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The Phillies have shown interest in Blue Jays left-hander Scott Downs, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Teams have had interest in Downs all year, though it has picked up recently, according to one of Morosi’s sources.

Downs projects to be a Type A free agent after the season, according to our latest Elias rankings. This means the Blue Jays will have the chance to obtain draft picks for him after the season. Downs, arguably the best left-handed reliever on the market, has substantial trade value.

Avenger wrote:hanging on to Scott Downs if he continues to be a Type A is pretty dangerous. He'll make a ton of money in arbitration and how many teams would really offer him a long term deal with more money for him to reject arbitration and get us the draft picks? If he does that, we'll end up with no draft picks and a high priced non-closer reliever, Downs deserves that money and what not but the Jays don't really need a 7 million dollar reliever at that point.

3:57pm: The Rangers will acquire Lee and Mark Lowe for Justin Smoak and three others, according to Sherman (via Twitter). Lowe will miss the rest of the season with back surgery, so his inclusion in the trade is puzzling. Rosenthal confirms that the Rangers are acquiring Lee and says the Mariners are sending cash

Avenger wrote:who do you see giving him the 3 years, 5-6 million per year deal? How many non-closer relievers have gotten that kind of money?

“I heard: ‘Downs to the Red Sox’ so often this week watching Boston at Tampa Bay, I was half expecting him to come out of the bullpen,” said one American League scout

Jays scouts have been watching the Milwaukee Brewers farm system. The Brewers, likewise, have been scouting the Jays system and like some of the Jay’s young arms in the minors. Could general manager Alex Anthopoulos be chasing former first-round pick Brett Lawrie, the Canadian catcher who is hitting .293 at double-A Huntsville with 22 doubles, 11 triples, six homers and 41 RBIs in 86 games?

Jays make RP Kevin Gregg available, re-route a Tor scout into Seattle for final 2 games of Yanks-Sea series

If any of those players generate offers for second-line, mediocre prospects, the may be more inclined to just keep the players and angle for the draft-pick compensation, in the belief that their access to high-end talent will be improved if they take chances on high-ceiling players in the draft.

OldNo7 wrote:Buster's blog today:

If any of those players generate offers for second-line, mediocre prospects, the may be more inclined to just keep the players and angle for the draft-pick compensation, in the belief that their access to high-end talent will be improved if they take chances on high-ceiling players in the draft.

Says Downs will be Type A, while Buck, Gregg and Frasor will be Type B.

We’ve also had players, this is another big-name player that I can’t mention right now, but that had a chance to go to the Red Sox the year they won the World Series in ’04 and he exercised his no-trade clause. He had a chance to play on a World Series team, but he didn’t want to opt out of his no trade, so that’s the other thing that happened at the trade deadline. A lot of guys have no-trades and you go to them and say, “Hey, we have an opportunity to move you, would you be interested.” “Let me know what team it is.” And you come back with a team and then they sit their for 24 hours and say, “No, I am not interested.”'

I can’t say monumental, there has been enough stories of really come close and not pull things off on just different types of players. But I had a trade done a couple of years ago where the trade was finalized, I won’t mention the players, but a pretty prominent player. Had him traded, everything was all set, told the president this is what we are trying to do, kept him in the loop. I went back, already signed off with the team, I said, I’ll just get right back to finalize, let me run it by my president.

I went and told the president and the president told me, You know what, I’m a really big fan of that guy, and I think the fans are, too. I think if we trade him, we’re really going to catch it. And I said, OK, it’s your call. I said I recommend we do this, but he said no, and we didn’t trade him and the guy we could have traded him for is absolutely tearing it up right now. So, that’s why you can’t be a fan when you make those choices.