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Bartolo Colon was a 20-year-old kid in 1994, already a promising prospect but too young and raw to help a Cleveland Indians team that was ready to win.

A general manager named John Hart signed a soon-to-be 40-year-old pitcher named Dennis Martinez. A year later, with Martinez and 36-year-old Orel Hershiser in the rotation, the Indians were playing the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

Maybe you’ve forgotten, but it seems John Hart hasn’t.

He’s the president of baseball operations for the Braves now, with a bunch of promising young pitching prospects not yet ready to support a rapidly improving lineup. And just as he signed Martinez, Jack Morris and Hershiser two decades ago in Cleveland, his Braves have signed 42-year-old R.A. Dickey and the now-43-year-old Colon the last two days.

Colon agreed to terms on a one-year, $12.5 million contract Friday, as first reported by Mark Bowman of MLB.com. While he and Dickey may not be joining a Braves team ready to return to the World Series, they should push the Braves another step towards respectability—and maybe even towards contention.

“It’s a pretty good lineup we’re running out there,” manager Brian Snitker said during a three-game sweep in New York in September. “When we pitch, we win. We’re a pretty good team when we pitch.”

The Braves aren’t the Indians of the mid-’90s, but they led the major leagues in runs scored for the final month of the season. They have an established star in Freddie Freeman and a star on the rise in shortstop Dansby Swanson.

The rebuilding program begun by Hart and general manager John Coppolella looks promising, much more than it did a year ago at this time. The Braves move into their new ballpark in April, and even if it turns out they’re not ready to compete with the Mets and Washington Nationals at the top of the National League East, they should at least be fun to watch.

Colon, of course, became one of the game’s best characters during his three seasons with the Mets. He pitched, fielded and even hit, with a memorable home run last May in San Diego.

The Braves would settle for seeing him make the 33 starts and pitch the 191.2 innings he did for the Mets in 2016. They’d hope for close to the same from Dickey, who won a Cy Young Award with the Mets in 2012 and spent the last four seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays.

As Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted, Dickey’s 195 starts over the last six years are tied for the sixth-most in the major leagues, while Colon’s 175 starts over that span rank 19th.

Another Sherman tweet:

He’s right. The Braves aren’t done. They could still improve a rotation that for now includes ace Julio Teheran, Colon, Dickey and Mike Foltynewicz, with one spot open. They could still improve their lineup, possibly with a trade to bring back catcher Brian McCann from the New York Yankees.

And they still figure to be significantly better in 2018 and beyond, with Swanson set to be joined by Ozzie Albies in the middle of the infield and with young pitching on the way.

Five of the six Braves who made 10 or more starts in 2016 are 25 or younger. Eight of the top 12 Braves minor league prospects, as ranked by MLB.com, are pitchers.

The issue Hart and Coppolella faced was too many of those guys who started games this past year weren’t ready, and too many of those top prospects aren’t yet ready to advance.

“We’re looking for guys to suck up innings so that we don’t have to kill our bullpen,” Coppolella told reporters, including MLB.com‘s Bowman, when he announced the Dickey signing. “We’ve been real transparent about what it is we want to do: add guys that can eat innings on short-term deals.”

Short-term deals were important, because the Braves believe some of those prospects will be ready to contribute soon. Eating innings was important, because the Braves had 42 games in 2016 where their starter didn’t finish the fifth.

Realistically, Colon and Dickey are place-holders, two aging pitchers who make the Braves more presentable while a young team gets better around them.

But who knows? Maybe what the Braves hitters did in September was a sign of what they can do next summer. Maybe the two old former Cy Young winners can do something like those former Cy Young winners Hart signed all those years ago in Cleveland.

In 1995, the year he turned 41, Martinez won 12 games with a 3.08 ERA. He went on to pitch until he was 44, retiring after a final season with the Braves. He finished with 245 wins, the most by a pitcher born in Latin America.

Colon, born in the Dominican Republic, has 233 wins. He ranks third for now, behind Martinez (born in Nicaragua) and Juan Marichal (born in the Dominican), who has 243.

If he stays healthy, the Braves can give him enough starts and probably enough runs to chase the record. He and Dickey can give their rebuilding program a boost.

John Hart has seen it happen before.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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The Toronto Blue Jays have reportedly signed Cuban prospect Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to a multiyear contract.

MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez first reported the utility man agreed to a deal with the Blue Jays on Friday. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the contract is for seven years and is worth $22 million. 

