Today in MLBTR: Friday, July 30
OK, this is essentially a trade deadline live blog now.
Plenty is happening as the trade deadline approaches. I’m posting what I have here right now, but will continue to update as things change.
It’s trade deadline day and the Toronto Blue Jays have already made a significant move. Is there more still to come? All kinds of rumours are still swirling around out there, so let’s take a Jays-related scan of the always invaluable MLB Trade Rumors and see what the next few hours may bring!
• But first let me take a second to try to earn a living. Because if you’d like to receive an immediate email every single time I post something on the site, or would like to upgrade to a paid membership in order to support what I do and help keep these posts free for everybody, you can do all that with just a couple of clicks and I would be eternally grateful to you if you did! •
Housekeeping
Obviously this is an enormous for the Blue Jays even without the trade deadline, as tonight they will play a game in Toronto for the first time since the end of the 2019 season. It’s incredibly exciting and uplifting. Bo Bichette has a piece today at the Players’ Tribune that I’m told is going to make me want to run through a wall, however, as I noted on Twitter, I’m waiting to have feelings about the Jays’ return until after I’m done dealing with their deadline.
OK, OK, I actually said that I was waiting until I’m done being mad about their deadline. Turns out my mood has lifted! LOL.
Anyway, I’m also waiting to write about any of that stuff until after the game.
Leading up to the deadline I’m going to have this post, plus any trade write-ups I can squeeze in before I join my cohost Nick Ashbourne to record a special post-deadline edition of Blue Jays Happy Hour at 4:30 PM ET (a half hour after the deadline, which hopefully means we won’t get blindsided by a deal that rolls in late). That should give me enough time to get the podcast online in time for anyone who wants to listen before the game starts. At that point I’ll write about any Jays deals I hadn’t yet covered, and eventually the game itself.
A busy day, yes. But I live for this big picture kind of stuff more than I do sometimes about the minutiae of each and every game of 162 — as you’ve probably noticed. So, apologies in advance for what could be a slew of emails (depending on what else the Jays do), and while we’re here let me quickly reiterate that I’d love it if more readers could find a way to make the switch to a paid subscription. I understand not everyone can, but your boy’s gotta eat!
Hey, and while we’re also here, and since I don’t say this enough, be sure that you’re following me on Twitter, and that you follow the Batflip on Facebook, if those are your kinds of things!
Blue Jays acquire RHP José Berríos
In case you somehow missed it, I’ve already covered this one in a separate post. There’s a little addition to this that hadn’t been announced by the time I published the previous post.
It was a wild ride, Mr. Chatwood.
Yan Gomes?
There are juicier rumours out there, but this one — which originated from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale on Thursday night — is really curious, as he says that the Jays are among the teams who have had some interest in the Nationals catcher (and former Blue Jay). Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet has confirmed that there’s interest there.
Why would the Jays be looking at a rental catcher?
The obvious answer would be as a replacement for either Alejandro Kirk or (less likely) Reese McGuire, should one of them be flipped elsewhere in trade. Otherwise, I'm not sure I really get it. Gomes isn't a great framer but is otherwise solid behind the plate. Offensively, he's a right-handed hitter who is just a little above league average (105 wRC+ this year, 104 wRC+ last season).
I suppose I could see the Jays maybe liking his combination of skills a little better than the all-glove McGuire or the all-bat Kirk, but seems like a weird one.
UPDATE: Aaaaand it didn’t happen.
Still interesting to think that the Jays might be thinking this way though.
Trevor Story?
At the time I'm writing this there are three updates on the latest MLBTR Story story. The first calls the Jays one of the main contenders, along with the Rays, to land the Rockies' rental shortstop. A later update suggested there was little traction in those talks. And then a third — as of 2:03 PM ET — indicated that the Rockies had lowered their price and Story is more likely than not to be dealt.
A deadline deal for a Rockies shortstop is a fun idea, as we all know! But Story is one of the crop of great young shortstops who will be free agents at the end of the season, and certainly a talented ballplayer — particularly on the defensive side.
Offensively? He's been a pretty good hitter in each of the last three seasons, but this year his wRC+ is just 84. And no, it's not that he had a rough start and has rebounded or anything like that. Here are his wRC+ marks by month:
April: 87
May: 83
June: 118
July: 53
I get the idea of betting on his track record and not worrying about this year if this was a long-term player, but why give up prospects for a guy who isn't playing nearly as well as Santiago Espinal? The cost would have to at least be as much as the Rockies would expect to recoup in the next draft if they were to give Story a qualifying offer, right? Seems steep.
