MLB Rumors: Phillies, Blue Jays, Giants competing for Teoscar Hernández
The Mariners were busy on Monday, trading Paul Sewald to the Diamondbacks and AJ Pollock to the Giants. It does not sound like the front office is going to get a break going into the final hours of the MLB trade deadline either.
Trade rumors around outfielder Teoscar Hernández picked up on Monday with Jon Morosi of MLB Network tweeting that "a trade is increasingly likely before 6 pm ET tomorrow."
The interested parties are now on notice, including the Phillies, Blue Jays and Giants, along with at least another few teams that went unnamed.
Hernández is an attractive option for teams like Philadelphia, Toronto and San Francisco because of his power. He's hit 16 home runs this season. However, he's also a strikeout machine, leading all of baseball in that metric with 141. Those whiffs are contributing to a career-worst 94 OPS+ this season.
Then again, he's not so far removed from an All-Star season with the Blue Jays in 2021. So it's a race to the finish to see which hopeful can beat out the rest by the deadline.
MLB Rumors: Red Sox shutting down calls on Alex Verdugo
Trade rumors around Adam Duvall haven't gone away, especially with the Red Sox sitting the outfielder on Monday night against the Mariners. But Duvall isn't the only Boston outfielder who has been the subject of trade calls: Alex Verdugo also looked like a target for teams looking for left-handed hitting.
It seems the Red Sox aren't biting on the latter.
According to Bob Nightengale, "several teams who inquired about trading for Boston #RedSox outfielder Alex Verdugo were told the Red Sox plan to keep him through at least this season."
That's good news for Red Sox fans, and players, who would rather see Chaim Bloom and company buy ahead of the deadline than sell.
Of course, that wouldn't stop the Red Sox from moving forward with a Duvall trade. Being willing to part with Verdugo would make keeping Duvall all the more likely. Being unwilling to move Verdugo could be a sign.
MLB Rumors: Padres making Josh Hader trade impossible
The Padres were another team approaching the trade deadline in that tricky spot between buying and selling. All indications with the window closing are that they're buyers instead of sellers.
It's just that teams interested in a player like Josh Hader have had to draw that conclusion themselves rather than being told outright.
According to Jon Heyman, one "opposing team that recently engaged on Josh Hader suggested the Padres are pricing him high enough to believe the star closer is almost surely staying. The unpredictable Padres aren't saying officially."
So the Padres are at least taking calls on Hader, but it would take an offer they couldn't refuse to actually part ways with the coveted closer.
Hader was an All-Star for the fifth time this season. He has 25 saves with an ERA of 0.90 in 40 innings pitched. With that kind of production, it's not a surprise a team would need to sell the farm to geet him.
