Kyle Glaser MLB Trade Deadline Review Chat (8/1/18)

Image credit: Chris Archer (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Twins/Getty Images)

Kyle Glaser: Hey everybody, hope you all enjoyed the wild ride that is July 31. Look forward to chatting with you all, let’s get started

Ryan (Houston): 

Did Houston overypay for Osuna and Maldonado? Seems like Houston did Toronto a favor and given the rate that rentals are going, seems like Patrick Sandoval was a bit high for a backup catcher who’s barely hitting .200 even if he does provide defensive value, no?

Kyle Glaser: They also paid a very high price for Ryan Pressly too, relative to other relievers on the market. There’s no question the Astros gave up better prospects than most other teams for similar players, but in the context of their championship window being open right now and the amount of good young players they have in the majors already, it’s understandable for them to have been willing to pay a little higher price than maybe some other clubs. No doubt, though, that when you look at what team gave up the best prospects on the whole, it’s probably the Astros, and they aren’t the team that got back the best veterans.

John S (Philly): 

The O’s return for Gausman was very light…is the only way to salvage it using the money to sign Mesa Mesa and then maybe flipping him for more prospects? They could have got more for him and Schoop, feel they sold low on both

Kyle Glaser: They absolutely sold low on Schoop, although if Villar bounces back and becomes the player he was in 2016 it won’t feel like a huge letdown. Gausman is the one deal they made that frankly made little sense, even if they sign Mesa (who they would keep, not flip). Given what other starters went for, that’s the trade the O’s made that is probably the most disappointing in its return. Shedding O’Day’s salary was part of the equation too, of course, but the O’s had already shed plenty of salary and needed talent more than additional salary relief.

Robert (Charlotte): 

Thoughts on the Jays trades? Thought they could’ve done better for Happ and Osuna (had they waited for him to pitch and restore his trade value)

Kyle Glaser: This piggybacks off my previous answer. While the Gausman return was light, overall the O’s did decently well for themselves when you look at the big picture of all their returns. You can’t say the same for the Blue Jays. They dealt Oh, Axford, Loup and Pearce and got projected organizational/up-and-down guys for them all, while for Happ and Osuna they got some guys with major performance/consistency issues (Giles and Paulino), only one guy who really projects as an everyday player, and that’s the veteran in Drury, and maybe one pitching prospect you really like (Perez). To trade six big bonafide big leaguers and get maybe three or four possible ones back, tops, is not a good tradeoff.

Bob (Best Coast): 

Seems like the Angels are stuck in limbo yet again. Moving Kinsler was fine, but when are they going to move a really big piece to catch up to the Astros?! If they can’t get any help for Trout its time to move him!

Kyle Glaser: Folks, it is never time to trade the best player in baseball in his prime in his 20s. There is no package worth trading Trout for that any team would actually part with. You have a player like that, you try to keep building around him, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Unless the Yankees decide they’re willing to give up Severino, Judge, Torres, Justus Sheffield and 4-5 of their exciting, high-upside low-level prospects on top of it (and they’re not going to do that, of course) there is no Mike Trout trade the Angels could make that will actually make them better, this year, next year, or two years from now.

Ryan (Detroit): 

David Paulino. Do you think his Starting Pitcher leash just grew longer or shortened in Toronto?

Kyle Glaser: It grew longer simply because Toronto needs starters, whereas Houston didn’t.

Wright (Baltimore): 

I wonder how you see the Orioles’ farm system stacking up after the recent trades. Is it top 10 yet? Thanks!

Kyle Glaser: We’ll have our updated organizational talent rankings up soon, and you can find out the answer then.

Norm Chouinard (Connecticut): 

Looking in hindsight since we know more about who was available and what they would bring, can you comment on the Mets keeping their starting pitching intact in the midst of a lost season.

Kyle Glaser: Holding on to deGrom and Syndergaard was the right thing to do. As we’ve detailed before, you never really get equal value for a true ace in a deadline trade, no matter how touted the prospects are. If the Mets could have gotten the package Archer got for Wheeler they should have done it, but if it was more of a Gausman or Happ package they did the right thing holding onto him. It’s rare to really ever know exactly what was on the table on deals that don’t get done, so it’s hard to put the Mets on blast for sticking with Wheeler and Matz unless we know what they were offered.

Matt (Seattle): 

I don’t get the Pham trade for St. Louis at all. Not only does the return seem light, but they trade from an outfield glut at the MLB/AAA levels and the major asset they get back is another AAA outfielder? If they wanted to get rid of Pham, why not wait until the offseason when they may have been able to get better value?

Kyle Glaser: Mark Saxon at the Athletic detailed some of the behind-the-scenes reasons for a trade there. On the surface yes, you are correct, but there’s often more beneath that has an effect on team’s decisions to part with a player.

