Cubs Rumors: Athletics looking to unload reliever Blake Treinen
The Chicago Cubs have a glaring bullpen need and reports indicate the Oakland Athletics have placed former All-Star Blake Treinen on the block.
At season’s end, the Cubs saw three of their most important relievers hit the open market in Steve Cishek, Brandon Kintzler and Pedro Strop. While those three names rightfully garner most of the headlines, the team’s list of departures doesn’t stop there.
Chicago also parted ways with Derek Holland, Tony Barnette, Kendall Graveman, Xavier Cedeno, David Phelps and Brandon Morrow. Without additions, the club will enter 2020 with a largely unproven relief corps that would rely heavily on young arms and veteran closer Craig Kimbrel.
So it stands to reason the team will be monitoring the Hot Stove rumors intently in the weeks and months to come. The free agent market lacks a lot of impact talent when it comes to late-inning arms – so the Cubs might have to restock their bullpen via trade.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required), the Oakland Athletics are ‘discussing trades’ for right-hander Blake Treinen, among others, looking to alleviate a payroll crunch.
Although Treinen struggled a great deal in 2019, he’s one year removed from a historic performance – and given he has just one year of control left, he could come at a palatable price for teams minding their own payroll limitations, including Chicago.
Chicago Cubs: Which Treinen will we see come 2020?
If you hadn’t seen Treinen pitch prior to 2019, you might think I’m crazy for mentioning him as a potential addition to pair with Kimbrel in the late innings. The right-hander turned in a clunker of a campaign, eventually leading to his losing the closer’s job late in the season.
According to Baseball Reference, Treinen was worth -0.3 WAR this year – and it’s not hard to see why. His WHIP essentially doubled year-over-year, going from 0.834 to 1.619 and he saw his walk rate skyrocket to just under six walks per nine. That’s hardly a sustainable rate for a guy who gets the ball in high-leverage spots.
It wasn’t just walks that hurt the right-hander, either. He allowed base hits and home runs at a staggering rate, as well. No matter where he put the ball, opponents made more contact in 2019 – and they chased outside of the zone far less often than they did the year prior.
Treinen still has the velocity the Cubs are rumored to be targeting in arms this winter. He averaged over 97 MPH with his fastball – so the stuff seems to clearly be there. The only question for Theo Epstein and David Ross? Could the organization tap into it and get him back on track?
Chicago Cubs: Payroll is all that’s at stake here for the team
According to MLB Trade Rumors projections, the 31-year-old hurler will earn $7.8 million in his final pass through arbitration. That’s a notably steep price for the A’s to pay given his 2019 struggles and the fact they carried an overall payroll of just over $78 million last year.
Small market teams don’t spend 10 percent of their payroll on a single reliever. It’s just not a smart way to run a ball club in today’s world. But a big market team like Chicago, who spent well over $200 million last season, could absorb at least some of that money in a deal.
Of course, a trade depends on what Oakland is looking for: salary relief or talent in return. Rosenthal’s report makes it seem like they want to shed those dollars more than anything else. Which, if you’re the Cubs, could either make things simpler – or, if the team is working on strict payroll limitations, much more harrowing.
If this offseason proves to be as transformative as we’ve been led to believe, all options are on the table – and you can’t sleep on an arm like Treinen who, as mentioned, is just one year removed from a dominant campaign that, if recaptured, could provide a boost to the Cubs bullpen.