Gurriel was declared a free agent by Major League Baseball in August, but by waiting to sign until after his 23rd birthday on Oct. 19, he became exempt from international signing bonus regulations. 

Sanchez reported in February that Gurriel and his brother, Yulieski Gurriel, who signed with the Houston Astros in July and made his big league debut on Aug. 21, had defected from Cuba with the goal of playing in MLB. 

According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, the Blue Jays plan to start him in Double-A at shortstop, though he may end up in the outfield.

In an April 2015 scouting report from Baseball America‘s Ben Badler, Gurriel was ranked as the No. 4 prospect in Cuba thanks to a good approach at the plate and solid bat speed with the upside of 20-homer potential.

Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs noted that when Gurriel was declared a free agent, scouting reports were mixed because he has athleticism, speed and power that will play at an up-the-middle position, but his swing can get long, and he’s considered something of a project at 23 years old. 

The Blue Jays have not been shy about taking big risks on high-upside athletes in recent years. Anthony Alford was an unpolished baseball player when he was a third-round pick in 2012, but since giving up his college football career in 2014, he’s blossomed into one of Toronto’s top prospects. 

Gurriel won’t make an immediate jump to the big leagues like his brother did for the Astros, but his ceiling and future value are significantly higher because he’s nine years younger and can afford to take a full season in the minors to hone his skills. 

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After two seasons at the helm, manager Craig Counsell agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension through 2020 with the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday. 

The team announced the move ahead of what would have been the final year on his deal.

Counsell has led the Brew Crew to a 134-165 record, and they improved by 12 wins from 2015 to 2016 in going 73-89.

The 46-year-old Counsell had no previous managerial or coaching experience when he took the Milwaukee job in 2015, as he was a front office assistant and color analyst for the Brewers in the years following his retirement from playing in 2011.

Counsell played 16 MLB seasons as a utility infielder with the Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Brewers.

The South Bend, Indiana, native attended high school in Milwaukee and spent the final five seasons of his playing career with the Brewers.

Counsell took over a Milwaukee team that went 82-80 in 2014, and although the Brewers regressed in his first season, they began to bounce back as a younger team in 2016.

Much of Milwaukee’s pitching staff is under the age of 30, while young hitters such as shortstop Jonathan Villar, outfielder Domingo Santana and utility player Hernan Perez made significant strides last season.

Milwaukee will be hard-pressed to compete for a National League Central title in 2017 with the likes of the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates, but thanks to the progress made in 2016, Counsell afforded himself the opportunity to help the club take another step forward.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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Bartolo Colon will pitch again in 2017 after the Atlanta Braves reportedly signed him to a free-agent contract Friday. 

Mark Bowman of MLB.com first reported word of the agreement. Robert Murray of FanRag Sports confirmed the report. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports passed along the financial details, and Joel Sherman of the New York Post noted there is not an option attached.

Rosenthal also reported another detail about Colon’s upcoming salary:

This comes after the 43-year-old Colon helped anchor the New York Mets staff in 2016 on the way to the postseason even though they lost Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz to season-ending injuries.

Colon appeared in 34 games in 2016, which tied a career-high mark (2001, 2003 and 2004). He finished the year with a 3.43 ERA and 1.21 WHIP and reached his fourth All-Star Game.

The right-hander was one of the most dominant pitchers in the league in his prime. He won the 2005 American League Cy Young Award with the Los Angeles Angels behind a 3.48 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. It was one of 10 seasons in which he posted an ERA below 4.00 in his impressive major league tenure:

Age is something of a concern with a new contract at 43 years old, but he finished with head-turning numbers in 2015 at age 42. There is no reason to think he cannot at least be a solid innings-eater again after pitching more than 190 innings in each of the last four campaigns.

He also has plenty of postseason experience with 17 appearances and 10 starts. He has a 3.49 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in those games and can provide veteran leadership for a team with playoff aspirations in 2017. 

The Dominican Republic native becomes the second veteran starter to join the Braves in as many days. On Thursday, Atlanta announced the signing of 42-year-old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey as it looks to add some leadership to a young team preparing to turn the corner after an extensive rebuild.

While Colon may not be the most vital member of the Braves staff, which is led by Julio Teheran, he gives them formidable depth and a playoff-tested arm should the team finally start to climb back up the standings in 2017.

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Following a disappointing 2016 campaign, the Oakland Athletics are reportedly willing to listen to offers for starting pitcher Sonny Gray.

