by With the Non-Tender Deadline approaching (or the Tender Deadline, if you prefer), I wanted to start tracking the interesting or notable moves we’re seeing in the competition. I’ll just keep updating this post on the fly…
- The Angels and Twins have agreed on a trade of Gio Urshela, with pitching prospect Alejandro Hidalgo returning:
- It’s a fairly modest return, even after Urshela had a nice recovery year in Minnesota (.285/.338/.429/119 wRC+). With Anthony Rendon in third for the Angels, is it possible that Urshela will be their shortstop? Anyway, of interest to the Twins:
- As long speculated, the Mets are going to cut ties with Dominic Smith tonight:
- There were rumors during the Trade Deadline that the Cubs could take Smith on as a bounce-back candidate, but only if it cost them more or less nothing. I wonder, with the cost being just a cheap free agent contract (if he gets a big league deal at all), would the Cubs see Smith as a backup plan at first base if they don’t bring in Jose Abreu? Pretty steep drop off there, but I think Smith could be interesting as a MAYBE option if the price was low and the Cubs’ other moves clearly show they’re counting on nothing from Smith.
- A pre-tender signing here for the Yankees:
- IKF was projected at $6.5 million by MLBTR, so he gets the comfort of not being tendered, and Yankees might get some cost savings. We’ll see more of these today, including a lot of small ones.
- Adrian Houser sat on the bubble as a non-tender candidate for the Brewers, but they made a pre-tender deal (at exactly the price MLBTR projected, meaning the Brewers just didn’t want to risk him getting more ):
- I’m going to ignore the Judge part for now (if you’re serious about Judge, don’t let Bellinger influence you one way or another), and instead note that the expectation of a Bellinger non-tender is growing:
- He needs to get well, but someone will take a recovery flier:
- Man. I still remember the first few times I saw Reyes pitch in the major leagues. He would become a superstar. But control problems and injuries derailed it.
