Kuzul

Five players capable of handling the middle infield made the Yankees‘ Opening Day roster. Eduardo Nunez was not one of them.

Surprise rookie Yangervis Solarte made the roster after a very impressive spring training, while fellow rookie Dean Anna will presumably be filling in on the Yankees bench until Brendan Ryan comes off the disabled list. Regardless, the surplus resulted in the Yankees designating Nunez for assignment.

Now, the Yankees have eight more days to decide what to do with Nunez. They could send him to the minors, trade him or release him. He makes a quality depth option, but there may be a job for Nunez on one of the American League‘s best teams.  

With Jose Iglesias out for most, if not all, of 2014, the Tigers went out and acquired Alex Gonzalez from the Baltimore Orioles to take the reigns at shortstop. Gonzalez proved Dave Dombrowski right quickly, playing hero in the Tigers’ 4-3 win on Monday. However, the 37-year old has played in just 65 games over the last two seasons, and in addition to putting up average defense (-3.1 UZR in 2012, 0.5 UZR in 2013), Gonzalez struggled at the plate in 2013, hitting just .177 in 113 at-bats with the Brewers last season. 

So a strong Opening Day aside, Gonzalez isn’t exactly a strong option at short when put into the context of his last two seasons. And if the Tigers are going to pursue Stephen Drew, it seems at this point like they will wait until after the draft in June to avoid giving up draft pick compensation. So unless they want to ante up to acquire Didi Gregorius from the Diamondbacks or Nick Franklin from the Mariners, there aren’t exactly a plethora of quality shortstops available at a reasonable price.

Nunez is average at best as a defensive shortstop, but at the dish, his bat is a significant upgrade over the .177 average Gonzalez posted in 2013. While Nunez is as far from a power hitter as there is, he did hit 17 doubles in just 90 games in 2013, also stealing 10 bases (out of 13 attempts) in just over half a season. And even if the Tigers want to give Gonzalez a shot, having Nunez there to platoon with him will give Brad Ausmus a reliable option when Gonzalez needs a day off, which he will at some point.

Nunez is not as young as Gregorius or Franklin, nor does he have nearly as high a ceiling. But while there aren’t currently any reports indicating that the Tigers will claim Nunez if he makes it to their spot in the waiver order, he was once considered the heir to Yankee legend Derek Jeter, and while he’s certainly not a game-changing acquisition, the fact that he is both cheap and an upgrade makes swinging a deal for the 26-year-old a no-brainer for Detroit. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Alex Anthopolous took over the General Manager position of the Toronto Blue Jays on October 3, 2009 from the publicly ridiculed J.P. Ricciardi. 

He inherited a team in complete disarray; the Jays had failed to reach the postseason since 1993, the same year that they defeated the Phillies in the World Series. 

Anthopolous has plans to change that, and he plans for it to change sometime around 2012.

The Jays have made headlines since the hiring, due in large part to great free-agent signings and trades. 

Anthopolous began his flurry of transactions in November 2009 with the resigning of the sure-handed John McDonald. 

The next day, he signed veteran shortstop Alex Gonzalez.  Gonzalez proved to be worth more to the team later on in the season when the trade deadline was approaching.

In December, Anthopolous began to restock a depleted farm system.  He pulled off a major blockbuster, sending ace Roy Halladay to Philadelphia for three top prospects in catcher Travis d’Arnaud, right hander Kyle Drabek, and outfielder Michael Taylor. 

Taylor was then sent to Oakland for highly touted third base prospect Brett Wallace.  Wallace was later sent to the Astros for outfielder Anthony Gose. 

To cap off a busy day for Anthopolous, he signed veteran backstop John Buck to a one-year deal.

This was just the beginning, however. 

Later on in the month, the Jays sent fireballing reliever Brandon League to the Seattle Mariners for another fireballer, Brandon Morrow.  Morrow, although inconsistent, gave the Jays another young arm to add to their already young staff. 

After a quiet January, Anthopolous brought in veteran reliever Kevin Gregg to close games.  This capped off a busy first offseason for Anthopolous.

Early on in the 2010 season, Anthopolous signed Cuban shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria to a four-year, $10-million contract.  Hechavarria figures to be a large part of the Jays’ potential successes in 2012. 