Go ahead and bid up things for the Rays though.
Craig Kimbrel to the White Sox/Baez to the Mets
Are the Jays done with their bullpen? We’re definitely hearing things about them still looking for a bat.
If Ross Atkins and co. are indeed still looking for relief help, one of the most dynamic options on the market is now gone, as the Cubs have traded closer Craig Kimbrel to the White Sox, with second baseman Nick Madrigal and reliever Codi Heuer going the other way. Kimbrel is not necessarily a rental, as he’s got a $16 million club option for next season, which means that the South Siders will have an absolutely lethal back end of their bullpen for a while now.
The Cubs are indeed making move, as they’ve sent Javier Báez to the Mets, in a deal which also sends starter Trevor Williams to the Mets. They’re tearing it down on the North Side. Does that mean third baseman Kris Bryant will go, too? The Jays could do worse than bringing him in to play third base for a couple months. Bryant famously had a rough June, but has rebounded to the tune of a 151 wRC+ here in July, bringing his season mark up to 132.
A lefty bat would be better, but the Jays are in it now, so maybe there’s a play here.
Update: 3:20 PM ET
Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy to the Phillies
Take at least one name that the Jays may have been looking at off the board in Ian Kennedy, a reliever who would have been a great addition for the Jays in a Joey Gallo deal, as he’s been moved to Philadelphia along with Kyle Gibson — who isn’t bad in his own right, though I would imagine that the Jays are done now on the starting pitching front after adding Berríos.
There are still plenty of relievers out there to be moved, but a lot of good ones are now off the board. Do the Jays really need another? I mean, the White Sox clearly feel as though you can never get enough.
Right now the Jays' bullpen looks like this:
Jordan Romano
Brad Hand
Adam Cimber
Trevor Richards
Tim Mayza
Ryan Borucki
Rafael Dolis
Tayler Saucedo
Kirby Snead
Thomas Hatch and Trent Thornton are also on the roster, but I suspect will end up optioned for Berríos and Hand (with Snead likely going down for Alek Manoah when he is activated over the weekend).
Is that good enough? It's better, certainly. One more real big arm would be very tasty though. Especially with Nate Pearson presumably due back reasonably soon, and John Axford pitching well too.
Bryant is still on the board!
Bit of a scare there for a second (assuming you really want the Jays to add Kris Bryant — and the Yankees to stop adding good players.
LOL.
Update: 3:50 PM ET
Maeda and Donaldson available?
The Twins have moved J.A. Happ to the Cardinals in a deal that’s not terribly relevant to Jays fans’ interests, apart from our generally positive feelings toward Happ. Also not relevant to the Jays, I’d wager: the availability of Kenta Maeda and Josh Donaldson.
Great players, both. But I don’t see this happening. Donaldson, fun as a reunion would be, we’ve talked about multiple times here before. I really don’t think the front office is going to go there.
Maeda won’t happen for different reasons. He hasn't had his best season — in fact, in terms of both ERA and FIP this is his worst MLB season so far. But, like Berríos, he's dependable, he strikes out a little more than a batter per inning and limits walks. He's maybe a little homer prone, but easily a solid mid-rotation starter. He also — and this is where the problem lies — makes just $3 million per season for two more years after this one. At least, as a base salary. There's a $1 million assignment bonus if he gets traded, and there are some performance bonuses that could raise his total compensation. But that's still an incredibly team friendly contract. To take him off the Twins' hands might even cost more than Berríos, which... the Jays could do. They're probably not going quite that hard again. I guess we’ll see though!
Scherzer/Turner to the Dodgers is complete
The goddamn Dodgers are the real evil empire, the Yankees are out here kidding themselves. Also, it would have been very funny if this deal had fallen apart.
Alas, L.A. is scary good.
The interesting twist that makes this at least a little bit Jays-related is the fact that the Dodgers’ incumbent shortstop, Corey Seager, is yet another of that crop of pending free agent shortstops. Turner, who will play second base but is naturally a shortstop, is not — he’s got another arbitration year before he hits free agency. With him now in the fold, that gives the Dodgers some insurance at short that could potentially allow them to let Seager go to market this winter. The Jays, I suspect, would have interest.
Yankees add LHP Andrew Heaney
Heaney has put up a 5.27 ERA for the Angels this year, and has been especially homer prone, but he generates a lot of strikeouts for a starter, limits free passes, and has a 4.05 FIP this season.
