Rumor buy or sell: D-Backs not willing to surrender another draft pick – CBSSports.com
Welcome to Eye On Baseball’s Rumor Buy Or Sell. With a nod to our friends at Eye On Soccer, we’ll crib their approach and break down the various trade and free agency rumors that come your way this offseason.
Rumor: The Diamondbacks are not willing to forfeit another high draft pick to sign a qualified free agent, GM Dave Stewart told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert. Here’s what Stewart said:
“We’re not going to give up the pick,” Stewart said of the D-backs, who have the 37th selection (Competitive Balance Round A). “It’s just tough after we’ve already given up our first pick. To give up our top two picks, that would be difficult for us to do.”
Background: Arizona already surrendered their first round pick (13th overall) to sign Zack Greinke, so that 37th overall pick will be their first selection in the 2016 draft. They’d have to forfeit that pick to sign one of the nine remaining unsigned qualified free agents. Here are the nine:
Wei-Yin Chen
Chris Davis
Ian Desmond
Dexter Fowler
Yovani Gallardo
Alex Gordon
Howie Kendrick
Ian Kennedy
Justin Upton
The D-Backs have already acquired Greinke and Shelby Miller this offseason, so we can probably rule out the three pitchers as possible free agent targets. The team also has a full outfield (A.J. Pollock, David Peralta, Yasmany Tomas) and the great Paul Goldschmidt at first base, making Davis, Fowler, Gordon, and Upton unlikely targets.
That leaves the two infielders, Desmond and Kendrick. The D-Backs currently have the all-glove, no-hit double play combo of shortstop Nick Ahmed (70 OPS+ in 2015) and second baseman Chris Owings (58 OPS+) with veteran Aaron Hill (73 OPS+) now in a bench role. The market for Desmond has been rather quite, though multiple recent reports indicate the D-Backs and Kendrick have had some conversations.
Buy or sell: Hard sell. I think the “we won’t give up a draft pick” thing is just a front and Stewart’s attempt to build some leverage in contract talks with Kendrick (or one of the other eight qualified free agents). How many times do we hear a GM say he’s not going to give up a pick? It happens every offseason. This is hardly a new tactic.
There’s no sense in going halfway in. The D-Backs paid big to get Greinke and Miller, and there’s an obvious upgrade to be made on the middle infield. Kendrick would be a slight step down defensively from Owings but would be a huge offensive upgrade. For what it’s worth, Steamer projects Kendrick for 2.4 WAR in 2016, and Owings for only 0.3 WAR. Two wins could easily be the difference between the NL West title and Wild Card spot next year.
I don’t know if the D-Backs will actually sign another qualified free agent — it does take two to tango, after all — but I do think Stewart and the team are very willing to give up that 37th overall pick. They’re just pretending they won’t do it.
GM Dave Stewart says the D-Backs won’t give up another draft pick to sign a free agent. (USATSI)
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
