JotCast | Trade Rumors Front Office Chat

Trade Rumors Front Office Chat

Steve Adams

2:05

Greetings all -- thanks for joining another Front Office chat

Royals just traded OF Brett Phillips to the Rays for minor league INF Lucius Fox, the teams announced.

Rex

2:06

Will Rangers trade Gallo?

Steve Adams

2:09

I can't see it. They might sell off some shorter-term pieces (Lance Lynn chief among them), but they have Gallo through 2022, he's a homegrown star and they're going into a new stadium (well, new for fans) next year. Moving Gallo would be more a rebuilding move, in my eyes, and I don't think Texas is there.

Guest

2:09

Do you see the Orioles trading Cobb and Givens to San Diego for one of their top 10 or even 20 prospects? Or to Atlanta?

Steve Adams

2:11

I can see both being traded, with Givens being much likelier. I doubt the Padres are interested in Cobb much at all; Givens, perhaps. Braves seem likelier to do something like take on Cobb -- perhaps more of his contract than seems wise to pundits based on last year's Melancon deal

Ted

2:11

Can the Royals get anything out of Kennedy or Holland? How likely is it for them to trade Rosenthal?

Steve Adams

2:13

I assume "get anything out of" means in a trade? I'd say Kennedy has zero value between his contract and performance right now. Holland, they could get a PTBNL or some lower-tier prospect a club adds to its 60-man pool for the sole purpose of trading.

Rosenthal seems like an obvious trade candidate, but Dayton Moore operates differently than a lot of GMs, and I wouldn't be surprised if they signed him to a two-year deal or something rather than trade him.

Ed G.

2:13

Any chance White Sox use their 1st round pick from this years draft P Garrett Crochet in September on the big league roster?

Steve Adams

2:14

He's one of the guys, along with Max Meyer in Miami or Burl Carraway (Cubs) where it wouldn't shock me. I'd have said Reid Detmers if the Angels were anywhere near contending, but why start his clock in a lost year?

Flergin

2:15

I’ve read a lot of columns about surprise buyers/holders. Care to go out on a limb and pick a couple surprise sellers? Won’t hold it against you, the odds-on-favorite is no one does a damn thing...

Steve Adams

2:16

I don't know that there will be any hugely surprising sellers. Do the Nationals count? They're slipping in the East, lost Strasburg for the year and have lots of short-term assets to sell off if they are so inclined.

Jon

2:16

Who will be the most surprising player traded at the deadline?

Steve Adams

2:18

Might as well double down on "surprise" moves here since I just took that one. And in keeping with the Nats theme, how about ... Carter Kieboom?

I wondered yesterday when he was optioned, just because the Nats have shown a willingness to move some promising guys who struggle in multiple attempts (as Giolito and Lopez did). Nothing but speculation on my behalf there, to be clear.

2:19

I also wonder if the Braves might be weary of Sean Newcomb's roller coaster act and move him in a deal for a more reliable arm with less team control.

GangGreen23

2:20

Khris Davis could use a Change of Scenary. So could Wade Davis. How about a Swap? Their Salaries are similar?

Steve Adams

2:22

I applaud your weekly dedication to finding a swap for Khrush now that he's struggling so much, but Wade is a free agent in a month, and Khris is signed through 2021. The Rox can buy out Wade's mutual option for a million bucks this winter -- there's no incentive to take on $16MM+ of Khris' salary next yer.

year*

Dellucci DeLovely

2:23

Mitch Moreland to Oakland as a LH DH?

Steve Adams

2:27

He's swinging well enough right now, but Moreland is typically more known for his glove. I get the thinking, but there are others I'd look at first. Justin Smoak? Tommy La Stella has crushed righties. Could look at Colin Moran if he's tracking well from the concussion

dhayes2222@hotmail.com

2:27

Please discuss the stupidity of naming an MVP or Cy Young award for this truncated "Season". Call it something else but not MVP,CY YOUNG, Rookie of the "Year",etc.

Steve Adams

2:29

Why is it absurd? You're naming the best player, best pitcher and best rookie of this year just like any other. Everyone knows 2020 is an anomaly -- we don't need to change the name of some awards to hammer that home. And choosing not to do so doesn't take away anything from the people who won them in a full season. No one is saying Frank Thomas shouldn't be called an MVP for his '94 season.

Looking forward

2:30

Kieboom’s just been sent down and I know it’s early in their careers but what are your thoughts going forward about Austin Riley and Carter Kieboom? Also are we gonna see Lux this year? That Dodger team is awfully deep!

Steve Adams

2:33

I like Kieboom more because of the superior K/BB track record in the minors and the superior hit tool. Riley should have more power, but he's more of all-or-nothing guy than Kieboom -- or at least that's my expectation.

As for Lux, they put him on the taxi squad recently so I assume he'll be up, yeah.

Bob

2:33

What in opinion would the Jays need to send Cleveland for either of there two suspended players

Steve Adams

2:34

Well, for starters, neither Clevinger nor Plesac was suspended, technically. Players who are suspended are placed on the restricted list, as they briefly were, but the org went out of its way to publicly state both were receiving service time and pay while on the restricted list

That's not the case for suspended guys

To the actual question...

2:36

I think the Indians would want some immediate outfield help, which would probably mean a Teoscar Hernandez or Lourdes Gurriel, followed by a potential replacement option on the pitching staff and some very legitimate prospect value.

I don't know that the Jays have the type of outfielder I like to center the deal around; the Nimmo scenario I proposed in this week's Front Office column feels weaker with less-proven guys like Teoscar or Lourdes in there.

Ted

2:37

What was the logic behind the Padres' signing of Eric Hosmer? According to Fangraphs, in the two plus years he has been there, his WAR is negative. For $144 MM, not counting the partial year in 2020, you would expect a complete star. Seems like one of the dumbest signings ever. One of the few smart moves the Royals have made was in not re-signing him.

Steve Adams

2:37

I will give you a short answer and long answer!

Short: Lol, I have no idea.

Longer one, forthcoming, will try to see things from their vantage point (it is hard):

2:41

I tried to quickly pull up my chats with Tim and Jeff Todd that year to find Hosmer's stats dating back to like May or June 2016 ... as I recall, if you cherry picked things just right, he had like a solid 200 games where he was a huge hitter, which I expected Boras to try to sell, and he presumably did. I couldn't find the exact numbers and didn't want to make you wait TOO long, so take my word on that. If you looked at the right sampling, Hos looked like he COULD be a great hitter. That's Part One.

2:42

Part two was sort of that need to send a statement that they were coming out of the rebuild. Sort of the Nationals' Jayson Werth moment, if you will. Hosmer was young, a big name, a former No. 3 overall pick and Top 10 prospect with some All-Star accolades

2:44

Part three was the intangible leadership piece. The Union Tribune and other places reported that Preller was enamored of Hosmer's leadership abilities and that Ron Fowler fell in love with that element of his game. It's hard to quantify that, of course, but Preller's roots are in an organization that has sought in the past to mathematically quantify the benefit of leadership (the Rangers). Thad Levine has since spoken about that in Minnesota, too.

I'm not saying any of that makes it logical. It doesn't. Hosmer was never that good and the contract looks instantly terrible.

2:45

I... truly don't know what led to the idea, but it happened, and they're worse off for it, I think.

Although I will say, Hosmer's comments after the Tatis 3-0 nonsense drama were awesome, and it seems like he took Tatis right under his wing and told him to shut all that noise out and that he did nothing wrong.

Kudos to him on that

That's a lot of Eric Hosmer words!

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