Kuzul

Big Papi’s been places. And done things. All-Star Games. Home Run Derbies. World Series. You name it.

But about four months into David Ortiz‘s final major league season, it’s getting hard to ignore the possibility of him doing something he’s never done before: win the Most Valuable Player award.

By my reckoning, this is the only Ortiz-related topic we have yet to cover this season. But there’s a good reason we’ve spilled so much ink on his account. The best time to stop covering the Boston Red Sox‘s longtime designated hitter would be when he stops knocking the crud out of the ball.

He keeps refusing to do that.

Ortiz sure knocked the crud out of the ball when he took Jake Peavy for a ride for his 23rd homer of 2016 Tuesday night. And in Thursday’s 13-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, he did it again with No. 24:

That might not have even been the most impressive home run Ortiz hit Thursday. He also launched a dinger in batting practice that got stuck in Fenway Park’s Pesky Pole. Not so pesky now, are you, pole?

Impressiveness notwithstanding, that long ball was the 40-year-old’s third hit of the night. It raised his slash line to .330/.423/.673 and his OPS to 1.096. By that last number, he’s having the best campaign ever for a 40-year-old. Likewise, this is the best a hitter has ever done in his final season.

“We’re watching history right in front of us nightly,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said after Thursday’s win, per Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.

There’s no doubt about it. Nor is there any doubt that Ortiz’s final season will be remembered for a long time no matter what happens at the end of it.

We may be inclined to remember it for even longer, though, if he’s given the American League MVP for his troubles. In Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, at least one person is already leaning that way:

Maybe this isn’t a “hands down” conversation, but it’s definitely a conversation. Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald was also pondering the Ortiz-for-MVP question Thursday night. The bookmakers have been pondering it for longer. According to Bill Reiter of CBS Sports, Ortiz entered the second half with 6-to-1 odds of winning the AL MVP.

The closest Ortiz has come to winning the MVP was a second-place finish in 2005. If nothing else, working in his favor is his 2016 is better than that season. The 1.096 OPS he’s rocking is the highest of his career, topping his previous career high of 1.066 in 2007.

And it’s not just his past performances that look inferior next to his current one. All other 2016 hitter performances do too. As of this writing, the league OPS race isn’t close:

1. David Ortiz: 1.096
2. Josh Donaldson: 1.020

Yes, Ortiz has the advantage of playing half his games at Fenway Park. But adjusted offensive metrics like OPS+ and wRC+ show that doesn’t matter. Even after all things are accounted for, Ortiz is still the best hitter in baseball in both categories.

Offensive production isn’t everything, but it still carries the most weight when it comes to the MVP voting. That’s how Miguel Cabrera beat Mike Trout in 2012 and 2013, and arguably (if you look at the RBI counts) how Donaldson beat Trout last year.

It also helps to play for a winning team. With his Red Sox now the second-best club in the American League behind the Cleveland Indians, Ortiz is doing that, too. And although dominating to this degree at the age of 40 and in his final season doesn’t necessarily make him more “valuable” than the AL’s other top players, it’s a narrative that could help his cause.

But lest anyone think Ortiz’s case for the AL MVP is ironclad, well, it’s not.

Perhaps his biggest problem is the team he plays on might be too good. It always helps a hitter’s cause if it looks like he’s carrying a lineup on his shoulders. It’s hard to make the case Ortiz is doing that. The Red Sox have baseball’s most productive offense by a significant margin. It would be worse without Ortiz, sure, but not outright bad.

And in this case, the “he’s not even the most valuable player on his own team” card is there to be played.

Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. are also in that discussion. None has been as offensively dominant as Ortiz, but each has been excellent while also contributing on the basepaths and on defense. Ortiz is on the opposite end of “elite” with his baserunning and has yet to play a single inning in the field. He’s been a designated hitter all the way in 2016.

And if anyone’s going to take all-around contributions into account with Betts, Bogaerts or Bradley, they’re obviously going to do it with the other horses in the AL MVP race. Wins above replacement points the arrow at Trout and Donaldson, per Baseball-Reference.com, with Houston‘s Jose Altuve standing close by.

