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Saturday Links: deGrom, Torres, Sheffield, Triple-A

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(Adam Glanzman/Getty)

The Yankees and Orioles continue their three-game series later this afternoon, with the penultimate regular season game at Yankee Stadium this year. That’s a 4pm ET start. Remember when they played baseball at 1pm ET on Saturdays? Those were the days. Anyway, here are some notes to check out.

Mets needed top young players for deGrom

According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees were one of five teams the Mets focused on during Jacob deGrom trade talks at the deadline, though they weren’t doing a deal without getting top young players in return. That presumably means Gleyber Torres. The Mets also discussed deGrom with the Blue Jays, Braves, Brewers, and Padres, and Heyman indicates they wanted Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from Toronto and Fernando Tatis Jr. from San Diego. So yeah, the best of the best prospects.

deGrom has been the best pitcher in baseball this season and he’s under team control another two years, so the Mets were absolutely correct in demanding tippy top prospects. Not asking for Gleyber would’ve been negligent. I love Miguel Andujar, he’s the man, but I wouldn’t trade deGrom for a package fronted by Andujar. I’d need a better centerpiece and that’s Torres. If the Mets don’t contend next year, the asking price on deGrom could come down because he’ll have less control remaining and also because he probably won’t be this good again. That said, the Yanks-Mets blockbuster trade hurdle still exits. As I’ve been saying, I need to see these two teams make a trade of this caliber to believe it.

Sheffield could make postseason roster

File this under “it’s probably not going to happen,” but Aaron Boone did leave the door open for Justus Sheffield to make the postseason roster. “You never know how the next couple weeks unfold. I’m mindful of this time that a lot changes day to day, every couple of days, week to week, depending on need, depending on performance, depending on how guys are looking,” said Boone to Brendan Kuty earlier this week when asked about the possibility.

Sheffield, 22, made his MLB debut the other night and it wasn’t pretty, but he did throw a scoreless inning in a blowout win. There are nine regular season games remaining and I don’t see how Sheffield could do enough to make the postseason roster, even as an extra lefty. Six bullpen spots are already accounted for (Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Zach Britton, Chad Green, David Robertson, Jonathan Holder) plus I assume Lance Lynn will be in the postseason bullpen as well. There doesn’t seem to be room for Sheffield, but hey, stranger things have happened.

Sheffield among top IL prospects

In other Justus Sheffield news, Baseball America (subs. req’d) started their annual series looking at the top 20 prospects in each minor league earlier this week, and Sheffield was ranked as the seventh best prospect in the Triple-A International League this year. White Sox OF Eloy Jimenez, who the Yankees reportedly could’ve had rather than Gleyber Torres in the Aroldis Chapman trade, sits in the top spot. (Jimenez went to the ChiSox in the Jose Quintana trade.)

“Sheffield’s fastball worked 93-97 mph and he steadily improved his command of it, making it a true plus pitch,” says the write-up, which also mentions his changeup is too firm at the moment. He needs to create more velocity separation between his fastball and changeup. No other Yankees prospects make the IL top 20, which isn’t surprising. The Triple-A lists tend to be loaded with top 100 prospects and that leaves guys like Chance Adams and Erik Swanson on the outside looking in. (Mike King didn’t throw enough Triple-A innings to qualify for the list.)

Triple-A leagues to begin using MLB baseballs

Starting next season, the two Triple-A leagues (International League and Pacific Coast League) will begin using baseballs made to Major League specifications, reports J.J. Cooper. Major League and minor league baseballs are made with different seams and a different cover, and the Major League ball tends to carry farther. That’s why many young players (e.g. Gleyber Torres) come up and hit for more power in the big leagues than they had in the minors. The switch next year will approximately double what Triple-A teams pay for baseballs throughout the season.

