Mariners Offering Three Players For Bedard?

On Monday, Phil Rogers wrote of the Mariners' continuing pursuit of Baltimore's Erik Bedard.  He says the Ms are shopping a package including Adam Jones, Jeff Clement, and Yung Chi Chen.  Rogers notes that the O's would probably require Brandon Morrow.  This is the first time we've seen Chen's name as part of a Bedard deal.  He doesn't fall within Seattle's top 14 prospects, according to Kevin Goldstein.

Our previous Bedard update came four days ago, with info supplied by Jeff Zrebiec and John Fay.  At that time Andy MacPhail said there was a "strong likelihood" that Bedard is the Orioles' Opening Day starter in 2008.

Comments

[zito4cyyoung]

Thats a lot to give up. Jones looks like he could be a star.

[iknowtomuch]

how bout the mets just trade and get adam loewen
redman or markakis for church hielman and a minor prospect who would take that

[WHITESOX]

Would be a great trade for the M's, Jones is the real deal but they also have Waldimiar Blantien who isnt as good as Jones, but isnt that far behind and they already have a good catcher in Kenji Johjima, so they lose 2 good prospects, but at posistions where it wouldnt hurt that much.

[Paul5418]

This package creates holes in the Mariners offense. Who replaces Jones this year in the outfield. It's common consenus among Mariner fans that Balentien needs more time in AAA (yes, he still has an option as opposed to reports that he's out). And Joh's in the final year of his contract, so why would you trade Clement? I'd rather trade Morrow than either Jones or Clement, but he's deemed untouchable by Bavasi.

[scribbletone]

See that's why I think the M's feel comfortable making an offer like that. They would be dealing almost completely from surplusses. The guys they would give up wouldn't necessarily leave any gaping holes in their lineup. When they considering just how good a King Felix-Bedard 1-2 could be, I think this would be a deal that the M's pretty much have to make. But if you had to add Morrow to the equation, I think that changes it a lot. Including Morrow, the rotation would be Hernandez-Bedard-Washburn-Silva-Batista, which would be quite good. But Morrow has top of the rotation ability as well and Batista is old and only under contract for one more season.

[Jared78]

"how bout the mets just trade and get adam loewen
redman or markakis for church hielman and a minor prospect who would take that"

Not sure what you are proposing exactly here but the o's are not going to move Markakis or Loewen together or seperately for a package around a set-up reliever and Ryan Church.

Also you want to add a o to your name...Iknowtoomuch, unless you were trying to be ironic.

I think the O's would be better off with the Votto/Bailey package...fills a rotation spot with a potential #1/2 that should be ready soon and gives them their 1B of the future(unless they really go after Texeira...even though he is from Balt. not sure that would make sense for player or team). Of course they could also always move Clement (or Weiters) for pitching prospects as catching prospects are few & far between. I agree that Morrow should be the most moveable...needs a third pitch to start, otherwise he is a set-up man which can be replaced.

[Champ]

Although Jones and Clement are great prospects, I find it hard to believe that Baltimore would deal Bedard without receiving a potential top of the line starter. I don't see them dealing him to Seattle unless they could somehow get their hands on Morrow.

As for Seattle, if they have to deal Morrow to get Bedard I think it's a no brainer. Sticking Bedard in the rotation with King Felix, Washburn, Silva and Batista gives them a tremendous rotation.

[Doctor Lingerie]

Anyone else wonder how Morrow would respond to being thrust into Baltimore's rotation after not starting for a year? I mean, the dude walked better than 7/9 out of the pen last year. Would AAA be an option if the O's lacked Bedard?

They've already got an extremely BB-prone group, and I wouldn't envy having to make the pen-to-rotation shift in the AL East in a guy's second full season of pro ball.

[TheGrinch]

What about this deal--Bedard and Roberts to the Cubs for a package of their top prospects: Eric Patterson, Sean Marshall, Ronny Cedeno, Sean Gallagher, Billy Petrick, and even Felix Pie. I'd be fine with that.

[ZachAttack]

I'm sure you would be, TheGrinch. EVEN Felix Pie? Are you sure? He's not even a top 20 prospect in all of baseball, but who cares, he is one the Cubs.

Lets give up a whole lot of trash for two great players.

[BuckiBlaze]

Dear O's. PLEASE trade Bedard to Seattle. Save the Reds from themselves.

[DRWheelock]

With the Twins coming down in their offer for Santana, and BoSox and Yanks are pretty much standing firm on their offers o the Twins...

Wouldn't a package from Seattle of...

Jones/Morrow/Sherrill/Clement

Be something pretty reasonable for the Twins? I really think that "if" Seattle offered that package...that that package is as good as anything out there that BoSox & Yanks are offering?!

Just my thoughts?!

PLUS, Seattle has a combined $31.5M coming off the books next offseason with Sexson/Ibanez/Vidro/Johjima, so they could still resign Johjima AND give Santana $20M+...AND still have money left over to spend on position players next offseason.

I'm sure "if" that happened Seattle would end up trading Washburn's $9.5M salary away for some kind of OF (LF) help, and run with Wlad Belentien in RF.

Washburn's contract is starting to look REAL good in this pitching market, PLUS he's ONLY signed now thru 2009, on a shortterm contract.

[thr33niL]

Since the M's aren't much linked to Santana anymore, the Twins must have flat told them they were uninterested.

If the Orioles are down on Jones/Clement/Chen and want Morrow I walk away from that. Offering 3 Major League ready blue chip prospects for two years of Bedard is not a good idea at all.

