Prospect Watch: Trade Deadline Stars

Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

Yesterday, Walker returned to Seattle’s rotation after he overcame a right shoulder impingement. With the Mariners’ success and hopeful wild card birth currently dependent on a handful of elite talent, he has been linked with a move away from the club. Most rumors suggest the Mariners could package Walker with Nick Franklin and others to acquire David Price.

The Mariners have exceeded expectations this season on the backs of Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Kyle Seager and new addition Robinson Cano but the rest of the team has holes. With General Manager Jack Zduriencik is near the end of his tenure, Seattle’ is willing to move Walker for an immediate upgrade.

Walker’s stock has been on a sharp decline this season. The foremost concern for any suitor is his shoulder injury. While an impingement isn’t a long term concern, the cause of the impingement — the force placed upon his shoulder by his mechanics — should have teams worried. The Mariners have slowed him down out of the windup and he’s lost some of the explosiveness that made him special. After being generally ineffective in his rehab starts, his average fastball velocity was down by 1.5 MPH yesterday and his command was erratic.

Once, Walker was a prospect that would headline a significant return, but 2014 has diminished his value. If Jack Z wants to add an elite talent to push for the Wild Card, he may need to gut the top of his system to so.