It is kinda dumb MLB and minor league (and college) leagues use different baseballs, but it’s all about cost. Teams don’t want to spend more on baseballs than they have to, so inferior baseballs are used in the minors. At least now the Triple-A and MLB balls will be uniform. Offense will increase in Triple-A — the PCL league average was .270/.340/.423 this year and that’s only going to go up with the new ball, so that’s fun — thought at least it’ll be a little easier to put Triple-A statistics into context. I get the sense a lot of fringe MLB pitchers are in for a rude awakening in 2019.

The Yankees may have to work out a deal with a rival when the time comes to trade for a starter

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(Rob Carr/Getty)

At some point in the next two months the Yankees will trade for a starting pitcher. Who exactly? I’m not sure. I am confident it’ll happen though. Sonny Gray is still lost and no one really knows what to expect from post-elbow injury Jordan Montgomery. Even if Montgomery comes back and is great, the Yankees could still use another starter.

The big name trade target right now is Cole Hamels, mostly because he is an impending free agent on a terrible team, but also because people are sick of talking about Michael Fulmer and Chris Archer. The Yankees saw Hamels last week and he pitched well against them, and nothing gets fans’ attention quite like pitching well against the Yankees.

Other pitchers, including some surprise names, will jump into the trade conversation in the coming weeks. It’s inevitable. Happens every year. Good pitchers on bad teams is always the best place to start when trying to predict trade possibilities, and two immediately jump to mind:

  • J.A Happ: 3.84 ERA (3.44 FIP) with 29.5 K% and 47.9 GB% in 65.2 innings
  • Jacob deGrom: 1.52 ERA (2.11 FIP) with 32.8 K% and 43.9 GB% in 65.1 innings

The Blue Jays are a very distant fourth in the AL East and they are competing with no fewer than six teams in the Wild Card race. Happ is an impending free agent, so unless the Blue Jays make a miraculous run at some point before the deadline, one of two things will likely happen: Either they sign Happ to an extension or they’ll trade him.

As for the Mets, they have crashed back to Earth hard since their 11-1 start. They split yesterday’s doubleheader with the Braves to drop to 26-25 on the season. There are three teams ahead of them in the NL East race and seven teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race. It’s not difficult to envision them slipping even further out of the race going forward.

The Mets trading deGrom is, obviously, a much greater long shot than the Blue Jays trading Happ. Happ’s an impending free agent and they might loose him for nothing after the season. deGrom is under team control through 2020. Keeping him would be a very defensible move. Heck, he might go down as a top four Mets pitcher all-time.

If Happ and especially deGrom become available at the trade deadline, it goes without saying the Yankees should get involved. Both represent rotation upgrades and are pitchers any team could comfortably start in a postseason game. That’s what the Yankees are looking for, right? Not someone to get them through the season. They want a true difference-maker.

There is one small problem with the Yankees trading for Happ and/or deGrom: They play for rival teams. The Blue Jays are a division rival and intradivision trades are always tough. There’s a reason they’re uncommon. As for deGrom, it has been a very long time since the Yankees and Mets made a significant trade. Imagine one of this caliber? Involving a true ace? Goodness.

Trading with a rival is not impossible, just complicated. The Yankees have the young talent to beat any trade offer. They’re not at a disadvantage there. It’s just a question of whether the Blue Jays or Mets will trade with the Yankees, and if so, what’ll it cost? Will the Yankees have to overpay to make it happen? It’s easy to say that, if the Yankees make the best offer, the Blue Jays or Mets should take it, but we know things aren’t that simple. PR hits matter.

In a perfect world the Mets will continue to fall out of the race and make deGrom available. He’s my ideal trade target. He’s excellent and under control another two years. Tell the Mets to take any four players not on the MLB roster and call it a deal. If that doesn’t work, Happ would be a fine consolation prize (at a much lower price).

The trade market will develop over the next few weeks and I am certain a few surprise names will be made available. It happens every year. Happ and deGrom stand out as potential trade targets given their teams’ situations, though both guys plays for rivals, so the Yankees could have a hard time swinging a trade. Enough of a hard time that they may have to look elsewhere.