MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com - Part 4757 (2024)

As the post-season chase takes shape, it’s time again to think about the placement of the teams that are falling out of the picture. While thosein the mix for pole draft position sitat or near the bottom of their respective divisions, they stand to cash in with lofty selectionsin next year’s draft.This season’sReverse Standings will be updated as results come in, and can always be accessed via the right-side toolbar (under “MLBTR Features”) at MLBTradeRumors.com.

Why “reverse standings”? Draft order is determined by simple reference to win-loss record at the end of the season, worst to first. Any ties are broken by awarding the higher pick to the team that had the lesser winning percentage in the prior season. (While compensation picks are givento teams that fail to sign players from the previous draft, at one slot below the selection, that rule won’t impact things this time aroundsince all of the 2015 first rounders are under contract.)

The other important thing to note, of course, is the concept of protected picks. While a team that signs a free agentwho declined a qualifying offer sacrifices its highest draft choice, teams awardedtop-ten selections are not required to part with those picks to sign such a player. Instead, those clubs would give up their next-highest pick in the event that they sign a QO-rejecting free agent. In the reverse standings linked above, protected selections are denoted with a green check mark.

As things stand entering today’s action, the Braves are right on the heels ofthe Phillies for the first overall choice in the 2016 draft. Landing the top overall pick not only gives a team a chance to take any player available, as Baseball America’s Ben Badler explained yesterday (Twitter links), but provides that club with a massive bonus pool and the ability to “control the leverage of the entire draft” by reaching arrangements with other top players that can be selected with later picks.

The Astros have demonstrated that approach several times in recent years. Back in 2012, they took Carlos Correa over Byron Buxton in part to help add Lance McCullers Jr. and Rio Ruiz (not to mention players like Brett Phillips and Preston Tucker). And last year, utilizing a pair oftop-five selections, the club was ableto scoretop-ten talent Daz Cameron in the 37th overall slot.

Notably, also, several teams in the “race” for top draft picks already have — or could obtain by trade — competitive balance selections that would open more slot money and an additional early selection. Those choices, which take place after the first round (including its qualifying offer-compensation component), were determined by lottery. The Reds, A’s, Rockies, D’backs, Marlins and Pirates received the six Round A picks this year, in that order, and all but Pittsburgh also stand to pick up top-ten selections if the current reverse standings hold.

Here are today’s minor moves:

• TheYankeesannounced that outfielder Tyler Austin has been outrighted to Double-A. Recently designated for assignment,the 24-year-old has not progressed as hoped since rating as a top-100 prospect entering the 2013 season. Austin earned his first crack at the Triple-A level this year, but slashed just .235/.309/.311 with four home runs and eight stolen bases over 299 plate appearances.

The Cardinals have announced the activation of first baseman Matt Adams, who has missed a lengthy stretch with a quadricepsinjury. To clear 40-man space, the club designated left-hander Nick Greenwood for assignment.

Adams, 27, last saw action on May 26th. He was hitting just .243/.281/.375 on the season at that point, a disappointing drop-off from the well-above-average batting lines he had put up over the prior two seasons. Adams will look to get back on track late in the year, both to reestablish himself in the team’s regular mix and to bolster his upcoming, first-time arbitration case.

In his absence, the Cardinals added fellow left-handed power hitter Brandon Moss, who has hit well since coming to St. Louis. The club also promoted top prospect Stephen Piscotty, a righty, who has seen some action at first. Both Moss and, in particular, Piscotty are also capable of playing the corner outfield. All told, the club has some flexibility both to bring Adams back slowly and to play matchups in the post-season.

Greenwood, 27,has thrown 36 big league innings for the Cards, including just one appearance this year in which he did not record an out. The southpaw has worked both as a starter and a reliever in the minors. After a solid campaign throwing mostly from the pen last season, he has scuffled toa 5.79 ERA in 129 Triple-A frames on the year in 2015, with 4.2 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9.

Dan Jennings has a standing offer from theMarlins to return to the GM seat, but has not yet informed the team whether he will accept, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. Miami seemingly expects that Jennings will slot back in at that role, unless he is able to land a job elsewhere with more conclusive decisionmaking authority. As the Fish continue their front office maneuvering, the club has hired Marc DelPiano as VP of player development, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reports on Twitter.