Anthopolous acquired Fred Lewis from San Francisco a few days later.  Lewis became a spark plug at the top of the Jays lineup. 

He hit a modest .262 in 2010, with 8 homers, 36 RBIs, and 17 stolen bases.  Toronto chose to let him walk after the season, however, allowing him to sign with the Cincinnati Reds.

In July, Alex Gonzalez proved his true worth to Toronto.  He was sent to Atlanta for right hander Jo-Jo Reyes and shortstop Yunel Escobar. 

Escobar seemed to be wearing his welcome out in Atlanta, and Anthopolous took advantage of this by trading for him while his value was relatively low.  The youth movement in Toronto was continuing to take shape.

Anthopolous began his second offseason by acquiring catcher Miguel Olivo from Colorado and outfielder Rajai Davis from Oakland. 

Anthopolous completed two trades with the Brewers in as many days, first acquiring Carlos Villanueva in exchange for a player to be named later, and then trading ace Shaun Marcum for highly touted prospect Brett Lawrie.

2011 began with the low-risk, high-reward signing of relievers Octavio Dotel and Chad Cordero.  But, Anthopolous’ made his most genius move to date a little over a week ago. 

Anthopolous traded the highly overpaid and notorious free swinger Vernon Wells to the Angels for catcher Mike Napoli, a free swinger in his own right, and outfielder Juan Rivera.  Nobody is quite sure how he managed to unload such a contract, but he did it.

Napoli has since been shipped to Texas for reliever Frank Francisco.  Although many will say that Napoli would have had more value to Toronto than Francisco does, we have to remember:

Anthopolous essentially received Francisco and Rivera for Wells, a player who was holding the team back from spending big on free agents.  The money freed up by trading Wells will only help Anthopolous reach his goal.

The Jays figure to contend in the near future when prospects like Drabek, number 12 on MLB.com’s list of the Top 50 prospects, Gose, Hechavarria, and Lawrie, number 28 on the list, hit the majors. 

Without the genius of Alex Anthopolous, the Jays would not be in the position they are today, a position that has Jays fans waiting anxiously for 2012.   

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When the Atlanta Braves traded for shortstop Alex Gonzalez on July 14^th last year, he was hitting .259 with 17 homers and 50 RBIs for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Most Braves’ fans thought moving on from Yunel Escobar, a guy who rarely hit for any power, to a guy that was hitting homeruns at a career pace was a great move.

Gonzalez’s year took a downturn after the trade, however, as he hit just .240 with 6 homers and 38 RBIs the rest of the way for the Braves.

Gonzalez comes into this year with hardly any talk surrounding him, but he may be the Braves’ most important player this season.

Gonzalez has been regarded around the league as a plus defensive shortstop who is average at the plate. Gonzalez is on a cycle of hitting good one year then following it up with a subpar offensive year the next.

The Braves can’t have that this year.

Gonzalez is THE shortstop for the Braves, who don’t have a guy that is quite ready to be an everyday player at the major league level behind him. This puts a lot of pressure on Gonzalez to play more like the one suiting up for the Toronto Blue Jays than the one for the Atlanta Braves.

Gonzalez is likely to hit sixth or seventh, so he is important in the fact the he has to protect Dan Uggla or Brian McCann, depending on who is hitting in front of him. Gonzalez should be getting good pitches to hit, and he will need to take advantage of it.

Whether he hits well or not, Gonzalez is going to play good defense and be a great teammate. That alone is an improvement over Escobar as we look back into the 2010 season. Escobar was a bit too flamboyant for his teammates, while also seeming lackadaisical at times when they were losing or he made a mistake.

You won’t be seeing that from Gonzalez, who has always been a guy proud of his defense and is a team-player.

A Gonzalez line of .260-12-65 would be great for the Braves with his defense, and anything above that would be a plus.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Year after year, baseball’s end-of-season awards are usually room for debate and arguments.  The last few years the argument has shifted around the Cy Young, with topics ranging from “How important is wins to a pitcher’s stats (my answer is “not at all”), and Can a pitcher pitch in both league’s (a la CC Sabathia with the Indians and Brewers in 2008), and still be eligible for the award (yes, but I believe in a case-by-case study for that one). 

This time, however, the debate is based around the Gold Glove, and the Captain, Derek Jeter.

