NL West

The San Diego Padres were apparently looking within the National League West for a potential deal before they traded for Adam Frazier.

ESPN's Buster Olney reported the Padres "talked internally about trading for Trevor Story and putting him in center field" prior to acquiring Frazier from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin reported Pittsburgh landed outfielder Jack Suwinski and shortstop Tucupita Marcano in the deal, while ESPN's Kiley McDaniel noted pitcher Michell Miliano is headed to the Pirates as well.

Asking Story, who plays shortstop for the Colorado Rockies, to play center field in the spacious Petco Park would have been a risky move for the Padres, but they also would surely be far more interested in his bat than anything else in such a deal.

After all, the two-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger is one of the best hitting shortstops in the league when he's at his best.

He launched 37 home runs in 2018 and 35 home runs in 2019, and entered the 2021 campaign with three straight seasons of batting .289 or higher. However, those numbers have taken somewhat of a dip this year, as he is slashing .242/.314/.427 with 12 home runs and 45 RBI.

Instead of Story, the Padres traded for Frazier.

The former Pirate was a first-time All-Star this season and leads the league with 125 hits. He is slashing .327/.392/.453 and was a rare bright spot for a struggling Pittsburgh club.

Frazier will now have an opportunity to compete for a playoff berth with the Padres and help anchor a strong lineup that already features Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado. That stands in stark contrast to the 38-61 Pirates, who are in last place in the National League Central.

One of the top available hitters is off the trade market after the Pittsburgh Pirates sent Adam Frazier to the San Diego Padres on Sunday, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

According to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin, outfielder Jack Suwinski and shortstop Tucupita Marcano will be headed to Pittsburgh. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN added right-handed pitcher Michell Miliano will also join the Pirates in the deal.

Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic reported the Padres will also receive $1.4 million in cash in the trade.

https://twitter.com/RobBiertempfel/status/1419434074335293440

Rosenthal noted the Seattle Mariners also made an offer for Frazier, one that did not require Pittsburgh to include any money in the deal:

Mariners also made offer for Adam Frazier and did not ask Pirates to put cash in deal, sources tell @TheAthletic. Pirates sent $1.4M to Padres in part because they value Marcano highly. If he evolves into Frazier type, Pirates get six years of him for 1-plus of Frazier.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 25, 2021

The Pirates are selling very high on Frazier at this point. He was named to the National League All-Star team for the first time in his six-year career. The 29-year-old is only making $4.3 million this season and has one more year of arbitration before he can become a free agent. 

With the exception of a difficult 2020 season, Frazier has been an incredibly consistent hitter throughout his career. The Mississippi State alum owns a .283/.346/.420 slash line in 608 games. 

The 2021 campaign has certainly been the highest point of Frazier's tenure in the big leagues. He's on pace to set career highs in batting average (.327) and on-base percentage (.392). He currently leads MLB with 125 hits and has 27 doubles. 

In this era of high strikeout numbers for players, a big part of Frazier's success is his ability to make contact. He's only struck out in 10.6 percent of his at-bats, fourth lowest among all qualified hitters.

Frazier is also a solid defender at the keystone with one defensive runs saved, per FanGraphs. 

Given the state of the Pirates roster and where they are at in their rebuild, Frazier likely wasn't going to be around beyond next season anyway. Moving him at this point, where the Padres have him for the rest of this season and next year, is a smart move for Pittsburgh's front office.

Meanwhile, San Diego is putting all of its chips on the table as they pursue a run to the World Series this season. 

The Padres have the fourth-best record in the National League (58-44). They also have Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado anchoring a lineup that just got stronger.

Frazier's ability to make contact and get on base at a high rate will be a huge boost for an already-deep Padres lineup.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts was placed on the 10-day injured list on Sunday with right hip inflammation.

Betts had been bothered by hip irritation recently, and he even opted to skip the All-Star Game to rest and heal from injuries. He has also dealt with shoulder and back injuries in 2021 that limited him earlier in the year.

The good news is the outfielder rarely misses extended time, playing 55 of 60 possible games during his first year with the Dodgers last year after averaging 148 games per season during his five full years with the Boston Red Sox.

The 28-year-old has developed into one of the best two-way players in baseball during this stretch with a resume that already includes one MVP, five Gold Glove awards, four Silver Sluggers and two World Series titles. He finished second in MVP voting in 2020 before leading Los Angeles to its first title since 1988.

Betts has remained an impact player in 2021, producing a .270 batting average and .876 OPS with 14 home runs in 82 games.

The Dodgers fortunately have a lot of depth and versatility in the lineup to overcome a short absence for Betts. Look for Matt Beaty and Zach McKinstry to get more playing time until the star returns to full strength.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer had his hearing for the ex parte restraining order filed against him moved to August 2. 

