MLB fans have seen a slew of free-agent acquisitions this offseason, but there are still a handful of potential trades that could happen before spring training starts.
MLB trade rumors are about as common as Mark Sanchez turnovers, but the following five players and their rumored deals have some weight to them.
As always, you’ll want to stay up-to-date with Bleacher Report’s MLB page to follow the potential moves, but here are five players who have great chances of being traded this offseason.
The Philadelphia Phillies still need a corner outfielder and Alfonso Soriano is not the answer.
Jon Heyman of CBSSports reported the Phillies have potentially discussed a deal with the Chicago Cubs sending Soriano to Philly in return for youngster Domonic Brown.
While the Phillies do need some right-handed pop in their lineup, this would be a step in the wrong direction.
The club recently traded for another aging veteran, Michael Young, who will serve as the Phillies’ everyday third baseman. In that case, shipping out youth for experience made sense. Young struggled last season, but he is an instant upgrade for the Phillies. The free agent market was limited at third and high-profile trades were nearly impossible to execute. Essentially, Young will serve as a stop-gap for prospect Cody Asche.
But the Phillies need to get younger and trading for Soriano is not the way to do that.
Now Soriano was productive last season and still might have some gas left in his tank, but trading away potential years of service out of Domonic Brown is not a wise investment. Even if the Cubs eat most of his salary, the Phils need to run from this deal.
Yes, Brown is unproven and fans are tired of waiting for him to live up to his potential, but trading him for another right-handed power hitter with league-leading strike out potential would be a mistake. The Phillies should give Brown a shot, or keep him and sign Cody Ross, Nick Swisher or Josh Hamilton. Then let Brown and Darin Ruf battle for the remaining starting spot.
Soriano is also injury-prone and if the Phillies lose him during the season—the club will have no legitimate reserve player for the position. Jon Mayberry Jr. will have to fill the void, and not many want this scenario.
The Phillies have made some exciting moves this offseason, bringing in both youth and experience, but the club’s next moves must be smart and accurate. The team does not have to settle for its current needs, but concentrate on promising players for years to come with low risk.
Soriano’s enjoyed a very nice Major League career but it should not continue in Philadelphia.
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With September here, Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano will be staying right where he wants to be. Any talk of wanting to win or excuses about the weather are just that—excuses.
Soriano reportedly turned down a trade to the Giants previously because he wasn’t fond of the weather in San Francisco.
Giants players beg to differ. Angel Pagan said on ESPN Chicago, “I’ve been in pretty much every division and when you play in a place like San Francisco your body lasts longer. It’s good, I like it.”
Soriano’s former teammate Ryan Theriot agreed that the temperatures are more comfortable while adding, “It’s a big ballpark.”
Theriot went on to say, “From a hitter’s standpoint, there are a lot of things stacked up against you when you go out there. It’s a challenge, but you can hit there.”
Therein lies one of the reasons. While Soriano couldn’t give a damn about winning—he does care about his numbers, and those are likely to dwindle at a much tougher hitters’ park than Wrigley Field.
Soriano’s latest blurb was reported in Paul Sullivan’s column in the Chicago Tribune Saturday, saying “It’s one month, so it’d have to be a perfect place for me to go because I don’t want to go anywhere for one month.”
That statement comes in the same article where he’s quoted, “I like it here, but I don’t like to lose, especially late in my career. I just want to go someplace to win.”
If he were telling the truth, what kind of hardship would it be to go for one month to a team with a chance to win a championship?
Another fallacy is the reason he allegedly rejected a trade to the Giants—the weather.
San Francisco is the most temperate climate in the U.S. The range of temperature varies less than anywhere else in the country.
He would have arrived in August to an average high of 67 and low of 55. September is 70 and 56, while October, if the Giants made it that far, is 69 and 55.
In contrast, Chicago averages a high of 58 in April with a low of 37. I’ve been there many days when I wished it was 37. The same for May. I’ve spent many a Memorial Day freezing at Wrigley.
While it might not get as warm in San Francisco as Chicago, it also gets nowhere near as cold. I think that would be a lot harder on Soriano’s knees than playing in the city by the bay.