Let me get a few things out of the way: I am a Tampa Bay Rays fan and a New York Yankee hater, so it’s fair to call me biased if you don’t agree with this column.  BUT I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Jeter, who is one of the greatest shortstops to ever play the game, and one of the greatest Yankees ever.  He’s a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, and a guy I hold no ill will against. 

But Derek Jeter didn’t deserve to win the Gold Glove.  He didn’t even deserve to be in the discussion.  In fact, not only was Jeter wholly under qualified to win the Gold Glove, he was actually the WORST fielding SS in the AL this season.  And that’s not based off opinion—that’s based off facts.

The common fan looks at two stats when it comes to who deserves a Gold Glove: Fielding Percentage and Errors.  But these are very baseline stats, and don’t really work.  Why? Because fielding percentage doesn’t take into account difficulty of plays.  And errors are arbitrary—they’re decided by the official scorer at that particular game.  As a friendly scorer can rule what should be an error as a single.

People may not like hearing that, but the reality is this: Fielding Percentage only shows the plays made, NOT the plays NOT made.  Or to simplify it, it doesn’t show all the balls Jeter DID NOT get to because of his awful lack of range. 

But luckily for us, the fine folks at BaseballReference did run the stats on 59 shortstops this season using sabermetrics and advanced statistics to find out who was really deserving.  And in dead-last (and I mean dead-last) place was…you guessed it, Derek Jeter.  If you don’t believe me, check out the link here. 

To explain it in layman’s terms, these are the two key stats you should look at: Total Zone Total Fielding Runs Above Average and BIS Defensive Runs Saved Above Average.  These stats show:  The number of runs above or below average the player was worth based on the number of plays made (thanks to BaseballProjection.com).

In Total Zone Total Fielding Runs Above Average, Jeter came in at -10, or 59th place out of 59.  In 58th was Danny Worth of Detroit, with a -5.  So you can see the HUGE jump between Jeter and the second-worst fielder. 

The best fielder according to this statistic was Josh Wilson of Seattle.  Second and third were Cliff Pennington of the Oakland Athletics and Alexei Ramirez of the Chicago White Sox, respectively.  Wilson had a 12 rating, Pennington and 11, and Ramirez a 9—all superior scores to Jeter’s -12. 

For BIS Defensive Runs Above Average, Jeter did move up…to 58th, or second-worst in the AL.  He had a -13 rating, which was far superior than KC shortstop’s Yuniesky Betancourt’s -21 score, but still only one of three amongst AL shortstop’s to be in the negative double-digits (the third being Jason Donald, or the guy who was called safe at first in Armando Gallaraga’s perfect game). 

With this stat, Alexei Ramirez of the White Sox was first (16), followed by Cliff Pennington (9), and Alex Gonzalez of Toronto (9).  You see the recurring theme, and the recurring players.

This award has nothing to do with team success.  It has nothing to do with leadership or likability.  It solely has to do with fielding.  And any advanced statistic will show you that Derek Jeter was shockingly undeserving of this award. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Although the Atlanta Braves have been leading the NL East for some time now, they made a number of trades to try and strengthen their team for the stretch run.

With the Phillies getting key players back in their lineup seemingly every day, the Braves were looking for guys like Rick Ankiel, Derek Lee, and Kyle Farnsworth to fill in some holes that the team had.

The Braves did well by not giving up any major prospects (although Tim Collins could be great, his value is limited by the fact that he is a reliever; the best prospect they gave up was Robinson Lopez, who has a high ceiling but is unpolished as of right now) and seemingly improved their ballclub.

However, if the Braves are going to be playing throughout October, the new arrivals will need to step up their play since they haven’t exactly set the world on fire since joining the Braves.

Thus far, Alex Gonzalez has been the only new arrival to play reasonably close to his expectations. Gonzalez has a better batting average (.267 to .259) in Atlanta but a lower slugging percentage and OPS. While Yunel Escobar has actually played better, the Braves have to be happy that unlike Escobar, Gonzalez isn’t a distraction who seems to have his head elsewhere during a pennant race.

Unlike Gonzalez, Lee, Ankiel, and Farnsworth haven’t given the Braves much of anything since coming to Atlanta.