Law enforcement officials announced June 30 that Bauer was being investigated after a woman said he sexually assaulted her.

Mark Garelick, the woman's attorney, told TMZ at that time his client was granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Bauer. 

Per ESPN's Alden Gonzalez, Bauer's camp requested additional time Friday to prepare a defense "against witnesses and medical records that they say they only received recently." The hearing was subsequently delayed to August 2.

Bauer's agent, Jon Fetterolf, has denied the allegations made against his client. 

"Mr. Bauer had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship initiated by [the accuser] beginning in April 2021," Fetterolf said. "We have messages that show [the accuser] repeatedly asking for 'rough' sexual encounters involving requests to be 'choked out' and slapped in the face." 

Gonzalez noted the temporary restraining order against Bauer will remain in effect until the hearing is wrapped up. 

Major League Baseball announced July 2 that, in agreement with the MLB Players Association, Bauer was placed on seven-day administrative leave. 

MLB has since extended Bauer's administrative leave two additional times, most recently for a period of two weeks that will run through July 27. The league has the ability to request MLBPA for another extension. 

Bauer hasn't appeared in a game since June 28. The 30-year-old signed a three-year contract with the Dodgers during the offseason. 

As Major League Baseball's July 30 trade deadline inches closer, there's major potential for an arms race between the three leading contenders in the National League West.

Ironically, the leader of that particular pack might also be the underdog to win said arms race.

In San Diego, it's little secret (i.e., here and here) that Padres general manager A.J. Preller isn't afraid of making blockbuster deals. And in spite of the team's third-place standing at 56-42, ESPN's Jeff Passan reports that the Padres are willing to aim high for impact players even if it means surpassing the $210 million luxury-tax threshold.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, the defending World Series champion Dodgers are in second place at 59-38 and haven't been in first place since all the way back on April 28. Yet they're determined to bolster their chances by adding to their depleted starting rotation.

As Mark Feinsand of MLB.com wrote on Monday: "I could see just about any available starting pitcher winding up with the Dodgers. There’s urgency there."

As for the San Francisco Giants, well, they've shocked just about every preseason prognosticator by going 60-35 to rise to the top of the NL West and all of Major League Baseball. Per conventional wisdom, that should have them adopting John Hammond's motto ahead of the deadline: spare no expense.

Whether they will, though, is just as fascinating a question as whether they should.

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The Giants Have Tons of Trade Capital...If They Want to Use It

If we can grant that there is such a thing as a "perfect" trade deadline buyer, it's one that:

• A. Has prospects to deal
• B. Has room to add payroll
• C. Has more than one incentive to win now

The Dodgers and the Padres certainly have that third box checked, but there's room for debate with regard to the other two. 

Though the Padres' farm system checks in at No. 8 in B/R's rankings, its actual depth doesn't look so great while left-hander MacKenzie Gore is saddled with a 5.85 ERA at Triple-A and shortstop CJ Abrams is done for the year with a leg injury. And even if they're indeed open to going over the luxury-tax threshold, the resulting penalties are surely a disincentive to do so.

For their part, the Dodgers' estimated $262 million luxury-tax payroll already puts them well over the threshold and therefore in line to pay especially heavy penalties. Even if they disregard that in trade talks, there's perhaps some question as to whether they have enough in their 11th-ranked farm system to go after the truly big fish on the trade market.

The Giants, by contrast, check all three of those boxes with aplomb.

Headlined by shortstop Marco Luciano, catcher Joey Bart, outfielder Heliot Ramos and left-hander Kyle Harrison, the Giants have a strong contingent of Tier-1 talents in baseball's ninth-best farm system. And we might even be underrating left-hander Seth Corry, who ranks at No. 84 in MLB.com's top 100.

At $158.8 million, the Giants also have a luxury-tax payroll that's nowhere even close to the $210 million threshold. And since they opened with a $200 million payroll just three years ago, they almost certainly can spend more.

Lastly, the Giants' win-now incentives are twofold. For one, they are winning now. For two, there's a ticking clock at play with starters Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani and veteran hitters Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt all due for free agency at the end of the season.

At least on paper, the Giants thus look like a team that can and surely can't wait to make a blockbuster deal or two. But in actuality, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi indicated to Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area that his approach will be of the restrained variety:

We feel really good about the way we're playing. If there's the right opportunity to add to this team, I think we have a little bit of a different mindset than we did in 2019. But I think we're still going to be careful with anything that's involving our long-term plans and some of the younger guys we have coming up that we're really excited about.

Because the Giants are looking at not only making the playoffs for the first time since 2016 but also playing deep into October for the first time since they won their third World Series in five years in 2014, this probably isn't what their fans want to hear right now.

One way or another, however, Zaidi may have the right idea.

