JotCast | Trade Rumors Front Office Chat

Trade Rumors Front Office Chat

Tim Dierkes

1:57

Hey everyone! THANK YOU for being subscribers! You are the die-hards and I greatly appreciate your support.

1:58

The MLB trade deadline is a week from tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll be fielding many trade questions!

Rich

1:58

Hey Tim (he said without hitting return) there are a few potential trade candidates who have 10-5 rights (I'm thinking of Wainwright and Kyle Hendricks). Do you know how often such players are traded and what it takes to make them waive their rights?

Tim Dierkes

2:03

Hendricks is around seven years of service, but Wainwright is a good example. Scherzer too. Players do waive no-trade clauses for summer deals...Lance Berkman in 2010 and Carlos Beltran in 2011 are a couple of examples. It happens perhaps every few years? Usually if the player uses his NTC to dictate where he goes...like Ryan Dempster not wanting to go to Atlanta and going to the Rangers instead. Some guys just won't go anywhere at all, I think Adam Jones did this (and it was every bit his right). Others demand extensions or their options to be picked up, though I can't recall examples off the top of my head.

Jorge78

2:03

Is it possible to send subscribers an email when a subscriber chat is starting? I am old and have a rough time remembering when things are supposed to happen or where I put the note telling me when things are supposed to happen. Thanks!

Tim Dierkes

2:05

My concern is that the chat announcement email gets opened by less than 40% of subscribers anyway, so I'd rather not send two of them. But I do agree that it'd be better if the email was "the chat is starting now!" or better yet some sort of notification for which you could sign up. One issue with the "chat is now" email idea is that our mass email sender thing generally takes 5-10 minutes to process everyone. But I'll continue to think about the best way to notify subs of chats.

Nick Plummer

2:05

WHY HASN'T ANYTHING HAPPENED???

Tim Dierkes

2:06

I think it's the result of the draft being pushed back to the All-Star break. In the past, all the draft stuff has been resolved much sooner. It's not just the draft, it's getting guys signed as well. Next week should be busy.

mmddyyyy

2:06

Do you ever get recognized?

Tim Dierkes

2:07

Never...it's not like my photo or even name are all over MLBTR. A handful of times in my life people have learned my name and then made the connection that I own this website, though. That's fun.

Will

2:07

In June and early July, there were trade tumors associating Eduardo Escobar with the ChiSox, Starling Marte with the BoSox and/or Houston, and Richard Rodriguez with any and every team that needed a closer. As we are getting closer to the trade deadline, does it appear that any / all of these NLers will be coming to the AL?

Tim Dierkes

2:08

I think Bob Nightengale got a little too excited about the Escobar to the White Sox thing and made it sound more certain than it was. I assume there was some smoke there, since he's tight with Reinsdorf. In terms of where specifically those three will be traded, I don't think anyone knows that right now.

Dwight

2:08

Do you see a Buxton extension happening. Have not seen number of years and incentives.

Tim Dierkes

2:11

There was a report that the Twins offered Buxton more than $70MM, though it didn't specify over how many years. He's a really tough guy to put a number on, because he's only played more than 92 MLB games in a season once, and that was in 2017. Buxton has banked $11.5MM plus his draft bonus, so he should probably just play out his arb years and get to free agency. Maybe he can stay healthy in '22.

Nick Plummer

2:11

The Cardinals are in a weird spot: They won't sell their top prospects for rentals, but they desperately need pitching. (A) Could they pull off a bad contract swap for a starter? Like sending Carp somewhere for veteran poorly performing starter? or (B) could they shock everyone by trading Gorman, Walker, Libratore for a good and controllable starter, like Alcantara (boy a pitcher like that would sure help the Cardinals right now!)

Tim Dierkes

2:13

The team has no real shot at the playoffs this year, so this is the type of thing to explore in the offseason. I don't know why another team would rather have Carpenter than a pitcher with a bad contract, though. I also don't know that there will be any good starters with a ton of control available...teams hate giving that up.

HoJo

2:13

Mets trade for Scherzer and extend him 2 yr/66 mil. Never gonna happen, but what does a team have to give up to get Scherzer and would he except that extension

Tim Dierkes

2:15

The Nats would have to tank between now and the deadline, and even then I assume Rizzo would want players of the caliber of Francisco Alvarez or Ronny Mauricio. There would be no one else like Scherzer on the market. The potential contract demand could throw a wrench in things. I think if Max really liked the destination 2/66 would get it done, though I believe he has a shot at a third year on the open market.

LAX

2:15

What do the Dodgers do with Bauer? Are they stuck with him and is there a chance he is done in baseball?

Tim Dierkes

2:17

It's so hard to guess where this is headed. And maybe feels a little gross to try. It seems plausible that MLB might suspend Bauer, although I have no idea how many games it'd be for. Honestly I don't believe he'd be blackballed from the game even if he is suspended.