In 20 games, Ankiel was hitting just .212 and slugging just .318. Gregor Blanco, a centerfielder the Braves sent to the Royals (who in my opinion, should have been given more of a chance after hitting .310 with the team earlier this year) has a .275 batting average and eight stolen bases (as well as .362 slugging percentage, which is bad but higher than Ankiel’s) in 18 games with the Royals.

Although The Farns had done well earlier this year with Kansas City, he has been terrible with the Braves, posting a 9.45 ERA in his first 6.2 innings pitched. Although he is striking out a ton of batters, walks (he has already allowed five) have been a problem.

Finally, we get to the Braves most recent acquisition, first baseman Derrek Lee.

Brought in after Chipper Jones was injured to give the Braves more pop in their lineup, Lee has sucked the life out of the cleanup spot. In his first five games with the club, Lee has just two hits (and eight strikeouts) in 19 at-bats.

To be fair to all the players acquired (especially Lee), it is important to note that they have only a small amount of at-bats in Atlanta. If any of the Braves new acquisitions were to go on a month long tear through the end of the season, they would end up with terrific numbers in a Braves uniform despite their slow starts.

With Utley, Howard, and Victorino all back in the Phillies lineup, the Braves will likely need some added offense to hold off Philadelphia over the remainder of the year. If Ankiel and Lee can start hitting like they have in the past, the Braves should finish strong and be playing into October. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Tim Hudson threw seven strong for the Atlanta Braves as they took back the National League’s best record in their series win over the San Diego Padres.

At the beginning of the season, it was thought by many that the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals would finish one-two in the National League. At this point of the season, the top two doesn’t currently consist of either of those teams.

Instead, the very surprising Padres and the always-contending Braves held down those spots entering their matchup in the finale of their three-game set at Turner Field.

Atlanta was 55-39, a half-game back of the National League and division-leading Padres, looking not only to take the lead atop the league, but take the series as well.

They had the right pitcher on the mound to accomplish these two feats, Tim Hudson, their ace of five-plus seasons who carried a 9-5 record and a sub-3.00 ERA into his start.

And, not surprisingly, he delivered, feasting on the Padres’ weakness.

What is San Diego’s weakness? Their offense is woefully inconsistent, and far too often, completely nonexistent. How can a team manage 55 wins while ranked 21st in runs scored and 25th in batting average? Their situational hitting has been superb and their pitching has been even better.

Behind the pop out of Adrian Gonzalez‘s bat, time and time again they sneaked by scoring three to four runs per game thanks to a rotation and bullpen that has a combined 3.30 ERA, which is good for second in the majors.

Solid pitching and good enough hitting took a night off, as Hudson baffled the Padres inning after inning, while Clayton Richard struggled out of the gate. Newly acquired shortstop Alex Gonzalez was behind Richard’s struggles.

After a sacrifice fly by Troy Glaus and timely two-out hitting that kept the inning alive, Gonzalez singled in a run in the first—his first run as a Brave to begin what would be a brilliant night at the plate.

Richard had to face him more times than he would have liked. Atlanta scored in the second, so with Hudson cruising along, Gonzalez’s damage in the third went a long way toward sealing a victory. Left fielder Matt Diaz continued his torrid July, lining a single in front of Gonzalez.

The former member of the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, and Toronto Blue Jays—who entered the game with 17 homers, 50 RBI, and 26 doubles—socked a Richard slider deep over the head of center fielder and former Eugene Emeralds spark plug Luis Durango for his 27th two-bagger to score Diaz, notching his 52nd RBI and second with the team.

Hudson took this four-run cushion and breezed through San Diego’s order. He tossed a perfect fourth inning against the heart of the order that included Gonzalez, who leads the team in average, homers, hits, RBI, and on-base percentage.

Gonzalez succumbed on the 10th pitch of his plate appearance to begin the inning, getting severely under Hudson’s very effective changeup to become the fourth of eventually six straight retired by the 35-year-old veteran right-hander.

After mowing down the sixth of these Padres, Wil Venable, to end the fourth, Hudson ran into the lone trouble of his outing to begin the fifth.

Scott Hairston lined a single to center and Everth Cabrera was nailed in the foot by an errant slider, putting two runners on with nobody out. He made this hiccup very minor, getting out of the jam unscathed quite easily.