Congratulations to the teams who allowed the Yankees to keep adding by allowing Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo to play for them for free. Ridiculous garbage.
Update: 4:10 PM ET
Bryant’s a Giant
Well, it’s not the Jays, but it’s still a relief.
Joakim Soria traded to the Blue Jays!
I guess the Jays weren’t quite done with their bullpen after all. Small move for a rental, but a nice on here:
Hey, and look, Nick has gone to the trouble of quoting a bunch of numbers on Twitter that I would have had to dig up myself:
Hard not to like that! I'll go one further than Nick here and add that Soria's velocity isn't just holding as he ages, it's gone up. His fastball averages 93.0 this year, which is not only up from 92.4 last year, it's the highest mark of his career.
No word as yet on what is heading back to the Diamondbacks, but I can’t imagine it will be a lot.
Let’s revisit our bullpen depth chart, shall we?
Here’s what I wrote earlier:
Jordan Romano
Brad Hand
Adam Cimber
Trevor Richards
Tim Mayza
Ryan Borucki
Rafael Dolis
Tayler Saucedo
Kirby Snead
Squeeze Soria in between Hand and Cimber, perhaps? Then add Axford and remove Saucedo and Snead? That’s looking pretty strong, I’d say. Again, not perfect, but quite good. And then with Nate Pearson getting added back there as well? I think the Jays will be blowing a lot fewer leads in the final third of the season.
What’s the Story?
Sounds like the Rockies did not move their shortstop. And, more importantly, didn’t move him to the Blue Jays. Meh.
Oof. Rockies.
Housekeeping
The deadline has now officially passed, but that definitely doesn’t mean there won’t still be deals trickling in.
This post has evidently turned into an old fashioned deadline day live blog, and I’m going to keep going with it under the assumption that there’s more still to come. But keep in mind, as I mentioned off the top, that I’ll be podcasting at 4:30 PM ET in order to get this week’s Blue Jays Happy Hour out in time for folks to listen before tonight’s game. So if these updates stop abruptly, that’s why.
Update: 4:
The Jays have nothing else trickling in
Praise to the great Shi Davidi for preventing us from having to wait another hour to see if more deals are coming. They’re done. (Their season, on the other hand, is just getting started.)
We are, however, still waiting to hear on what’s going to Arizona for Soria.
Final deadline thoughts
Well that was certainly a much more exciting and uplifting day than I expected. The Jays only added two players on deadline day, but they were both excellent additions in areas of need: José Berríos and Joakim Soria.
Add to that their previous trade haul from over the last month — Adam Cimber, Corey Dickerson, Trevor Richards, Brad Hand — and I think they’ve done pretty well for themselves in making tweaks that could very realistically propel them to a playoff spot. Or at the very least should make this as exciting a two months of baseball as we’ve seen since 2016. (Yes, yes, last year was a playoff year too, but it wasn’t the same. The Jays are home!).
So how does the roster now shape up? Let’s break it down.
Catchers
• Reese McGuire
• Alejandro Kirk
• (Danny Jansen - IL)
• (Gabriel Moreno - eta 2022)
Infield
• Bo Bichette
• Santiago Espinal
• Cavan Biggio
• Marcus Semien
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
• (Kevin Smith - eta 2021/22)
Outfield
• George Springer
• Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
• Teoscar Hernández
• Randal Grichuk
• (Corey Dickerson - IL)
Starters
• Hyun Jin Ryu
• José Berríos
• Robbie Ray
• Alek Manoah
• Ross Stripling
Relievers
• Jordan Romano
• Brad Hand
• Joakim Soria
• Adam Cimber
• Trevor Richards
• Tim Mayza
• Ryan Borucki
• Rafael Dolis
• Steven Matz
• Thomas Hatch
• (Nate Pearson - IL)
That takes Kirby Snead and Tayler Saucedo off of the roster. I imagine Hatch goes down when Pearson or Dickerson is ready. Whenever the second of those two comes up, it’s going to be interesting. Provided, of course, everyone stays healthy. Which I suppose we’ve learned by now not to count on. (Also: Please don’t kill me if I’ve missed someone or miscounted, I’m doing this quickly!)
And I think that’s just about it! I’ve got a podcast to get recording. And then the fun continues with the Jays’ return to Toronto later tonight! Thank you so much for reading along! Please be sure to sign up for emails and flip me some coin if you can and would like to support what I do!
Berrios'll push one of Stripling or Matz into the pen, too, presumably?