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Matt Adams

East Notes: Adams, JDM, Marlins, Eovaldi, Orioles

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Matt Adams signed with the Nationals fairly early in the offseason knowing full well that regular at-bats were going to be difficult to come by, writes Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. Adams prioritized playing for a contending club with a good clubhouse culture — he consulted his friend Chris Heisey about the organization before signing — over holding out for an opportunity for an everyday or near-everyday role. Castillo speaks to Adams himself, manager Dave Martinez and hitting coach Kevin Long about the slugger’s role with the club and the value he can bring off the bench. The Nationals, it should be noted, are giving Adams some looks in the outfield once again this spring and could play him in left field from time to time in 2017 — as the Cardinals and Braves both did in 2017.

More from the game’s Eastern divisions…

  • Red Sox designated hitter/outfielder J.D. Martinez chats with Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald about his perceived defensive shortcomings in the outfield, explaining that his reputation as a defensive liability is frustrating. Martinez acknowledges that his glovework wasn’t at its best in 2016, when he admits to having become a bit timid around the outfield wall after breaking his elbow when crashing into the wall partway through the year. “…I got scared of running into walls because I didn’t want to get hurt again,” Martinez candidly admits. “… So balls off the wall, I just let it go and I got penalized for it.” The slugger adds that his foot injury significantly hampered his range in 2017, but he rejoined the Tigers as soon as possible as a means of getting his bat back into the lineup. Martinez, to his credit, had average to above-average ratings from both DRS and UZR from 2014-15, and he’s anxious to prove that he can still play an adequate outfield corner with better health.
  • The Marlins aren’t yet certain if veteran infielder Martin Prado will be healthy enough to take the field come Opening Day, writes Andre C. Fernandez of the Miami Herald. The team’s hope is that Prado will be able to play in some Grapefruit League games by the middle of this month, but there’s still no set timeline for when he’ll get into the lineup. If Prado isn’t ready for the opneer, it could pave the way for prospect Brian Anderson, who made his MLB debut late in the 2017 season, to get a look at the hot corner and prove that he’s capable of sticking at the big league level. The Marlins won’t push Anderson into that role if they don’t feel he’s ready, though skipper Don Mattingly had plenty of praise for Anderson’s work at third, his swing and his overall work ethic.
  • Nathan Eovaldi’s contract with the Rays contains $3.5MM worth of incentives based on starting and $2.375MM worth of relief-based incentives, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The organization maintains that it is “definitely” committed to using Eovaldi as a starter, per Topkin, and that’s the right-hander’s preference as well. “I definitely want to be a starter and hold it out throughout the entire year,” Eovaldi tells Topkin. That said, it stands to reason that if Eovaldi struggles in the rotation, a move to the ’pen is a possibility — especially given Tampa Bay’s deep stock of upper-level arms in the minors. As Topkin notes, many have long wondered what the hard-throwing Eovaldi could do in a relief role, especially when looking at his career struggles facing a lineup for the third time (.673 opponent OPS first time through the order, .692 second time, .890 third time).
  • The Orioles remain open to adding a third free-agent starter after signing Andrew Cashner and bringing Chris Tillman back, writes MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. They’re still checking in on everyone from Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn to former Oriole Jake Arrieta, he notes. That said, Kubatko adds that the O’s are heartened by the way their internal options have looked thus far, with Mike Wright, David Hess, Yefry Ramirez, and Rule 5 picks Nestor Cortes and Pedro Araujo all of interest to Baltimore decision-makers.

Nationals Sign Matt Adams

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Dec. 22: The Nationals have formally announced Adams’ signing. Their 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.

Dec. 20: The Nationals have reportedly agreed to terms with first baseman Matt Adams on a deal that would bring him to D.C. If finalized, the contract is expected to include a $4MM guarantee and $500K of available incentives for a single season.

Aug 18, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves left fielder Matt Adams (18) runs after hitting a home run against the Cincinnati Reds during the second inning at SunTrust Park. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Adams is exactly the sort of lefty platoon bat the Nationals have needed since bidding adieu to Adam Lind at the end of the season. The 29-year-old Adams was non-tendered by the Braves after projecting to earn a $4.6MM salary through arbitration.

While he’s not much of an option against lefties, Adams has an excellent track record when hitting with the platoon advantage. For his career, he carries a .286/.333/.495 batting line against opposing right-handers. Adams is also best limited to playing first in the field, though he has at times attempted the corner outfield.

