While some fans believed they would see both Mookie Betts and David Price land in Los Angeles much sooner, there is some uncertainty lingering around the completion of baseball’s biggest deal this winter, as the Dodgers, Red Sox and Twins are still working to find a common resolution.
Specifically, the medical records of hard-throwing pitcher Brusdar Graterol have been the biggest obstacle in finalizing the trade.
The original scenario would have seen Betts and Price shipped to the Dodgers from Boston, outfielder Alex Verdugo sent to the Red Sox from Los Angeles, righty swing man Kenta Maeda sent to the Twins from Los Angeles, and Graterol sent to the Red Sox from Minnesota.
Additionally, the Red Sox were to believed to have agreed to send enough money to the Dodgers to cover half of Price’s three-year, $96 million contract.
After viewing the medicals of Graterol, the Red Sox saw something that led them to believe that the 21-year-old native of Venezuela projected more as a reliever than a starter. After being recalled by the Twins last year when rosters expanded in September, Graterol made 10 appearances, all in relief.
According to reports, all three teams agreed to the deal in principle last Tuesday evening, pending the results of player physicals.
Those familiar with the communication between all three teams still believe that a deal will be completed. As of Thursday evening, some felt that the Red Sox might be requesting an additional player and money to compensate for what they believed they lost in Graterol.
To complicate matters, the deal that would have seen both Joc Pederson and swing man Ross Stripling sent to the Angels in exchange for Luis Rengifo and an unnamed prospect is also on hold, as the Dodgers seemingly patterned that specific exchange of players on the premise that both Betts and Price would have been added to the Dodgers’ active roster.
Furthermore, Pederson’s arbitration hearing apparently began late Thursday afternoon. Reports suggested that a third party agent represented the outfielder instead of a spokesperson for either the Dodgers or the Angels.
Pederson earned an even $5 million in his age 27 season last year. Spotrac projected the Palo Alto native to make $8.5 million during the upcoming campaign, after which he will be eligible to file for free agency, assuming he is not extended.
Despite the complications, reporters who have closely been covering both trades feel that all deals could conceivably be finalized as soon as Friday afternoon.
Stay tuned for updates as they continue to develop.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Maybe the Redsox have engineered this whole thing just to squeeze another player or prospect out of either the Twins or Dodgers? Maybe the Dodgers should just drop the Twins from the equation and offer a Maeda plus a Santana, White or even Gonsolin to the Redsox. Then let the Redsox decide if they want to flip Maeda to the Twins.
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“Maybe the Redsox have engineered this whole thing just to squeeze another player or prospect out of either the Twins or Dodgers?”
I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe they heard the voices of protest by their fans. Who knows. But it’s Boston. You can’t trust anything out of Boston. True Lies and False Facts. Boston by Foot. Bill Belichick and Alex Cora as guides. See the Kevin McHale Clothesline on your visit.
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can someone help me to understand the Joc, Stripling, prospect sent to the Angels for the moment looks like nothing in return?????
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We’re supposedly getting Luis Rengifo, a speedy infielder on whom the consensus as to his value is generally good, plus either one or two other prospects. Probably not a good idea to analyze the trade until we see who the prospects are although admittedly the Angel system is not all that good.
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I don’t really like it either. It’s partly Joc becoming a free agent and ridding themselves of his salary when they have Pollock for LF. Now Rengifo was rated as the Angels #10 prospect in 2019 and will just be 23 later this month and we still don’t know who the other 1-2 prospects are. I also am baffled that we would sign injury prone pitchers like Wood and Nelson and then trade a more reliable guy like Stripling. Then we include Pages when we probably have less depth in OF than any other position. Like many trades time will tell whether good or not.
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If the Betts trade is consummated, and I believe it will be before the weekend is over, Joc is being moved as a salary dump. Taking on 43 million and not moving some salary puts them over the luxury tax. Trading Joc, Maeda and Stripling puts them right at 8 million under the tax. Pages is 19 and had an excellent year in the minors. Showed some pop. They must believe that both Wood and Nelson are healthy because they basically traded their swingman. Strip was comfortable in either role he filled. Maeda was not happy coming out of the pen, and I think that is part of the reason he was traded.
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I don’t like losing Stripling, but do like he will get the chance to start with the Angels. He always seemed like a great teammate, willing to do what was asked of him.