The Giants’ former home—Candlestick Park—was famous for the wind whipping off the bay and generally freezing everybody out. They took that into consideration building AT&T Park to ensure the same weather conditions would not prevail there.
It’s just another excuse for a player who’s comfortable losing. There is no pressure. That wouldn’t be true with the Giants, though Soriano was feeling pretty smug about himself after belting a homer Friday.
“I feel sorry for them if they tried to (acquire) me because they know what I can do.”
I know what he can do too. Three hits in 28 at-bats in six playoff games in 2007 and 2008 with nary an extra-base hit or RBI.
That’s why I wanted him gone.
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While it tends to be quite difficult to root against the long shot, the underdog and the Cinderella story, sometimes the plug gets pulled on the dream and there’s nothing left to be said.
Twenty-nine-year-old rookie Bryan LaHair’s tale did not end like he had planned, but it follows the tale of virtually all players in his position. Cubs fans know this version of it all too well, having already played through non-factors like Micah Hoffpauir, Jake Fox and a host of other heavy-hitting corner infielders who just can’t make it when the at-bats pile up.
These other guys along with LaHair have the burden of a very late start on a Major League career. Some may try to pinpoint the late career start on being “blocked” at the higher levels by better talent, but LaHair never really had that concern.
While no one will doubt Bryan LaHair’s ability to absolutely annihilate AAA-pitching, his longevity as an everyday player seems to have run its course. An absolutely stellar month literally earned him a spot on the All-Star team. While no one can ever take that away from him, the job at first base and in the outfield has been slipped right from underneath him.
Truth be told, he was never going to be an everyday player to begin with, as the Cubs never let him get starts against lefties.
While his sum total numbers do not look dreadful, they stay near-acceptably afloat due to an unbelievably unsustainable first month.
Every month except April has been problematic for him at best, and downright frightening at his worst. Three straight months of decline across the board. This did not coincide with the loss of his starting gig at first base due to the promotion of Rizzo, and anyone telling you that is blowing smoke, and a lot of it.
LaHair’s looked like his insurmountable offensive problems that plagued him his entire career had stuck (He’s never seen a curveball he didn’t like, and whiff at). The most telling of all of these stats would be his .138 batting average with men in scoring position, paired with his modest 31 RBI on the entire year.
Theo Epstein came out during this past offseason and claimed that he “didn’t believe in AAA/A players.” Many took the statement less word-for-word of his feelings and more in the regard of him defending any and all players in the Cubs’ minor league system. Because if challenged on the claim, not many players fit that label more than Bryan LaHair.
If someone is wondering why the Cubs have the worst offense in the entire game, look no further than their No. 4 or No. 5 hitter right here, who failed to do what his job entails.
Maybe LaHair can turn into a valuable bench bat, or maybe he worms his way back into a corner outfield role if and when DeJesus and Soriano get shipped out of town. LaHair is back to hearing a lot of these “maybes,” just like he did as he rotted away in the minors until age 30.
While Cubs fans were all wishing LaHair was more than the pretender many thought him to be, reality has set in. Midnight has struck on this Cinderella tale, and no amount of magic seems to be coming to turn it around.
It’s a tough break for a nice story, but there’s a reason ones like this appear so good they can’t be true.
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In a move that was predicted by many, the Chicago Cubs have let go of their hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. While they remain arguably the worst offense and worst team in baseball, moves like these will tend to happen. Stepping into the interim role will be 35-year-old James Rowson, the Cubs minor league hitting coordinator, according to Doug Padilla of ESPN.com.
The tenure of Jaramillo shed a bit of light onto the whole concept of a “high profile” hitting coach. When it comes down to it, there was absolutely zero evidence of any impact over his time on the north side. It’s not a personal problem with Rudy; it’s more so a statement about the place of hitting coaches in the Major Leagues. These “gurus” offer advice and corrections to swinging mechanics, but to the majority of those in the pros, there is little effect to be had.
Showing hard evidence of the positives or negatives of a hitting coach is even more difficult to prove. Fans of the sport know that when hard times come to a franchise, the secondary coaching staff is always the first to go. It’s a symbolic gesture more than anything, and that’s something more people need to acknowledge.
