This morning, Mike Berardino of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel mentioned that the Marlins had two scouts on hand for Armando Benitez’s Tuesday night appearance. The Fish would’ve sent scouts to his first appearance but the Giants didn’t give them a heads up.
Berardino talked to a scout who had Benitez at 92-94 mph and looking loose. Berardino speculates that the Marlins would only need to pay about a million of Benitez’s $7.6MM salary. Are the Giants that desperate to get rid of him despite their questionable bullpen?
Then John Hickey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer mentioned today that the Mariners also had two scouts at the game. Benitez would be used to set up J.J. Putz. The Mariners are said to find Jeremy Reed and Ben Broussard expendable. For Reed, I think the Giants should make the deal. Hickey mentioned that 40 scouts were at the game because it was the only one in town. So we could probably connect Benitez to most clubs at this point.
Maybe the three clubs can work something out where Reed ends up a Marlin?
UPDATE: According to the Boston Herald, the Red Sox have never talked to the Giants about Benitez.
UPDATE 2: The Mariners are out on Benitez. This is like the Juan Gonzalez denials or something. John Hickey says the Giants won’t even swallow half of Benitez’s salary, which contradicts other reports that suggested they’d eat over 85% of it.