[Related: Updated Washington Nationals depth chart and Nationals payroll outlook]

Those caveats are just fine with the Nats, who seek a player to step into Lind’s role as a complement to veteran first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and source of left-handed bench power. Adams is essentially a younger version of Lind himself, so it’s easy to see the fit here.

It came as a bit of a surprise when the Nationals declined their end of a $5MM mutual option with Lind, who was quite productive for the team in his single season in Washington. But it seems the organization correctly anticipated a sluggish market for bats and determined it might have a shot at a more appealing asset. Though Lind is a more accomplished overall hitter than Adams, he’s also about five years his senior.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted that a deal was in place, along with the contract terms. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported (via Twitter) that the sides were in serious discussions. ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted earlier that the sides had ongoing interest, as had been reported previously.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Corner Infield Market

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There are quite a few moving pieces on the market for corner infielders, so it’s conceivable that things could go in any number of different directions. At this point, it’s not even clear when or where the first dominoes will fall. Here’s the latest:

  • Fresh off of a non-tender by the Braves, first baseman Matt Adams has drawn interest from a few organizations, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Specifically, the Indians, Royals, and Nationals have all reached out to Adams’s representatives. While Cleveland and Kansas City could offer fairly significant roles to the left-handed hitter — who really is best utilized in a platoon capacity — the Nats unsurprisingly would consider him as a frequently used bench piece who might take some of the burden from Ryan Zimmerman. Atlanta was not able to find a taker for Adams before the tender deadline; he had projected to earn $4.6MM via arbitration, so it’d be surprising if he ended up receiving more than that on the open market. For the Indians, it seems, adding a player such as Adams would represent something of a “fallback,” as Crasnick terms it, if the team is unable to strike a new deal with Carlos Santana. MLBTR’s Kyle Downing just analyzed Santana’s free agent case and we have also rounded up the latest market chatter on one of the market’s top bats.
  • Having missed out on Giancarlo Stanton, the Cardinals are now scanning the rest of the market for offensive upgrades. Jon Heyman of Fan Rag looks at the team’s possible options, including free agents Eric Hosmer and J.D. Martinez. He notes that several upper-echelon third basemen might hold appeal on the trade market — which will come as little surprise to those that have followed the Cards’ trade rumblings for the last several months. Of course, it’s still unclear whether the Blue Jays (Josh Donaldson), Rays (Evan Longoria), or Orioles (Manny Machado) will make their stars available.
  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post tackles that subject, discussing the relative likelihood that any of those three will be shopped. And Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times addresses things from the Rays’ perspective, reporting that Longoria has not been given any indication from the organization about their plans. While he says he hopes to remain in Tampa Bay, he also acknowledges he could be “somewhere in limbo.” If a trade comes to pass, says Longoria, “I suppose my family and I will adjust.”
  • The top free agent third baseman, of course, is Mike Moustakas. His market is still taking shape, but the Angels have (as expected) engaged with his camp to some degree, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports (Twitter links). That said, there’s no indication of momentum. From an outside perspective, it also seems less likely that the Halos would line up on Moustakas after landing Shohei Ohtani. Even less likely is Logan Morrison, though Fletcher adds that he’s also still on the radar.
  • Hosmer and Martinez are conceivably also targets for the Red Sox, as are Santana and others. As Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes, the organization has engaged agent Scott Boras on both players; perhaps unsurprisingly, he also suggests that Boras is pitching Boston on signing the pair in a bold move to revamp its lineup. Interestingly, Cafardo also says that Hosmer’s former club, the Royals, once reached an internal assessment that Hosmer could swat forty long balls annually at Fenway. Of course, the notoriously heavy groundball hitter has never launched more than 25 in a given season (that’s a mark he reached in each of the last two campaigns).

Notable 2017 Non-Tenders

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The open market welcomed 26 additional free agents Friday when various major league teams chose not to tender contracts to certain arbitration-eligible players. While no one is going to confuse the new members of this winter’s unsigned class with any of the top free agents, there are at least a few who could boost teams’ chances in 2018 and beyond. As Tyler Flowers, Steve Cishek and Welington Castillo have shown over the past couple years, a non-tender doesn’t have to be a career death knell.