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I do not like losing Strip either. Nightingale reporting that the Betts trade will be finalized today. As for the platooning, we will see. Roberts rarely plays the same lineup twice. You might see Belli at first some with Kike in CF and Pollock in left.
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I’m not sure the Sox would want Maeda because of his potential salary hit (if he reaches his incentives). If they would take him, I wouldn’t have a problem adding White or Santana, but I would really try to avoid giving them Gonsolin.
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Well, as I said they can decide if they want to then flip him to Minn. for the guy in the original trade or he would certainly help their rotation if they keep him.
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Boston wants to keep Graterol. The hang up is that with his arm problems he has had, Boston no longer see’s him as a starter, and therefore place less value on him. So they want another player to offset that difference. So far the conversation is between Minnesota and Boston. But the Dodgers could be asked to pony up a prospect. Right now, most think it might be finalized before the weekend is out.
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Former Dodger and one time Milwaukee manager, Ron Roenicke is going to be the new manager of the Red Sox. They are waiting to make the formal announcement until after the commissioners punishment to the team is handed down. Dodgers first spring game will be the 22nd of February against the Giants at Scottsdale. And it will be on FOX sports net.
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One thing I am pretty sure of. Friedman wants and needs this deal to go through. It has raised the fans expectations, it makes the team better. And mostly it takes the tag of being timid in making a big leap away. This is the first trade in his 5 years where he has acquired a star player in his prime…
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Scoop did you go check out 247iptv yet? You’ll dig it and it’s cheap. You’ll probably become a cricket, rugby and badminton fan even, lol. You will be amazed at the global coverage of all sorts of shyte.
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Yep. I looked. I’m a no tech guy, does it mean I have to watch on a device rather than on my big screen? Felt like it. I don’t have a smart tv, though it’s no doubt smarter than I am. I’m willing. I watched on my mini iPad for about 4 years in Arizona. Not a bad way to go, I just prefer watching on tv. The fact we can’t still gnaws on me.
Machado was in his prime Bear. 25 years old that year, though it would appear he peaked early. As in age 23.
I’ve been at the clubhouse doing my pulls, bike work and jacuzzi time. Are the trades complete?
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Scoop… If all else fails, if your big screen TV has an HDMI port, you can always run a cable from your laptop to your TV. I watched many of the games that way for years through MLB.tv. Now, I just have a super-sized monitor for my desktop. 🙂
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A great piece in The Athletic where they “compare” the Dodgers with a team amalgamated of the best players from the other NL West teams.
Here’s a snippet:
Final verdict
Dodgers fWAR: 54.1
Best of the Rest of the West fWAR: 51.7
The Tally
Diamondbacks 6 players
Rockies 6 players
Padres 4 —players
Giants 2 players
Dodgers vs. the West’s Best
The winner is: The Dodgers win it by the margin of one pretty good big-leaguer — an Eduardo Escobar, if you will. That’s what happens when you have two MVPs on your roster, Betts and Bellinger…
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Jesus, you are pretty good at coming up with with some real interesting stuff, keep it up, thanks.😀
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I think Gonsolin can be the guy to replace chicken strip, maybe woods or Nelson, depending on who wins the starting spot. I like Strippling also, but I don’t think trading him away will hurt the team that much. I do think we are giving up to much in that trade, but I’m a shlemming, so in Andrew I trust.
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You may wind up correct that we’re giving up too much in that Angel trade but how can you decide before you see what the rest of the trade looks like? We don’t know yet if we’re getting one or two pieces besides Rengifo and we don’t know who they are.
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Dodgers win their arbitration hearing against Joc. He’ll get 7.75 mil instead of 9.5.
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That could help.
Not surprising to read the fWAR numbers considering we are expected to win the the West by about 10 games. When you have more Wins Above Replacements you will have more Wins Against the Rest of the Division. This is a very good team and will be better by the end of the day.
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Heyman saying that the Sox are telling the Twins they want a Twins Top 10 Prospect in addition to Graterol. Twins aren’t budging at this point. Could lead to a different third team getting involved, Dodgers just dealing directly with the Sox, or a total collapse.
If AF is forced to complete the deal as a two team deal I can’t see how Gonsolin isn’t involved in it. That would be a shame.
