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Jeff Passan covers a few items in this piece for Yahoo Sports, headlined by 19-year-old Cuban pitcher Noel Arguelles. The young left-hander impressed a number of agents and representatives from various teams at a workout last month in the Dominican Republic, and the four teams most interested in signing Arguelles are the Athletics, Mariners, Rays, and (who but?) the Yankees. Passan predicted that Argulles' deal will be worth somewhere around $8.2MM to $10MM, which match the contracts given to Jose Iglesias and Dayan Viciedo last year by the Red Sox and White Sox, respectively.
In other news from Passan's column...
A round-up of several items from around the majors.....
Fanhouse's Ed Price (via Twitter) has learned that Toronto is "expected" to bring back free agent infielder John McDonald to a deal worth around $1.5MM, in what would likely be a one-year contract.
McDonald has been a reserve with the Blue Jays since 2005, and has become a fan favorite in Toronto due to his often-spectacular defense at shortstop. He just completed a two-year/$3.8MM deal with the club and his return would give the Jays a strong back-up glove at third base (where Edwin Encarncacion and his "E-5" nickname has the starting job) and may even be a candidate to get regular playing time at shortstop given Marco Scutaro's Type A free-agent status. McDonald's .258/.271/.384 line last season represented career highs in slugging percentage and OPS, but obviously the Jays would be absorbing a blow to their lineup by giving McDonald regular at-bats.
We learned last week that Yorvit Torrealba was being pursued by his former club, the Rockies, as well as unnamed teams in the National League West and in the American League. Yesterday, the NL West team was confirmed to be San Francisco, and today Newsday's Ken Davidoff (via Twitter) revealed the American League team to be the Toronto Blue Jays.
MLB.com's Jordan Bastian tweets that the Jays have made "multiple" inquiries about the catcher and are preparing to make an offer. Torrealba turned down a two-year/$4.5MM offer from Colorado earlier this month. Since the Giants are interested in Torrealba largely as a stop-gap starting option or as a backup depending on the progress of top prospect Buster Posey , Torrealba might be more interested in Toronto's offer with the promise of regular playing time.
Torrealba became the Rockies' everyday catcher in the second half of last season and in the NLDS after posting a .324/.373/.394 line in 160 plate appearances after the All-Star break. With Rod Barajas a free-agent, Toronto has a need at catcher with prospect J.P. Arencibia's progress stalled after a disappointing 2009 minor league campaign. It's unlikely that the Jays' contract offer would greatly exceed Colorado's given the red flags of Torrealba's career .706 OPS and the fact that he only threw out 14 percent of base-stealers last season.
Yahoo's Tim Brown penned a column today about Tim Lincecum's likely record-setting arbitration case that included this tidbit from an unnamed baseball executive. Lincecum's agents and the MLB Players' Union had discussed the possibility of submitting an arbitration figure of $23MM plus one dollar for the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner. Why the extra dollar? So Lincecum would be making 100 cents more than the highest-paid pitcher in baseball, C.C. Sabathia. The symbolic number would reflect Lincecum's unprecedented success this early in his career.
As Brown notes, Lincecum and his team would almost certainly lose their case by posting such a high number. Since the Giants' bid, however, is almost obligated to be in the eight-figure range, it seems guaranteed that Lincecum's final 2010 salary will exceed the record $10MM arbitration award given to Ryan Howard following his MVP season in 2007.
This could be all moot, of course, if the Giants don't let Lincecum get to arbitration in the first place. It was previously reported that Lincecum was open to a contract extension in San Francisco, for an amount that would likely top Zach Greinke's four-year/$38MM deal with the Royals. Brown speculates that a Lincecum extension could be closer to the three-year/$54 million contract that Howard signed with Philadelphia last February.
One almost hopes that Lincecum and the Giants don't come to terms so we can see, in the words of MLBTR's Mike Axisa, "the most awesome first year arbitration case in history."
Baseball America's Ben Badler is reporting that Dominican outfielder Eladio Moronta signed today with New York. The signing concludes a hectic seven-month period for Moronta, 20, who was given a one-year suspension by Major League Baseball last May for misrepresenting his age as 17 years old. Moronta's suspension was lifted at the end of September.
The deal is reported to worth $570K according to Baseball Prospectus' Kiley McDaniel (via Twitter). In other tweets on the subject, McDaniel said that Moronta has been compared to Raul Mondesi by scouts and could have commanded a seven-figure contract when the international signing period opened last July 2 had he been eligible to be signed.
The Orioles aren't expected to be major players on the free-agent market this winter, but if the team does make a move, it will likely be to acquire a veteran presence at first and/or third base.
Speaking to MASN Sports' Steve Melewski, Baltimore team president Andy MacPhail said that given the Orioles' young outfield and second-year catcher Matt Wieters, he would "like to put more proven bats" in the lineup to compliment the team's young stars. The O's have prospects Brandon Snyder and Josh Bell in the pipeline at first and third, respectively, but since MacPhail said he doesn't see either making the leap to the majors in 2010, the experienced hitters that MacPhail wants will have to come at the corner infield spots.
