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Starters Jake Odorizzi of the Rays and Collin McHugh of the Astros continue to draw trade interest, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes, though he adds that neither is evidently close to being dealt.

With all the top free agent starters still unsigned, some teams are surely still waiting to see whether they can land a bigger fish before turning to these sturdy hurlers. Still, both are certainly accomplished enough to believe that they could be targeted as more than mere fallback options.

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All things considered, it seems clear that there's excess value in the rights to each player. Just how much and how much it'll fetch on the trade market is an open question. As Rosenthal notes, both teams are looking for something in return in dangling these established starters.

At the same time, of course, the Rays and 'Stros have reasons to move the players in question, largely due to the presence of other pitchers. In that regard, their availability has long been evident. Tampa Bay has long been said to be looking for ways to trim payroll and reallocate some resources; Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times wrote a few days ago that a trade is almost inevitable to take place at some point. In Houston's case, the club simply doesn't have an open rotation spot after dealing for Gerrit Cole earlier in the offseason.

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shano0603 said:

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For the free agent spring training. Bo Porter is going to be the manager.

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iBrad said:

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It's hard to stash a starter as rotation depth, especially if he's not good coming out of the pen. I think you get rotation depth from guys like Peacock and Devo, who have both had spot starts, or in the case of Peacock, extended stints in the rotation. You will also have guys like Martes and Paulino in the rotation at Fresno this year who could start when needed.

Trying to stick a guy in the pen who wants to start and probably could start for half the teams in baseball or more just doesn't seem like an ideal situation. I think McHugh will get traded and I think other clubs know he'll be traded. As injuries happen in Spring Training or obvious holes start to appear in rotations around the league, the return on McHugh will likely go up. We're probably getting lowballed at the moment based on our surplus of starters.

If we were are to trade McHugh, it would be nice to get the other team to take Sipp for a lesser return. Then maybe you go get a guy like Tony Watson who's still available.

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