Here’s more on some front office and managerial situations around the league …

• TheBrewers are set to interviewPirates director of player personnel Tyrone Brooks for the open GM position in Milwaukee, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. We have heard some chatter about possible names to watch for the Brewers, but it appears that Brooks is the first reported candidate to receive an interview. Brooks has held his current role in Pittsburgh for about four years, overseeing an impressive delivery of young talent onto the big league roster. Hegave an interesting interview with MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch back when he received that promotion, acknowledging at the time that he ultimately hoped to keep climbing the front office ladder.
• Both theMariners andAngels have been given permission to interviewYankees assistant GM Billy Eppler, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. Eppler has long been considered a top general manager candidate, and interviewed with several teams in the past, so it’s no surprise to hear his name linked to multiple openings.
• TheNationalshave dropped two straight to the Mets in hard-to-believe fashion, squandering an opportunity to re-start the division race in the season’s final weeks. Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post encapsulatesthe situationwell in his piece on the frustrating turn of events. Despite the obvious cause for disappointment,GM Mike Rizzo says there is no consideration to making a late-season change at manager.“Matt Williams is our manager,” said Rizzo,“and he’s going to lead us through this stretch. I’ve always supported him. We’re not going to talk about 2016 while 2015 is ongoing.”Rizzo himself is not believed to have any job security issues, says Svrluga, though he adds that the team’s ownership can be “opaque” in its decisionmaking.

Giants righty Tim Hudson says he’shanging up his cleats after the season, asJohn Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter. Previously, the 40-year-old had indicatedthat he was likely to retire, but it now appears he has made up his mind.

“This is definitely my last year, for sure,” said the veteran. “It’s the right thing to do. It’s the right time for me and my family.”

This season hasn’t been quite the send-off that Hudson might have hoped for (though he had quite a memorable outing last night). He has missed time due to injury and is carrying an ERA over four per nine for just the third time in 17 seasons.

But Hudson is still remarkably useful given his age. He has continued to generate a groundball rate of over 50% and would undoubtedly draw plenty of interest as a free agent were he to consider signing.

Still, it’s not terribly surprising to hear that Hudson has decided to call it quits. He has made clear throughout the year that things were likely headed in that direction. And as he and his wife discussed in the above-linked piece, via Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, a variety of considerations beyond pitching capability have driven the decision.

We’ll have to wait until the end of the year to make a final tally of Hudson’s overall body of work, but needless to say, it will be impressive. Hudson brokeinto the league with the Athletics back in 1999, spent nine years with the Braves, and capped it off in San Francisco. All told, he has racked up over 3,000 innings with a lifetime earned run average of less than 3.50 runs per nine innings.

Those results came mostly via a sterling 58.0% career groundball rate rather than dominant strikeout tallies. In fact, Hudson has averaged only 6.0 K/9 against2.6 BB/9 in his career. He nevertheless managed to compileover fifty wins above replacement over his career as a consistent, quality, and durable rotation piece.

That body of work is probably not enough to get him into Cooperstown, but Hudson undoubtedly rates as one of the best pitchers of his era.

FormerAstros, Cardinal and Athletics right-hander Joaquin Andujar passed away on Tuesday at the age of 62 due to complications stemming from a lengthy battle with diabetes. The four-time All-Star was known as a passionate player that never shied away from showing his emotion on the field. Andjuar twice won 20 or more games in a season and was an integral piece ofthe Cardinals’ 1982 World Series championship, posting a 2.47 ERA in 265 2/3 innings before going on to allow just four earned runs in 20 postseason innings. Pedro Martinez spoke about how Andujar influenced not only him but an entire generation of Dominican baseball players Tuesday on the MLB Network (video link). Meanwhile,MLB.com’s Joey Nowak paid tribute to Andjuar in a lengthy piece that offers quotes from former teammates, managers and executives who knew Andujar well. We at MLBTR extend our condolences to the friends and family of Andujar as well as all who were impacted by his career.