James Click

2:17

Any chance Charlie Freaking Morton is going to be available for me to go get? If so, what do you think the cost would be for him?

Tim Dierkes

2:21

The Braves are one of those bubble teams, so these games in Philly and New York mean everything for their trade deadline direction. Morton would become one of the better starters on the market. He'd fit great back on the Astros, though they'd probably have to be willing to go over the luxury tax threshold. As far as I can recall, when teams spend the offseason carefully staying under that, they don't go ahead and pass it during the season. I don't really see an Astros prospect that I think would be off-limits in a Morton trade...even Forrest Whitley. Whitley will be ready in like July of '22.

mmddyyyy

2:21

When did everyday people start saying "blue chip prospect", and what type of prospect do you think qualifies?

Tim Dierkes

2:21

I haven't really heard people use the phrase in real life. For me it

2:22

It's probably grade 60 and above. There are tons of 55s but 60 is a pretty rare grade for the prospect gurus to throw around.

Joe J.

2:22

With the success of the recent outfield callups for the Yankees (Greg Allen, Estevan Florial and Ryan LaMarre), does that take them out of the Starling Marte sweepstakes or is it too small of a sample size to trust?

Tim Dierkes

2:23

The samples are so small as to be meaningless. The Yankees are a great fit for Marte, though they'd have to go over the luxury tax line or get creative.

Russell C.

2:23

What's the next move for James Paxton? Once fully recovered from TJ, it still seems like he could be an impact starter but his history of injuries have plagued him since day one. Does a move to the bullpen make more sense down the road?

Tim Dierkes

2:26

Maybe TJS is what could set Paxton right, after all the forearm strains he's dealt with over the years (he's dealt with a bunch of other stuff too). He'd probably have to be handled with kid gloves as a reliever too, so you might as well let him keep starting and see if he can be a 120-inning guy and have a few decent years post-surgery. Unless MLB puts some sort of restriction on how many pitchers are allowed on the active roster, the Paxton or Rich Hill types will still be useful.

wayneroo

2:27

HI Tim, thanks for the chat! If the Mariners get through the next 7 games against Oakland and Houston and are still 3-4 games out of the WC, are they sellers or buyers or both?

Tim Dierkes

2:27

They might as well just be buyers in that case, though Dipoto is never shy about trading off the MLB roster if he thinks it makes the Mariners better.

Astros fan

2:28

Trade proposal: Gallo and Kennedy to the Astros; Whitley, Straw, Toro to the Rangers? Would either side be interested? Rangers get two immediate starters, a potential number 1 starter for their rebuild. Astros address two of their weaknesses. Astros would probably want Gallo to agree to an extension before giving up this much talent for him.

Tim Dierkes

2:29

This seems light from the Rangers' point of view. Gallo has two years of control and he might be the best hitter available, and Kennedy has decent value in a market starved for relievers. You can't send that across the state for a package led by Whitley.

Astros fan

2:29

Was Crane's hiring of Dusty Baker part of the Astros punishment for the sign stealing scandal? Dusty's old school, seat of the pants style of managing seems a total mismatch for a team as committed to analytics as the Astros.

Tim Dierkes

2:32

If you're suggesting MLB might have encouraged the Astros to hire Baker or a Baker type instead of some 40-year-old SABR/front office friendly person, I could see that. But putting aside conspiracy theories, I assume Crane wanted Dusty because he has a great reputation around the game and can effectively serve as a reset after the scandal. And then maybe Dusty will retire and the Astros can go get a Hinch clone again. You'll notice they didn't exactly bring in a Dave Dombrowski type as GM.

Ryan S.

2:32

With the Cardinal's pitching being historically terrible, wouldn't it behoove them to try to make a trade even with terrible odds at the post season? Who needs to answer for some of the decisions they've made? They sign Mikolas, for more money than Lynn would have cost. I hate the Alcantara and Gallen trade as much today, more actually, as I did then. I'm scared to death they'll do something dumb and ship Liberatore off for a Gibson. Not a knock on the Mizzou boy, but he's not a guy that brings a Liberatore, unless trading with MO. What would Reyes bring back?

Tim Dierkes

2:35

I just don't see why you'd bring in a guy like Kyle Gibson, at a significant prospect cost, when the 2021 portion of your control of him is mostly wasted. They definitely have a pitching problem to solve, but I think it happens in the offseason. I feel like teams would be gunshy on Reyes since he's walked nearly 20% of batters and has a short track record given the injuries.

Kirt

2:35

Where does Nelson Cruz end up?

Tim Dierkes

2:35

The A's should go for it.

Hasley

2:36

Padres need pitching bad. Do they go after Rental pitchers & give up low prospects or go for it & get Pitchers who have 2 years team control or both?

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