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Monday baseball. Only 7 games on the slateComment -
The Yankees had interest in the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal prior to the deadline, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports. Given how aggressively the Yankees were looking for pitching help, it isn’t surprising that they at least checked in on a talented and controllable arm like Skubal, who isn’t eligible for free agency until after the 2026 season. Skubal ended up not being dealt anywhere, as while the Tigers were open to offers for “just about everyone” in the wake of a massively disappointing season, it would’ve naturally taken a huge trade package to obtain a pitcher that still looks like a significant part of Detroit’s present and future.
As poorly as 2022 has gone for the Tigers, they aren’t likely to abandon their plans to contend and immediately re-enter another rebuild phase, especially not with a lot of money already committed to such players as Javier Baez and Eduardo Rodriguez. Since Skubal’s strong performance has been one of the few bright spots of Detroit’s season, moving Skubal might be just about the last thing the Tigers would do, so the Yankees’ pursuits might be limited to just monitoring the situation should plans change. Of course, New York landed a big arm at the deadline anyway in Frankie Montas.
More from the Bronx….
- Star prospect Oswald Peraza was hit on the hand by a pitch in today’s game, but x-rays didn’t reveal any broken bones, according to Conor Foley of The Scranton Times-Tribune (Twitter links). While it appears as though Peraza avoided any serious injury, it isn’t yet known if he might require at least a brief stint on the injured list if there’s any swelling or lingering soreness. While Anthony Volpe is often heralded as the Yankees’ shortstop of the future and one of baseball’s top prospects, Peraza is a top-100 prospect in his own right, and closer to the big leagues — Volpe is playing at Double-A while Peraza has hit .259/.328/.450 over 354 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. There has been speculation that Peraza could be a late-season call-up to New York, though this hand issue could potentially factor into when he could make his MLB debut.
- Derek Dietrich was issued a 50-game suspension after testing positive for the stimulant known as DMPA (1,4-dimethylpentylamine). As a result, Dietrich will miss the remainder of the Triple-A season. Dietrich has signed minor league contracts with the Yankees in each of the last two offseasons, with a brief stint with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate in the second half of the 2021 season. Best known for his time as a versatile regular with the Marlins, Dietrich hit a solid .245/.335/.428 over 2513 PA in the majors from 2013-2020 with the Marlins, Reds, and Rangers, and hasn’t since been back to the big leagues.
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I'll start rooting a little for the Padres to cheer up Jake.Comment -
Tatis coming off the dl will perk him up.Comment -
Yeah I think this version of the Padres sorely misses Tatis. When he's back they're going to be lethal. I'm just glad the Giants are facing them now without him in the lineup because when he's back it's going to be rough on National League pitchers facing the Padres.Comment -
What teams will start tanking now?Comment -
Josh Donaldson fractured his foot last night, he had been playing really well.Comment -
Yes, it was Carpenter.
Carpenter was diagnosed with a broken left foot after leaving Monday's game against Seattle, Erik Boland of Newsday reports.Spin: This is an unfavorable outcome for the Yankees, as Carpenter had emerged as one of the team's hottest hitters over the last month or so. It's still too early to determine a timetable for his return, as it'll depend on the severity of the fracture, but a trip to the injured list is all but a guarantee at this point.
I always think of them in the same spot in my mind, this isn't the first time I have interchanged them. They are both very talented guys that get injured a lot. I also get Wong and DeJong switched too.Comment -
Yankees will be fine, so much talent.Comment -
I guess Brady Singer is a usable fantasy pitcher given the right matchup?Comment -
Not looking good for the Padres right now. That call at home was hard to watch getting reversedComment -
Chris Sale fell off his bike, tough break!Comment -
The Nationals could soon be in line for a shakeup of their infield. Top shortstop prospect C.J. Abrams was arguably the centerpiece of the six-player return for Juan Soto and Josh Bell. The Nats immediately optioned Abrams to Triple-A Rochester, but Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post writes that the club is likely to soon recall the 21-year-old to the majors.
Once Abrams makes his way to Nationals Park, he’s likely to play everyday at shortstop. Dougherty indicates the organization views Abrams as their long-term franchise shortstop, which is hardly a surprise after the club made him a key piece of such a monumental trade. The former sixth overall pick only has a .232/.285/.320 line through his first 46 big league games, but he owns an impressive .311/.366/.503 mark in his first taste of Triple-A action. Baseball America rated him as the sport’s #11 overall prospect on their latest update.
