Baseball Chatter Dec 12

 

“Look at the Adam Eaton trade,” Tigers GM Alex Avila said. “The Nationals get five years of control at a pretty good price. That’s value. Years of control at a low price is value. That’s what teams value. Unfortunately, we don’t have too many of those players.”

After the White Sox traded Adam Eaton to the Nationals for top prospects, Angels fans hope they might do the same with Kole Calhoun.

Matt Carpenter could bat second or third now that Dexter Fowler is projected to lead off for the Cardinals. Common sense suggests the more powerful hitter descends and does more damage as a result.

The Orioles continue to talk with Mark Trumbo.

The Astros inquired about Jose Quintana, but the White Sox’ price was too high. The White Sox wanted RHP Joe Musgrove plus their top two prospects, Francis Martes and Kyle Tucker.

Both the White Sox and Red Sox organizations believe new top prospect Yoan Moncada can be an impact player. He’ll still have work to do, however, as his first taste of big-league action late last year (during which he struck out 12 times in 20 plate appearances)

Cubs may have their eyes on rehabbing right-hander Tyson Ross.They left the winter meetings still involved in talks.

The Pirates, Rockies and Dodgers look like logical landing spots if the White Sox trade highly effective, eminently affordable left-hander Jose Quintana


Nationals trainers have told Daniel Murphy worrying news that the upper leg problems he encountered late in 2016 could recur

Wellington Castillo tied for the National League lead with 10 passed balls, which is a startling number, and his seven errors were tied for fourth most among NL catchers.Castillo has struggled with pitch framing metrics, which Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said this week the team will take into consideration when acquiring a new catcher. Caleb Joseph marks well in pitch framing The Orioles are in the lead for free agent catcher Welington Castillo’s services.

The Indians have expressed some casual interest in Trevor Plouffe, who batted.247 (.727 OPS) with 22 HR and 80 RBI for the Twins last season.

The Rockies may already have their closer on their roster, in Adam Ottavino, Carlos Estevez, or Jake McGee.

Do all signs suggest we’ve seen the best of Yu Darvish back in 2013 when he was 13-9 with a 2.83 ERA in 209 2/3 innings?

The Marlins weren’t open to dealing righty prospect Luis Castillo in trade talks, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.

The Rays want “massive returns” for their on-the-block starting pitchers – which, in Chris Archer’s case, could mean more than the White Sox received from Boston for Chris Sale – reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

Mets manager Terry Collins wanted Michael Conforto to play winter ball this offseason, but the outfielder’s representatives “weren’t enthused,” Conforto’s camp balked at the idea because of the significant financial ramifications that would have come had he suffered a major injury. The 23-year-old isn’t under contract for the long haul (or even next season), so he doesn’t have future guaranteed money due from the Mets.

After the All-Star break: Oakland’s Sean Manaea had a 2.67 ERA, with opponents hitting .220, lefties .526 OPS against him.

Joey Votto after the All-Star break: .408 batting average, 36 extra-base hits, 47 walks, 32 strikeouts, 1.158 OPS. Reports Buster Olney

Rafael Devers was part of the package the White Sox were seeking for pitcher Chris Sale, but the Red Sox would not include him, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports.

Royals starters Danny Duffy and Yordano Ventura are two of the pitchers on the Astros’ list of rotation targets, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports.

Brad Ziegler and Neftali Feliz have been mentioned as potential Marlins backup plans if they can’t sign Kenley Jansen

Francisco Rodriguez isn’t on the trade block this winter, but if the Detroit Tigers are trailing an American League postseason spot by a sizeable margin next season, the veteran closer could be a prime trade candidate.

Juan Lagares will undergo an evaluation Monday in New York after falling on his right shoulder while making a diving catch Saturday in a Dominican winter league game

Foxsports.com ranked the current Rays rotation ninth best in the majors, with the Red Sox first

With Kevin Pillar in center field and who knows in left and right, the Jays could have one of the weakest hitting outfields in baseball

Stephen Strasburg will not be eliminating the new slider he developed, though he expects to reduce its use. He threw it 17.1 percent of the time last season after using it 0.5 percent of the time the season before, according to Fangraphs.

Choosing the slider more often dropped his curveball usage by almost 10 percent.“I think the biggest thing from last year, I had a new pitch and I probably abused it,” Strasburg said. “I need to go back to what I’ve thrown much longer. Not necessarily stop throwing it but don’t let it take place of the pitches my body’s been accustomed to for years.”

To show how far Lucas Giolito’s pitching reputation has fallen in a year, he alone was not enough to obtain Adam Eaton, who has never had more than an .800 OPS. Two other top prospect pitchers, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning, a first-round Washington pick in 2016, had to be packaged with Giolito.

Justin Turner and the Dodgers have been talking about a four-year deal. As mentioned: LAD increasingly confident he will re-sign, according to Buster Olney

Kenley Jansen got married over the weekend in Curacao, understandably delaying his free-agent decision, but it shouldn’t be long now before he chooses between the Dodgers, Marlins and Nationals.

 

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