MLB Trade Rumors: Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners and Sonny Gray
By Jason Burke
The Sonny Gray sweepstakes could come to an end at any moment. With the coveted right-handed slated to start on Tuesday in Toronto, it would be wise for the A’s to find a trade partner in the next 20 or so hours.
The MLB trade rumors season is in full swing! Sonny Gray is the most talked about piece on the market at the moment, and he could be moved before games start on Tuesday evening.
The Seattle Mariners were getting a ton of buzz from their fan base as Kyle Lewis was removed from his game in the fourth inning on Monday night in Hi-A Modesto. Obviously he was pulled because a deal with the Oakland Athletics was imminent and they were going to get Sonny Gray, as was rumored earlier in the day.
Instead, it turns out that Lewis was injured, which effectively removes them from the Sonny Gray sweeps. Lewis is their top prospect, the only Mariner in the top 100, and the A’s front office needs to hit on this deal but also needs to be able to sell it to their fan base after trading fan favorite, Sean Doolittle, releasing another in Stephen Vogt, and then moving Sonny Gray. It’s a tough summer to be an A’s fan, and the only way that the team can sell this deal is by the return they get. Without Lewis, the Mariners don’t have enough to make it happen.
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Not 20 minutes later was it announced by Ken Rosenthal that the Milwaukee Brewers are fading in the discussions to land Gray. Brewers’ beat writer Tom Haudricourt tweeted that if this is the case, then it’s an indication they feel the price is too high.
It also can’t help that Milwaukee is just 3-7 since the break and has seen their 5.5 game lead over the Cubs shrink to just a half-game over that span.
For the Milwaukee Brewers to make this deal, they needed to be certain that they were ahead of schedule in their rebuild and wouldn’t need reinforcements from some of the players they may have to include in a potential deal with Oakland. Going 3-7 sure didn’t soothe those concerns, and pulling back from the trade table is probably a wise move at this point.
With Milwaukee and Seattle seemingly out of these discussions now, that leaves a few teams involved in trade talks. The Yankees, whom the A’s have been scouting from A Ball to Double-A recently, the Astros, who have been in the discussions the entire time and the Braves, who could be looking for a boost for this season and the next couple as their rebuild continues. The Cubs are still lurking and the A’s and Dodgers have trade history, so they’re certainly not out of the running either, especially with Clayton Kershaw set to miss some time.
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But moving Gray before he takes the mound in Toronto is important. If he gets hurt when he’s assuredly gone in the next week anyway, that could be a franchise-destroying injury for Oakland for years to come. Any ding to his value hurts the club long-term as they rebuild, so keep refreshing Twitter on Tuesday, because a deal could be imminent.
Isn’t the MLB trade rumor season fun?