The Nats have already been turning to a young player at shortstop. Luis GarcÃa has been one of the organization’s more promising prospects for years, but he’s still just 22 years old. The 6’2″ infielder has drawn praise from evaluators for his pure hitting ability. He’s hit plenty of line drives in his limited big league time, but he’s also shown an extremely aggressive approach. GarcÃa carried a .290 batting average into play tonight, but he’d reached base at just a .295 clip based on a microscopic 0.9% walk rate. (That’s gone up slightly, as he did draw a free pass in tonight’s game).
The jury may still be out on GarcÃa’s offensive upside, but it’s apparent he’s miscast as a shortstop. Prospect evaluators were divided on his ability to stick at the position long-term, and the results in his big league time have been ghastly. In 568 2/3 career innings at shortstop, GarcÃa has rated a staggering 19 runs below average by measure of Defensive Runs Saved. Statcast’s Outs Above Average has him at 17 plays below par. As Mike Petriello of MLB.com observed this afternoon (Twitter link), public defensive metrics have rated the Nationals’ shortstops as by far the worst collection of defenders in the majors this season. That’s not entirely on GarcÃa — the since-released Dee Strange-Gordon and Alcides Escobar also struggled — but it’s clear the team could use a better defender to anchor the infield.
GarcÃa won’t lose his spot in the starting lineup on a rebuilding team, though. Once Abrams is in the big leagues, GarcÃa is likely to kick to the other side of the second base bag. He’s rated as a below-average but not quite so disastrous defender at the keystone. Still, there’s reason for Washington to challenge their young players in non-competitive seasons. That’s particularly true with the team rostering a couple of aging veterans who are playing out the final few months of one-year contracts.
Second baseman César Hernández and third baseman Maikel Franco have each played the majority of games this season, but neither has performed well. Hernández owns a .241/.305/.306 line through 476 plate appearances. The switch-hitting infielder has incredibly not connected on a single home run all season after popping a career-high 21 longballs last year. Franco has only a .228/.255/.337 showing in 373 trips to the plate. Among players with 300+ plate appearances, only Tigers second baseman Jonathan Schoop has a lower on-base percentage (.240) than Franco’s .255.
Clearly, neither player is going to be a key piece of the rebuild. The club’s hope of cashing either in for future value at the trade deadline has come and gone, with both struggling so badly there was no real interest from contenders. With that in mind, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com wonders whether Hernández and Franco will even hold their roster spots for the rest of the 2022 season. Zuckerman notes that Franco may be in better position to remain in the lineup. While Abrams’ arrival should push Hernández out of the starting lineup, journeyman Ildemaro Vargas stands as Franco’s biggest competitor for reps at the hot corner with Carter Kieboom out for the season.
Hernández and Franco aren’t the only struggling veterans on a club that’s 39 games under .500. Southpaw Patrick Corbin has been one of the sport’s least effective starters. After allowing six runs and failing to make it out of the first inning in a start against the Phillies on Saturday, Corbin carries a 7.02 ERA through 110 1/3 innings. That’s easily a personal worst, but Corbin has been well below-average for three straight years after an excellent first season in Washington. Since the beginning of 2020, he owns a 5.98 ERA through 65 starts.
Manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Andrew Golden of the Washington Post) that the club will take advantage of a team off-day on Thursday to skip Corbin’s next turn through the rotation. That’s a temporary measure designed to afford the left-hander more time to work with pitching coach Jim Hickey, and the club is apparently not considering permanently removing Corbin from the starting five. “I want to leave this year with a positive moving forward to next year because, regardless of what anyone thinks, he’s going to be one of our starters next year and the year after that,” Martinez said of Corbin.
The 33-year-old is under contract for two seasons beyond this one. He’s due around $24MM next season and will make a bit more than $35MM come 2024. Given Corbin’s struggles, it’s hard to envision the Nationals getting out from under any of that money. With Washington likely to be rebuilding over the next two seasons anyhow, the club can live with some struggles from Corbin as he picks up innings as part of an uncertain rotation.Comment -
Hader gives up a 3 run lead in 9th but Padres win on machado walk off homer...