Jaramillo’s success in Texas with a stacked offense cannot be given to him; The same can be said of the complete failure in Chicago. There was a ridiculously high level of talent in Texas, with the polar opposite being true for the Cubs. The players played as most expected, and whether or not Rudy offered advice and pointers in all likelihood didn’t change the game in any tangible way.
In 2008, the Cubs had the best offense in the Majors, receiving career years from numerous players on the roster. Gerald Perry headed the offensive bench staff, and apparently it was all going well. They were near the top of the league in power and patience, while everyone seemed to hit with runners on base. By 2009, Perry was fired due to lack of offensive production. Funny how fast the pendulum swings, but does it simply mean the job itself relies entirely on things out of the given coach’s hands?
Their role can be blown out of proportion, and while it’s not a meaningless one, it’s one that cannot be assigned noticeable value to creating a winning atmosphere.
Many attributed the success of Marlon Byrd in Texas to Jaramillo, but things like that can be much more symbolic than reality would dictate. Giving any real weight to such things is impossible, and paying for these types of tales can be detrimental to a team.
If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that giving a hitting coach more money than any other in the game is a poor decision. It’s a problem that the new staff in charge of this team saw fit to change this quickly.
How long the newly appointed leaders will be fixing the mistakes of the prior ones will be the tale of how long this rebuilding process takes. Overall, this is yet another step in the right direction.
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Theo Epstein’s introduction as President of the Chicago Cubs was impressive. You won’t see a sports executive as glib and articulate as the 38 year-old Epstein. When it comes to “winning the press conference,” few have won as convincingly as he did. Some six months later, what stands out most from that October morning is Epstein’s proclamation that “every opportunity to win is sacred.”
At this point – having recently completed the franchise’s longest losing streak in over a decade– 2012 appears to be the exception to Epstein’s first promise to long-suffering Cub fans.
Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer inherited bad players with awful contracts, there’s no debating that. They also inherited a group of players with the ability to contribute in 2012 and carry on the critical momentum from that late-October press conference.
In addressing the recent 12 game slide, Hoyer said “we have guys with good track records that aren’t hitting.” He’s absolutely correct, the Cubs are not hitting. When out of 16 National League teams, you’re 14th in runs scored, 13th in on-base percentage and 9th in batting average, not only are you failing to hit, you’re causing opposing pitchers to salivate. Where Hoyer loses me, is when he talks about “good track records.” The much maligned Alfonso Soriano is sporting his best batting average since 2008. Brian LaHair has exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic prognosticator. David DeJesus has raised his batting average by fifty points since last season, while Starlin Castro, Darwin Barney and Ian Stewart are all producing at a rate that follows suit with what they’ve done in recent seasons. Cub hitters are doing almost exactly what their track records suggest they should.
As much as Cubs brass might want to blame this on a struggling offense they had little control over, don’t let them downplay the impact the bullpen has had on the season. When the front office “dream team” took the reigns last winter, the bullpen was a strength for this ball club. Sean Marshall, James Russell, Kerry Wood, Carlos Marmol, Andrew Cashner and Jeff Samardzija had all proven themselves capable of contributing at the big league level. Somewhere around Christmas – and maybe you can chalk it up to the season of giving, maybe it was simple holiday cheer, maybe it was the eggnog – Theo and Jed decided to blow up the bullpen. Sean Marshall was sent to the division rival Cincinnati Reds for the same Travis Wood who couldn’t beat out Chris Volstad for a spot in the rotation. Andrew Cashner was shipped to Jed Hoyer’s old team in San Diego in exchange for top-prospect Anthony Rizzo. Despite his tremendous upside, Rizzo is still an unknown, having fallen flat on his face in his only stint against big-league pitching. Samardzija was wisely moved to the rotation, but nothing was done to replace his power arm or his ability to eat up multiple innings per appearance. Kerry Wood retired after 10 appearances and Carlos Marmol took up residence on the disabled list early in the season. Durability issues should not have come as a surprise for either.