WAR won’t swing the AL MVP vote one way or another all on its own, but it’s safe to say it has some influence in the year 2016. It’s been part of the discussion since Trout v. Cabrera in 2012, and it’s helped create some unlikely MVP candidates in the years since. As Joe Posnanski highlighted on his website, Alex Gordon was one in 2014.

If the all-around excellence of the Red Sox’s lineup doesn’t get Ortiz, his one-dimensionality could. And if that doesn’t, there may be a voter or two who still hasn’t forgiven him for his positive performance-enhancing drug test from 13 years ago.

All this is enough to qualify his MVP case as an uphill battle.

Even still, this may be the best chance Ortiz has ever had at the award. He may not be the league’s best player, but this is the first time he’s been the league’s best hitter. And it’s all in service of not only a really good Red Sox team, but a really cool story as well.

Besides which, there is that nagging suspicion that it’s just not a good idea to doubt Big Papi.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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As MLB inches closer to its Aug. 1 trade deadline, Boston Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz could find himself shipped out of town.

Continue for updates.

Buchholz Facing Trade While His Role Diminishes

Thursday, July 21

In a conversation with Rob Bradford of WEEI.com on Thursday, Buchholz revealed that he feels “like something has [to] be going on,” given his limited usage in July. 

On Thursday, Buchholz made his first appearance on the mound since July 2, pitching a scoreless ninth inning in the Red Sox’s 13-2 win over the Minnesota Twins.

He’s trudged through one of the worst seasons of his career with a 3-9 record to go with a 5.84 ERA in 2016.

His struggles and a logjam of starters, which got more crowded when the team acquired All-Star Drew Pomeranz from the San Diego Padres, have seen him demoted from the starting rotation. 

“If this is the way the team is going to be as far as the rotation part of it…I feel like the guys they’re rolling out there, I don’t have a spot. I’m the odd man out,” Buchholz told Bradford.

But his role as a reliever and his place on the team are also in jeopardy. According to ESPN.com’s Scott Lauber, reliever Junichi Tazawa is set to return from a right shoulder injury Friday, which makes Buchholz expendable.

Lauber also noted the Red Sox can’t demote Buchholz to the minors without his consent, which could have been the easiest option to open a spot in the bullpen for Tazawa. 

Instead, Buchholz will have to wait for a suitor to emerge and take him away from Fenway.

“I don’t necessarily think about it,” he said, per Bradford. “If it happens, it happens. There’s not a whole lot I can do about it on that side of it, except pitch whenever they call. I’m sure there are a lot of things that are going on. There might be another chapter. It is what it is. I’ll figure it out either way.”

With the rash of injuries some National League teams are facing to their pitching staffs, Buchholz could be an intriguing option. The Los Angeles Dodgers could be without ace Clayton Kershaw for the foreseeable future, as manager Dave Roberts told ESPN.com’s Doug Padilla the southpaw might need surgery. 

On the East Coast, the New York Mets lost Matt Harvey when he underwent season-ending surgery Monday, while Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz have been dealing with bone spurs, though they continue to pitch. 

Even though he isn’t having his best year, a team could add Buchholz for insurance purposes. A change of scenery could also do wonders for the 31-year-old as he looks to turn his season around and prove he can still be an effective starter in the majors. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Boston Red Sox first baseman Hanley Ramirez sported a mere eight home runs in 2016 coming into Wednesday’s game at Fenway Park against the San Francisco Giants, but he looked like a 50-homer presence in the lineup during his team’s 11-7 victory.

Ramirez drilled three home runs as part of Boston’s offensive explosion and finished with six RBI in five plate appearances. His outburst was a timely one considering the Red Sox pitching staff allowed seven runs and failed to put the Giants away for much of the game despite the early offensive support. 