A few more notes from around the game…

• ESPN’s Keith Law shares some scouting thoughts from the past week, most notably offering his opinion on Rockies top prospect Jeff Hoffman — the key piece in July’s Troy Tulowitzki blockbuster (ESPN Insider required). Law notes that Hoffman showed a minimal-effort delivery while sitting in the mid-90s and touching 97 mph five times during a five-inning start. However, the fastball has little movement, making it too easy to square up, and Hoffman showed a poor feel for his changeup on the day in question. From a big-picture point of view, Law feels that Hoffman has a lot in common with Jon Gray in that he’s a power arm with great stuff that has yet to show up in his results. Law also discusses Cubs shortstop prospect Gleyber Torres and White Sox righty Spencer Adams, among others.
• Andy Martino of the New York Daily Newswrites that while Matt Harvey has come under considerable fire due to the recent drama surrounding his innings limit, he’s in no way a quitter or phony. Rather, Harvey is a 26-year-old that it trying to balance his long-term health with his desire to win a championship with the Mets while hearing varying opinions and advice from doctors, his agent, Mets executives, his teammates and fans. He’s in an unenviable position, Martinopoints out before opining that no one in the situation need be portrayed as a “hero” or as a “villain.”
• There are few open jobs on the Rays roster heading into the 2015-16 offseason, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, with Asdrubal Cabrera and John Jaso beingthe club’s primary free agents. That will leave some uncertainty at shortstop, and there’s already uncertainty at catcher, Topkin notes. One way the Rays could plug either hole will be to trade from their rotation depth, and Topkin feels that it’s “likely” the front office will do just that this winter. The Rays have Chris Archer, Jake Odorizzi, Drew Smyly, Nate Karns, Matt Moore, Erasmo Ramirez, top prospectBlake Snell and, eventually, Alex Cobb as rotation options, giving them an enviable surplus of serviceable arms.

Former Angels GM Jerry Dipoto is expected to be the first external candidate to interview for the Mariners’ GM vacancy, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link). Dipoto resigned this summer after a highly publicized feud with Halos skipper Mike Scioscia and has since taken an advisory role with the Red Sox. The Mariners fired Jack Zduriencik in late August and are said to prefer an experienced general manager to step into the GM’s chair.

Here’s more from the AL West…

• Mike Zunino won’t return to the Mariners in 2015, writes Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Instead of being recalled to the big league roster in September, he will report to the instructional league to “overhaul” his swing with hitting coach Cory Snyder and Edgar Martinez. The 24-year-old Zunino, formerly the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, batted just .174/.230/.300 in 386 plate appearances this season. Zunino unquestionably has power — he hit 22 homers in 2015— and is considered a very strongdefender, but he’s highly strikeout prone and has a career .193 average/.252 OBP. Many feel that he was rushed to the Majors, and for what it’s worth, he obliterated Triple-A pitching in a small sample after being demoted the day Zduriencik was fired.
• Angelsleft-hander Tyler Skaggs — a player for whom Dipoto traded on two separate occasions — tells Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times the he, his agent, his doctor and the Angels will discuss aninnings limit for 2016 this offseason. Skaggs will enter the 2016 campaign about 18 months removed from Tommy John surgery. The story, of course, comes in the wake of the Matt Harvey controversy — a scenario which Skaggs says he wants to avoid.
• David Paulino, whom the Astros acquired in the 2013 trade that sent Jose Veras to the Tigers, has shown very serious big league potential and emerged as a “steal” for Houston, opines Fangraphs scribe James Chipman. Paulino has battled injuries throughout his pro career but has made huge strides with his fastball and curveball over the past nine months, writes Chipman. If he can hone his changeup, he’s a potential mid-rotation arm, but if not, he could still be a high-leverage reliever. Chipman’s piece includes video and a full scouting report.

Nathan Eovaldi’s regular season is over, reports Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. The right-hander will miss the next four weeks due to inflammation in his right elbow — an injury for which he’s already received a platelet-rich plasma injection. Eovaldi won’t throw for two weeks following that injection.

Asked if Eovaldi would be available to pitch in the postseason, general manager Brian Cashman expressed some uncertainty.“Until he goes through a successful rehab, you can’t automatically assume anything,”the GM explained.“…He has been a nice asset for us. We’ve just got to give it a time out now and make sure that we put him in a position to be that asset again. Hopefully it will be this year.”

Losing Eovaldi, even for a relatively short spell, is a substantial hit for the Yankees, who are locked in a tight race with the Blue Jays for the AL East crown. The team does have the depth to replace Eovaldi, as it can turn to a five-man rotation consisting of Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Ivan Nova and CC Sabathia. However, Sabathia has struggled all season long, and Nova has suffered through poor results over his past handful of starts (6.21 ERA in six outings) in his return from Tommy John surgery. Eovaldi, on the other hand, has a solid, if unspectacular 3.67 ERA in the season’s second half. He’s been much tougher to hit and upped his K/9 rate in the second half (6.5 to 8.0), but he’s also seen his control take a turn for the worse.