Thus far, the Cub bullpen has blown 5 leads and lost another 5 games. Even for a team 15 games under .500, eliminating half of those makes a substantial difference. A 22-27 team is worlds away from a 17-32 team.
For those wondering, Sean Marshall has 8 saves, 4 holds and 24 strikeouts in 17 innings of work. Andrew Cashner – with a fastball that regularly reaches 100 MPH– has 24 strikeouts in 21 innings with a 3.38 ERA. And yes, I know Tyler Colvin is hitting .300 in Colorado while Carlos Zambrano has a 3.00 ERA over 66 IP in South Florida.
To Epstein’s credit, he made no excuses for the team’s abominable 12-game slide. “The fans have a right to be upset anytime we aren’t playing winning baseball, especially during a stretch like this. I understand it, I just think if we start making decisions based on it or scrap plans because of it, try to put band aids on it, we’re doing the fans a disservice in the long run.”
What Epstein seems to have learned since October – and Hoyer quickly needs to- is that Cub fans have no tolerance for speaking out of both sides of your mouth. If you say every opportunity to win is sacred, you better back it up. Hoyer’s excuse about Cub hitters not performing at a level consistent with their past history won’t go far with this fan base either. For example, they’re well aware that Ian Stewart hit .156 with 6 RBIs in 2011, while the Cubs got 93 RBIs and a .306 average from their third baseman.
While early returns on their first off-season are mixed at best, we have no idea how those moves will pan out in the long term. Theo and Jed certainly deserve the benefit of the doubt based on their track records.
We do know this: The Cubs are not suffering from a group of proven hitters failing to perform and 2012 was not approached as a “sacred” opportunity to win. If Theo and Jed plan to take up an extended residence at 1060 West Addison Street, the empty promises and soft excuses need to stop and their long-term bets need to start paying dividends sooner rather than later.
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Cubs fans, I’d like to take a poll. How many of you expected Alfonso Soriano to be hitting over .300 after the first week of the season?
I’d be shocked if more than 10 percent of you said yes.
Nonetheless, Soriano has been the most impressive Cub this season, outside of young superstar Starlin Castro. He has been an offensive catalyst for the team while batting .302 with six RBIs and a stolen base.
Soriano historically starts strong and then fades as injuries catch up to him and limit his production. But he looks healthier than usual (even at the start of the season) and is benefiting from new manager Dave Sveum’s penchant for running the base paths.
Now, the Cubs need to ride Soriano’s hot streak while looking for the right opportunity to trade him to a contender.
He will not keep up this kind of production all season but could keep playing at a high level while healthy. If he can also show other teams that he still has the speed to steal some bases, then his value will shoot up.
Soriano’s play could open up trade opportunities that looked like long shots during the preseason.
Before now, teams saw Soriano as a low-average player whose speed was long gone; basically, to them, he was just a power guy. He may still be that, but, if he keeps his average above .280 for a while and continues to steal bases, that perception will change.
And the Cubs desperately need it to change so they can deal him off the roster and convince a team to pay some of his salary.
Which teams might be willing to do that?
Some interesting options may open up. The Boston Red Sox outfield is a disaster, and it is showing in their 2-5 start. Cody Ross and Mike Sweeney are manning the corners and neither of them has the hitting ability to be a starting outfielder.
Soriano could be a fit, mixing left field with days at designated hitter. The Red Sox certainly need his offensive production with all their question marks across the diamond.
The Chicago White Sox are also intriguing.
The Sox are playing fairly well to start the season, which means they might take on salary to contend after dumping millions in contract obligations in the offseason. Current outfielders Alex Rios and Dayan Viciedo are disasters in the early going, so the team may want Soriano’s 30-plus home runs at the right price.
Whatever happens, Cubs fans should be excited about Soriano’s hot streak. If nothing else, it gives the franchise better options moving forward.
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Remember when there was hope on the banks of the Allegheny River in 2011? The Pittsburgh Pirates, after suffering their 18th losing season in a row, hired manager Clint Hurdle before the start of the 2011 season.
