Jon Heyman, MLB Network 9:11 PM:
Red Sox are said to be trying to reconfigure the part of the Betts 3-team deal with the Twins (meaning more than Graterol). While there's still hope the mega deal gets done in some form, some involved are now suggesting it's not a certainty.Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic, 9:11 PM:
Talks between #MNTwins and #RedSox to resolve differences over value of right-hander Brusdar Graterol going slowly, sources tell The Athletic. One alternative is for #Dodgers to acquire prospect from another club to help bridge gap.Mark Feinsand, MLB.com, 9:37 PM:
Source familiar with the three-way Boston/Los Angeles/Minnesota trade said the sides are "making progress," and while a deal isn't likely to be finalized any earlier than Friday, it’s still "more likely to happen than not."Re Rosenthal: The Dodgers are going to try and get a top-shelf prospect from another club to finish this deal? WT-Fing-F? That's asinine.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Red Sox-Dodgers-Twins blockbuster trade hit a snag last night, when the Red Sox expressed concern over the medical records of Twins right-hander Brusdar Graterol.
[Boston] projected him more as a reliever than as a starter, according to sources involved with the discussions. As a result of that valuation, the Sox might ask for an additional player and/or money to bridge the gap, though it is unclear whether the player would come from the Twins or Dodgers, sources said. ...Mark Feinsand, MLB.com:
Graterol is one of two players the Red Sox are set to obtain for Price and outfielder Mookie Betts. Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo, the other player ticketed for Boston, has been cleared medically, sources said, even though he did not play after August 4 last season due to a back/oblique/core issue. ...
Graterol, 21, was out from May 25 to August 7 last season with a right shoulder impingement, but recovered to make his major-league debut in September and crack the Twins' Division Series roster. His fastball tops out at 101 mph, but the Twins viewed him as a future reliever, and the Red Sox evidently agree that he is not suited for a 150- to 170-inning workload, at least not right away.
The teams involved in the three-way Mookie Betts trade are hopeful that it will be completed today, per source, though it's not a certainty. Medicals are holding up the deal, as @Ken_Rosenthal reported, as the source said the teams are "working through some things."
6 comments:
SoSH response to the 9:11 update:
Salem's Lot
Well placed leak by Boston. Good luck selling to your fan base that hasn't won a World Series that anyone under 40 can remember that you lost out on Betts because you wouldn't part with a prospect like May or Downs to get this done Friedman.
OurF'ingCity
Yeah, I'm not usually much of a conspiracy theorist but I do wonder to what degree this wasn't Boston's plan all along: agree to (and leak) the initial trade, knowing you'll likely be able to find something in either or both of Verdugo's and Graterol's medical histories that you can use as an excuse to hold up the trade and build pressure on the Dodgers to give up a better or additional piece, knowing that the Dodgers now not only face massive public pressure to get the trade done but also have at least one other trade lined up that is contingent on this one going through.
brandonchristensen
In the unlikely event that this were true, I would love our new GM.
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Things to consider:
Not trading Betts now makes it extremely difficult for the team to get under the luxury tax threshold. if they cannot get under, Betts's 2020 salary would be effectively $40.5 million ($27 to Betts and $13.5 to MLB at the 50% penalty level).
Price needs to be traded now because he becomes a 10/5 guy at the end of the season. Waiting until the deadline is a risk because Price may not appear to be worth trading for at that time. After the season, they cannot trade him at all without his consent.
Alex Speier, Globe, explains how medical records are shared:
But it’s only after teams agree to a trade that their trainers make available their organization’s complete files on player medical histories. Those files include MRIs and other images, trainer notes, and virtually every detail about a player’s medical history since his entry into professional baseball — thus offering far more thorough information than is known before a trade agreement. ...
So, what then?
The Sox likely reached a conclusion about Graterol’s medicals on Wednesday late afternoon or evening — determining that he had a chance to remain valuable as a reliever, but that the chance that he would be a starter had been diminished, perhaps even eliminated. In that case, they’d be trading for a less valuable package of players.
Once that determination was made, the other teams involved in the deal likely would have to make their own assessments as to the accuracy of the Red Sox’ evaluation. So, more orthopedists and more specialists looking at medical files that might have to be physically transferred. The three-team nature of the trade increases the complexity of those dynamics.
At that point, the front offices of the teams could get to work in determining if there was another compensation package — for instance, Verdugo and Graterol plus an additional prospect — that would supply the Sox with their expected return.
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I snipped this earlier today. More SoSH:
curly2: There's a difference between a guy who is viewed as a reliever because he has only two pitches and not the three most starters need and a guy who is a reliever because his body will never stand a starter's workload. ... If the Sox thought they could teach Graterol a third pitch to make him a starter and found out from his medicals that he wouldn't hold up, than that's not Bloom's fault. And as has been pointed out, nobody on any of the teams announced this trade. Reporters found out through sources. The Sox aren't trying to back out of a done deal. It was always contingent on the medicals."
Red(s)HawksFan: "It feels rushed only because reporters have to race to be first and break news before it's ready to be broken, and therefore we know about it before all the Ts have been crossed. That, and this insane need to have all the info now now now now NOW when it's not all there yet."
BaseballJones: Both these posts are spot-on. None of the three teams broadcast this deal. It got leaked. Reporters HAD to report it first. Every deal is always contingent upon the medical exams. And I read yesterday that the guys IN the deal weren't even informed by the teams yet. So obviously they heard in the news but the teams hadn't informed them. So as far as the teams were all concerned, this was not a *done* deal yet.
I hope the trade goes through and Graterol does not turn into Wily Mo Pena
My take is Chaim slowing it down knowing LAD really want Mookie and seeing if he can get them to sweeten the deal a little bit more. Got them on the line and reeling them in nice and slow. Or something like that
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