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How Good Are the Giants, Really?

To be sure, the Giants' chances of snapping their five-year playoff drought must be taken seriously. FanGraphs, for example, put those chances at just 5.7 percent back on Opening Day. They're now at 94.7 percent.

There is a difference, however, between a team merely making the playoffs and winning its division. The latter is where the Giants still only have a 17.3 percent chance of finishing ahead of the Dodgers and Padres, so the road they're on most likely leads to a do-or-die showdown in the National League Wild Card Game.

Accordingly, the Giants' chances of going deep in the playoffs aren't great. Their chances of going to the World Series are about 8 percent. Of winning it? Only about 3 percent.

Obviously, these numbers aren't gospel. And yet they do create a sense that the Giants are playing above their heads, which works as a sort of justification for Zaidi's reluctance to put all his chips on 2021. He would run the risk of having misread his team's tea leaves and thereby destroying a future that he's been cultivating since he got the job in 2018.

Unless, of course, his public reluctance to go big at the deadline is actually a smokescreen meant to disguise how much he actually believes in his team.

To this end, Exhibit A that the belief in these Giants is indeed warranted is an offense that's produced a league-high 144 home runs and which has actually upped its collective OPS on a monthly basis.

This is impressive stuff for an offense that doesn't even have the benefit of the designated hitter, much less one that's currently without Crawford (oblique), Belt (knee) and Evan Longoria (shoulder) because of injuries. The first two should be back in a matter of weeks, while Longoria will hopefully be back by September.

On the other side of the ball, the Giants pitching staff is perhaps less than the sum of so many parts that have thus far added up to a 3.26 ERA. Yet they have both a genuine No. 1 in Gausman, who has a 1.84 ERA, and a genuine No. 2 in DeSclafani, whose ERA is at 2.78.

Whereas projections and playoff odds can only see the Giants for what they might be, what they actually are is an undeniably great team. It's not just their record. It's also their plus-121 run differential and their solid 23-17 record against winning clubs.

If this is the reality that the Giants ultimately choose to lean into at the trade deadline, they may well walk away with some of the market's top prizes.

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There's Good Stuff Out There for the Giants

Though Zaidi unsurprisingly wasn't making any promises when he spoke with reporters in early July, he nonetheless hinted that starting pitching would be his priority in trade talks:

Farhan Zaidi met with beat writers, said starting pitching depth remains biggest concern rest of season. Said Giants will have different deadline mindset than in past, but he really likes this roster & "we're still going to be careful with anything that impacts long-term plan."

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) July 10, 2021

Because the Giants don't necessarily need another top-of-the-rotation arm to complement Gausman and DeSclafani, this is one area where they might actually get what they want without having to sacrifice significant prospect or payroll capital.

But if they do want to go for broke, there are aces out there for the taking.

Atop the list of those likely to be moved is Texas Rangers All-Star Kyle Gibson, who ought to be well within even the Giants' most extreme price range. Though they're less likely to get traded, San Francisco could also potentially afford underrated Colorado Rockies right-hander German Marquez, Atlanta veteran Charlie Morton, Minnesota Twins ace Jose Berrios and even Max Scherzer, the Washington Nationals' three-time Cy Young Award winner.

Yet as Will Smith reminded the Giants with his walk-off home run on Tuesday, the club's biggest need is actually in a bullpen that lacks a true closer. That's where they might have a shot at Pittsburgh Pirates righty Richard Rodriguez or, even better, Chicago Cubs eight-time All-Star Craig Kimbrel.

On the position player side, the Giants don't necessarily need to add to the core they already have. Yet they might do it anyway because A) they might not want to take anything for granted with the health of Crawford, Belt, Longoria and other 30-somethings like Buster Posey and Donovan Solano and B) because more is always better.

Which is to say that there may be something to a report from Craig Mish of the Miami Herald that the Giants are a team to watch in the sweepstakes for Marlins center fielder Starling Marte. They're even a potential fit for Rangers slugger Joey Gallo, who would equip their lineup with even more power and Gold Glove-winning defense in right field.

Any one of these players would put the Giants that much closer to capping their surprising season in style. Accordingly, any combination of them would practically put that outcome within reach.

Since it's not a question of whether they can be, it's really one of just how bold the Giants want to be over the next nine days.

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Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.

The defending champions are reportedly on the lookout for more pitching as the July 30 trade deadline approaches.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com cited one source who said the Los Angeles Dodgers are "on the warpath" for a starting pitcher. Feinsand pointed to injury concerns for Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw, as well as the fact that Trevor Bauer is on administrative leave and Julio Urias has already thrown a career-high 112 innings.

"I could see just about any available starting pitcher winding up with the Dodgers," Feinsand wrote. "There's urgency there."

