Samardzija, 29, went 2-7 for the Cubs with a 2.83 ERA this season. He has one more year of arbitration before becoming eligible for free agency. Hammel, 31, beat the Washington Nationals just hours before being traded on Friday. His tenure with the Cubs ends with an 8-5 record and 2.98 ERA. He will be a free agent at the end of the season.
Russell is one of the top-rated prospects in all of baseball, but a hamstring strain has limited him to just 18 games this season. The 20-year-old was hitting .333 in 58 at-bats for Double-A Midland at the time of the deal. McKinney, 19, was hitting .241 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs in 75 games for Class-A Stockton.
Straily, 25, is the one player the Cubs got with big league experience in this deal. He's made 41 starts for Oakland over the past three years, going 13-11. Seven of those starts were this year. He was ineffective, going 1-2 with a 4.93 ERA before being sent back to Triple-A Sacramento, where he was 4-3 with a 4.71 ERA.
I like this move by the A's. It's bold and uncharacteristic for them. They are usually the team stockpiling prospects, but obviously their front office senses their time to win is right now. They've got the best record in an American League that lacks a clear favorite, and adding two solid pitchers to their rotation could be the move that swings the pendulum in their favor.
And make no mistake about it -- Oakland needed to add something to its rotation. While the A's have been among the league ERA leaders all year, injuries have left them thin. Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin have been lost for the year. Sonny Gray is a good, young arm, but he's never pitched a full season in the big leagues. Jesse Chavez has been a nice stopgap, but I'm not sure he's the kind of guy you want to send to the mound to start a playoff game. Scott Kazmir has also thrown the ball well this season, but he hasn't pitched more than 158 innings in a season since 2008.
There are question marks abound there, and I think veteran workhorses like Samardzija and Hammel can provide the answers for Oakland. And, in Samardzija's case, he might get a new lease on life being paroled from the perpetually rebuilding Cubs. With this move, the A's will be in better shape to match up pitcher-for-pitcher against a team like Detroit in a short playoff series.
As for the Cubs, well, we'll see how this move works out for them sometime around 2018. Straily is still young enough that he could get better, but his track record suggests back of the rotation. He's the only one of these three guys we'll be seeing in the big leagues soon.
The reports about Russell are glowing, but obviously there are still a lot of development at-bats in the minor leagues in his future. McKinney is only 19 years old, and he's struggled in high-A, which is understandable because he's playing against older players in that league.
What's interesting about this deal from a Cubs perspective is they added another shortstop in Russell. Their incumbent shortstop, Starlin Castro, is one of the few legitimate big league hitters they've got. And, they've got highly regarded prospect Javier Baez waiting in the wings at Triple A at that position. Now, they've got yet another "shortstop of the future" in their organization.
Obviously, all three of these guys can't play shortstop together at Wrigley Field, so that means one of two things has to happen -- position changes or trades. The Cubs don't have much in the way of elite pitching prospects in their system, and I'm somewhat surprised they didn't get a highly regarded pitching prospect as part of their return for Samardzija.
But, now they've got a glut of shortstops. Would they trade one or more of these guys to restock their pitching depth? That would seem to make sense. We shall see.
Very strange that they take back no pitching talent and now have three "shortstops of the future."
ReplyDeleteI read something by Mooney I think, where Theo said that teams aren't going after pitching right now. It's all hitting because there is a lack of that at the prospect level. Sure. But you have to have someone go out there and throw the ball over the plate and not give up 5 runs every start.
What did you think about the Ortiz saying the Cubs need to reevaluate their schedule and take away all the day games? He was saying that is one of the main reasons the Cubs continusouly suck. I don't 100% agree with that, but it's also something that I think does affect players.
I think there is some merit to Ortiz's comment, but not a lot. There have been two occasions in my lifetime -- 1984 and 2003 -- where the Cubs absolutely should have made the World Series. All they had to do was not lose three in a row. Both times, they lost three in a row. Can you really pin that on the number of day games throughout the season? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteI will say this, though: I think the high number of day games is an adjustment for veteran players who come to the Cubs from other organizations. Take Moises Alou as an example. The worst season of his very respectable 17-year career was his first year with the Cubs (2002). He was better in 2003, and 2004 was one of the best seasons of his career. It is something players have to account for and adjust to over time.
That said, I don't think I'd blame decades of futility on day games. It probably causes individual struggles for certain guys, but I wouldn't pin collective failures on it.