Padres have blown so many late leads this year, it's insane.Comment -
Patrick Corbin is just awful, the only reason he is still there is because of his terrible contract. I wonder if the Nats could release him and save some $$$.
Hader isnt as automatic as last year, hopefully he figures it out soon.Comment -
Hader making Brew crew look like geniuses.Comment -
Yankees lose again to the M's but Judge gets number 45Comment -
Last winter, Max Scherzer hit the open market as one of the more unique free agents in recent memory. While most baseball players, and athletes of all kinds, generally decline in quality as they get farther from their 20s, Scherzer was 37 and still playing at an elite level. Though last year was his age-36 season, he turned 37 years old on July 27th. (A player’s age on July 1 is generally considered to be their age for the year.) In that year, he threw 179 1/3 innings and somehow registered a career-best 2.46 ERA. Though he got ground balls at a below-average 33.5% clip, his 34.1% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate were both much better than the mean. He also added 16 1/2 innings of 2.16 ERA ball in the postseason, just for a little icing on the cake.
So, how do you value an elite pitcher who is 37 years old? The answer from the market was high salary over a short term. Scherzer received a three-year deal covering his age-37 through age-39 seasons, with Scherzer turning 40 in the last year of the deal. The deal comes with a $130MM guarantee, spread out evenly with a $43.33MM salary in each year. That AAV shattered the previous record, which was Gerrit Cole’s $36MM. Scherzer can also opt out of the deal after the second year.
This winter might feature a similar but perhaps more extreme free agent. Justin Verlander threw only six innings in 2020 before Tommy John surgery wiped out the rest of that season and all of 2021. After returning to health, he held a showcase for interested teams, eventually re-signing for the Astros. The contract guaranteed him $25MM for 2022, despite having barely pitched for two years. It also came with a $25MM player option for 2023, conditional on Verlander reaching 130 innings pitched this year. Verlander has already surpassed that mark, allowing him to cash in another $25MM salary next year.
However, he’s pitching so well this season that he’s likely to decline his option and return to the open market in search of a larger payday. Through exactly 130 innings coming into tonight, he has a 1.73 ERA with a 25.5% strikeout rate, 4.6% walk rate and 37.4% ground ball rate. The strikeouts aren’t as high as Scherzer’s were last season, but his ERA is significantly better, with a lower walk rate and better ground ball rate.
Verlander is older than Scherzer, having turned 39 years old in February. However, if he got an annual average value of $25MM after two lost seasons, what would he get after a Cy Young-caliber campaign, even if he is one year older? It will be a fascinating and unprecedented experiment. Verlander could rightly ask for a similar AAV to Scherzer, in the $40-45MM range, depending on how strong he finishes. But how much term will teams be willing to commit to a player about to enter his age-40 season? How many teams will be willing to go to two years? Will any go to three like they did for Scherzer?
But then what does Verlander want? Would he prefer something like a one-year, $50MM deal or try to land around $40MM annually spread out over three years? Verlander has previously said he wants to pitch into his mid-40s, perhaps pointing towards the latter option, but we can’t really know.Comment -
Just brutal betting on your own team like Jake says but he is a smarter man than I am because I saw an opportunity to take a shot with the Giants and for a while there it looked good but for the second time this week a team I bet on blew a 4 run lead and eventually lost the game. The dog days of summer really are a brutal time for baseball bettors because bullpens are taxed at this point.
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Mets are firing up.Comment -
Everyone is different but i do not fancy the double whammy of losing money and my team losing. I guess you can argue that i never experience the double happiness either but prefer to stay at an even keel.Just brutal betting on your own team like Jake says but he is a smarter man than I am because I saw an opportunity to take a shot with the Giants and for a while there it looked good but for the second time this week a team I bet on blew a 4 run lead and eventually lost the game. The dog days of summer really are a brutal time for baseball bettors because bullpens are taxed at this point.Comment -
I bet on the Blue Jays frequently.. its twice as great when they win.Comment -
Corn field baseball tonight, too bad neither team gives a shit this season.Comment -
I don't really bet my teams all that much but since I don't bet large amounts losing money because my team lost doesn't really get to me. I just am beyond frustrated with the Giants this year even though nothing that's happened so far has really surprised me because I predicted they'd be a 3rd place team this year with an outside shot at the Wild Card and that's exactly what they are.Comment