It's surely not a situation the Dodgers expected to find themselves in at season's start, back when there was at least discussion about a six-man rotation with options such as Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Bauer, Urias, May, David Price and Tony Gonsolin.

Yet, May is out for the season because of Tommy John surgery, Kershaw is on the injured list because of forearm concerns and Price has largely worked out of the bullpen.

The need for starting pitching is even more apparent because of how daunting the National League West race is with the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres. San Diego was widely seen as a World Series contender entering the season, but the Giants are in first place and entered Monday with a one-game lead over the Dodgers.

San Diego is four games behind Los Angeles.

It will take starting pitching depth to chase down the Giants and hold both challengers at bay down the stretch run.

Bleacher Report's Abbey Mastracco ranked MLB's top 25 trade candidates, and Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson, Jose Berrios, Danny Duffy, Kyle Gibson, German Marquez and Max Scherzer were all on the list as starting pitchers.

Perhaps the Dodgers will make a move for one or more of them before the deadline.

San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford is out of the lineup because of an oblique injury.

Per The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly, Crawford has been placed on the injured list with an oblique strain.

Baggarly noted Crawford is expected to miss 10-14 days. Jason Vosler is being recalled to take his spot on the 26-man roster.

Even though the loss of Crawford does sting, the Giants did receive some good news on the injury front Monday. Buster Posey was activated off the IL and will play in the series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Crawford has been one of MLB's best shortstops over the past five seasons. The three-time Gold Glove winner ranked second among NL shortstops in FanGraphs wins above replacement from 2015-18 (13.5), trailing only Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers (14.9).

Things didn't go as smoothly for Crawford from 2019-20, though he's been fantastic so far this season. He's hitting .286/.363/.546 with 18 homers in 82 appearances.

San Francisco seemed to be in a difficult position of trying to contend with an older roster when the season began, though it currently leads the NL West with a 58-34 record. The team still has a small margin for error in the same division as the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

The San Diego Padres apparently really want slugger Joey Gallo in their lineup by the July 30 trade deadline.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the National League West club "is practically panting for Gallo" and cited one source who said the Texas Rangers star is someone general manager A.J. Preller "might unload for" in a deal.

Gallo is scheduled for arbitration for 2022 and is not slated for unrestricted free agency until 2023, making him potentially more than just a rental for the Padres if they were able to acquire him via trade.

As for Texas, it is in last place in the American League West and doesn't look primed to compete in the immediate future. Trading someone like Gallo to a team that is reportedly desperate to land him is a quick way to restock the farm system and accelerate a rebuild.

From San Diego's perspective, he would add even more pop to a lineup that already includes Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth and others and would help in a daunting National League West that also features the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Gallo, 27, is slashing .235/.394/.516 with 24 home runs and 52 RBI this season as one of the best power hitters in the league.

He would provide a left-handed bat alongside the right-handed Tatis and Machado and has 11 home runs in his last 15 games. He seems to be peaking as the season progresses and would make life even more difficult on opposing pitching staffs.

That is a rather daunting thought after the Padres put up 41 runs in a three-game series against the Washington Nationals to start the season's second half.

For now San Diego is five games back of the Giants and four games back of the Dodgers, but Gallo is someone who could help close that gap and at least ensure the team ends up with a wild-card spot.

The focus for San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. shifted dramatically after hearing gunshots during Saturday's game against the Washington Nationals.

The game was suspended in the sixth inning because of a shooting outside of Nationals Park.

"Our family, loved ones, little kids. Feel like somebody needed to go get them," Tatis told reporters of his mindset at the time. "I feel like the safest place was the clubhouse, and we were trying to get our families into a safe place."

The All-Star shortstop added there was no longer a distinction between people inside the stadium and that they were all "human beings trying to be secure."

Nationals manager Davey Martinez was similarly fixated on helping those around him.

"There was a bunch of fans, they were in our dugout, and I wanted to get them safe as well," he said. "We got them in through the tunnel and got them in safely and tried to keep them safe. For me it was just about protecting our people and doing the best I can to stay calm."

A group of Padres players opened a gate along the third-base line that allowed fans to exit the stands and head toward the Padres dugout:

Here is the footage of Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Wil Myers helping fans when in fear (of the shooting at Nationals Park). pic.twitter.com/9ApuHIs4Oy

— Dan Clark (@DanClarkSports) July 18, 2021

"They thought maybe the dugout could’ve been the safest place, and they led and welcomed and guided people in there," Padres manager Jayce Tingler told reporters. "Couldn’t be any more proud to have those players a part of our team."

Police in Washington, D.C., said three people were injured in the shooting. Authorities are unsure about a motive for the shooting but don't believe it was connected to Saturday's game.

The game resumed Sunday afternoon, with the Padres winning 10-4.