David Price’s Market Heats Up

Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

The Tampa Bay Rays are surveying the market to determine what kind of package they could get for David Price. The 28-year-old Price is thought to be on the wish-list of several teams including – you guessed it – the Seattle Mariners.

According to Yahoo’s Jeff Passan, the Mariners are a strong candidate to get Price, especially if they sign Robinson Cano first, because they could put together a very attractive offer.

The Mariners are thought to be considering adding Taijuan Walker to the list of players that would be added to a potential deal. According to Passan:

"Packaging him (Walker) along with a young middle infielder (Nick Franklin or Brad Miller) and other prospects would constitute a difficult-to-top offer – and give the Mariners a rotation of Price, Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma, the best 1-2-3 in the major leagues."

In six big league seasons, Price is 71-39 with a 3.19 ERA in just under 1,000 innings. He led the AL in K/BB ratio in 2013 (5.59) and won the 2012 AL Cy Young Award.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Toronto Blue Jays are all thought to be interested in a trade for David Price.

It’s unclear how this potential trade would affect the Mariners chances of trading for Matt Kemp. With Franklin and Walker most likely being involved for Price, would a package of James Paxton, Stefen Romero and another prospect be god enough to land Kemp?

The Winter Meetings begin Monday Dec. 9. If the past two days are any indication, it is going to be a wild ride in Orlando next week. Stay tuned.