Here’s a look at the best of this year’s group:

  • Hector Rondon, RP: The hard-throwing, right-handed Rondon isn’t that far removed from a two-year showing in which he was among baseball’s premier relievers. The former closer pitched to a minuscule 2.03 ERA with 8.91 K/9, 2.03 BB/9 and a 50.8 percent groundball rate across 133 1/3 innings from 2014-15, during which he combined for 59 saves on 68 attempts. However, Rondon’s effectiveness began fading during the Cubs’ World Series-winning 2016 campaign – thanks in part to an arm injury, perhaps – and he’s now fresh off a year in which he posted a 4.24 ERA. But Rondon managed at least 50 innings (57, to be exact) for the fourth straight season in 2017, when he also continued his groundballing ways (48.3 percent) and logged a career-high swinging-strike rate (11.3 percent). Further, even during his disappointing 2016-17 stretch, he saw his K/9 rise to an impressive 10.55 (against 2.33 walks per nine). While neither the Cubs nor any other team thought Rondon would be worth a projected $6.2MM in 2018, the 29-year-old still figures to intrigue a host of clubs – some of which may not be in the mood to pay high prices for established relievers this winter.
  • Mike Fiers, RHP: An estimated $5.7MM for Fiers was too rich for the Astros and other teams, but it wouldn’t have been an unreasonable amount relative to what the 32-year-old has done during his career. Since debuting as a starter with the Brewers in 2012, Fiers has racked up 694 1/3 innings from the rotation and compiled a respectable 4.15 ERA, also notching 8.64 K/9 against 2.79 BB/9. Fiers was one of the few members of the World Series champion Astros who endured a miserable 2017 (5.22 ERA, 5.43 FIP in 153 1/3 frames), but if the personal-worst 19.5 percent home run-to-fly ball rate he put up more closely resembles his career mark of 13.6 going forward, he could return to being a decent innings eater.
  • Matt Adams, 1B: Lefty-swinging first basemen who struggle against same-handed pitchers aren’t exactly rare, so it wasn’t that surprising when the Braves jettisoned Adams in lieu of potentially paying him around $4.6MM in 2018. That said, Adams has been quite useful versus right-handed pitchers, having slashed .286/.333/.495 against them in 1,510 plate appearances, and has typically been adept at first base (14 Defensive Runs Saved, 8.3 Ultimate Zone Rating). Those skills should make the 29-year-old Adams a worthwhile pickup for someone, though he’s a small fish in a big free agent pond that includes other proven first base types in Eric Hosmer, Carlos Santana, Logan Morrison, Yonder Alonso and Adam Lind.
  • Jared Hughes, RP: As a groundball specialist who has generated excellent results despite a dearth of strikeouts, Hughes isn’t all that dissimilar to more hyped free agent Brandon Kintzler. But even though he has a good track record and was projected to earn a very reasonable $2.2MM in 2018, the 32-year-old Hughes is now on the unemployment line. Based on Hughes’ history, Milwaukee’s loss could be a big gain for another club. Since 2014, his first of four consecutive solid years, the ex-Pirates righty has thrown no fewer than 59 1/3 innings in any individual season and ridden a 62.1 percent grounder rate to a 2.55 ERA. Hughes ranks eighth among qualified relievers in GB rate and 18th in ERA over the past four seasons, despite having registered only 5.54 K/9 against 3.02 BB/9 during that span (notably, though, his K/9 rose to a career-high 7.24 in 2017).
  • Drew Smyly, LHP: With his estimated $6.85MM salary, Smyly was a non-tender waiting to happen the moment he underwent Tommy John surgery in June, officially ending a season in which he was unable to take the mound for Seattle. The Mariners acquired Smyly 10 months ago with the hope that he’d serve as a capable mid-rotation starter – something he had been at times with the Rays from 2014-16. Smyly combined for 395 innings of 3.94 ERA ball during those seasons and recorded 8.59 K/9 against 2.53 BB/9, and offset a paltry grounder rate (34.2 percent) with a league-best infield fly mark (15.3 percent). It’s anyone’s guess whether Smyly will resemble his old form when he returns (perhaps not until 2019), but he’s still just 28 and looks worthy of taking a flyer on at an affordable cost this offseason.

Braves Non-Tender Matt Adams, Jace Peterson, Danny Santana

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The Braves have cleared three spots on their 40-man roster, with new GM Alex Anthopoulos cutting loose some position players even as he has moved to add multiple pitchers. First baseman Matt Adams and infielders Jace Peterson and Danny Santana have been non-tendered, the club announced.

These were the Braves players identified as possible non-tender candidates recently by MLBTR, and it turned out that all were cut loose. There was talk heading into today’s deadline that Atlanta was working to find a trade involving Adams, at least, though that obviously never came together.

Adams, a slugging first baseman, impressed enough upon landing with the Braves in the middle of 2017 that the team shifted Freddie Freeman to third base when he returned from injury. But the love affair was short-lived, as the 29-year-old Adams cooled off and settled into part-time usage. Though he finished well in September, that came in rather sparing duty.

