Heyman's Latest: Teixeira, Otsuka

Jon Heyman of SI.com has been working the phone lines; here are some notable rumors from his latest column.

• The Braves seemed fairly close to a Mark Teixeira trade yesterday, but the Angels are definitely knee deep in it.  They'll make a solid offer including Casey Kotchman, Ervin Santana, and Major League player.  Adam Dunn remains Plan B.
• Heyman says there's speculation that Akinori Otsuka could need Tommy John surgery, which might compel the Rangers to sign Eric Gagne and/or keep Joaquin Benoit.
• Refresher on Gagne's 12-team allowable list can be found here.  Gagne must consent to a trade to Detroit, and it seems the Rangers asked for Cameron Maybin.  Not gonna happen.  The Yankees appear to be out on Gagne because he wants to close.  I'm skeptical - he wouldn't pitch as a setup man if they guaranteed his entire contract?
• Seems the Yanks entertained a Morgan Ensberg acquisition.  They would've used him at first base.  Joe Torre nixed the idea because Ensberg hasn't hit for a long time.
• Heyman's top five available starters are Matt Morris, Livan Hernandez, Jose Contreras, Jason Jennings, and Kyle Lohse, in that order.  That ranking is reasonable.  A Jon Garland, Noah Lowry, or Joe Blanton would easily jump to that top of the list if made available.

Comments

[boomshwa12]

i would take anything i could get for ensberg at this point. how bout for one of chamberlain or hughes' jock straps? he's not worth both...just one

[buehrlebro]

This could certainly make or break Daniels' career. All things even, I try to **** over the Angels to make my odds better in the future. Is Kotchman, Santana and Willits too much to ask for if I throw in something else, a reliever perhaps?

[nrmax88]

The mets should get in on the Teixeira talks and try to dump Delgado somewhere else. Not sure what Texas would want though. The mets can use Tex's bat and his glove.

[Obscurity]

I wouldn't expect the Angels to trade away Santana due to Colon's injury most likely taking him out for the year. Which just happens to be his last year as an Angel. I think the trade is more like:

Kotchman/Aybar/Resop, or possibley put Dustin Moseley instead of Resop.

What were the Braves sending over?

[boomshwa12]

i think the braves offer was something along the lines of salty, andrus, and reyes. the rangers really don't need aybar, maybe substitute willits for him?

i really think that the angels would have to fork over a starting pitcher for tex though, considering that we're talking about the rangers here. the angels would still have lackey, escobar, weaver, and two of adenhart/saunders/santana if they made the deal. obviously the deal would vary depending on which one of those guys they included but you get the idea i think

[boomshwa12]

of those three i'd think the angels would push hardest to include santana, and the rangers would push harder for saunders. if daniels really has some guts he'll say adenhart or no deal but i've heard he's off limits.

[JerseyMetFan]

For the Mets to have a comparable offer, it would probably have to include Milledge, Pelfrey, AND Gomez.

I'll pass.

[Obscurity]

It would be possible for Angels to sell low on Aybar if they included Santana. I wouldn't think it would be Willits and Santana, more like Willits and Moseley or Aybar and Santana.

You have to remember Adenhart is still in Double A, so I don't think the Angels can count him as coming into the rotation just yet. Moseley is a spot starter/long man and was a starter in the minors.

[striker]

Why would the Rangers want Avayar when they have Blalock, Young and Kinsler in their infield?

If I were Daniels, I would do Santana, Willits and Kotchman for Tex. You can sign another hitter in the offseason (Hunter) to balance out the lineup.

[Obscurity]

Aybar can play OF. He's also the type of guy you'd like in either leadoff or 9th hole.

[ejruiz777]

It's quite a leap from Heyman's "Texas MAY be able to pry young first baseman Casey Kotchman, PERHAPS right-hander Ervin Santana and a third big leaguer..." to your "They WILL make a solid offer including Casey Kotchman, Ervin Santana, and Major League player". All in all, I bet the Braves come away with Tex.

[bravesbeast]

Seems like the the bounty's that both teams want to trade are similar, and remember I said the bounty's that both teams want to give up:

The braves: Salty, davies or harrison, lillibridge

The angels: kotchman, santana, aybar or willits

Salty and Kotchman are both run producing middle of the order hitters, in the case of davies and santana, two young pitchers who have been disappoints so far, and in lillibridge, aybar, or willits, a speedy centerfielder,

If the angels were to offer kotchman, santana, and willits, I have no idea why texas would reject that deal, same with aybar, and they have the luxery to give up that much talent because they have great depth on their farm, and again, sometimes you have the luxury to give up to much value to get what you want, and while I want TEX, i certainly do not want to deplete the farm system for a year and a half of him, while the angels have a much better shot to sign him to a long term deal than the braves would

[bravesbeast]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070726&content_id=2111450&vkey=trade2007&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Here is another article about TEX, saying that the angels and braves are the front runners. The new things that it points out is that two obstacles that could keep the angels from including ervin santana, whom the rangers seem to like, is that Colon is now on the dl so the Angels need pitching, and also he fact that rangers may not want to trade to a division foe. The braves would like Eric Gagne in the deal, but would probably take Roh Mahey as well, because C.J. Wilson probably will become a set-up man, given the fact that aknori otsuka may require TJ surgery. It seems the braves may have the best path to tex, and with new names such as manny acosta and brent lillibridge being mentioned as parts of the deal, hopefully we do not have to give up the likes of Salty, Harrison, and Andrus to get the deal done, which would make me extremely happy.

[bravesbeast]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7065740

[bravesbeast]

Rosenthal states that the braves have offered harrison, salty, and andrus for texiera alone, and that is true, the deal will get done, but this is going to absolutely suck

[WesleyC]

I agree that those 3 for Tex alone is too high a price to pay. With a lefty reliever in the deal I would be happy, but those are our top 3 prospects and shouldn't be parted with lightly. I hope that JS is just trying to scare off the Angels and not actually planning to go ahead with this.