Ramirez’s first home run started the scoring in the hitting slugfest. He drove Matt Cain’s offering the other way and sent Mac Williamson tumbling over the wall in an effort to rob the first baseman:

Ramirez was far from done. He connected on another Cain pitch in his second at-bat and put Boston ahead 5-0 with another two-run dinger in the third. It was a moonshot that cleared the tall fence in left-center field and appeared to give the Red Sox comfortable breathing room in the early going:

While the Giants battled back with seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings after falling behind 8-0, Ramirez helped the Red Sox answer with his third home run of the game in the sixth. The two-run homer also scored David Ortiz and gave Boston a 10-7 advantage, which the team shared on Twitter:

On his third home run, Ramirez confirmed he was swinging for the fences, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com: “Yep, I got lucky on that one. Yep, I was trying to hit a homer. I was trying to go to the moon.”

He also may have been motivated even more after getting hit in an earlier at-bat, as he said after the game, via Smith: “Every time I get hit that fires me up. It makes a better player. … Sometimes, it’s not Hanley. It’s somebody else.”

Fox Sports: MLB and ESPN Stats & Info put Ramirez’s effort into historical perspective:

David Schoenfield of ESPN.com called it Ramirez’s “best game of his life,” and Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald noted the Fenway Park crowd didn’t seem to care that the first baseman didn’t manage a fourth homer in his final plate appearance:

Ramirez talked about his final at-bat and the possibility of hitting four homers, per Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal: “Everybody was telling me, ‘You’ve got to for it.’ I said, ‘I don’t hit homers when I try to hit homers.’ (They said), ‘It don’t matter. You’ve got three already. Swing as hard as you can.'”

While Ramirez hadn’t boasted much power this season before Wednesday, he does have an impressive resume when it comes to hitting the ball out of the park. His three homers give him 11 on the campaign, which marks his 11th straight season with double-digit home run totals. He connected on 19 in 2015 in his first year with the Red Sox and has six different seasons with 20 or more long balls.

The three-time All-Star and 2006 National League Rookie of the Year posted 33 home runs in 2008 and has the potential to be a masher in the middle of Boston’s lineup heading into the stretch run if Wednesday’s showing is any indication. 

First-place Boston already leads all of baseball in runs scored and will be even more dangerous if Ramirez parlays his three-homer game into a power surge over the final two-plus months of the schedule.

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Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Koji Uehara suffered a strained pectoral muscle Tuesday night during the club’s game against the San Francisco Giants and has been placed on the disabled list. It’s unclear when he will return to the field.

Continue for updates.

Uehara Placed on DL

Wednesday, July 20

Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal reported the Red Sox recalled relief pitcher Noe Ramirez from Triple-A Pawtucket to replace Uehara on the active roster.

Uehara Provides Red Sox With Bullpen Stability

Uehara registered a 1.86 ERA and 72 saves across his first three seasons with the Red Sox. The team still couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add flamethrower Craig Kimbrel during the offseason, but his trip to the disabled list had pushed Uehara back into the closer role.

The 41-year-old reliever’s health has been an issue in recent seasons. He was limited to 43 appearances in 2015 before a wrist injury ended his season early. He also missed time during spring training this year while dealing with general soreness.

The Red Sox will probably use a wide-ranging committee approach to fill the high-leverage situations with Uehara out. Robbie Ross Jr. and the recently acquired Brad Ziegler figure to see the most work in those key spots for the time being.

Uehara should slide back into his usual spot in the pecking order once he’s back to full strength. The Red Sox will hope he can avoid further setbacks, because the bullpen loses valuable depth when he’s not available.

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Evan Longoria signed an extension with the Tampa Bay Rays as soon as he arrived in the majors in 2008. And then another in 2012. Clearly, both sides want this partnership to continue for the long haul.

But it’s time for Longo to go.

This leads us to a trade “rumor” that seemed to come out of nowhere. Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com reported Monday that the Rays have opened up trade discussions with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their big boss is Andrew Friedman, who used to run things in Tampa Bay. He’s now the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. 

Morosi put one and one together and wondered aloud: “The next question then is the precise nature of those talks between the Dodgers and Rays—and if Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay’s three-time All-Star third baseman, is part of them.”