Durango, who entered the appearance with a .487 batting average in 29 Major League at-bats, grounded into a swiftly-turned double play by Gonzalez and second baseman Martin Prado to squash the threat completely thwarted by a groundout by Richard.

Hudson went on to throw two more scoreless innings, lowering his already sparkling ERA to 2.47 while surrendering just four hits and a walk. If the four runs he received while he was on the mound weren’t enough, his offense made sure his 10th win would be the result of his gem.

An offense that ranks 25th this month in runs scored took its anger out on 24-year-old, 6’6″, rookie right-hander Ryan Webb, whose July struggles continued in allowing four runs to cross.

In doing so, Webb allowed four hits, walked two Braves—one intentionally—and hit a batter. Not surprisingly, Gonzalez was right in the middle of the offensive outburst, turning a one-out walk issued to Diaz into a very successful inning that did in the already-cooked Padres.

His frozen-rope single to left on a straight 94-mph fastball was followed by a David Ross RBI-double, a curveball that plunked Eric Hinske on an 0-2 count to force in a run, and then a pair of two-out RBI singles by future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones and budding star Jason Heyward.

Hudson had been fairly economical, and though his pitch count was just into triple-digits, he probably could have gone out there for the eighth.

But there was no need.

The Braves had their National League-leading 56th win in the bag and, once two relievers finished off the four-hit shutout, a seven-game advantage over the New York Mets in the division.

With the way the team is put together—a very capable mix of veterans and youth on the mound and at the plate—Atlanta should hold onto their lead over the Padres and Mets for the long haul.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Yunel Escobar is the main player Alex Anthopoulos acquired when he dealt Alex Gonzalez away. Anthopoulos had stated that his plan to build (not rebuild) the Toronto Blue Jays is to get young, controllable players—players whose salary we can control for several years.

When we got rid of Gonzalez, we got rid of a player who is old, whose salary we cannot control beyond next year, and who is having a career year. I have already written why this trade works out great for the Blue Jays, so let’s not go there.

Instead, let’s look at the fact that we can only keep Gonzalez cheaply for one more year; after that, if he keeps up this torrid pace, he will command a much higher salary.

Escobar, on the other hand, is a player whose rights we control for three more years. This means that we can sign him to a contract similar to Adam Lind and Aaron Hill, a small amount of money now with potential for big money later. The thing is we are in the Yankees’ and Red Sox’ division, so we cannot spend as much as them, but we can control these younger players and how much they make.

If we control their salaries, then we can keep saving the money needed to get more top-flight prospects into our system whose salary we can also control, so by the time these guys are being paid big money we have other cheap rookies to offset the cost. In a division that spends so much money, this could be the only way to compete. Kudos to Anthopoulos for doing this.

One of Billy Beane’s most brilliant techniques was smart drafting and getting rid of players as they are about to come to contract years for lots of prospects. Anthopoulos decided he does not need to get rid of his players. Instead, he can structure their contracts to keep them in Toronto for the prime of their careers. Rich teams like the Yankees can have them when they’re old—like say, 35. This could be Moneyball Anthopoulos style.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Atlanta Braves have traded SS Yunel Escobar and P Jo-Jo Reyes to the Toronto Blue Jays for SS Alex Gonzalez, P Tim Collins, and SS Tyler Pastornicky

The Braves
Alex Gonzalez offers more power potential than Escobar, though you have to wonder if he is in for a second half regression. He’s already hit 17 HR, third most of his career (his career high is 23, set in 2004). His power has been equal both at home (eight) and on the road (nine), so the ballpark isn’t cause for concern.

It’s the HR/FB (12.9%) and fly ball rate (49.8%), which are worrisome. The HR/FB is a career high since 2002. The FB% is only the second time he’s been above 48 percent over the same span. If both the fly balls and HR/FB fall, his power could plummet.

Gonzalez saw significant time in the second spot for the Blue Jays (106 AB), something that’s not likely in Atlanta. More likely he’ll be hitting sixth or seventh, with the pitcher and Melky Cabrera hitting behind him. That’s going to impact his runs scored potential, so keep that in mind.

He’s a career .248 hitter, so no one is buying him for his average.

The bottom line is that the skepticism is more a general regression as opposed to the trade. He’s not a player I’d be looking to buy.

