MLB trade rumors did a good analysis of the Blue Jays today. They're about $10-15M over the competitive balance tax threshold. Trading Turner and Kikuchi and Yimi Garcia would get them under the threshold. That's why they tried to give away Kiermaier this week. Adding Kikuchi now would put $4.7M on the Twins payroll, which should be manageable. The Jays are motivated to dump salary so he will go to the highest bidder.
I know someone else said a lefty isn't that important because other playoff teams have hit lefties but the Yankees are one of the teams where it helps to have a LH starter (20% worse vs LHP). The Yankees have a .525 OPS against Kikuchi in 63 plate appearances this year. Kikuchi has also been good vs the Royals and Ober gets destroyed by the Royals. Baseball playoffs are all about matchups.
Contract is improved = higher salary = lower trade value. Guys with NTC are typically going to return very little because they're being paid market value or will require they are paid market value as a condition of the trade.
I would rather send Julien to Toronto as part of a deal for Kikuchi. I'm sure the Blue Jays would love to have a Canadian player who can hit the snot out of the ball in Fenway.
An elite athlete can learn how to play 1B in about a month. I agree that being injured hasn't helped his play at 1B. He's also not as good of an athlete as many of his teammates.
1) Jenkins
2) Lee (though he's probably coming off the list soon)
3) Rodriguez
4) Festa
5) Matthews
6) Keaschall (OF, not IF)
7) K Culpepper
8) Soto
9) Morris
10) CJ Culpepper
I'm not sure which Culpepper Fangraphs will rank higher.
Andrew Morris is 22 and pitching great in Double-A, doesn't get noticed. Marco Raya is 21 and pitching poorly in Double-A, gets all sorts of attention. In Double-A it doesn't matter anymore where you were drafted.