There are quotes around the word rumor up above because it isn’t so much a trade rumor as it is a trade thought. And indications are it’s not going to lead to anything. Morosi wrote there’s a “low probability” of Longo ending up in Los Angeles before the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times echoed that. So did Chris Cotillo of SB Nation.

It would indeed be hard for the Rays to say goodbye to Longoria. The 30-year-old has been a great player for them for years and is playing the part once again in 2016. He entered Tuesday’s 10-1 win over the Colorado Rockies with an .881 OPS and 21 homers. He added No. 22 in spectacular fashion:

Beyond still being productive, Longoria is also relatively affordable. The second contract extension he signed in 2012 doesn’t actually begin until next year, but it only guarantees him $99 million over six years. If he were a free agent this winter, he’d probably find at least that on the open market.

The Rays also have some time before the prospect of trading Longoria gets complicated. He doesn’t gain 10-and-5 rights and the power to veto any trade until April 2018. That gives them this winter and all of next year to trade him if they so desire. 

Just because time isn’t a factor, however, doesn’t mean the timing isn’t right.

No matter which way you look at it, the Rays are not in a good place. Their 36-57 record puts them in last place by plenty in the AL East and also all but guarantees their third straight losing season. After four playoff trips in six years between 2008 and 2013, they’re back to being an afterthought.

And they’re not in a good position to pull out of this tailspin anytime soon. 

The Rays aren’t going to buy their way out of their troubles. Topkin heard from Rays owner Stuart Sternberg last December that the Rays are still “a few years” away from a rich new TV deal. If winning couldn’t get the locals to show up to Tropicana Field, losing sure as heck won’t.

As Dan Szymborski wrote in ESPN.com’s MLB future power rankings, this makes the Rays dependent on a farm system that’s presently not strong enough for the task of rebuilding the club. Baseball America ranked it at No. 13 coming into the year and put just three Rays prospects in its midseason top 100.

Ideally, a Longoria trade would allow the Rays to address both problems: prospects for their farm system and a whole bunch of payroll flexibility to one day lock them up.

In a vacuum, a fair trade arguably involves a contender taking on the remainder of Longoria’s contract and nothing else. Although $99 million doesn’t sound like too much money, it’s a figure he’s unlikely to outperform. He is on the wrong side of 30, you know.

But on this summer’s market, it’s easy to imagine a needy contender being willing to sweeten the deal. The Dodgers aren’t the only club that could use a third base upgrade. Also on that list is their biggest rival, the San Francisco Giants, as well as the Cleveland Indians and New York Mets.

Of course, what will be a weak free-agent market could allow the Rays to find just as sweet a deal for Longoria this winter. Morosi seemed to recognize that, writing “the discussion of Longoria will be more worthwhile in November.”

What the Rays have no guarantee of, however, is if Longoria will look as appealing this winter as he does right now.

Yes, he’s having a great season. But it’s coming on the heels of two just OK seasons in 2014 and 2015. He only posted a .744 OPS and clubbed 43 homers. Though his turnaround this season has occurred mainly in the power department, Neil Weinberg of FanGraphs broke down how Longo has had to sacrifice contact and use of the whole field to make it happen.

If pitchers adjust, his success with that approach could be short-lived. Or, a regression in the final two months of the season could come from natural causes. At 30 and with quite a few miles on his body, an injury or a slump wrecking Longo’s season wouldn’t be shocking.

The whole situation is reminiscent of the one the Rockies were in with Troy Tulowitzki last season. The Rockies had been adamant about keeping him in the past, and Tulowitzki himself definitely didn’t want to be traded, as he indicated in an interview with Bob Nightengale of USA Today back in February. But the timing was right, so there he went.

The Rockies saved some money in that deal and also got a pretty good prospect in right-hander Jeff Hoffman. Had they not made it, well, look at Tulowitzki now. He’s had his moments with the Toronto Blue Jays, but he has mostly battled bad health and up-and-down production. If these problems had occurred in Colorado instead, the Rockies might be stuck with him.

