Here's your morning update, with a little over 30 hours remaining until the trade deadline.
Josh Willingham and Kurt Suzuki continue to be the most talked about commodities out of Minnesota. Here's what's been said over the last few hours.
Kurt Suzuki
Suzuki rumors haven't changed much since yesterday's reveal that the Orioles were "out" of the sweepstakes. I still find that a curious position, but going by Baltimore's lack of a playoff history over the last decade and a half I probably shouldn't be surprised. At any rate, Jayson Stark's brief mention of the situation jives with yesterday afternoon's news:
Teams asking the Twins about Kurt Suzuki are being told Minnesota hasn't given up on signing him, and it's possible the team could keep him past the deadline and revisit potential deals in August.
Suzuki doesn't seem like a great August candidate, because plenty of teams would like to bring in a catcher on a good season who they could they negotiate with exclusively for an extension. If the Twins' catcher doesn't go by 3:00pm central, tomorrow afternoon, I doubt he goes at all.
Josh Willingham
Mariners are talking with the Twins about Josh Willingham, sources say.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 30, 2014All contending teams need better players, whether that's in their starting lineup or coming off the bench. The Yankees are still in play, as Jon Heyman notes, but Seattle enters play today with the exact same record as New York. Both squads are two games out of the second Wild Card spot, while the Yankees are 4.5 games back in the East (behind both the Orioles and Blue Jays) and Seattle is out of contention for the AL West pennant by 11 games.
Seattle's situation is dire. Not just because their only path to October seems to run through the Wild Card, but because they have two healthy above average bats in the lineup (Robinson Cano, Kyle Seager). The Yankees have a bit more parity, although their veterans could hit a hot streak at any point. The Mariners don't have that level of talent on offense.
In any case, the more teams there are that focus on a specific player, the better off the selling team will be. If the Twins play their cards right, they should be able to swing a solid C level prospect from somebody for their 35-year old left fielder.