By Will Sammon, Patrick Mooney and Katie Woo
MLB Trade Deadline Watch is a collection of news and notes from our reporting team of Patrick Mooney, Will Sammon, Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal.
The Colorado Rockies plan to consider deals for some of their club-controlled players beyond this season, including starting pitchers Austin Gomber and Cal Quantrill, people familiar with the club’s plan said. Whether or not those players will be traded is unclear, though. The Rockies made a series of deals last summer but were inactive for a few years before that.
This market doesn’t have many sellers, though, giving the Rockies a chance to capitalize. Colorado (29-55) and the Miami Marlins (30-54) are the only two teams definitely out of the NL wild-card race. Miami has already made one major trade — in May — and will likely make others. Colorado is at least open to operating similarly to how it did last year, when it made five trades and addressed an area of need by acquiring seven pitchers.
Demand for pitching will be high, and the Rockies have a handful of interesting trade candidates. Rival scouts like Quantrill as someone who can help competitive teams fill innings competently. Quantrill is making $6.55 million this year and has another year of arbitration remaining before becoming a free agent after the 2025 season. Gomber, who is making $3.15 million, also won’t be a free agent until after the 2025 season. League sources also pointed to right-hander Ryan Feltner, who has a 5.82 ERA but some decent underlying numbers, as another starting pitcher who may generate some interest.
Colorado always struggles to pitch and has to be careful about covering innings for the rest of the season, even if it looks like it’s going to be a losing season, without rushing the development of young players. But some starters returning from injuries could, in theory, make it easier for Colorado to trade, say, Gomber and/or Quantrill. Kyle Freeland is already back, while German Marquez is expected to return in a couple of weeks with Antonio Senzatela behind him. Rotation changes will depend mostly on interest and offers coming to the Rockies.
In the bullpen, left-hander Jalen Beeks stands out as an obvious trade candidate; he will be a free agent at the end of the season. League sources said the Rockies could also entertain offers for right-handed relievers Justin Lawrence and Tyler Kinley even though both pitchers have ERAs above 5.00. Lawrence won’t be a free agent until 2029, but Kinley (8.02 ERA) is making $1.3 million and is under contract for next season at $3 million with a club option for 2026.
Veteran Ryan McMahon is someone opposing evaluators like, but Colorado likes him, too. His contract is relatively club-friendly, as he is guaranteed $44 million over the next three seasons. The expectation from league sources is that Colorado will get calls on both of its receivers: Elias Diaz, who is making $6 million this season and is set to become a free agent, and Jacob Stallings, who is making $1.5 million with a mutual option for 2025.
There’s no guarantee Colorado will make any deal involving any of the aforementioned players, and doing so would in some cases challenge its reputation for being reluctant to sell its pieces.
In an industry dominated by groupthink, the Rockies are often an exception, an insular organization with a curious sense of attachment to the players on its last-place teams. Instead of trading Daniel Bard at the 2022 deadline, they announced a two-year, $19 million contract extension for the closer, who was 37 at the time and in position to become a free agent after that season. Bard had one save last year and won’t throw a pitch this season as he recovers from flexor tendon surgery.
The Rockies could have traded Brent Suter last summer, saving themselves roughly $1 million on his expiring contract and adding another prospect to their minor league system. It wouldn’t have been a spectacular deal for a can’t-miss player, but Suter is a left-handed pitcher with significant experience in multiple roles. Instead of getting anything, the Rockies let him walk as a free agent and Suter signed with his hometown Cincinnati Reds.
This is an opportunity the Rockies should not waste.
The Cardinals are considering trade deadline decisions, but plan to add
With a 44-40 record, the St. Louis Cardinals appear to be well-positioned to add players to their club before the trade deadline. However, the organization has not made any definitive plans, according to sources familiar with the situation.
If history holds, the Cardinals won’t be selling. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak has sold once in his 17-year tenure, and reluctantly. St. Louis was 13 games under .500 at last season’s deadline and out of contention, but Mozeliak’s “fire sale” wasn’t much of a sale at all. Sure, the Cardinals traded five players (Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks, Jordan Montgomery, Paul DeJong and Chris Stratton), but all five were on expiring contracts. Mozeliak took nothing away from what he believed to be the core of his club, and he repeatedly stated publicly his desire to field a competitive team in 2024.
The Cardinals weren’t competitive early in the season. They were nine games under .500 on May 12, but they’ve since owned one of the best records in baseball. Their resurgence has propelled them back into playoff contention. What Mozeliak and management must address now is how much they’ll add.
The impending returns of Lars Nootbaar (oblique strain) and Tommy Edman (right wrist surgery) will be the biggest factors. Both players are expected to return around the All-Star break, with Nootbaar possibly sooner. But the latest setback for Steven Matz, who missed two months battling a bulging disk in his lower back, has opened the door to add to the rotation. Matz has been waived from his rehab assignment for the second time, and the earliest he can return is August.
There is a glaring lack of pitching depth on both the Cardinals’ 40-man roster and at Triple-A, an area the Cardinals will look to address this month. How aggressively they decide to do so will depend on how they close out the first half.
“At the trade deadline, you can always go to pitchers,” Mozeliak said. “There’s never been a year where you don’t go to the deadline looking for pitchers if you want to be a contender. But ultimately it’s going to be a question of how we look in two or three weeks from a health standpoint.”
Should the Cubs consider changing pitchers?
Tyson Miller sat on a dock on the shore of Lake Sammamish, pondering why the Seattle Mariners had designated him for assignment and wondering where he might land next. Since Seattle called him up from Triple-A Tacoma in April, Miller had been sleeping in a spare room at a lake house rented by Mariners reliever Tayler Saucedo. That arrangement lasted about a month before the roster crunch put pressure on Miller again. As the hours ticked by, he said, “I got a sunburn.”
In the 11-month span from September 2022 to August 2023, Miller had been selected by the Texas Rangers, claimed off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers, traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, claimed by the New York Mets and then claimed by the Dodgers. Miller signed a minor league contract with the Mariners last offseason and pitched well in nine appearances out of Seattle’s bullpen.
“It was an unfortunate time for players coming off the injured list,” Miller said. “I was the one who was left out.”
Now, Miller could go from oddball to highly sought-after player. The Mariners traded Miller to the Chicago Cubs for Triple-A infielder Jake Slaughter, a transaction that was notable more for the timing of the season’s start (May 14) than the names involved. But since then, Miller has posted a 1.53 ERA with a 0.623 WHIP in 17 2/3 innings, becoming perhaps the most reliable pitcher in Craig Counsell’s bullpen.
Teams are always looking for more pitching, but that’s especially true at the trade deadline, knowing that injuries could derail a season. The sense of urgency only increases now that trades of players off waivers are no longer an option for last-minute deals. With so many players on their roster performing below their expectations, it might make sense for the Cubs to explore the possibility of selling some of their players who are performing above their expectations at a high price, especially since they have a sizable group of pitchers (Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, Julian Merryweather, Mark Leiter Jr.) who tend to get activated from the injured list in mid- to late July.
Miller will turn 29 the day before the July 30 deadline. The Cubs originally selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 Draft out of California Baptist University, which at the time was a Division II program. He has grown to his full 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame. He has tweaked his slider to create a wider action and retooled his pitch mix. The Brewers, for example, last year viewed him more as a volume reliever than a late-inning option.
“It took me a while to find myself as a pitcher over the years,” Miller said. “With new teams, people tell you, ‘Try this. Try that. We don’t like this pitch.’ That kind of thing. I’m just trying to figure out who I am as a pitcher. The Mariners helped me prove that.”
(Top photo by Cal Quantrill: David Berding//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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