Trading Longo would be no more pleasant for the Rays than trading Tulo was for the Rockies. But with his value high and their present and future looking grim, now’s the time to make that call.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Anchored at the bottom of the American League East standings, the Tampa Bay Rays will be sellers at the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 1, and a big question is whether franchise stalwart Evan Longoria could be on the move.

Continue for updates.

Report: Longoria Trade More Likely in Offseason

Monday, July 18

According to MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi, the Rays are discussing potential deals with the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of the trade deadline. Morosi threw out Longoria as one of the players included in the discussions but added the chances of him playing in L.A. this year are slim:

[Justin] Turner is among the biggest barriers to a Longoria trade over the next two weeks. He’s popular in the clubhouse and integral to the lineup, with a .942 OPS since June 1. It’s unclear if the Dodgers would be willing to move Turner to second base for the remainder of the season in order to clear room for Longoria, a two-time American League Gold Glove Award winner at third base.

The Dodgers may calculate — reasonably — that there’s little chance of Longoria being dealt to another team prior to Aug. 1. The Astros had been in the market for a third baseman, but that is no longer the case following Friday’s deal with Cuban free agent Yulieski Gurriel. The Giants have had interest in Longoria before, but they’re not believed to be engaged in active talks with the Rays about him now.

Trading a franchise cornerstone is never easy. And Longoria is one of the few players remaining from the Rays teams that regularly contended for the playoffs.

At the same time, Tampa Bay is going nowhere in the short term, and trading Longoria could return an asset or two who could further the team’s long-term rebuild. The Rays would also be wise to strike while the iron is hot in the event they envision parting ways with their starting third baseman anytime soon.

Longoria, 30, is putting together a strong 2016 season. Through 89 games, he’s has a .286/.336/.533 slash line to go along with 21 home runs and 49 runs batted in. According to FanGraphs, Longoria’s 3.5 WAR has him on pace to have his best year since 2013.

His value may never be higher than it is right now, so the upcoming winter may be a good time for the Rays to seriously consider moving him.

Longoria will be owed $100 million over six years starting in 2017, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. While teams generally shy away from trading for players signed to long deals, Longoria won’t be earning so much that his contract dissuades every potential suitor.

Longoria is no longer the hitter he was in his first four years in MLB, but he’d almost certainly command a lot of interest throughout the league if the Rays ever made him available.

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Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Chris Tillman accomplished a rare feat over the weekend, becoming just the fifth hurler in franchise history to win 13 of his first 15 decisions to begin a season, per Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats & Info).

Tillman needed everything he had to improve to 13-2 in Saturday’s 2-1 road win over the Tampa Bay Rays, as Tampa lefty Matt Moore held the powerful Orioles lineup to just two runs on five hits and a walk over 7.1 innings at pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field despite striking out only one of the 27 batters he faced.

Tillman was just a bit better, striking out three batters over seven innings of one-run ball, with the Rays scraping out four hits and three free passes along the way.

The standout Baltimore bullpen held things down from there, as setup man Brad Brach (0.88 ERA, 17 holds) and closer Zach Britton (0.68 ERA, 29 saves) showcased their typical dominant form by tossing a perfect inning apiece.

The 28-year-old Tillman has more than bounced back from an ugly 2015 campaign, dropping his ERA from 4.99 to 3.29 and his WHIP from 1.39 to 1.21. Although he’s been fortunate to strand 81.1 percent of baserunners while also holding opponents to a .263 batting average on balls in play (BABIP), Tillman deserves major credit for increasing his strikeout rate from last year’s 16.2 percent to this season’s 20.6 percent.

And while his record may come under scrutiny due to his team’s prolific offense, the Orioles have actually averaged 4.6 runs in Tillman’s 20 outings, compared to 5.1 in the team’s other 70 games. Granted, nine of the 13 wins came in games decided by three or fewer runs, which speaks volumes to Baltimore’s perennially strong relief corps.

Regardless, Tillman is starting to build a dark-horse Cy Young Award case for the first-place O’s, ranking second in the American League in wins (13), ninth in innings (120.1) and 17th in strikeouts (101) as well as ninth among qualified starters in ERA (3.29) and 15th in WHIP (1.21).

