GMs think McCutchen likely to be traded, maybe

Jerry Crasnick did a poll of 40 GMs and other front office executives in which he asked them, among other things, which of three players — Andrew McCutchen, Josh Donaldson and Manny Machado — was most likely to be traded. McCutchen got 26 votes, Donaldson 11, Machado none, and no opinion got three.

I’m not sure this means a great deal, because of the way the question was phrased. The Orioles have made it clear they’re not going to trade Machado and the Jays don’t have a history of doing tear-downs, either. To some extent, though, I suspect it shows a lot of GMs don’t really see the Pirates as a contender.

On the subject of Giancarlo Stanton, a plurality of ten saw St. Louis as the most likely landing spot, although there’s no indication that anybody addressed Stanton’s stated preference for ending up on one coast or the other. That obviously matters given his full no-trade clause. Seven GMs saw Stanton staying in Miami, as they thought the Marlins are underestimating how much of Stanton’s contract they’ll have to assume.

Crasnick also asked where Shohei Otani will end up. Nine teams got votes. For some reason, the Pirates weren’t one of them.