Continue for updates.

Latest on Gray’s Future with Athletics

Friday, Nov. 11

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, the A’s aren’t actively shopping Gray but are open to a deal if the right one presents itself.

After finishing third in the 2015 American League Cy Young Award voting, Gray experienced a huge drop-off in 2016.

The 27-year-old righty went just 5-11 with a 5.69 ERA, 1.50 WHIP and 94 strikeouts in 117 innings. He was also limited to 22 starts due to a pair of stints on the disabled list with a strained trapezius and a strained right forearm.

Gray enjoyed a career year in 2015 with a 14-7 record, 2.73 ERA and a personal-best 1.08 WHIP, but he was nowhere close to the same pitcher last season.

The fall from grace was surprising since Gray went 33-20 with an impressive 2.88 ERA in his first three MLB campaigns.

Gray was 3-1 with a 2.73 ERA over his first four starts of the season, but the wheels came off after that. However, if injuries were primarily responsible for that, and he is now healthy, he is in position to bounce back in 2017 and beyond.

Since Gray is arbitration-eligible for the next three years, per Spotrac, there isn’t a ton of incentive for the Athletics to trade him.

The A’s have some major question marks in their starting rotation aside from Gray, although youngsters Sean Manaea and Jharel Cotton showed flashes of brilliance last season.

A package of high-quality prospects could entice an Oakland team that is rebuilding, but following Gray’s awful season, it seems unlikely that fair value will be offered in return.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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The San Francisco Giants need to bolster their bullpen.

The Giants know it. Every other team knows it. Your second cousin who’s wrapped up in the election and doesn’t really follow baseball knows it.

Luckily for San Francisco, there are a handful of elite closers available in an otherwise-tepid free-agent pool. The Giants, conventional wisdom suggests, will make a strong push to sign Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen or Mark Melancon.

Here’s a thought: What if they signed two of them?

No, it won’t be cheap. Chapman is seeking a deal in the $100 million range, per Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago. He probably won’t get it, but it gives you a sense of where negotiations will begin.

Is it worth it for San Francisco, or any team, to blow most of its offseason capital on a couple of relievers?

Yes, if they are the right relievers.

The Giants have other needs, to be sure. They hit the third-fewest home runs (130) last season and scored the fourth-fewest runs after the All-Star break. They’ve also got an impending hole in left field. 

They could address both issues by signing Yoenis Cespedes, who opted out of his contract with the New York Mets.

The Cuban slugger would instantly upgrade San Francisco’s offense, no argument there. He’s also 31 years old and could command $150 million. 

Really, the Giants lineup isn’t in terrible shape. The team has a homegrown infield core of catcher Buster Posey, shortstop Brandon Crawford, first baseman Brandon Belt and second baseman Joe Panik.

Right fielder Hunter Pence missed more than 50 games to injury in 2016. If he can stay healthy, his reliable 20-plus-homer pop will provide a boost.

The Giants also have hopes for the young duo of Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson, who have shown promise in limited action and could take over in left.

In the rotation, meanwhile, San Francisco is stacked with ace Madison Bumgarner, co-ace Johnny Cueto, lefty Matt Moore, righty Jeff Samardzija and last year’s surprise rookie, Ty Blach.

Which brings us back to the bullpen. Overall, Giants relievers ranked exactly in the middle of the pack in 2016 with a 3.65 ERA. But closer Santiago Casilla wilted as the season progressed and finished with an untenable eight blown saves.

By the time the playoffs rolled around, San Francisco was counting on an ill-defined committee, which collapsed in spectacular fashion in Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Chicago Cubs.

The Giants enter 2017 in need of reinforcements. Casilla is a free agent, along with setup man Sergio Romo and lefty specialist Javier Lopez, all of whom were key parts of San Francisco’s 2010, 2012 and 2014 title runs. 

San Francisco recently met with representatives for Chapman, Jansen and Melancon, per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. 

That’s no shock, but it doesn’t explain why the Giants would go for more than one of them.

For that, you need to look to the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians, who proved in 2015 and 2016 how far a loaded bullpen can carry you.

In 2015, Kansas City rode the trio of Greg Holland, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis to a title. This year, the Indians overcame a depleted rotation and made it to Game 7 of the World Series thanks to the 1-2 bullpen buzzsaw of closer Cody Allen and super-setup man Andrew Miller.

It’s the new model. The secret sauce for clubs seeking October success. 

The Giants—with their competent lineup, strong starting rotation and No. 2-ranked team defense—could replicate it.

