Despite their preference to avoid rentals, the Blue Jays have always made the most sense for David Price. While most other contenders have solid enough alternatives — especially with the Dodgers apparently on the verge of landing two quality starters in one fell swoop — to avoid paying a premium price for a short-term upgrade, the Blue Jays rotation are not in that position, and after designating Felix Doubront for assignment, they don’t even have a #5 starter at the moment. So this shouldn’t be a surprise.

sources: blue Jays are making a major push for david price

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) July 30, 2015

Executive involved in bidding for Price believes #BlueJays may indeed be close to landing him. “Not going to go on much longer,” he said.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2015

The Blue Jays have the kinds of young talent that the Tigers will be interested in, given their short-term window; a pitcher like Daniel Norris could replace Price immediately, giving the team a starter for 2016 and beyond. There’s a natural fit on both sides here, so both teams should be incentivized to make a deal with each other.

The interesting thing will be to see if the deal expands beyond Price. While the Blue Jays line-up is already too right-handed, they do need a better left fielder, and the Tigers are going to trade Yoenis Cespedes, most likely. If the Tigers insist on getting an elite return, perhaps the two teams will work out a deal that upgrades Toronto’s two weakest spots at the same time. After all, if you’re giving up big pieces of your farm system for a rental, you probably shouldn’t stop short and still be rolling out Ezequiel Carrera in the postseason.

Perhaps another team will get involved, but no team has a real reason to bid more on Price than the Blue Jays do. It’s the fit that makes the most sense, and should probably be the deal that gets done.

Cole Hamels is finally getting traded. After having him on the block for the better part of the last few years, the Phillies have finally struck a deal to send Hamels to Texas, with the Rangers trading from their prospect stockpile to add a starter who they hope will help them get back to winning baseball in 2016. The deal, as reported by Evan Grant:

FInal deal and its a doozy: Matt Harrison, Alec Asher, Jerad Eickhoff, Nick Williams, Jorge Alfaro & Jake Thompson for Hamels+Diekman+Cash.

— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) July 30, 2015

In Thompson, Alfaro, Williams, Eickhoff, and Alec Asher, the Phillies get Kiley McDaniels pre-season #3, #4, #9, #17, and #23 prospects in the Rangers system, though that certainly underrates Williams, who has taken a significant step forward in Double-A this year. Thompson, Alfaro, and Williams are all likely 50 or 55 FV guys — Kiley will have his write-ups on the full return soon — who will probably rate in the back half of next year’s Top 100 lists, while Eickhoff and Asher are more depth pieces than impact talents. Harrison is in the deal to off-set some of Hamels remaining salary, so while the Phillies are also said to be including cash, I’d expect that the bulk of the pay-down of his deal comes in the form of taking the $28 million Harrison is still owed over the next two seasons.

The Rangers land a high-quality starter under control for the next three years at a discounted salary (especially when subtracting Harrison’s cost is factored in), giving them a leg up on improving their 2016 team without having to enter the bidding war for the free agent starters this winter. The Phillies finally kick off their rebuild with three solid prospects and a few depth pieces, though not the single elite talent they had been seeking previously. While I remain somewhat skeptical about the Rangers ability to turn their current roster into a strong 2016 contender, for this price, this is a deal worth making. And the Phillies had to move on from the endless speculation, so it was time to take the best deal on the table, which is what Ruben Amaro finally did.

Well, this is fun.

#Braves lefty Alex Wood would go to #Dodgers if three-team deal with #Marlins is completed, sources tell me and @jonmorosi.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2015

#Braves reliever Jim Johnson also would go to #Dodgers, sources tell me and @jonmorosi. Morse and compensation pick would go to #Braves.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2015

So instead of this morning’s “Dodgers buy Mat Latos and a pick” deal, this actually looks to be Dodgers give up as-yet-unnamed talent for Alex Wood, Mat Latos, and Jim Johnson, thus solving their pitching problems in one fell swoop. And while there’s no question that the Braves are going to get a significant return for the Wood/Johnson package, this will almost certainly be a cheaper alternative to the big-name guys the Dodgers have rumored to be in on; with Wood and Latos joining Brett Anderson at the back of the rotation, you’d have to think this would take the Dodgers out of the running for David Price or Cole Hamels.

I’ll say this for the new front offices in both LA and Atlanta; they certainly aren’t boring.

One of the most entertaining — or infuriating, depending on your perspective — aspects of the trade deadline is the very slow way news leaks out, one tidbit after another. Like a trail of breadcrumbs, deals get pushed into public consciousness one nugget at a time. Tonight’s trail? The Mets are working on a deal for a hitter. The breadcrumbs.

