Daily Clips
December 10, 2017
LOCAL
With Ohtani and Stanton off the board, is Eric Hosmer next?
December 9, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Revisiting the ‘James Shields-Wil Myers trade’ five years later
December 9, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Royals’ Danny Duffy is prepared to evacuate California wildfires if needed
December 9, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
NATIONAL
Got Giancarlo? Yanks go big: Stanton ovation!
Source: Deal reached sending Castro, 2 prospects to Marlins
December 9, 2017By Bryan Hoch/MLB.com
Modern Era Hall of Fame voting announced tonight
Ten candidates hoping to gain entry into Cooperstown
December 9, 2017By Mark Newman/MLB.com
Golden Valley baseball alum Scott Barlow nearing first shot at big leagues
December 9, 2017By Ryan Posner/The Signal Santa Clarita Valley
MLB TRANSACTIONS
December 10, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
With Ohtani and Stanton off the board, is Eric Hosmer next?
December 9, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Shohei Ohtani chose the Angels. Giancarlo Stanton appears headed for New York. Is Eric Hosmer the next offseason domino to fall?
That question could be answered this week as Major League Baseball convenes for its annual Winter Meetings at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. All 30 clubs are set to come together for a week of meetings, dialogue and, of course, offseason business. The future of Hosmer, the Royals’ All-Star first baseman, and his free agent teammates could be a leading story line amidst the maelstrom of chatter and rumors.
The deck was cleared, in part, on Saturday when the Miami Marlins reportedly agreed to send Stanton, the National League’s Most Valuable Player and reigning home run leader, to the Yankees in a blockbuster deal with league-wide ramifications. Stanton had previously said no to possible trades to San Francisco and St. Louis as the Marlins attempted to free themselves of the $295 million and 10 years remaining on his contract.
Once official, Stanton will join Aaron Judge in the middle of a fearsome New York lineup. The news of the deal first surfaced on Saturday morning, one day after Ohtani, the vaunted two-way Japanese star, stunned the industry by electing to sign with the Los Angeles Angels.
For weeks, the sagas of Stanton and Ohtani had dominated an offseason landscape defined by a free-agent market in gridlock. On Sunday, attention will turn to a free-agent class led by Hosmer, outfielder/designated hitter J.D. Martinez and starting pitcher Yu Darvish.
The Stanton trade, however, could have a ripple effect on the rest of the offseason — and this week’s meetings, which industry sources believe could be chock full of moves. Will Red Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski respond to the Yankees’ addition by aggressively pursuing Martinez and Hosmer? Will the Cardinals and Giants, losers in the sweepstakes for Stanton, take that money and hunt for upgrades in the market? The answers could arrive this week.
The Royals, for now, remain in pursuit of Hosmer, their top offseason priority. The rest of their offseason, however, could be shaped by an assortment of low-cost, low-risk moves. The club signaled the strategy in the last week, signing pitchers Wily Peralta and Scott Barlow to one-year contracts. The tactic may remain in place whether Hosmer re-signs this winter or not.
While club officials have signaled little desire to reunite with third baseman Mike Moustakas or center fielder Lorenzo Cain — barring a significant shift in the market — the team views a long-term deal for Hosmer as more compatible with a rebuilding process that could take three to four years to take root.
But the question remains: Will the market for Hosmer remain in the Royals’ price range?
The answer could hinge on which suitors emerge across the next week. The Red Sox and Cardinals are still positioned as teams that need offensive help and possess money to spend. Yet, a surprise suitor — the San Diego Padres — has also emerged.
Hosmer reportedly visited San Diego on Thursday and met with Padres officials. The conversations could continue this week at the Winter Meetings.
Like the Royals, the Padres see Hosmer as a potential fit in a more long-term rebuilding process. Like the Royals, they have never signed a player for more than 100 million dollars. (Hosmer is expected to command offers in excess of $150 million.)
In fact, the Padres’ largest contract in franchise history is an $83 million extension awarded to former Royals prospect Wil Myers, who has settled in at first base. According to a report from The San Diego Union-Tribune, Myers has agreed to move back to the outfield if Hosmer signs in San Diego.
“He loves Hosmer,” one official told the Union-Tribune. “Wil wants to win and will do anything to accommodate a player like Hosmer.”
Revisiting the ‘James Shields-Wil Myers trade’ five years later
December 9, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Many Royals fans were furious five years ago Saturday.
The 2012 Winter Meetings had concluded a few days earlier and rumors were circulating that the Royals were poised to trade baseball’s top prospect — Wil Myers — to the Rays for veteran pitcher James Shields.
Myers was a can’t-miss prospect and fans wondered if the Royals were giving away what one day would be their best player for rotation help that could have been found in the free-agent market. Besides, the thinking went, Jeff Francoeur couldn’t be counted on to play right field again in 2013 for the Royals.*
*Turns out, Francoeur lost his job to rookie David Lough, who hit .286 that season
A refresher on the trade, which was completed on Dec. 9, 2012: The Rays received outfielder Myers, pitchers Jake Odorrizi and Mike Montgomery and minor leaguer Patrick Leonard. The Royals got Shields, pitcher Wade Davis and a player to be named (it would be Elliot Johnson).