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I wonder if AF would still want to do the Graterol Maeda deal just with Twins. Sounds like the kid has elite reliever possibilities and seems like a good deal to get a top 100 kid for Maeda. Then we would see how important his medical S really are
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It would be a high risk, high reward deal but I would do it. Maeda really isn’t happy here because he knows that at some point every year he’ll be sent to the bullpen. Do him a favor a send him where he’ll be a starter only and take a chance on Graterol. I’m in.
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I’d like to keep him, but I would rather have Maeda and his 150 innings. I am fine with using Maeda to get Betts. That makes sense to me. But not for a guy who projects 30 innings and a 4.5 ERA.
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I can’t argue with your logic. I just think that guys who get shuffled back and forth between starting and relieving ultimately don’t turn out to perform to their best levels. It obviously bothers Maeda. It doesn’t seem to bother Stripling so I would prefer to keep him over Maeda if I had to choose.
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I’d rather Maeda wasn’t used out of the pen. It doesn’t seem fair to him, especially after signing such a team friendly deal. But the pen always seems to be in need late season. Will that ever not be the case?
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I mentioned the other day, that is was likely the Dodgers would somehow have their deals get screwed up, it seems to happen often over the years. So they will end up stuck having to give up more or having to taken now alienated players back onto the squad.
“Always look on the bright side of life” *Life of Brain, Monty Python (RIP Terry Jones)
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Ok Jeff I’ll hold my tongue on the joc deal until we find out who else we get, I do think it’s BS that the Sox are trying to pinch another prospect out of this deal. I bet the dodgers are going to end up ponying up someone, or have to pay a few mil more on Price’s deal.
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I don’t think the Sox care who they get the other prospect from as long as they get someone that they can show their fanbase. If it’s the Twins, fine. If it’s the Dodgers, fine.
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Taylor signs 2 year deal today.
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So that means they value Taylor over Kike which I think became obvious last year. I would be surprised if Kike was still on the team opening day I just think he gets moved. I hope I’m wrong I’m of the minority that loves his energy and versatility.
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He just doesn’t hit enough. .715 OPS last year. Dodgers will look to replace that.
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It means they avoid an arbitration ruling without paying him a ton of money. If you look at how they structured Muncy’s extension, you’ll see they’re only paying him $1 million in salary for 2020. Anything to stay under the cap.
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Check out the tweet from boras below, the Red Sox are trying to pull a fast one, probably because of the backlash of the trade. “ hey let’s use these medicals to get one more prospect out of this trade, so it will make us look better”. My thoughts of the conversations in Boston’s FO.
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It isn’t necessarily the smartest and the honest hard working that prevail. Look around. Ultimately it’s those willing to lie and cheat that come out on top. Boston knew what they were doing. Houston knew what they were doing. The model is right in front of us. Daily. I expect more of the same until the whole thing blows up.
I woke up grumpy.
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I’ll say Scoop. That was pretty cynical. There”s room at the top for the good guys. Look at Trump!😂
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Point illustrated.
Uncertainty abounds amongst we commoners. At least we have our principles. There is however no honor among thieves. And the thieves are in charge.
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Heading in to the 4th day of this trade fiasco. My question is, where in the Sam Hill is Manfred in all of this? Hey Rob, it’s time to take some action– as in TODAY. He needs to dial Bloom & tell him it’s today or never. Can’t imagine being Kenta, Mookie, or Price– am I going to Ft. Myers or Glendale?
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Manfred has no say in this. Manfred is a ghost.
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The details of these trades were leaked and we don’t even know by whom. It’s not as though Boston issued a press release, so what can Manfred do about a trade that was never official in the first place?
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“so what can Manfred do about a trade that was never official in the first place?”
Not much. Perhaps he could take a firm stance and make a public announcement – “please don’t do that.”
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As long as he says “please”.
If Bloom was told to do this by higher ups he needs to resign immediately. He wouldn’t have any problem getting another job in baseball immediately and by next year someone would offer him a GM job. In other words, he should do what is morally the right thing to do instead of what is necessary to save his job. (see what I did there Scoop?)
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I did. If only it were common. Obviously, it isn’t.
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The days of JFK’s proclamation Ask not….. are long behind us!
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I’m afraid you are right about that Rich. Nothing will stand in the way of the angry not stable inconsiderate transfer of wealth.
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Wealth drives people to do terrible things at times, but power (and the retention thereof) may be even more of an influence.
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I just saw that Minnesota is now out of the deal. Dodgers and Redsox are continuing to negotiate
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