#Mets still working on a deal that apparently would really please fans if it materialized.

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) July 29, 2015

Told Mets are indeed very close to pulling off a big trade. No sense of who it is, but chance it’s a big bat.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) July 29, 2015

Mets working on a trade. Not sure when of it will be done, but there's momentum. Like others, hearing it's so called big bat

— Andy Martino (@MartinoNYDN) July 29, 2015

Too much smoke for there to be no fire. So, who are they going after?

Cespedes out, Reds not moving Bruce at moment, I'm told. Parra trade fell apart last week. Mets almost certainly not on CarGo.

— Andy Martino (@MartinoNYDN) July 29, 2015

#Mets have talked to #Brewers about Carlos Gomez, sources tell me and @jonmorosi. No deal appears close. NYM also looking at other hitters.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 29, 2015

Process of elimination seems to point to Carlos Gomez, Justin Upton, or someone we haven’t yet realized is available. And, of course, Upton and the rest of the Padres just happen to be playing the Mets at Citi Field right now, so if you want to believe that the Mets are so cheap that they waited to make a deal until they could save on the plane fare, then maybe you should buy into Upton being the guy. But since Gomez is under control for next year, and could fill center field if (when?) Juan Lagares needs a DL stint, he seems like a better fit for a team that is likely playing for a Wild Card berth than a rental corner OF.

Odds are we’ll find out in the next few hours, one kernel of information at a time.

After a few weeks of will-they-or-won’t-they speculation, the Tigers have reportedly decided that 2015 just isn’t going to be their year after all, and are going to start taking offers for pending free agents David Price and Yoenis Cespedes, among others. Price should be expected to command an equal (or likely somewhat better) return to what Johnny Cueto fetched from the Royals, while Cespedes becomes another option in an outfield market that is suddenly looking a little bit crowded.

The teams in the hunt for rent-an-aces have been pretty clearly defined, with the Blue Jays and Dodgers mentioned the most frequently, and the Yankees, Cubs, Giants, and Astros also a possibility. With Dallas Keuchel and Scott Kazmir at the front of their rotation, the Astros might not be as inclined to pay for a third lefty, which might make them a little too easy to match up against in a postseason series, so I’d probably put them on the outer edges of the Price market, but they reportedly made a run at Cole Hamels, so it’s not impossible to think they’ll pivot to make a run at Price as well.

I still don’t think the Cubs really should be in the market for a frontline starter not under control beyond this season either, as they have both Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta as legitimate options to start a Wild Card game and Game 1 of a postseason series if they reach those spots. Giving up significant long-term assets to bump one of their best players out of the only playoff game they might appear in doesn’t seem like a good risk-reward balance.

So for my money, the front-runners should be Toronto, LA (if they don’t get Hamels), San Francisco, and New York. But the deadline is often full of mystery, and no one saw the Jon Lester/Yoenis Cespedes trade coming a year ago, so perhaps we’ll see another surprise entry into the market to give Detroit the kind of short-term package they’re looking for. With Dombrowski stating that this is a “reboot” towards making their 2016 team better, this isn’t going to be about getting the best prospect package back, but about who can offer the most short-term help for the Tigers roster next year.

The Cespedes market isn’t as clear cut, as a number of teams could use another good outfielder. Considering that he’s having a better season than Justin Upton and the Tigers don’t have a qualifying offer to use as leverage to demand a certain minimum return in order to make a deal, teams interested in Upton may do well to pivot to Cespedes instead. The big losers in this news are likely the San Diego Padres, who might have just seen their interested buyers get distracted by newer and shinier objects up in Detroit.

Just one day after they acquired Shane Victorino to sure up their outfield, the Angels brought two more outfielders into the fold in separate deals. First, they acquired David Murphy from the Indians in exchange for infielder Eric Stamets. Minutes later, we learned they also acquired David DeJesus from the Rays for pitcher Eduar Lopez. Here’s the skinny on the prospects the Angels gave up to add these Davids into their outfield mix.

Eric Stamets

Stamets is a glove-first shortstop with very little power to speak of. He’s hit a weak .248/.306/.360 in Double-A this year, which is actually a modest improvement over his .235/.293/.314 showing from the same level last year. Stamets’ one strong suit is that he puts the ball in play quite often. His 10% strikeout rate is among the lowest at the Double-A level. The problem, though, is that those balls in play rarely result in good outcomes. His consistently low ISOs and BABIPs suggest he hits the ball without much authority.

