The Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, and Orioles are among the teams interested in Tanner Scott.
Tanner Scott, the Marlins’ closer, has been attracting trade interest for several weeks, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, and Orioles are among the numerous teams interested in the hard-throwing lefty. Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic speculated this morning that Scott could be the next major name to be moved — however this does not necessarily imply that Scott’s trade is imminent. However, the Marlins demonstrated their willingness to act quickly on the trade market when they traded Luis Arraez only five weeks into the season, and power bullpen arms are among the most sought-after commodities on the trade market each year.
However, Scott alone is unlikely to bring in a large haul for the Marlins. He definitely has trade potential and should bring in some minor league talent, but the 29-year-old southpaw is entering his final season of club control and will be eligible for free agency at the end of the season. The Marlins were willing to pay down virtually all of Arraez’s contract in their trade with the Padres, and doing so on Scott’s $5.7MM salary could boost his attractiveness, but there are problems that go beyond the southpaw’s declining club control.
The hard-throwing Scott has always struggled with command, and 2024 is no different. Quite the reverse. This year’s walk rate of 16.8% is the highest of Scott’s career (save for a 1 2/3-inning debut in 2017). As reported here in late May, he’s been gradually reducing that rate since issuing a worrisome number of walks early in the season, but Scott has still walked 12% of his batters since May 1.
That’s not as concerning as a nearly 17% mark, but it’s still three percentage points more than the average reliever — and the difference between that number and last year’s career-best 7.8% mark is much greater. Scott’s swinging strike rate has also dropped from a monstrous 17.4% in 2023 to 13.5% this year, while his opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate has dropped from 36.1% to 28.8% — a likely indicator that he’s missing by a far bigger margin when he doesn’t find the strike zone.
Scott deserves credit for his recent excellent performance. He let up a walk-off home run to Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez yesterday, but those were his first two runs allowed since April 30. Since May 1, Scott has a 1.17 earned run average and a 32.8% strikeout rate in 15 1/3 innings. Overall, the southpaw has a 1.93 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, and 52.5% groundball rate in 28 innings this season. He’s also averaging 96.9 mph with his heater.
Scott’s trade value would have undoubtedly been better in the offseason, when he had a full year of club control and had just had a 33.9% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate in 78 innings, a career high. However, the Marlins made the playoffs last year and, while handing over their front staff and mostly idling throughout the winter, probably wanted to see if the team could play its way back into playoff contention. A disastrous 1-11 start to the season clearly addressed that question.
The Marlins could theoretically package Scott with another trade option, such as desired starter Jesus Luzardo, and try to extract a large sum by combining two highly sought-after players in a single transaction. They could also hope that by dealing Scott early, they will catch lightning in a bottle, like the Royals did last summer when they traded Aroldis Chapman in late June for current No. 1 starter Cole Ragans. (To be fair, Ragans was regarded as a buy-low option at the time, and the Royals should be commended for fully turning around the former first-round pick’s career. Hitting that kind of jackpot is almost probably out of the question, but that trade demonstrates that Miami could conceivably obtain some MLB-ready help in exchange for Scott — assuming the guy in question is seen as a project.
In terms of Scott-related teams, any of them would be a reasonable target. Every deadline when the Yankees are in contention, they stockpile bullpen arms, and they have a history of favouring ground-ball relievers and power lefties. Scott checks both boxes. The Orioles are more familiar with Scott than any other team in the league, having selected and developed him before trading him to Miami in a deal they would like to reverse. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is always interested in high-end velocity and does not need much aid in the rotation right now, so a deeper bullpen is a sensible priority. The Dodgers now have several famous relievers on the injured list (Brusdar Graterol, Joe Kelly, Ryan Brasier) and do not have a flamethrowing left-handed presence in their bullpen.
There is considerable overlap between the organisations after Scott and those apparently interested in White Sox closer Michael Kopech, which is understandable. Playoff aspirants always want to strengthen up their relief corps around the trade deadline, and with so few sellers on the market right now, the few teams that are ready to move could see heightened interest.
