mariners need to add hitting that represents an improvement over Frazier/Toro/Moore. No guarantee that anyone they bring in will hit better than any of those three, but Seattle at least needs to try and add hitting.
Mariners should grab Donovan Solano from the Reds. Prospect cost should be minimal compared to Drury and seems just as likely to have a strong second half.
Jonesing for deals and not all that much happening
Anyway, Drury is pretty good and could help someone like Cody Ross
He may or may not be a star, but could bubble up and help the cause to get a team across the finish line and into the playoffs
Drury or Solano (preferably) could make a nice RH DH compliment to Vogelbach for the Mets for the stretch
He plays good enough defense for Showalter
ZiPS and Steamer have Adam Frazier with rest-of-season WAR projections of 0.8 in 58 games and 0.6 in 46 games.
ZiPS and Steamer have Brandon Drury with rest-of-season WAR projections of 0.7 in 47 games and 0.7 in 51 games.
The FanGraphs DC ROS WAR projections have Frazier at 0.7 in 45 games and Drury with 0.7 in 50 games.
Would Drury be an upgrade for the Seattle Mariners?
Considering all the M’s injuries, Drury could be penciled in at 2nd while Frazier plays super utility.
Muskle73, ZiPS also predicted this for Joey Gallo before the season started:
“ZiPS predicts a bounce-back campaign for Joey Gallo (4.3 zWAR) in his first full season in the Bronx.”
ZiPS projected 38 HR for Gallo and 36 for Judge. Steamer projected 41 HR for each of them.
How’d that work out?
Mariners FO just now realizing they could have got Drury thrown in with how much they overpaid for Castillo.
What’s the dowry for Drury?
mahle for muller, and Davidson
we also will get Michael taylor we have a minor league 2b we just signed.cincinati asking too much for drury who is the rental
Was never on the “Frazier” bandwagon. In his career, he’s had half a good season(’21). Everything else is mediocre.
1. JD should have never acquired him
2. Should have dumped him a month ago.
Flores, SF would be better in the short term.
He was with the DBACKS, he was brutal
He was major league average as a 23 year old.
This, with 31 HR and 71 doubles in 962 at-bats, is brutal?
271/.319/.448/.767
4 year deal? so ridiculous. omg! qualifying offer?????? Isn’t that around 18 mil? maybe more? damn…thats stupid
Drury would be a good fit for the Braves but I’m not sure what a realistic trade for him looks like.
Trade Kyle Muller?
I’d say the same thing as when folks wanted to trade Austin Riley a couple years ago.- NUTZ!