[NoProblemPablo]

What about gutting the youth from the M's for Bedard and Roberts? Say Jones, Balentien, Jose Lopez, Morrow, and Clement for the two. I dunno how feasible that is but it would certainly help the O's rebuild with five guys who could step in and play for them. Roberts switch hitting would be a plus for Safeco.

[rdiggity]

I love reading these things sometimes. 1, There are some players that are labeled untouchable, Markakis and Loewen are probably the only 2 on the 25man that are just that. The fans (that are left) have already fell in love with Nicky and think he is the next Rip JR. Loewen just may be a number 1 as well. But, about trading Weiters, (another untouchable) why would they want Clement? They just drafted Weiters, and gave him the HIGHEST Signing Bonus in team history. And they are gonna trade him?
Next, are all the NL fans totally delusional? The cubs could offer their whole farm system and not land Bedard. I love how they always say like 8 names for Bedard and Roberts and are DEAD SERIOUS about it.
Bedard will not be traded. Many expect that he will sign his extension in early JAN. 4 years and 72 mill. People forget that the O's have a ton of money. Just a real bad owner. In the mid-nineties, the O's had the highest payroll in the game. Isn't that hard to believe with the way certain teams throw the cash around now?
As much as I hate the O's, I hate to say that they are on their way back to the great #1 franchise they were for so long. They have some really good and very underated players down on the farm.
Remember these names...Nolan Riemold, Brandon Snyder, Weiters, and Jake Arrietta(who might be the best of the lot.) Look up those names. Especially the first and last 2.

[DentalPlan]

Give me a break. Washburn's contract does not look REAL good. The Mariners are paying how much now for all of their back end of the rotation pitchers? Washburn posted a 95 ERA+ last year and a 100 ERA+ this year. Maybe it looks better because the Mariners themselves are the ones inflating contracts for marginal pitchers ($9 million for Miguel Batista, $12 million for Silva).

Anyway, the Mariners are doing okay with this trade. Jones is pretty nice but with his K/BB ratio in AAA being iffy, he's not a sure thing. Clement - can he stay at catcher? Pretty solid bet to hit, Johjima is nothing to sneeze at at catcher though, keeping him is not a bad idea. Chen - who cares. Who even cares that much about Morrow? I don't see how moving him to the rotation is going to help that crappy control. Someone get the Mariners a time machine and have them draft the hometown guy Lincecum instead of Morrow. Morrow seems primarily to be a two pitch guy.

[DentalPlan]

Brandon Snyder? What, are we just listing names? Not impressed. Whatever happened to Hayden Penn and Jeff Fiorentino?

[soxguyinmd]

rdiggity is right, there is definitely some talent in the orioles low minor leagues. I dont know that any of it is cant miss talent outside of wieters.

If the orioles do trade bedard (which they should) i think the reds package is most intersting when it is bruce, votto, bailey. After what i saw last year i think bailey is far from a cant miss guy so if its just votto and bailey that does not do it.

I will also say that before i would take the mariners package of very substandard guys and jones i would consider talking with the dodgers. i think i would rather have 2 top notch dodgers prospects (you can pick but i would start with kershaw) with a 3rd guy thrown in than what the m's are offering.

[basemonkey]

as rdiggity said, I love it when we see trade proposals of 6-8 names for one player. Yeh, sure, that'll happen. Whenever you have those kinds of offers, it's not really even a depth trade. The team offering the 6-8 players is offering their backups, bench, mid-tier prospects, and maybe a legit promising guy, maybe even two. But, whenever you offer that much, it's usually too much ML service time cus it forces the team receving those guys to have to cut current players to add the guys offered. So it also shows a complete ignorance of the team's trade partner.

Right now it sounds like the Reds and Mariners offers are the only legit ones on the table, and, the Cubs offers are just fan generated without much actual news behind it. The Dodgers sound like they're set with their recent pitcher signing.

[basemonkey]

The Cubs best trade chips are also the same players Cubs fans would least like to see leave Chicago. Ay, there's the rub! To get a good player you have to let good players or maybe-good-players go. So far, though as it has been mentioned a million times already, the best trade chips the Cubs have aren't the most ideal parts that interest the Os. Marmol, Hill, Murton, Pie, etc. Those guys can be solid-to-excellent but they all have at least one dimension that makes him not that attractive to the Os.

Hill is a nice pitcher to see coming back, but he's about the same age as Bedard, which is the exact reason why the Orioles are even considering a trade, to bring down the average age of the core nucleus of the team. So, if the Os were thinking of flipping him, then why not get elite value coming back in the form of Bedard? As for Marmol, he's done excellent for 1 full year but RPs are volatile from season to season. And, even assuming he continues to grow into being an elite RP, that's a really pretty hood ornament on a bad team (see B. J. Ryan). Having a great RP on a bad team isn't useless but, relatively speaking, RPs are a ton more replaceable in any given offseason than certain positions or rotation slots. Making him a centerpiece in a deal is not how you build a young nucleus. To me these guys make the most sense on a team like the Cubbies, a team near or in the playoffs and thinking of making a run for a few years.

[Sesshomaru]

Actually, the reason we are exploring a trade with Bedard is because he doesn't want to be here and isn't interested in signing an extension. He isn't pleased with being part of a rebuilding process and he wants to be somewhere he can win. He is just going to walk after his contract is up anyways, so that's why he's being moved. Brian Roberts is in the same boat. The Orioles are not moving perhaps the best lefty in all of baseball just because they want to bring down the average age of the team. That is completely ridiculous. If that was the case, then Mora would be gone by now and would not be penciled in as the starting third baseman for us in 2008.