The lefty swinging Adams ended the 2017 season with a quality overall output: 19 home runs and a .271/.315/.543 slash during his 100-game run with the Braves. But he has continued to struggle against left-handed pitching and has not shown much aptitude in the outfield, greatly limiting his function as a roster piece. At a projected $4.6MM rate of pay, the numbers just did not work out.

The other two players bring plenty in versatility but quite a bit less with the bat. Peterson, 27, was once seen as a possible future second baseman for the Braves. He turned in a solid 2016 season but scuffled to a .215/.318/.317 slash in 215 plate appearances in 2017. Similarly, the 27-year-old Santana — like Adams, an early-season addition — mustered only a .203/.245/.357 output in his 152 trips to the plate on the year. Though Peterson and Santana each projected to earn only $1.1MM in arbitration, the club evidently felt there was not enough upside to tie up roster spots and commit money to these players.

Braves Reportedly Shopping Matt Adams

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Nov. 30: FanRag’s Jon Heyman spoke to a source that stated Adams “won’t be with the Braves,” further indicating that the first baseman will either be traded or non-tendered by 8pm ET tomorrow evening.

Nov. 27: This Friday marks the deadline for MLB teams to tender contract offers to their arbitration-eligible players. Club will have until 8pm ET to agree to tender an offer or to non-tender such players, though the two sides will have roughly two months to work out an actual salary before arb hearings (if necessary) begin in February.

With that deadline looming, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports (via Twitter) that the Braves are “pushing Matt Adams” to other teams, hoping to secure a trade for a left-handed slugger who otherwise could represent a non-tender candidate in Atlanta (as MLBTR’s Jeff Todd noted in the Braves’ Offseason Outlook). Atlanta has Freddie Freeman entrenched at first base, despite a brief experiment at the hot corner, leaving Adams as something of an odd man out.

Atlanta acquired Adams, 29, from St. Louis this past May when Freeman went down with a broken wrist that would sideline him for two months. Adams’ initial production following the trade was nothing short of jaw-dropping, as he exploded with a .298/.348/.661 batting line and nine homers through his first 135 plate appearances in Atlanta. From that point forth, however, Adams posted a fairly meek .251/.291/.455 line and seven homers through 179 plate appearances — numbers that are much closer to his career batting line of .271/.315/.469.

In the end, Adams posted career-highs in both homers (20) and OPS (.841), but the knocks against him were the same as ever. The big lefty batted just .180/.206/.377 in 63 PAs against left-handed pitching and demonstrated again that he is limited to first-base/DH on the defensive spectrum. Both the Cardinals and Braves gave Adams a brief look in the outfield, but he turned in negative marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (-5) and Ultimate Zone Rating (-0.7) in a small sample of 129 innings. His glovework at first base remained solid, but the market for first-base-only bats with significant platoon issues has become increasingly crowded in recent years as teams place greater emphasis on defensive versatility.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $4.6MM salary for Adams — not an exorbitant price to pay for an AL club seeking a cheap option at first base/DH. The Rays, Indians and Angels could all represent speculative landing spots for Adams, while the Rockies stand out as an NL club that could give him semi-regular at-bats at first base.

For teams that view Adams as a bench bat, however, committing $4MM+ to a defensively limited reserve option at this stage of the offseason is a tough sell. Mitch Moreland has a reputation as one of the game’s best defenders at first base and signed for a one-year, $5.5MM contract in Boston last winter, while Adam Lind, a player with a comparable skill set to Adams, settled for a one-year, $1.5MM pact with the Nationals in mid-February. Many teams would likely consider Adams a viable backup option behind their preferred offseason targets, but that won’t help him at this juncture of a slow-moving offseason, as the top targets for each of those clubs are all still in play.

Post-Deadline Notes: Gray, Cards, Darvish, Britton, Estrada, Braves

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The Cardinals “float[ed]” a trade proposal for Sonny Gray before the Athletics shipped him to the Yankees, according to MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal. In concept, at least, St. Louis would have considered sending young outfielder Stephen Piscotty to Oakland along with a promising starter (Luke Weaver or Jack Flaherty), though it seems talks never got going. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks closer at the Cards’ lack of action on deadline day. Top baseball decisionmaker John Mozeliak acknowledged “a level of frustration” that nothing got done, though he also said the team wasn’t inclined to make deals just for the sake of action. Ultimately, momentum never built toward a deal for Lance Lynn, and the club’s other chatter never materialized into a trade. You’ll want to peruse the lengthy column for all the details.

