Add Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier to the ever-growing list of All-Stars reportedly available on this winter’s trade market.
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Frazier Available for ‘Big Return’
Monday, Nov. 16
ESPN’s Jayson Stark spoke with an executive from another team who said Frazier is “legitimately out there” for a trade.
Frazier, 29, hit .255/.309/.498 with 35 home runs and 89 RBI last season, making his second consecutive All-Star Game. He also took home the 2015 Home Run Derby, which was held at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark.
To be clear, the Reds aren’t holding a firesale here. Stark reported the team is looking for “big-league ready young players” in any package it receives for Frazier or closer Aroldis Chapman. Both are at least tangentially on the trade market for long-term salary concerns.
Frazier can become a free agent after the 2017 season and Chapman after 2016. They will be looking for contracts that put them among the highest-paid players at their position—and in Chapman’s case, likely the highest-paid closer in baseball. Frazier ranked eighth among third baseman in FanGraphs’ wins above replacement formula and is fifth combining the last two campaigns.
“If they want to give themselves the best chance to win in the future, they probably should be looking to move Frazier this winter, because this is the best possible time to move him,” Buster Olney wrote at ESPN.com.
If the Reds don’t believe it’s in their budget to sign Frazier long-term—an understandable concern given they went 64-98 last season—then it would only make sense to explore his market.
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