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The Dodgers were known to be in the market for starting pitching, and this morning, it looks like they’ve added an arm to their rotation.

Source: Latos, Morse to Dodgers for prospects. At least one competitive balance pick also to Dodgers. W/ Latos off board Haren still in play

— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) July 29, 2015

Latos always seemed what likely to land with an analytically-inclined club, given his mediocre ERA but solid FIP/xFIP numbers, and his reputation for being a bit of an issue in the clubhouse, so perhaps we should have anticipated LA as a likely destination. What this means for the team’s reported pursuit of Cole Hamels remains to be seen, but the Dodgers probably shouldn’t stop trying to acquire another pitcher, given Brett Anderson’s health track record.

Morse being included in the deal doesn’t make sense from a baseball perspective, given that the Dodgers already have a strong bench that includes a bunch of guys who are better than him, but keep in mind that the Dodgers have been aggressively using their financial resources to buy prospects, and I’d guess that this is just more of that trend continuing; rather than giving up talent to get Latos, perhaps the Dodgers convinced the Marlins to take a nothing return if LA took the remainder of Morse’s contract, which has $3 million left this year and $8 million next year.

In fact, Wittenmyer’s report makes it sound like the Dodgers are actually the ones potentially getting prospects here, with the “at least one competitive balance pick” comment. If the Dodgers are getting multiple picks back with Latos, then adding Morse’s salary might simply be the cost they were willing to pay to do so. And of course, the Marlins seem to be continually more interested in cost reductions than putting a good team on the field, so this would fit their M.O. perfectly.

We’ll have a full write-up of the deal when all the details of the deal are known.

The floodgates are wide open, my friends. The latest trade to come down the pike is between the Phillies and the Nationals. This one has Jonathan Papelbon headed to the Washington Nationals in exchange for 22-year-old pitcher Nicholas Pivetta. Here’s what the data say about Mr. Pivetta and his future.

Pivetta holds a 3.02 ERA and 3.96 FIP through 101 innings this year, with most of those innings coming at the High-A level. The Nationals bumped Pivetta up to Double-A a couple of weeks ago, where he’s gotten shellacked in three starts. Both his ERA and FIP are north of 7.00 through 15 Double-A innings.

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The Royals have struck again. First, they pried Johnny Cueto from the Reds for young arms Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb and Cody Reed. Now they’ve landed Ben Zobrist from the Athletics for two more pitching prospects — Sean Manaea and Aaron Brooks. Awful lot of pitching prospects changing hands these days. Anyway, here’s what the stats say about the young arms headed to Oakland.

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Yesterday, the Angels picked up Shane Victorino to serve as the right-handed portion of an LF platoon, presumably spelling Matt Joyce against left-handers. Today, though, the team imported two left-handed part-time outfielders, making Joyce particularly redundant. In a pair of moves reported at virtually the same time, the Angels have acquired David Murphy from the Indians and David DeJesus from the Rays.

Murphy and DeJesus are basically the same player; both are low-strikeout, gap-power types that provide roughly league average offense and are best used in part-time roles. For his career, Murphy has hit .274/.335/.433, while DeJesus is at .276/.351/.415. DeJesus is the better defender, so I’d guess that he’ll end up splitting left field with Victorino, while Murphy will serve as the strong side of the Angels new DH platoon, sharing time with C.J. Cron.

Certainly, neither of these acquisitions are major upgrades, but simply having decent performances from LF/DH will be big steps up from what the Angels have gotten from those positions this year. With the Angels making a strong run towards a playoff appearance, these marginal gains could end up having an impact in October.

To acquire the pair of platoon outfielders, they sent Eric Stamets to the Indians and Eduar Lopez to the Rays. Neither one was included in Kiley McDaniels write-up of the Angels top 19 prospects, though Stamet did warrant a comment in the others-of-note section. Here’s what Kiley wrote about him in the spring:

SS Eric Stamets – He’s an easy plus defender and runner and he’ll be in Triple-A next year, but the bat is light and there’s very little power, so the upside is utility guy and he may be more of an emergency, glove-first type.

Lopez is a 20 year old who hasn’t made it out of rookie ball yet, and has put up a 5.03 FIP in 33 innings this year. Suffice it to say that he wasn’t likely to appear on any top prospect lists next year either.

So the Angels basically got two decent part-time big leaguers for nothing of real value. These aren’t the sexiest additions of the week, but they should improve an Angels team that needed these upgrades, and they come at essentially no cost.