Imagine, for a moment, if San Francisco inked Jansen and Melancon. The former was an All-Star last season for the rival Los Angeles Dodgers, posting a 1.83 ERA with 104 strikeouts in 68.2 innings. Melancon, meanwhile, put up a 1.64 ERA in 71.1 innings with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals. 

Melancon is 31 and Jansen 29. A long-term commitment to either would carry risk on the back end. Same goes for the 28-year-old Chapman, whose triple-digit heater and 1.55 ERA in 58 innings are offset from an optics standpoint by the domestic violence suspension that cost him 30 games in 2016.

And there’s always the issue of convincing a closer to accept a setup role.

Still, there’s upside aplenty, as McCovey Chronicles’ Grant Brisbee spelled out:

While the Giants will hopefully be active on the Mark Melancon and Kenley Jansen market, there’s a small, unrealistic part of me that wants both of them. That’s how to build a not-so-secret postseason weapon. Have one guy who can lock down the ninth inning (and eighth, too, if it’s October), and have one guy who can float around and be an automatic face card to slip in whatever hand you’re dealt.

There are other routes the Giants could go. General manager Bobby Evans was in attendance at Holland’s recent showcase, as the former Kansas City closer works his way back from Tommy John surgery, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Holland looked healthy, Sherman notes, though he’s yet to regain his mid-90s velocity.

His agent, Scott Boras, suggested Holland “would be ideal for a lot of teams who cannot do the five- or six-year commitment it might take for three guys out on the market,” per Sherman.

San Francisco could also give closing duties to an in-house option such as Hunter Strickland, whose fastball tickles 100 mph. 

There’s wiggle room, and the Giants shouldn’t dismiss the notion of targeting a bat like Cespedes. 

But this is a chance to be bold and, yes, a little reckless. Picture Strickland in the seventh followed by Melancon and Jansen. Or perhaps Holland if the Giants believe he’s healthy, or Chapman if they can get past his baggage and if his price inches down.

That’s the type of pen that could propel a club to glory. For the Giants, it could erase the bad taste of last season’s early playoff exit and maybe even bring another trophy home to the Bay.

It’ll take a boatload of cash. It’ll depend on the pitchers in question spurning other suitors, of which there will be many. 

Why not take a crack, though?

It’s an odd year. What have they got to lose?

All statistics courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Remember when Sonny Gray seemed to have one foot in an Oakland A’s uniform and one foot on the trading block? Those were interesting times.

Now they may be ready for a comeback.

No two Major League Baseball offseasons are exactly alike, but a prevailing theme through all of them is the widespread need for starting pitching. In a related story, another prevailing theme are the showers of cash that fall on the best free-agent aces.

The 2016-17 offseason, however, presents a conundrum: There are no aces on the open market.

Rich Hill is good, but also older and not very durable. After him, the best free-agent pitcher is Jeremy Hellickson. After him…Ivan Nova? Jason Hammel? Bartolo Colon? I mean, you can take your pick.

And so, teams in the market for an ace must turn to the trade market. The trade winds are blowing around names like Chris Sale, Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke and Chris Archer. All good pitchers! Certainly better than any on the open market, anyway.

But therein lies another conundrum. The teams that employ those pitchers know they have key pieces of supply in a world flooded with demand. They can jack up the sticker prices, which could force suitors toward more affordable options.

Which brings us to Gray.

There’s a good reason Gray’s name doesn’t loom as large on the trade market. He put up a 3.08 ERA in 219 innings in 2014 and then finished third in the American League Cy Young voting after posting a 2.73 ERA in 208 innings in 2015. But in 2016, he pitched just 117 innings in 22 starts and watched his ERA balloon to an ugly 5.69.

Nonetheless, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com has it on good authority that the A’s are ready to field some calls on their 27-year-old right-hander. 

“Sonny has been a popular trade conversation for the last couple of years, so it won’t be new,” A’s general manager David Forst said at the GM meetings in Scottsdale. “Certainly it’s expected, and we have to be open to anything at this point considering where we are and how much work we have to do to catch up with the teams at the top of our division. I can’t speak to how aggressive teams will be or when the calls will come in, but we have to be open to that conversation.”

When pressed, he added: “It’s nice to have assets people want.”

Given the nature of the A’s finances, it’s relevant that Gray will stop being cheap in 2017. Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors projects his salary will go from $528,000 to $3.7 million in his first year of arbitration eligibility.