Dustin (Phoenix): 

Now that we’re past the deadline, will you guys be updating the list of tops Orgs in baseball?

Kyle Glaser: Yup, stay tuned.

AJ Preller (San Diego): 

Hello Kyle, Was I being asked to surrender a bigger package then Pittsburgh ultimately ended up giving up for archer? Or was over valuing my hand? Seems like I was asked for more since I had more to offer

Kyle Glaser: Meadows and Glasnow > Hedges and Renfroe. Until we know who the PTBNL from Pittsburgh is, it’s hard to compare with Paddack/Patino as a third piece. But of the young major league guys alone, the Pirates had better players to offer, and that’s the better return for TB.

Danny (Richmond VA): 

Does Justin Williams gain any value in moving to STL? They seem to have a good track record of developing OFs with his skill set.

Kyle Glaser: No. He is what he is and it’s wait and see until proven otherwise.

J Bone (Missouri): 

Thoughts on the return for Tommy Pham? Seemed light.

Kyle Glaser: Kind of depends what side of the Tommy Pham fence you’re on. If you believe he’s the MVP candidate he was last year then yes, it’s light. If you believe he’s the player he’s been the entire rest of his career, solid but not exceptional, then a decent OF prospect, an intriguing lefty with swing and miss stuff and a hard-throwing relief prospect as the third piece is actually a pretty decent return.

Todd (Hesperia, CA): 

Was really hooping the Dodgers would get a little better upgrade for the bullpen than John axford(no offense John), are there any bullpen guys that could be coming up at the waiver deadline?

Kyle Glaser: Hello Hesperia! Lot of memories from my first job covering games up there. Fun times. Anyway, it’s tough because a lot of the bullpen pieces you’d want to add (Kirby Yates, Craig Stammen, etc) aren’t getting all the way through to the Dodgers on the waiver order. More realistically, the reinforcements are probably going to come from within from the guys currently on the DL (Cingrani, Fields, Garcia, Rosscup – although none have clear return timetables) as well as starters like Julio Urias, Dennis Santana and Hyun-Jin Ryu scheduled to come off the DL in Aug/Sept. Then again, it’s always possible someone sneaks through

Wes (Wautoma, WI): 

Oscar Mercado seemed blocked in STL. How do you see his fit with Cleveland?

Kyle Glaser: Mercado has every chance to end up being the Indians starting center fielder long-term. There is very little faith Bradley Zimmer will ever hit and Greg Allen is a fine player but best suited in a utility role. This is a deal the Indians will probably look back on and feel very good about. Mercado keeps trending upward and has every chance to be Cleveland’s guy for years to come in center.

KC (Atlanta): 

What is the expected improvement of Gausman after leaving the AL East?

Kyle Glaser: More than leaving the AL East, the massive upgrade in the defense behind him will help Gausman tremendously. He’s going from pitching in front of probably the worst defense in baseball (and FanGraphs does rank it as the worst) to one of the best with Albies, Swanson, Camargo, Freeman in the infield and Inciarte and Acuna roaming the outfield. That, above all else, will help Gausman tremendously

Andrew (Massachusetts): 

Hey Kyle how are you? I have been thinking about the Maldonado trade since it happened. Wouldn’t Maldonado been a better fit in NY with the Yankees? I mean McCann will be back to help the Astros staff, I know Maldonado can throw guys out very well but I think the impact is less for the Astros than the Yankees. Yankees could have put Maldy at Catcher and DH Sanchez when he comes back. That would have had massive impact on that staff and there would be no problem catching that staff, he’s caught Richards really well and he’s got nastier stuff than any of them. Do you think that Cashman is a bit reluctant to deal with Eppler because Eppler can probably get higher value out of him than any other GM or could the move by the Astros be to keep a player from a possible postseason opponent?

Kyle Glaser: Hey Andrew, doing well. Thanks for checking in. I agree there is definitely an argument to be made the Yankees could have used Maldonado’s defensive skills as much if not more than the Astros, but at the same time it’s understandable for the Yankees not to want to commit everyday ABs to someone who is as much of an offensive liability as Maldonado. Teams with GMs who are former colleagues deal with each other all the time, so I highly doubt any aversion to dealing with Eppler is the Yankees motivation there. Even with Sanchez currently on the DL, there is a strong argument to be made that Austin Romine is the better all-around catcher than Maldonado with what he can give you offensively, whereas with Max Stassi that argument is a little more specious. That has as much to do with it as anything. At the end of the day the Astros needed him a little more because of that, and, as such, it wouldn’t surprise me if the pitcher they offered was better than anything the Yankees offered, if they offered anyone at all

Kyle Glaser: Ok everyone, that will do it for today. Thanks for chatting, hope you all have a great rest of your week.