Here are some more post-deadline links of note:

  • The Dodgers’ acquisition of Yu Darvish came together quite late, as Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports explains in fascinating detail. It became apparent the Dodgers wouldn’t get Zach Britton from the Orioles within a half hour of the deadline, but the team had already “abandoned hope” of landing Darvish. The Rangers, meanwhile, had run through their alternative trade partners for the ace righty and found none availing. The paths of the two organizations converged just twenty minutes before the deadline. You’ll certainly want to give the story a full read; Texas fans will also want to check out this piece from Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on the team’s unannounced but still-evident rebuilding path.
  • In the end, there just wasn’t that much demand in the marketplace for Darvish, Rosenthal also notes — so much so that the Dodgers were nearly in position to land both Darvish from the Rangers and lefty Zach Britton from the Orioles. That said, there was “some overlap” between the prospects in both potential deals, and it obviously would’ve required a steep overall price to get both arms. Instead, Los Angeles added two different lefties, Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani.
  • As regards Britton, Rosenthal had some stern words for how things played out. The Orioles spurned not only the Dodgers but likely also the Astros. For Baltimore, the deadline approach “was disturbingly short-sighted,” by Rosenthal’s reckoning. And when Houston wasn’t able to find another top-end arm, says Rosenthal, its body of deadline work became a “lost opportunity.” It does seem worth bearing in mind, particularly regarding the Astros, that the August trade period appears to be full of opportunities for making further moves if the need is there.
  • Over in Toronto, the Blue Jays ended up holding onto righty Marco Estrada and then watched him turn in a strong outing last night. As Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca writes, Jays GM Ross Atkins suggested yesterday that the organization may yet see Estrada as a part of the team’s future — though his contract is up at year’s end and he perhaps remains a plausible August trade piece. With Estrada remaining in Toronto through the deadline, said Atkins, “we’ll start thinking about not only how he impacts us now, but how he can potentially impact us beyond 2017.”
  • Be sure also to check out the trade deadline rundown from Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, who assesses some winners and losers from the day’s action. ESPN.com’s Buster Olney also issued deadline grades in an Insider piece.
  • With the Braves holding on deadline day, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman takes stock of the months to come. Second baseman Brandon Phillips, reliever Jim Johnson, and starter R.A. Dickey could all be possible August trade chips, he notes, while the inclination of the organization remains to consider deals involving first baseman Matt Adams over the offseason. Meanwhile, Atlanta continues its long-standing pursuit of controllable pitching, though that’ll surely await the end of the current season.

Braves Telling Teams They Will Likely Keep Matt Adams

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The Braves are informing rival organizations that they expect to hold onto first baseman Matt Adams through the trade deadline, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports on Twitter.

Adams has generally been viewed as a plausible trade chip, and perhaps still would be if the right offer came along. But the Braves need not strike a deal, owing to Adams’s remaining control (one more year, via arbitration) and the team’s surprising decision to play Freddie Freeman at third base.

Though Adams, 28, has cooled somewhat at the plate since his torrid opening with the Braves, he’s still providing steady offensive production over the month of July. He has been nothing short of outstanding over the course of his 199 plate appearances since arriving from the Cardinals, slashing .284/.332/.596 with 14 home runs.

That said, the resurgent slugger has continued to struggle against left-handed pitching, and he has seen the bench when southpaws take the hill. And there are more alternatives now with Sean Rodriguez back from the DL. So long as the Braves trust Freeman at third, though, Adams remains an interesting part of the roster. With demand seemingly on the light side, the Braves may simply hold Adams to see how the Freeman experiment pans out over the second half — with the team’s offseason approach to be adjusted accordingly.

Health Notes: Bettis, Tomas, Duke, Rodriguez, Astros, Davis

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Rockies righty Chad Bettis has faced live hitters as he readies for a rehab assignment, as Nick Groke of the Denver Post writes. While he’s going to need a long build-up, the hope is that Bettis could make it back to the majors at some point in August. That’s great news for the Rox, who have plenty of options but relatively few sure things in the rotation. Bettis, of course, is returning from testicular cancer, which required not only surgery but also chemotherapy. If he can return to being the steady presence he was before hitting the DL, it could go a long way to helping the club maintain its current course for the postseason. (Adding him back to the rotation might also allow the team to bump another young arm into the bullpen.)