Gray’s arbitration eligibility also means his free agency is now there on the horizon, just three years away. Coming off a 93-loss season in 2016, the A’s are facing a rebuilding stretch that may not be over by then. Trading him for pieces that could boost said rebuild could be their best play.

The deflation of Gray’s value in 2016 should be a deal-breaker, but the lack of options on the open market and the gigantic price tags of alternative trade options are just the things to cancel that out. Rather than a broken pitcher to stay away from, teams may be compelled to look at Gray as a once-great pitcher who could be remade.

Gray is still in his prime years, and one positive sign from his rotten 2016 is that he wasn’t plagued by bad stuff. He lost only 0.2 miles per hour off his fastball from 2015, sitting at 92.7 mph. And according to Baseball Savant, he experienced a significant increase in spin rate.

Gray’s real problem? Command.

He went from 2.6 walks per nine innings in 2015 to 3.2 walks per nine innings in 2016. One thing Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs noticed early on is that Gray wasn’t able to command his breaking stuff. He was throwing too many non-competitive curveballs and sliders way down below the strike zone. That would lead to walks.

That also made it easier for hitters to sit fastball. Gray could find the zone with those, but too often found the wrong parts of it. Per Brooks Baseball, he threw more four-seamers and sinkers right down the middle:

Hitters responded accordingly. They hit .310 against Gray’s four-seamer and .380 against his sinker. This after hitting .262 and .270 against them the prior season.

The elephants in the room are the injuries Gray suffered. He went on the disabled list with a bad shoulder in May and with a bad forearm in August. 

The shoulder injury is especially alarming when paired with what was going on with Gray’s release point earlier in the year. It was down from where it had been throughout 2015. That won’t go unnoticed or unworried about by potential suitors.

But the silver lining also isn’t hard to spot. Albeit in limited exposure, Gray’s release point did move back up toward the end of the year. That’s a sign he’s not necessarily damaged goods, and that his struggles in 2016 may have been due to a mere mechanical funk.

Such things can be fixed. And in this case, fixing such a thing could turn Gray back into what he was in 2014 and 2015: one of the best pitchers in baseball.

What it would cost to take this chance won’t be cheap. The A’s can demand one or two elite prospects or perhaps some established major league talent with controllability and untapped upside.

However, that doesn’t sound so bad compared to what it would take to land one of the other guys.

Sale ($38 million through 2019) and Archer ($39 million through 2021) have value even beyond what’s left on their contracts. That would have to be matched by a bucket of top prospects in a trade.

Verlander and Greinke don’t have that kind of excess value on top of their remaining contracts. But if a team deals for either one, it would have to take on all or most of the $84 million (or $106 million if his 2020 option vests) owed to Verlander or the $172.5 million owed to Greinke.

Since going home without an ace isn’t an option, the choice before teams is to either pay a huge price for a sure thing or a lesser price for a lottery ticket. Gray’s the latter, and he could be a winner.

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

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If the Detroit Tigers start to tear down their aging roster and build for the future, second baseman Ian Kinsler will be an attractive piece for an opposing team.

Continue for updates. 

Dodgers Look at Kinsler

Thursday, Nov. 10

Per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, the Los Angeles Dodgers believe Kinsler is a potential fit for their roster but did not have any substantial talks with the Tigers during the general manager meetings this past week. 

The Dodgers do have an opening at second base with Chase Utley entering free agency this offseason and Howie Kendrick being shopped as a potential trade candidate, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. 

Tigers general manager Al Avila previously said the team would likely be taking a different approach this offseason by trying to add more young talent and create more financial flexibility, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press:

I can’t call it a rebuild, because we haven’t really broken anything down. I’m not comfortable with the word ‘rebuild.’ I don’t think that’s the right term. I’ve read ‘retool,’ but I don’t know if that’s the right term. I don’t know if there’s a term for what I want to do here. I really don’t. If you guys can come up with a slogan, let me know, and we’ll go with it.

Per Evan Woodbery of MLive.com, Avila said Tuesday the Tigers were willing to hear offers for players like Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera but were not actively shopping them. 

The Tigers do have an aging and expensive nucleus heading into 2017. Cabrera, Verlander, Kinsler, Victor Martinez, Anibal Sanchez and Jordan Zimmermann are all 30 or older. 

Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Tigers currently have $179 million in payroll obligations for 2017 before factoring in players who are eligible for arbitration.

