According to Anthopoulos, they agreed in principle around 3 a.m. around 12 hours after Dombrowski made the Tigers plans public and finalized the deal at noon Thursday.
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There were some other guys, but we really havent had a true No. 1 starter since Roy Halladay was here, said Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos, noting hed been sending feelers out about Price as late as last week.
But the Texas Rangers gave the Phillies their Nos. But this was the first domino to fall in a turn of events that saw the Tigers rotation go from a 3.89 ERA last season to a 4.50 ERA in 2015. The Phillies paid down $10 million of Hamels salary, too, because the goal in moving the former World Series MVP was to restock their system, not cut costs.
With Hamels destined to join the Rangers, the market for highly coveted top tier starting pitchers is comprised exclusively of David Price.
It also should be said the Yankees look at Price differently than they do Hamels. A pitcher like Price doesn’t come around at the trade deadline very often.
Most tempting of all might be Luis Severino, the system’s 21-year-old elite pitching prospect recently ranked by Baseball America as the 17th-best prospect in all of baseball, one spot ahead of the key player the Blue Jays used to land Price.
They did what wealthy people do: they paid for convenience.
The Major League Baseball trade deadline is so close, you can practically smell it. The days leading up to the deadline have been a whirlwind, with one big fish pitcher (Cole Hamels) being moved, three-team deals, and a weird situation involving two players with injury concerns and another left in tears.
Question is, will the Yankees make a move for one of them?
The Blue Jays had already traded away three minor-leaguers earlier in the week in a deal with the Colorado Rockies in exchange for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and reliever LaTroy Hawkins, so the club undoubtedly has a much smaller prospect pool than they did at the beginning of the week.
-Why did the Dodgers designate Michael Morse for assignment, and does this mean he could return to the Giants? He didn’t sign until after his senior year at Oregon State (he was a sixth-round pick by Toronto after being drafted in the 13th round by Cincinnati in 2012).
By designating him for assignment, the Dodgers are on the hook for Morse s salary unless another team claims him on waivers.
San Francisco can also potentially re-sign Price at the end of the campaign as they have the money to pull off a long-term deal. One of the scouts I talked to said Boyd actually impressed him more than Norris this season.
-So will the Giants do ANYTHING? Until 2015, his fielding-independent pitching statistics had improved every season since he was a rookie in 2009.
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The 2012 American League Cy Young Award victor becomes a free agent at season’s end with an expected price tag in at least the same neighborhood as the $155 million contract awarded to Jon Lester this past offseason.