Those numbers wouldn’t stand a chance most seasons, but a strong second half could still put him right in the mix, as only four qualified AL starters enter Monday with sub-3.00 ERAs.

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Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Matt Moore is reportedly the subject of trade negotiations with the Aug. 1 non-waiver deadline approaching.

Continue for updates.

Rangers in Ongoing Talks with Rays About Moore

Saturday, July 16

Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported the link between Moore and Texas but indicated no trade is close.

Moore had a rough May, posting a 7.36 ERA. But he has rebounded since with stellar form, yielding only 22 earned runs over nine starts in that span, as opposed to the 21 he gave up in five May appearances.

Morosi also reported Texas has inquired about relief pitchers in its discussions with Tampa Bay, noting the Rangers want both a starter and a bullpen arm.

Just as Moore was coming into his own as a bright young starter for the Rays, disaster struck in 2014, when a torn ligament in his left pitching elbow triggered the need for Tommy John surgery only two starts into the season.

Although he returned in time to make 12 starts last year, Moore’s rust was evident, as he posted a 5.43 ERA and career-high 1.54 WHIP.

The small-market Rays could bring back Moore on a $7 million club option next year, with increasing dollars on two subsequent team options, per Spotrac. That may be too steep a price to pay for them, but for a club like the Rangers, that’s a team-friendly proposition.

If Moore doesn’t perform well, Texas or another trade suitor could move on. Should the 27-year-old southpaw deliver the goods, though, he would be a savvy addition.

The Rangers are evidently keen to upgrade their pitching as they sit atop the American League West and brace for a playoff push. Between Yu Darvish’s return to the rotation Saturday and a potential addition like Moore, Texas could be in great shape for a World Series run.

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For the New York Yankees, August 1 is looking less like the trade deadline and more like a sell-by date. By now, there’s little question that selling on the summer market is what they should do.

Rather, a better question is how much they’ll be able to sell.

That may be the question the Yankees are asking themselves. They’re not approaching August 1 with any positive momentum. A 5-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox in the Bronx on Saturday afternoon dropped their record to 44-46. They’re 9.5 games out of first in the American League East and 5.5 games out in wild-card race.

Of course, the company line has been defiant. Yankees president Randy Levine called talk of the team selling “nonsense” in a late-June press conference. His tune hasn’t changed much.

“All the talk of buying or selling is speculation at this point,” Levine told Wallace Matthews of ESPN.com on Friday. “There’s two weeks to go, and at that time we’ll make a decision. You can’t make any decisions until you have specific transactions in front of you.”

He added: “We believe in this team.”

But Levine may not be speaking for the whole brain trust when he says “we.” Matthews heard from a source that while Levine and club owner Hal Steinbrenner don’t want to give up, general manager Brian Cashman and the rest of the baseball operations department see things differently.

Ownership can believe all it wants, but it seems the front office has been reading the writing on the wall for a while now.

The Yankees are not without their strengths, namely the late-inning relief trio of Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances, which has been as advertised. But their weaknesses loom larger. They have an offense that ranked 11th in the American League in runs entering Saturday and a starting pitching staff that ranked 11th in ERA. This is not a team that’s only one or two pieces away from taking off.

If the Yankees do as they should in the coming weeks, they’ll move a couple of pieces. In his latest video report, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports indicates the list begins with Chapman and right fielder Carlos Beltran. To which we say, “Duh and/or hello.” 

Both Chapman and Beltran will be free agents this offseason, and both have significant trade value. Chapman is still pumping triple-digit fastballs and has a 2.39 ERA with a 40-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 26.1 innings. Beltran is fresh off an All-Star berth and is rocking an .872 OPS with 19 homers. This is an arm and a bat that should interest contenders.

But after those two, it gets complicated.

Mark Teixeira and Ivan Nova are the Yankees’ other two free-agents-to-be, and neither has much trade value. Teixeira has a bad knee and a .568 OPS. Nova has a 5.18 ERA. The Yankees might be able to move either of them, but not for any helpful talent.