Baltimore already has Luke Scott (a team-leading 25 homers in 2009) penciled in at either first base or DH, and utilityman Ty Wigginton is available to play third. Prospect Michael Aubrey (an .826 OPS in 95 plate appearances last season) is also in the 1B mix, possibly in a lefty-righty platoon with Wigginton that would lock Scott into a DH/LF split with Nolan Reimold and would then leave third base open for either a free agent or a player to be acquired in a trade. The Baltimore Sun's Dan Connolly predicted the O's would sign Pedro Feliz, while there has been some speculation that the Orioles will make a trade with Florida for Dan Uggla and then move Uggla from second to third base.
In his Offseason Outlook series entry about Baltimore, Tim Dierkes listed names like Adrian Beltre, Carlos Delgado and Nick Johnson as possible targets for the Orioles. These players would fit the "short-term" designation that MacPhail mentioned, but since MacPhail didn't rule out the possibility of "the right deal for the right player, even if it was a longer-term deal," would there be any other bigger-name corner infielders that you could realistically see Baltimore signing?
MLB.com's Scott Merkin talked to White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who hopes to remain with the team after his current contract runs out:
"Hopefully, we have a great year as a team and they will be in a situation where they want to bring me back, because I would be all for it. We haven't really talked about it, but everyone knows I would love to stay here and be a part of the White Sox for as long as I play. That's something I'm not going to worry about. If they want to come and do something, we'll be more than happy to talk about it. At the same time, I'm prepared to let it play out and see what happens."
Merkin notes that Pierzynski's future will be tied to the progress of Sox catching prospect Tyler Flowers, who hit .286/.364/.438 in 119 Triple A plate appearances this year after raking in Double A.
Pierzynski, 33 in December, hit .300/.331/.425 in 535 plate appearances this year. He's set to earn $6.75MM in 2010, finishing up a three-year deal.
Click here to read today's chat transcript.
The White Sox are showing interest in center fielder Coco Crisp, tweets Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star. Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune confirms it, with quotes from Crisp's agent Steve Comte. At this point, the talks are preliminary. The Sox have been linked to Crisp in many rumors over the years.
It's been suggested Alex Rios will play center field for the 2010 Sox, though he could certainly remain in right field if they sign Crisp. Crisp, 30, hit .228/.336/.378 in 215 plate appearances for the Royals this year; his season ended in June and he eventually had surgery on both shoulders. The Royals chose a $500K buyout over Crisp's $8MM option for 2010.
1:40pm: MLB.com's Todd Zolecki learned from Castro's agent Oscar Suarez that he's closing in on a deal with the Phillies. As Suarez put it: "Who doesn't like Juan Castro?" Scott Lauber of The News Journal says only a physical remains, and David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News says an agreement has been reached on a one-year deal with a club option.
1:11pm: Andy Martino of the Philadelphia Inquirer believes the Phillies are the frontrunner to sign Castro, though no deal is imminent.
11:50am: Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FoxSports.com report that both the Dodgers and Phillies are pursuing utility infielder Juan Castro. The Phillies are looking at him as a replacement for Eric Bruntlett (who isn't likely to return), while Dodgers are trying to retain him after he hit .277/.311/.339 in 121 plate appearances for them last year.
The 37-year-old Castro signed a minor league deal with LA last season, though he spent basically the entire season in the big leagues. He made $700K while playing three infield spots and left field in 2009.
The Braves signed minor league free agent Juan Abreu to a big league contract, tweets Ed Price of AOL FanHouse. The righty reliever, 25 in April, was previously in the Royals organization. This year he tossed 41.6 innings between High A and Double A, posting 53 strikeouts and 36 walks. Given Abreu's huge strikeout rates and fastball, you have to wonder how the Royals let him go.
Heading into the 2009 season, Baseball America ranked Abreu as the Royals' #25 prospect. Their take: "Abreu has shown a great arm, iffy command and rotten luck during his time with the Royals." The luck note refers to Abreu twisting his ankle in August of last year by stepping on a baseball and missing the rest of that season.
Albert Pujols was the unanimous choice for NL MVP, according to the BBWAA. Hanley Ramirez, Ryan Howard, and Prince Fielder followed him in the voting.
It's always fun to look at the bottom of the results, where players such as Brad Hawpe, Chris Coghlan, and Jeremy Affeldt received votes.
Some links to start the day...
In today's blog post at ESPN, Buster Olney writes about the potential market for Miguel Cabrera, who is now apparently available in a trade. He notes the enormous financial commitment attached to Cabrera's All-World bat, and discusses the Red Sox, Angels, Mets, White Sox, Giants, Mariners, and Braves as potential landing spots.
Here's the rest of Olney's rumors...


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