Acquired this offseason in the Martin Prado trade with the Marlins, Eovaldi has delivered a 4.20 ERA with 7.1 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a career-best 52.2 percent ground-ball rate. He’s due for a raise on his $3.3MM salary this offseason and can be controlled through the 2017 campaign via the arbitration process.

With Triple-A seasons coming to a close, there’s been another wave of players whose contracts of have been selected to their respective teams’ 40-man rosters. Here’s a list of today’s 40-man moves…

• The D-Backs announced that they’ve selected the contract of slugging prospect Peter O’Brien. The catcher-turned-outfielder was the key piece that Arizona picked up from the Yankees in last summer’s Martin Prado swap. The 25-year-old O’Brien batted .284/.332/.551 and belted 26 homers this season for Triple-A Reno. The knock on O’Brien has long been his lack of a true position. Arizona seemed to be of the belief that he could remain behind the plate, but that’s no longer the case, as he’s been shifted to the outfield. That thinking led the D-Backs to leave their catching vacancy largely unaddressed this winter, although the midseason acquisition of Welington Castillo has certainly shored things up on that front. Evan Marshall was moved to the 60-day DL to accommodate O’Brien’s addition.
• The Mets have selected Tim Stauffer’s contract, tweets Adam Rubin of ESPN New York. Stauffer, who can serve in a long relief capacity for manager Terry Collins, began the season with the Twins after signing a one-year, $2.2MM contract as a free agent. The longtime Padres hurler got off to a dreadful start in Minneapolis, though, posting a 6.60 ERA in 15 innings before being released. Stauffer went to indy ball, pitching 16 innings for the Sugar Land Skeeters before the Mets signed him to a minor league deal. He notched a 2.48 ERA in eight Triple-Astarts for the Mets.
• The Red Sox have selected Rich Hill’s contract, as first reported by Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal (Twitter link). The 35-year-old spent parts of three seasons in Boston from 2010-12 and had a 2.83 ERA in 54 innings between the Triple-A affiliates for the Red Sox and Yankees. He also had a brief stop in indy ball this season, pitching well in 11 frames for the Long Island Ducks.
• The Mariners announced that they’ve selected the contracts of catcher Steven Baron and right-hander J.C. Ramirez. Baron, 24, hit .265/.334/.361 between Double-A and Triple-A this season, catching 28 percent of opposing base stealers. As for Ramirez, the 27-year-old has a strong 2.72 ERA at the Triple-A level this season and also worked to a 4.11 ERA in 15 1/3 innings with the Diamondbacks. Seattle picked him up from the D-Backs in exchange for cash considerations in late July. Charlie Furbush was transferred to the 60-day DL in order to clear room for one of the two additions.

Marcus Stroman will make his return to the Blue Jays’ rotation on Saturday, manager John Gibbons revealed today in an MLB Network appearance (h/t: FOX’s Jon Morosi, on Twitter). He’ll step into the rotation in place of Mark Buehrle, whom Gibbons described as “a little banged up.”Buehrle has returned to Toronto, where he’ll receive a cortisone injection in his left shoulder, tweets Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi.

Stroman’s return would’ve seemed impossible a few months ago, as the promising young right-hander tore his ACL just prior to the season. However, Stroman has healed far, far more quickly than anticipated and has already made a pair of minor league rehab starts. If healthy, he can provide a major boost to the Toronto rotation as the Blue Jays attempt to maintain their slim half-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East. Stroman will have the opportunity to immediately make a direct impact on that race, as he’ll take the mound at Yankee Stadium.

Stroman allowed four runs on eight hits and five walks with 12 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings in his pair of rehab outings. The former No. 22 overall pick emerged as a potential rotation cornerstone for the Blue Jays in 2014 when he pitched 130 2/3 innings of 3.65 ERA ball, averaging 7.6 strikeouts and 1.9 walks per nine innings. ERA estimators such as FIP (2.84), xFIP (3.17) and SIERA (3.18) all believed Stroman’s true talent level to exceed his ERA in 2014.