That season began with great promise: On July 4 the Pirates had a record of 44-41 and were only 1.5 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirates even went as far as to be buyers at the trade deadline, where they acquired Ryan Ludwick from the San Diego Padres and Derrek Lee from the Baltimore Orioles.
As the cynical Pirates fans might have predicted, the moves did not pan out and the team dropped to 62-75 by September 1. The Pirates were 18.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers and the franchise headed to their 19th losing season in a row. Without A.J. Burnett in the rotation to start the season because of a facial fracture, it is unlikely that the Pirates will repeat the 2011 magic.
Every year in Major League Baseball there is a team (or two) that gets their fans excited and then fades in the dog days of summer. Ordinarily, this occurs with young teams or teams where everyone starts off with a career year but peter out once they start playing teams for the second or third time. Occasionally, these teams that surprise the baseball world keep it up through vernal equinox and end up making the postseason.
Here are six teams that could start off well this year but will likely fade after the All-Star break.
As the Hot Stove season continues through Christmas, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the best one-year rentals in history.
Namely, players who, whether by free agency or, more likely, trade, ended up on a different team for one season before ultimately peacing out from that team at season’s end (usually via free agency).
Looking at every position, here are the best one-year rentals in MLB history.
When Theo Epstein left the Boston Red Sox to become the president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, he was given the permission by Cubs owner Tom Ricketts to eat any salary on a bad contract from the previous regime to improve the team in the long term and eventually end the longest championship drought in North American professional sports.
To this point, however, the only trades made by the Cubs have been minor moves, the only players coming over with major league experience being third baseman Ian Stewart, starting pitcher Travis Wood and outfielder Dave Sappelt. None of those three players had much success at the major league level, but all were dealt for expendable pieces, and all filled a need.
The general feeling in Chicago is that it’s just a matter of time before a major move comes to fruition. Sure, Travis Wood cost the Cubs one of their best relievers in Sean Marshall, but he was simply a relief pitcher with one year left on his contract on a team most likely headed to a sub-.500 finish.
Right now, the Cubs are currently (over)paying Alfonso Soriano to be their everyday left fielder, despite the fact that his skill set is that of a prototypical American League designated hitter. While he can play a serviceable outfield with a strong arm, injuries are beginning to take their toll on an aging Soriano, who desperately needs a move to the American League.
Enter the Tampa Bay Rays. The perennially small-budget team brimming with prospects could be a match for Soriano, given the Cubs ability to eat most of Soriano’s remaining $54 million over the next three seasons. While this contract obviously cannot fit into Tampa Bay’s shoestring budget, if the Cubs were to eat a vast majority of Soriano’s contract, he could be a valuable player.
Assuming Chicago agrees to eat at least $40 million of Soriano’s contract, he could fit into Tampa Bay’s budget, and the more they eat the better. If Team Theo were willing to eat $45 to $48 million, Soriano would become a very intriguing player for Tampa Bay.
The Rays, seemingly always seeking offense, should gladly welcome Soriano as their everyday DH at $2 to $3 million a year. At that price, Soriano could even cost a somewhat high ceiling, albeit replaceable, prospect. Rays GM Andrew Friedman has done a top-notch job of acquiring starting pitching in abundance. While Soriano, regardless of the amount of contract eaten, would not cost a top arm like Alex Cobb, he could be a fair exchange for someone like a Wilking Rodriguez, who is stuffed far to deep into Tampa Bay’s system to be anything more than trade bait.
Soriano has proven the ability to have success in the East, as he started off with the Yankees, and also saw time with Tampa Bay. Once considered one of the best talents in the game – he was the centerpiece of the A-Rod trade—Soriano’s stock has fallen off significantly the last few years. Still, he has plenty of power and speed and has hit in every slot in the lineup, offering many combinations for the managerial mastermind that is Joe Maddon.
The Cubs already have in-house alternates in left field in Sappelt and speedster Tony Campana, who had a stand-up inside-the-park home run in 2011. They’ve also been in talks with outfielder Coco Crisp.
In Soriano, the Rays receive a power-speed threat who, without the wear and tear of left field, could be a player to hit 30 home runs and steal 15 bases. The Cubs need to move him, and the Rays always need cheap offense.
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