Kinsler has an affordable $11 million salary with a team option for 2018 at $10 million, per Spotrac. He did have a strong 2016 season with an .831 OPS, but at 34 years old, it’s fair to wonder how many more peak years he has left. 

Because Kinsler’s contract falls closer to team-friendly territory than the longer-term deals for Cabrera or Verlander, it would make sense for the Tigers to dangle him in a deal to see if it brings back any significant bites from a team. 

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Detroit Tigers outfielder J.D. Martinez has become the subject of trade rumors this offseason.

Continue for updates.

Martinez Reportedly Most Likely Tiger to Be Dealt

Thursday, Nov. 10

A rival executive told Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports that outfielder J.D. Martinez is the Tigers star most likely to be dealt this offseason, citing his status as a free agent following the 2017 season and Detroit’s collection of right-handed power in the lineup. 

With Miguel Cabrera, Justin Upton, Ian Kinsler, Victor Martinez (switch-hitter) and Nick Castellanos, the Tigers are loaded from the right side of the plate.

Certainly, Martinez’s pending free agency makes him expendable. And Buster Olney of ESPN Insider reported in October that the Tigers would listen to offers on all of their players this offseason, even guys like Cabrera and Justin Verlander, franchise staples.

While Olney acknowledged that hardly meant the Tigers were about to embark on a fire sale, it was an indication that the front office was at least considering a mild makeover after the team failed to reach the postseason in 2016.

And general manager Al Avila already suggested the Tigers were interested in lowering their payroll and weren’t, at the time, interested in offering Martinez a long-term extension, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press:

I don’t foresee any talks of a long-term contract at this point. In saying that, we’re going to keep an open mind in what possibilities come across this winter, this coming summer. I’m not going to rule out that we wouldn’t consider a long-term deal, but sitting here today, we’re not thinking that way right now. Can’t say we wouldn’t be thinking about that down the road.

Martinez, 29, is an appealing trade chip.

He hit .307 with 22 home runs, 68 RBI and 69 runs scored in 2016. He was amazing in 2015, ripping 38 homers and 102 RBI. He’s sandwiched that breakout campaign with seasons where he hit at least 22 home runs but also played 123 games or fewer.

And based on Avila’s comments, it’s hard to imagine the Tigers won’t at least entertain the notion of dealing Martinez.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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New York Yankees catcher and designated hitter Brian McCann has continued to be the subject of trade rumors this offseason.

Continue for updates.

Yankees Deny That Trade for McCann is “Imminent”

Thursday, Nov. 10

Yankees general manager and senior vice president Brian Cashman indicated Thursday that “A McCann trade does not appear imminent,” according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network. On Friday, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan noted the Yankees are willing to pay half of McCann’s $34 million salary, but they want multiple young players in return.  

McCann, 32, has been the subject of trade rumors this week, with Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reporting Wednesday the Houston Astros were “pursuing” a trade for the veteran designated hitter and catcher.

Also on Wednesday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the Yankees were in talks regarding McCann with the Astros, Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals. So a trade for McCann might not be “imminent,” but it certainly feels like there is a healthy market developing for his services.

McCann Trade Won’t Be Easy for Yankees 

Trading him won’t necessarily be easy, however.

McCann has a full no-trade clause in his contract, is due $34 million over the next two years and reportedly “no longer wants to catch 125 to 130 games,” according to Rosenthal (it’s worth noting Sherman reported McCann still wanted to be a regular catcher). Gary Sanchez is locked into the starting role in New York, so McCann would remain the backup and the primary designated hitter if he remained in New York.

And indeed, those are three pretty tricky factors to navigate for the Yankees, and if McCann indeed would prefer a designated hitter role, it could make any National League team unfavorable. 

Well, any team outside of Atlanta.

“He calls that home and loves it in the offseason,” McCann’s agent, B.B. Abbott, said of the city, per Sherman. “He would look hypothetically at them very seriously if Cash is able to do it. If it is a team a little closer to home that has a chance to contend that fits X, Y and Z, Mac will look at it and determine if it is a fit.”

While McCann had a solid offensive season, hitting .242 with 20 home runs and 58 RBI, the Yankees certainly could upgrade at designated hitter. But McCann also seems happy in New York and would be content remaining with the club.

“He has always approached this as I am a New York Yankee until they ask his permission otherwise,” Abbott noted. “I don’t think this is a slam dunk that it happens, I really don’t. He made a choice to be in New York because that is where he wants to be and he got a full no-trade clause because of that.”

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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