LAS VEGAS — An All-Star starter to the relief-reliant Tampa Bay Rays, a Tanner-for-Tanner trade and a Scott Boras sighting.
There was lots of intrigue on Wednesday, the last full day of baseball’s winter meetings, but not much impact. The action was limited mainly to mid-level pitching moves.
Charlie Morton reached a deal with the Rays. The contract is for two years and $30 million.
Morton, 35, was a first-time All-Star last season when he went 15-3 for Houston. He had a 3.13 ERA in a career-high 30 starts.
Morton helped the Astros win their first championship in 2017. He started and won Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees, then was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with four innings of relief.
The right-hander joins a Rays staff led by AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell. The Tampa Bay rotation was beset by injuries this year, and the team often used relief pitchers as starters in their “opener” strategy on their way to 90 victories.
Just when the Texas Rangers’ pursuit of starting pitching ran into a road block Tuesday at the meetings, they finally had a breakthrough Wednesday.
The Rangers are in agreement with right-hander Lance Lynn on a three-year deal worth $30 million, a source said. Lynn spent last season with the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees in his second year after Tommy John surgery.
Lynn, who spent the first six seasons of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, is has proven to be durable, aside from the elbow injury that cost him the 2016 season. He made 33 starts in his return season from Tommy John and 29 last season.
Lynn will join a rotation that includes left-handers Mike Minor and Drew Smyly (Little Rock Central, Arkansas Razorbacks) and right-hander Edinson Volquez. There is still a need for more starters.
In the majors’ first swap of players with the first name of Tanner, the Washington Nationals sent Tanner Roark to Cincinnati for Tanner Rainey in a trade of right-handers.
Roark has pitched six seasons in the majors, all for the Nationals. He went 9-15 last season with a 4.34 ERA.
Rainey spent most of the season with Class AAA Louisville, going 7-2 with a 2.65 ERA and 3 saves in 44 appearances. He didn’t have a decision and posted a 24.43 ERA in eight outings for the Reds.
Roark led the National League with 15 losses, but he is expected to be part of a prime rotation that recently added All-Star Patrick Corbin to stars Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.
“I felt like we would have a pretty good staff over there in D.C., but they thought otherwise and I don’t know what their plans are,” Roark said on a conference call.
Roark made $6,475,000 last year and is eligible for arbitration. He can be a free agent after next season. The Nationals signed free All-Star Patrick Corbin to a $140 million, six-year deal last week.
A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press that free agent first baseman Justin Bour has reached a deal with the Los Angeles Angels.
The deal is pending a physical said the person, speaking on condition of anonymity Wednesday because nothing had been finalized.
Bour, 30, hit 20 home runs and drove in 59 runs with the Marlins and Phillies last season. He batted .227 combined over 141 games, missing time with an oblique strain.
Bour will provide depth while stars Albert Pujols and Shohei Ohtani work their way back from season-ending surgeries last year.
Boras, meanwhile, said there are teams ready to move right now on Harper.
“Bryce is open to a lot of different venues, so it’s really about what a lot of owners have said to him about their commitments and what they want to do long term,” the prominent agent said.
Harper, 26, who lives in Las Vegas, had a career-high 100 RBI while hitting 34 home runs and batting .249 last season for Washington.
“So, we’re really at a point where you could be meetings away from a deal,” Boras said. “And then again, you could be in the situation where it’s just further meetings and conversation.”
Or, as Boras put it: “When the nurse walks in with the thermometer the issue isn’t what [it reads] that day, it’s the health of the patient when they’re ready to leave the hospital.”
The meetings end today after the Rule 5 draft for players left off 40-man rosters.
While some big trades got made at past gatherings — Giancarlo Stanton, Chris Sale — more and more the winter meetings are becoming a place where deals get set up for later.
Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski would like to see that changed.
As in, maybe a change to encourage clubs to roll the dice.
“When I first started out … when the winter meetings ended, there was a trade deadline. You couldn’t make a trade for a couple months. So everything had to be done when you left,” the longtime executive said.
“You got to the point where almost everybody wanted to be signed by the holiday, by Christmas holiday. Everybody wanted a job, so people would sign. I don’t really know what’s happened, where it’s changed. It’s just doesn’t seem to be very important for people,” he said, later adding, “they need to change the rules or something.”