The other two players they acquired are not going to make a fantasy impact in 2011.

The Blue Jays
Like Gonzalez, the optimism for Escobar has more to do with the numbers then the deal itself, though joining a higher-powered offense certainly doesn’t hurt. While he doesn’t have much power or speed, he’s no .238 hitter. His BABIP of .270 is significantly below his career mark of .316, so look for him to rebound there.

As I said earlier, he doesn’t have much power, but he’s got some. Without a home run yet, you’d expect him to hit a few. Joining an offense that has sent the ball flying all year long, you can bet that he’s going to hit at least a few from this point forward.

He walks plenty, so as his average improves and he gets a boost from joining a deeper offense, the runs should follow. He also should pick up more RBI, meaning overall, he appears a great buy low candidate.

As for Reyes, he’s likely no more than a relief pitcher for the Blue Jays given their rotation depth.

Conclusion
I have Escobar as being the big winner from a fantasy perspective, though he was a solid buy low candidate regardless. What about you? Who do you think the winner of the deal is?

THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO FEATURED ON WWW.ROTOPROFESSOR.COM

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The MLB trade deadline is just weeks away, and the Toronto Blue Jays new GM, Alex Anthopoulos, is expected to continue putting his stamp on the team.

With that in mind, here are the players Anthopoulos should consider trading:

John Buck

He was not meant to be much more than a stopgap catcher until a prospect (like JP Arencibia) comes up through the system.

Arencibia has been simply outstanding from the batter’s box, hitting 25 home runs with a batting average of .319. His on-base percentage could improve, as its a paltry .369 and one of the main reasons his slugging is only .661.

However, if he works at better plate discipline, he could be an outstanding hitter. In the end, Arencibia is ready to be called up.

Trading John Buck while he is still hitting this great is crucial. The Blue Jays can get top-flight prospects if he continues playing this well.

They need to trade him while his value is still high, after all, he was only a backup for Kansas City last year. What are the chances of him keeping this up?

Lyle Overbay

Not because of Brett Wallace. I fully expect Wallace to be a great player and to be absolutely solid, but he is finally finding his groove defensively.

This, however, has cost him in offense, as his slugging is a paltry .497. He has an average of .296 with 14 home runs, but I think he needs a bit more seasoning.

The main reason for this trade is that Overbay’s contract is up at the end of the year, so we may as well see if we can get something for him now as a rental player.

I don’t think he would get us any compensation picks with the way he played this year. That’s not set in stone yet, though.

Alex Gonzalez

Before people realize he’s a one-trick pony (all he can do is hit home runs), we can see if we can sell him to the highest bidder for top-level prospects.

Once again, nobody is probably ready to go from the minors, so we would have to acquire a bad SS as part of the deal.

The Entire Bullpen

Seriously, if we can get Brandon Morrow for Brandon League, we should see if we can get a bunch of solid starting pitching prospects almost ready to go for them.

What’s the harm after all? If we have a weaker bullpen, we can send in all these starters as relievers.

They would be much more effective, and if someone like Morrow is available (I’m looking at you, Matt Cain), then we have to take him.

Vernon Wells

The main guy. This guy has cranked it up a notch and has been hitting home runs like crazy, much like the entire Blue Jays offense. His slugging and OPS leave a little bit to be desired, but he has been solid this year.

If someone takes his fat contract (I’m thinking of a team with a payroll higher than $175 million, you get three guesses) we can have lots of money to spend.

Also, if we get a top-flight prospect like Jesus Montero, we can also use him as a catcher sooner rather than later.

With all the money we would have to spend, Anthopoulos can truly build this team the way he wants.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Cliff Lee was the first big name to get traded, and certainly no player on the block has been more discussed this season. Roy Oswalt, Dan Haren, Corey Hart, and Prince Fielder are the most recognizable of the remaining names that are being bandied about by sports commentators and trade “experts.”

Still, others seem to be of interest to every team. David DeJesus and Ty Wigginton get more ink than a pen factory.

However, there are a good number of highly tradeable, highly expendable players out there that haven’t yet been ground up by the rumor mill.

These are the top 10 most expendable, and simultaneously, tradeable players you haven’t heard talked about.

Begin Slideshow