The Rays were coming off a 90-win season in 2012, but they had missed the playoffs. The Royals, with Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer in their first full seasons, finished 72-90.
Royals general manager Dayton Moore later said he made the trade because it was time for the team’s young core to start winning games. Building for the future was over. The pitching staff needed an ace, and Moore thought he had it in Shields, who had 81 victories in his previous six seasons.
Moore was criticized for the deal, particularly because Myers was under team control for at least six years, while Shields’ contract guaranteed he’d only be with the Royals for two seasons.
A Yahoo story had the headline “Eight reasons why the Wil Myers-James Shields trade is a bad one for Kansas City.” A FanGraphs post trumpeted: “Royals mortgage future to be mediocre in 2013.”
Two other stories, in particular, capture the mood well.
Ben Lindbergh of Baseball Prospectus evaluated the trade for Deadspin and offered an insight that resonates today.
“This trade makes them (the Royals) more likely to reach the playoffs next season and possibly in 2014, too, depending on how quickly Myers comes into his own, but it seemingly lowers their ceiling in 2015 and beyond, even with Davis signed through 2017. The Royals won the prospect lotto, but instead of opting for the annual annuity that could have kept them in contention as regularly as the Rays, they chose to receive the lump sum and splurge. Even when they aimed high, they set their sights low.
“What the Myers trade seems to suggest is that the Royals are counting on their competitive window to close ...”
As it turns out, the Royals broke through the ceiling with the World Series title in 2015. However, we’ve reached the end of 2017 and the Royals are planning for the possibility that their window is shut for the foreseeable future as a core group of players, led by Hosmer and Moustakas, tests free-agency.
Meanwhile, the Rays’ expected boon never materialized as they have failed to reach the .500 mark the past four seasons.
Rany Jazayerli assessed the trade for the now-departed Grantland and said it rivaled the awful Mark Teixeira deal made by the Atlanta Braves in 2007.
“This is a terrible trade for the Royals, deeply flawed in both its theory and execution, and while it might make the Royals marginally more likely to make the playoffs in 2013, it does irreparable damage to their chances of building a perennial winner,” Jazayerli wrote.
You can debate whether the Royals were a perennial winner after the trade, but they won 86 games in 2013, claimed the AL pennant a season later and were crowned World Series champions less than three years after the trade was made.
The Royals won 80 or more games in five straight seasons (2013-17) for the first time since 1976-80. While a rebuilding project appears imminent and sooner than fans would have liked, the trade seemed to accelerate the Royals’ winning ways. It’s impossible to know if that would have been the case if the team had kept Myers.
Moore downplays talk about one team winning a trade. He likes to think a deal can benefit both sides, but the Royals’ fortunes clearly turned after this blockbuster.
Here are the teams’ records since the trade (*made playoffs):
2013: Rays 92-71*, Royals 86-76
2014: Rays 77-85, Royals 89-73*
2015: Rays 80-82, Royals 95-67*
2016: Rays 68-94, Royals 81-81
2017: Rays 80-82, Royals 80-82
Here is what happened to the players after the trade:
James Shields
The Royals knew that Shields’ contract would expire after two seasons, and he was solid performer during his time in Kansas City. He was 27-17 with a 3.18 ERA, 1.209 WHIP and 376 strikeouts in 455 2/3 innings. He led the league in starts both seasons (34 each year). He finished 11th in Cy Young voting in 2013 and was 18th in MVP voting the next year.
Shields started five games in the 2014 postseason, including the Wild Card Game against the A’s.
After the 2014 season, Shields signed a free-agent deal with the Padres and was traded to the White Sox during the 2016 season.
Wade Davis
After making 24 starts for the Royals in 2013, Davis was sent to the bullpen in August and, well, no one could have expected the astonishing results.
Davis finished 2013 with an 0.90 ERA (one earned run allowed in 10 innings) in seven appearances. The following season, Davis had a 1.00 ERA with 109 strikeouts in 72 innings, and he finished eighth in Cy Young voting.
In 2015, Davis took over the closer’s role after Greg Holland’s injury in the summer and had an 0.94 ERA with 17 saves. Davis was sixth in Cy Young voting, received an MVP vote, made the first of three straight All-Star Game appearances and closed out the 2015 World Series for the Royals.
When the trade was announced, it was known as the “Wil Myers trade,” the “James Shields trade” or some combination. By 2015, it was known as the “Wade Davis trade,” because of his brilliance.
After the 2016 season, the Royals traded him to the Cubs for Jorge Soler in what Kansas City fans call “The $#@$% Trade,” but that’s another story.
