More rumblings on the Chone Figgins trade front

The Chone Figgins trade rumor which popped up late last night continues to churn this afternoon:

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Chone Figgins has been not been asked to waive his limited no-trade clause, which includes Oakland;
Buster Olney chipped in that Toronto could also be involved in trade discussions.

To that latter point, USS Mariner’s David Cameron notes that Kevin Kouzmanoff makes way more sense for the Blue Jays than he does for the Mariners. If there is a three-way deal, it would make sense, David says, for the Jays to send a back-end starter type to Seattle in exchange for Kouzmanoff.

All of that — the A’s upgrading with Figgins, the Mariners unloading salary and the Jays picking up a third baseman — makes so much sense that it’s bound to crumble at any moment.

Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal has not had a good postseason. Entering Monday night’s NLCS Game 3, he was batting .111/.238/.278 in 21 trips to the plate across the NLDS and the first two games of the NLCS.

Defense has also been an issue for Grandal. In Game 1 of the NLCS, Grandal was on the hook for two passed balls. In the sixth inning of Game 3 Monday night, he couldn’t corral a curve in the dirt, which allowed Travis Shaw to score the Brewers’ second run of the night. Starter Walker Buehler was charged with a wild pitch. In the eighth, with Ryan Braun on first base and Shaw at the plate, Grandal again couldn’t corral a pitch in the dirt, allowing Braun to move to second base. Fortunately for the Dodgers, Alex Wood was able to escape the inning with no damage.

Manager Dave Roberts said that Austin Barnes, not Grandal, will start behind the plate for Game 4 on Tuesday night, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times reports. That comes as no surprise at all. When Grandal struck out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Dodger fans regaled him with boos.

Barnes will be an upgrade defensively, but he’s lacking with the bat. He had an 0-for-3 performance in Game 2, though with an RBI, bringing his career slash line in the playoffs to .200/.281/.300 across 57 plate appearances. During the regular season, his career 100 adjusted OPS is a fair bit behind Grandal’s 115. Roberts is trading offense for defense in Game 4. Rich Hill will get the start opposite the Brewers’ Gio González.

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