Top of the Order: Mason Miller Lands on the IL Days Before the Deadline

Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.

With just four (!!!) days to go until the July 30 trade deadline, let’s round up some more news and developments from the last few days and discuss how these nuggets might affect what happens over the next 96-plus hours. Here’s the latest:

Miller Trade Could Be off the Table Following Injury

All-Star closer Mason Miller, the most tantalizing reliever on the market this deadline season, went down with an unfortunate injury this week, making it more likely that he’ll remain with the A’s for the rest of the year.

After pitching a 1-2-3 inning on Monday night, Miller fractured the fifth metacarpal in his left hand. According to A’s manager Mark Kotsay, Miller was getting treatment when “he was reminded that he had a postgame lift to get in. Out of a little bit of frustration, he just kind of pounded his fist down on a padded training table.” Miller was placed on the IL on Thursday, and there is no timeline for his return. While this is certainly better if he hurt his pitching hand, the injury surely depresses his trade value because he won’t be pitching for at least a few weeks. As a result, Oakland would be wise not to move trade this season; he is under club control through the 2029 season, and the A’s were going to move him only if they were blown away by the return package. Now that his trade value is down, the organization would be better off holding onto him and then shopping him around in the offseason, after his suitors have seen him come back healthy.

Mark Kotsay provided further details on Mason Miller's injury and confirmed he hurt himself in an act of frustration ? pic.twitter.com/A91iODwwEP

— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) July 26, 2024

The good news for the A’s is that they still have a handful of other trade pieces, such as slugger Brent Rooker and relievers T.J. McFarland, Scott Alexander, Austin Adams, and Lucas Erceg.

Diamondbacks Acquire Lefty Puk in Swap With Marlins

The first trade of the week came last night, when the Diamondbacks acquired lefty A.J. Puk from the Marlins for two prospects, infielder Deyvison De Los Santos and outfielder Andrew Pintar.

Despite never having started before in the majors, Puk began the season in the Miami rotation. This experiment of sorts failed miserably, as the 29-year-old had a 9.22 ERA across 13 2/3 innings as a starter before he landed on the IL with shoulder fatigue in April. He was moved back to the bullpen upon his return three weeks later, and he has been excellent in the familiar role. Over his 28 relief appearances, he has a 2.08 ERA and a 2.42 FIP in 30 1/3 innings.

The Diamondbacks have had one of the shakiest and most overworked bullpens in baseball this season. Their relievers have combined to pitch 403 innings, the fifth most in the majors, and posted a 4.24 ERA, 4.45 FIP, and 0.1 WAR. Puk is under club control for two more years after this one, so trading for him helps bolster the Arizona bullpen both now and in the future.

As Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice wrote in early May when they ranked De Los Santos 12th on our Diamondbacks prospects list, “De Los Santos has had plus-plus big league raw power since he was 19, but the rest of his game has been sushi raw.” The 21-year-old put up a 202 wRC+ in 38 games at Double-A this season before he advanced to Triple-A, where he’s hit .289/.338/.588 with 14 home runs and a 119 wRC+ over 210 plate appearances across 49 games. Pintar’s development has been delayed by injuries, but at one point he “had a rare power/speed combination for an up-the-middle college draft pick,” per Longenhagen and Ice. He had a 160 wRC+ in A-ball this season but has struggled since moving up to Double-A.

As expected, the Marlins are in full sell mode, and they have plenty of other relievers who could be moved before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline. Among their potential bullpen trade pieces are lefties Tanner Scott and Andrew Nardi and righties JT Chargois and Anthony Bender.

How Much Will the Reds Sell?

As this week comes to a close, the Reds are looking to trade at least one of their rental relievers, Justin Wilson, Buck Farmer, or Lucas Sims, according to Ken Rosenthal and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic.

But, at least for now, Cincinnati is not planning to sell at the deadline. The team’s decision, per Rosenthal and Rosecrans note, is more of a numbers game than anything else. Injured relievers Emilio Pagán and Ian Gibaut will be back before season’s end, and neither can be optioned to the minors. Trading away one or more of the three rentals would elucidate the roster puzzle and create a more seamless transition for Nick Martinez to head back to the bullpen, where he’s performed better this year. (Martinez holds a player option for next year and I’d say it’s currently a toss-up whether or not it’s exercised; he too could be on the move.)

Trading away a reliever or two, or starter Frankie Montas, wouldn’t do a whole lot to bolster the farm system, nor would it change the way the roster is built for 2025. But if the Reds decide to shop second baseman Jonathan India, the team’s future would suddenly look quite different.

India looked like he might be the odd man out in the infield entering spring training, but that was before Cincinnati’s depth on the dirt eroded following Noelvi Marte’s suspension for failing a performance-enhancing drugs test, Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s struggles and subsequent season-ending wrist injury, and Matt McLain’s long-term shoulder injury. As a result, India is once again anchoring the Reds lineup. He is posting his best season (121 wRC+, 2.4 WAR in 94 games) since at least 2021, when he won the NL Rookie of the Year award. Health has been a major reason for his resurgence, but he’s also playing better defense; he’s about average by OAA and FRV, though DRS is still down on him.

If the Reds do choose to trade him, knowing that their injured infielders should be back in time to produce next year, he’d be a good fit for the Yankees, Red Sox, and Mariners.

Crochet Tries to Leverage Trade Market for an Extension

In an unprecedented situation as best I can tell, representatives for White Sox ace Garrett Crochet are telling teams that he won’t pitch for them in the playoffs if they don’t give him an extension. They’ve also said he’d prefer not to pitch in relief.

What remains unclear is how this could or would actually work in practice. Crochet has every right to have and express his preference as to his desired role both in the regular season and the playoffs — if he pitches at all — but he doesn’t actually have a no-trade clause to prevent being traded to a team that would utilize him as it’d please. The most-analogous situation here is what happened with Josh Hader. While he was in Milwaukee, Hader worked with the Brewers to create rules regarding how they could use him. The purpose was to avoid overusing him in such a way that could put him at risk of an injury that would jeopardize his ability to maximize his earnings upon reaching free agency. The difference here is that Crochet, who is represented by the same agency as Hader, doesn’t have the same leverage that Hader did, especially not with just four days to go before the deadline.

The complicated situation, from my view, makes it more likely that the White Sox would hold onto Crochet instead of trading him, because at least some of the teams that might acquire him probably wouldn’t want to cede to the demands of a player who isn’t yet on their roster. Then again, maybe teams won’t care that Crochet is on pace to greatly exceed his previous maximum innings total, deciding it’d be better to let him go the rest of this season as a starter even if that means risking arm fatigue and injuries. These teams may think such a risk is worth it if it improves their rotations and their chances to win it all this year.

The White Sox will remain plenty busy at the trade deadline even if this prevents them from trading Crochet. Luis Robert Jr. and Erick Fedde are their other two most valuable trade pieces. On top of that, the South Siders would be wise to trade away Paul DeJong, Tommy Pham, Chris Flexen, and John Brebbia, all of whom are set to hit free agency upon the season’s conclusion.