Wil Myers
As expected, Myers made his big-league debut in 2013 with the Rays and hit .293 with 13 homers and 23 doubles in 373 plate appearances. He won the Rookie of the Year award. Then came the unexpected: a sophomore slump followed by a trade to the Padres before the 2015 season.
What irked so many Royals fans about the trade in 2013 was the team was giving up long-term club control of Myers, but then the Rays traded him after two seasons. While not a superstar, he has found his stride the last two seasons in San Diego.
Myers has averaged 29 homers and 29 doubles in each of the last two seasons with the Padres and he was an All-Star at first base in 2016. Earlier this year, Myers signed a six-year, $83 million contract extension that will keep him in San Diego through 2022.
In an odd twist, Myers and Shields were Padres teammates for a season and a half.
Jake Odorizzi
After making a pair of starts for the Royals in 2012, Odorizzi appeared in seven games the following season with the Rays. Since 2014, he has been a main member of Tampa Bay’s rotation.
Odorizzi has made 120 starts and has a 40-36 record with a 3.81 ERA, 617 strikeouts and 220 walks in 668 1/3 innings over the past four seasons with the Rays. Not great numbers, but he’s been a dependable starter.
Mike Montgomery
Once seen as being part of the wave of prospects who could reverse the Royals’ fortunes, Montgomery never got that chance. Nor did he pitch for the Rays. They traded Montgomery to the Mariners ahead of the 2015 season, and he made 16 starts for Seattle and had a 4.60 ERA with two shutouts, which tied for the league most.
In 2016, Montgomery mostly pitched out of the bullpen for the Mariners, who traded him to the Cubs midseason and he won the World Series that fall. In fact, Montgomery was on the mound when Chicago closed out the series and he got the save in Game 7.
Elliot Johnson
Johnson batted .179 in 173 plate appearances for the Royals, and he played second base, shortstop, third base, left field and right field. After the Royals released Johnson in August 2013, he signed the Braves and appeared in the divisional series against the Dodgers. The following season, Johnson played a handful of games with the Indians before his career came to an end.
Patrick Leonard
More than five years after the trade, Leonard is someone who could still help the Rays. Leonard had just completed Rookie League play when the Royals traded him. He’s slowly made his way up the minors for the Rays, and he was a Class AAA All-Star for Durham last season. Leonard hit .268 with 32 doubles, 12 homers and 70 RBIs in 131 games in 2017. Originally a third baseman, Leonard has also played first base, shortstop, left field and right field in the minors.
Royals’ Danny Duffy is prepared to evacuate California wildfires if needed
December 9, 2017By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
The horrific images from the California wildfires have been, unfortunately, ever present this week.
More than 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate the fires, which are raging around Los Angeles. The Thomas Fire has been burning near Santa Barbara, which is about an hour’s drive south of Lompoc, Calif.
Lompoc is the hometown of Royals’ pitcher Danny Duffy and he has been tweeting photos of the fire, which seemed safely in the distance.
The sky didn’t look great in that video, and that was before the winds had shifted later in the week. That led to a sharp decline in the air quality, as Duffy referenced in a tweet on Friday from Santa Barbara (while making a “Breaking Bad” reference)
(click link for tweets)
A few minutes later, Duffy tweeted more details about the danger: “Ash is falling from like snow, town over has boiled water only.. air quality is hazardous. Be prepared to bounce.. & dont leave pets!!!!”
NATIONAL
Got Giancarlo? Yanks go big: Stanton ovation!
Source: Deal reached sending Castro, 2 prospects to Marlins
December 9, 2017By Bryan Hoch/MLB.com
As they prepared to stand side by side at the T-Mobile Home Run Derby this past July, getting their swings ready to mash pitches toward oblivion at Miami's Marlins Park, Giancarlo Stanton remarked that Aaron Judge seemed to be like "the twin you've never met: everyone's comparing us to each other."
It made for fantastic theatre. No big leaguers hit the ball harder in 2017 than Stanton and Judge, and now the hulking power hitters appear primed to be part of the same lineup. The Yankees have reached an agreement to acquire the National League MVP Award winner from the Marlins, a source told MLB.com's Jon Paul Morosi, though the deal is still pending Stanton's consent and the Yankees' approval of Stanton's physical.
MLB Network insider Jon Heyman said early on Saturday morning that the parameters of a deal were "done." The teams have not confirmed a transaction.
A source told Morosi that Stanton is expected to formally approve the trade, and a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand that second baseman Starlin Castro and two prospects will head to the Marlins from the Yankees.
MLB Network insider Joel Sherman reported on Saturday afternoon that the prospects involved in the deal are right-hander Jorge Guzman and shortstop Jose Devers, the 18-year-old cousin of Red Sox phenom Rafael Devers. Guzman is ranked as the No. 9 prospect in New York's system, according to MLBPipeline.com; Devers is unranked. The 27-year-old Castro, who was an AL All-Star this past season, has two years and approximately $23.7 million remaining on his contract.