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Chat With MLBTR's Steve Adams: 8/21/18
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Steve Adams
3:03
Nice of the Nats to line up the start of their fire sale with my chat today -- I'll have to send Mike Rizzo a fruit basket for giving us plenty to talk about.
King James
3:04
Is Harper staying?
Steve Adams
3:04
He is indeed. Sounds like the Dodgers claimed him, but the Nationals pulled him back. He'll get a qualifying offer for sure
And the Nationals will, of course, try to re-sign him
justin
3:04
Any chance Beltre gets moved?
Steve Adams
3:05
I think he'll stay in Texas, play one more season and if (when) the Rangers are out of it, maybe he'll green-light a deal next year to take one last shot at a World Series
Dave
3:05
Why did the let Matt Adams go over the Cards for nothing?
Steve Adams
3:05
They basically signed him for nothing this offseason after the Braves non-tendered him rather than basically paying him nothing.
3:06
1B-only types with significant platoon issues and no defensive value aren't exactly in-demand items in the current baseball landscape
They got $877K in savings from the waiver claim, and the Cardinals probably weren't interested in actually making a trade. The alternative was to pay that extra $877K and then let him walk for nothing.
Ethan Cushman
3:07
how will Matt Adams fit on the Cardnals?
Steve Adams
3:07
I wrote my thoughts on that in the post:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/08/nationals-trade-matt-adams-card...

Basically, they only have like one quality LH bat (Carpenter). Adams gives them another against RHPs
Thirdly
3:07
Josh Donaldson ends up signing a free agent deal with...?
Steve Adams
3:09
I think he receives and accepts a qualifying offer at this point. If you're the Blue Jays -- why not offer him a year at a $6MM discount from 2018's salary? His track record is well worth that type of gamble. And if you're Donaldson, you get a year to restore some offensive value in a familiar/hitter-friendly environment.

I assume Toronto will tell him he's going to move around the diamond some next year if he accepts, because they need to get Vlad into the lineup, but I don't see any reason to not make the offer just because Vlad is there
Having Vlad and Donaldson just gives them more depth and more talent. Make the playing time and the defensive alignments work.
Ike
3:10
Chances Harvey leaves Cincy?
Steve Adams
3:11
As in via trade/waiver claim? It doesn't seem like there's much of a market for him, but I'd guess it's something like a coinflip as to him leaving.

I don't think he's going to have a robust market in the offseason, and the Reds will want some veteran arms, so possible he just returns there on a one-year deal where he's obviously pretty comfortable.
Jay's fan
3:12
Who do the Jay's most likely trade in August?
Steve Adams
3:12
Clippard, Estrada are the likeliest to me
Kap
3:12
Do the Reds have the offense to compete next year, if at full strength?
Steve Adams
3:13
Offense isn't the problem in Cincinnati. They have virtually no rotation, and some of their relievers (Hughes, Hernandez) can't be expected to repeat their 2018 performance. I just don't see how they have anywhere near enough pitching, but Dick Williams seems hell bent on trying to be competitive next season. I think he's in for severe disappointment.
But we'll see what the offseason brings -- if he can add a decent veteran starter, trade for someone interesting, etc. ... things can perhaps turn around. Just seems like a lot of work to do for a team that won't have tons of cash to spend.
Baseball Guy
3:14
When is waiver priority order established? The Rockies passed the Cards on Sunday afternoon, I think, and that's the day Adams was presumably waived. Is it at the moment the paperwork makes it to MLB?
Steve Adams
3:15
Waiver priority on a given player is based on the standings at the time the waiver placement is processed. So if Adams was placed on waivers Sunday, Monday, whenever -- it's based on those standings. If they change during the 48-hour claiming window, that doesn't matter for that specific player.
But, say the Nats put Adams on waivers Saturday and Harper on Monday -- there'd potentially be different waiver priorities for those two players despite being waived by the same team in a relatively short period of time.
Azlech9917
3:15
What big move does the Cardinals do this off-season?
Steve Adams
3:17
I don't know if this is what you have in mind since it's a subtraction move, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they trade Jose Martinez. They've made it clear they don't trust him anywhere in terms of defense, so I'd imagine he'll end up on an AL club. As for a return -- some kind of bullpen help at the MLB level perhaps.

They'll try to dump Fowler as well, probably look at adding some LH bats to the mix, and probably try again to remake the back end of the 'pen
Jacob deGrom
3:18
Am I the Cy Young front-runner now that I have a winning record?
Steve Adams
3:18
I don't think there's one front-runner right now. I'd call deGrom, Scherzer and Nola the three likeliest.
3:19
Mercifully, I think we are largely past the point where voters are going to give too much credence to W-L record, but I bet some old-school voters would still use it as a tiebreaker of sorts and ding deGrom since Nola and Scherzer have impressive records.
3:20
I look forward to the day when we're not even tracking pitchers' "wins" and "losses" anymore, since I don't think there's any value to them outside of the player's own personal satisfaction and the archaic arbitration process. They're arbitrary numbers that tell you nothing about an individual's performance or skill level
Greg
3:20
Who is your AL/NL ROTY winners so far?
Steve Adams
3:22
It's Soto for me in the NL (sorry Acuna fans -- though he's great too and I wouldn't consider it a travesty or anything if he wins). American League probably goes to Andujar for me right now, which I did not think I'd have been saying three months ago, but he's improved his approach a bit and has continued to rake.
Bucs fan
3:23
Is it already time to be concerned about Archer?
Steve Adams
3:23
Nope.
You traded for 3.5 years of Archer. No point in judging the trade based on 3 weeks of data.
Tony Bernazard
3:23
Would the Indians have made a play for Daniel Murphy?
Steve Adams
3:24
I'd imagine so, yeah. But I'm frankly shocked he got to the Cubs -- not sure how all the other NL contenders let that happen.
Snell
3:24
If I can finish strong, do I win the Cy Young?
Steve Adams
3:25
He's going to have something like 30-40 fewer innings than top names like Kluber, Cole, etc. Bauer and Sale hitting the DL for a bit makes it more plausible, I guess, but 30 extra innings is an enormous difference-maker when you're talking the best/most valuable pitcher.
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