If loading up on helpful talent is what New York’s baseball operations department has in mind, it will have to jettison some players it controls beyond 2016. That’s a lengthy list, but it’s a mixed bag in terms of trade value and trade availability.

The two pieces everyone will want are Miller and Betances, who are controlled through 2018 and 2019, respectively. If the Yankees make them available, they should find some nice prospect packages.

But Rosenthal says they don’t want to trade Miller. If that’s true, it’s hard to imagine them wanting to deal Betances. If there’s this much consternation among the Yankees about punting on 2016, they’re not going to punt on any future seasons. If they’re going to sell, they’re probably only going to sell players they think can help them more in trades now than on the field later.

This could mean putting Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and CC Sabathia on the block and see if they can interest any teams looking for a non-rental starter. The Yankees control Pineda and Eovaldi through 2017. And as Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors observed, Sabathia’s 2017 option seems likely to vest.

But how much value do these three have? Pineda and Eovaldi both have ERAs over 5.00, and the latter has since been moved to the bullpen. Sabathia was doing well for a while but is now back to looking past his prime with 25 earned runs allowed in his last 28.1 innings.

Rather than real prospects, trades of these three would likely only bring back some payroll relief. And with this winter’s free-agent class due to be weak, Andrew Marchand of ESPN.com is right to wonder what the point would be:

The Yankees’ other controllable assets are also short on trade value. Brian McCann has solid numbers but also $34 million left on his contract after 2016. Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Chase Headley also have a fair amount of money left on their deals and don’t have solid numbers. Then there’s Alex Rodriguez, whose trade value is roughly equivalent to that of your humble narrator.

Once again, deals of any of these guys would probably have to be more about payroll relief than acquiring talent. Since the Yankees would have few free agents to reinvest that money in this winter, they’d have a hard time repairing a broken roster for 2017.

That would be fine if they had it in mind to go for a full-on Chicago Cubs– or Houston Astros-style rebuild. But they clearly don’t, nor should they. With a non-terrible farm system—Baseball America ranked it No. 17 at the start of the year—and a good amount of flexibility already lined up for an epic free-agent class in 2018, New York doesn’t need to think about starting from scratch.

There will be talk of the Yankees holding a fire sale in the coming weeks, but that’s probably not going to happen. Chapman and Beltran are likely goners, but there may not be many takers for their other free-agents-to-be. And since only Miller and Betances have any value among their controllable guys, it won’t be surprising if the Yankees hold on to them all and see if they can rebound next season.

There’s going to be a sign out front that says, “Sale!” Just don’t expect there to also be one that says, “Everything Must Go!”

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. 

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The Toronto Blue Jays and first baseman Justin Smoak came to terms on a two-year contract extension with an option for the 2019 campaign Saturday.

According to Barry Davis of Sportsnet, the deal will pay Smoak $4.125 million in each of the first two years, and the third-year option is worth $6 million. There is also a $250,000 buyout included in the pact.

The 29-year-old Smoak entered play Saturday hitting .234 with nine home runs and 23 RBI on the season.

The new contract prevents Smoak from hitting free agency during the offseason, per Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. 

Smoak served in a platoon role for the Jays at first base last season, but with Chris Colabello serving an 80-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s policy against performance-enhancing drugs, Smoak has been the primary starter.

The former first-round pick of the Texas Rangers hit 18 home runs and drove in a career-high 59 runs in 2015, but he hit just .226 and has a career batting average of .225 across seven seasons with the Rangers, Seattle Mariners and Blue Jays.

Smoak has a power bat and three seasons with 18 or more home runs to his credit, but his potential has long been capped due to his inconsistency in terms of getting on base.

Toronto boasts a power-laden lineup with Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki, but both Bautista and Encarnacion are set to become free agents during the offseason, according to Spotrac.com.

Smoak is nowhere close to being as complete as Bautista and Encarnacion are, but keeping him in the fold will allow the Jays to preserve some of their pop even if one or both of their key free agents decide to walk.

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