Here are some more health notes from around the game:

  • Already out for a month due to groin issues, Diamondbacks outfielder Yasmany Tomas has now been re-diagnosed, MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert tweets. While the injury had initially been called tendinitis, it is now said to be a mild strain. It’s not clear whether that impacts his timeline at all; Tomas has yet to undertake a rehab assignment.
  • Cardinals southpaw Zach Duke is stepping up to the High-A level to begin his rehab assignment in earnest, as MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reports on Twitter. The veteran southpaw, who is working back from Tommy John surgery, now seems on track to provide a potentially significant boost to the Cards — who are now in the thick of things in a middling NL Central.
  • Speaking of earlier-than-expected returns, the Braves could welcome back infielder Sean Rodriguez by the end of the month, per David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). It seemed he could miss the entire season after significant offseason shoulder surgery, but evidently Rodriguez has responded quite well to treatment. Rodriguez landed in Atlanta on a two-year, $11.5MM deal but suffered the injury in a devastating offseason car accident. He could provide a strong boost to Atlanta down the stretch, with his role dependent upon the team’s experiment of utilizing Freddie Freeman at third base as well as their ultimate deadline moves — which could still conceivably include trades of either second baseman Brandon Phillips or first baseman Matt Adams.
  • The Astros have successfully weathered a slew of rotation injuries of late; needless to say, though, the team will be glad to welcome back its missing arms. Righty Charlie Morton will be activated to start on Friday, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle writes, and he’ll be interesting to watch upon his return. Morton has a solid 4.06 ERA and even better peripherals, though it remains to be seen whether Houston will feel comfortable relying on him (among others) for a presumptive postseason staff. Fellow righty Collin McHugh is also making forward progress; Kaplan notes he’ll make a second rehab outing at Double-A. Meanwhile, as MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart tweets, top lefty Dallas Keuchel may be closing in on his own rehab assignment.
  • Also nearing a rehab stint is Orioles first baseman Chris Davis. As Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes, Davis says his injured oblique is cooperating as he begins ramping up baseball activities. He’s slated for a minor-league assignment over the All-Star break; so long as he progresses, he might be back to the big leagues shortly thereafter.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Cueto, Puig, Adams, Blevins, Chatwood

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Some hot stove buzz from FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, courtesy of two Full Count videos (link one, link two)…

  • A rival general manager describes Johnny Cueto’s potential trade value as “lower than a rental’s” due to the added complication of Cueto’s opt-out clause, which could make it hard for the Giants to find a trade partner.  If a team were to acquire a normal pending free agent at the deadline and that player got injured or performed poorly, the two sides would likely just part ways after the year.  If such a scenario happened to Cueto, however, he might not opt out, so the new team would be taking on a potentially diminished asset for the remaining four years/$84MM on Cueto’s contract.
  • The offseason trade buzz about Yasiel Puig has died down since he is playing well, so it doesn’t seem like the Dodgers would move the controversial outfielder unless they get full value in return.  Interestingly, Rosenthal notes that Puig’s clubhouse reputation is still a work in progress, as “many” Dodgers teammates view Puig “as an annoyance.”
  • Matt Adams is drawing trade interest, which isn’t a surprise given how he has been crushing the ball since joining the Braves.  Whether Atlanta looks to move Adams or not will depend on whether Freddie Freeman is capable of playing third base, thus allowing Adams to stay at first base.  Moving Adams into a corner outfield spot is problematic since the Braves would then have to deal Matt Kemp or Nick Markakis, not to mention the defensive shortcomings Adams displayed while playing the outfield for the Cardinals earlier this season.
  • While the Mets are reportedly open to dealing veterans, Rosenthal says that Jerry Blevins is maybe the least likely of those players to switch teams.  Blevins is enjoying his second consecutive excellent year in the Mets bullpen, and since the team plans to contend again in 2018, exercising the $7MM club option on Blevins would be a good way to lock up some reliable left-handed relief.
  • A Tyler Chatwood trade “would be difficult for the [Rockies] to make,” a source with knowledge of the team’s thinking tells Rosenthal.  If anything, Colorado will be looking to add pitching rather than move a solid rotation arm.  Chatwood has a 4.08 ERA, 7.4 K/9 and a very strong 57.6% ground ball rate over 90 1/3 IP this season.  He is a free agent this winter and he has a strong track record (career 3.10 road ERA) away from Coors Field, plus he may not be a prime candidate for a long-term deal given that Chatwood has twice undergone Tommy John surgery.  Despite those factors, Chatwood probably has more value to the Rockies as a player than as a potential trade chip as the team battles in the competitive NL West.
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