White Sox Planted Buehrle To Boston Rumor

Keith Law, on ESPNEWS yesterday, reported that the Mark Buehrle-to-Boston rumor is bogus and almost certainly planted by the White Sox front office.  Couldn't hurt to try, unless the plant damages relations with the Red Sox in the future.  This type of practice is probably more common than we realize, though.

Furthermore, Tony Massarotti of the Boston Herald says the Red Sox are out of this thing (if they were ever really in it).  By the way, the reason for the refusal to allow a 72-hour negotiating window:  Buehrle's likelihood of signing with St. Louis after the season.    

A loyal MLBTR reader, summing up Ken Rosenthal's recent comments on WEEI, noted that the Yankees are not actually involved on Buehrle.  A GM always wants the Yankees and Red Sox involved when conducting a player auction, but it looks like that's not the case with Buehrle.  Perhaps the Mets-Braves rivalry can be exploited instead.

Another Buehrle note - R.J. Anderson of D-Rays Bay informs me that radio host Dan Sileo of 620 WDAE has a source indicating that the Devil Rays are interested in Buehrle.  This doesn't make much sense on the surface with the Rays out of contention.  However, maybe Andrew Friedman and Co. will offer players that they value less than the two compensatory draft picks.  That could be the main motivation, with the ancillary benefits of sparking the fanbase and having Buehrle around for three months to work with the younger pitchers.      

Comments

[wood34]

Buehrle-to-Tampa Bay wouldn't be a bad idea at all. They have some good young position players in which they could offer, plus they recieve the much-needed attention and compensation picks

[Chipper]

No, it's not a bad idea. You just wouldn't see Buehrle wearing a Rays uniform next year though.

[Blutarski]

So, is Rosenthal all wrong then ?

[RotoAuthority]

Did Rosenthal have Boston as the frontrunner? That originated with the Sun-Times.

[Kramerica Industries]

When I listened to the Rosenthal Interview it didn't sound like the Red Sox are the frontrunners. Rosenthal, by the way he sounded, made it sound like he felt the Braves were frontrunners. He never came out and said it but by the way he said the Braves were involved it made it sound that tehy were the frontrunner

[astrosfan]

That Devil Rays idea seems a bit off.

With so many teams still in the race, the White Sox will certainly get more than the "value of two compensatory picks" in return for Buehrle for the rest of the season and potentially the playoffs.

[Blutarski]

I heard the Devil Rays are offering Elijah Dukes.

[RotoAuthority]

If you read Dave Cameron's post I linked to earlier, the point is that the players traded for a star midseason are most definitely not clearly better than 2 compensatory picks and quite possibly worse.

[Thundersticks]

The Braves appear to be the best trading partner for Buehrle because of their depth of middle infielders and the fact that they only want to rent him for the rest of the season, which will allow him to sign with the Cards over the winter. The question becomes, will JS trade Escobar? Although he does an excellent job of winning now without sacrificing the future, I believe he makes this happen. He has been showcasing him over the past couple of weeks.

The addition of Beuhrle solidifies the rotation for a postseason run. Of course, it also keeps him from the Mets, too!! They can have Contreras!!

I understand the compensatory draft picks, but I believe KW would rather have one solid ML ready prospect (Escobar) over rolling the dice on two picks that are at least a couple of years away.

[astralpanda]

Definitely NOT a plant by the Sox front office. I do believe however that KW was probably asking for too much.

[nrmax88]

The mets need a hitter. Pedro is pitching to real hitters for the first time pretty soon. Their problem is they havent had 2 good offensive games in a row since they played in Detroit, and they still lost both of those games. That was over 2 weeks ago. Before that god knows how long it was. Their offense hasnt been scary at all. Reyes has been great at getting on base, but his power is pretty much gone and he rarely gets extra base hits lately. Lo Duca is solid, but almost all singles. Beltran has been terrible since may started but might finally be warming it up. Delgado is a joke. I think there is a chance that he is done. Its horrible having to watch him hit. Wright has been okay but really hasnt been locked in all year like Reyes. Were missing Alou big time, although were not missing his defense with Gomez playing left. Gomez is still so raw but he is improving everyday. Valentin cant catch the ball at second base all the sudden. Funny, everyone was worried their starting pitching would be their downfall, meanwhile their starting pitching is the only reason they are competing, let alone leading the division. Scott Schoeneweiss makes me want to barf. If Delgado doesnt heat up soon though the Mets have no chance to win crap, even if they do make the playoffs. The most annoying part is for the most part we are getting shut down by pitchers this lineup should destroy. Maroth, Wellemeyer, Dinardo, Scott Baker, Durbin, Kuo, Wolf, all in the past 15 or so games have shut the Mets lineup down. Some of them are okay, but we got dominated by basically all of those guys. Somethings not right. Really though the one part that has been consistent all year minus about 2 weeks is their starting pitching. El Duque has been solid when hes pitched , Maine and Perez eras hovering around 3.00, Glavine has been good, his era is inflated by 2 awful starts, I know they still count but he has been pretty solid for the most part. Sosa has been more then we could ask for. If their bats dont pick it up in the next 2 days though, theres gona be a new division leader before monday. My rant is over now.