Evaluating Michael Young Suitors

the only way a deal is goin to b able to go down is if the rangers eat some money

cards have 3 third basemen but they might not want to take on Youngs salary

would the Cubs be a match? I know Vitters is there, blocked by A-Ram.

I personally don't like the idea, but it could be a match. Theriot at 2B is better for him too...

just a thought.

The Blue Jays?

It's a bit of stretch but Michael Young is good friends with Vernon Wells.

Iowa Cub,

Theriot, Vitters and an arm seems a bit steep for someone that won't play. the Rangers don't have much leverage.

I would love it if the Braves were serious contenders, but I doubt they have the prospects the Rangers would want, esp. at third, but I'd think the Giants might be a match, if they're willing to give up Villalona, and the Brewers have Matt Gamel, but I doubt they'd take the salary...

The salary would be a concern but I could see the Cards getting involved if the Rangers are looking for a young 3B that could be MLB right now. We could center the deal around Freese since we do have Wallace that should be ready by '10 when Glaus is out and Craig as a secondary option. If the Rangers were willing to eat a small portion of the contract the Cards may bite and use Young at 2B in '09 and Greene will be gone in '10 and Young takes over for 4 yrs at SS. The only issue with this could be even at 10M per year that would eat all the remaining funds for the '09 Cards...and we need a starter...BADLY!

"The Mets rod themselves of a contract they've been trying to unload"

By gaining an even more daunting one worth 3 times as much for the same production? What?

The Reds are absolutely not a match. They do not have the payroll room nor the need for an aging SS with limited range whose offensive skills, even while playing in Texas small park, have been diminishing for 3 years.

I don't know much about Young, but on the surface a guy who could make a position move to help his team, a team who is paying him a ton of money, by allowing a top young player to join the club seems a bit selfish to me. I don't know if I want a guy like that for 5 years when his value at the end of the deal appears to be very small.

* Jose

The Sox are a perfect fit. Young for Dye, Fields and Broadway.

yet another reason to hate julio lugo, the fact that we cant have michael young when he finally became available

why not the yankees?

lol hmm id say the Braves are a decent fit (2B) and they could move johnson to left. I guess the white sox could make sense for 2B but i dont see it happening. Giants?

Keep M.Y. out of KC. Aviles is a legit short stop, and he has better defensive numbers than Young. Maybe he deserves a "gold glove" next year.

Relatively speaking... the production Young would bring would not make sense. Callaspo, Bloomquist, and Aviles are much more affordable options for their production.

How about the Giants? They have some pitching to spare and I would think they would love a better option at second than Manny Burris or Kevin Frandsen. Plus, they could pawn off one of their outfielders in the deal - something like Winn and Sanchez for Young.

Wilmer Flores? Arguably the Mets top prospect?

Thanks, but not thanks. I wouldn't even deal Murphy for Young straight up. Probably not even if you took the money out of the picture.

why is everyone hatin on michael young, he gets mad hits every year that is productive in any lineup

I think the Blue Jays would be stupid not to at least inquire on Young. A straight up swap of Vernon Wells Could make sense?

Mariners have been talking about moving Lopez to first.....I believe they really don't have financial flexibility to take on Young and they are in the same division but just thinking outloud.

If SF traded one of their young arms and Texas threw in some cash, would that work?

Jays cutting payroll so no fit there.
V wells big contract kicks in next year
http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/toronto-blue-jays_05.html
Red sox really going with Lugo/lowrie they have the "name prospects" to get this done.

"why not the yankees?

Posted by: GoSoX | January 12, 2009 at 10:16 AM "

I'm guessing by the lol that you were kidding but I actually think this would be a good fit.

he is friends with Arod and Tex. he could balance out that clubhouse. everyone respocts him

Young's numbers have declined in each of hte last three years and now his huge extension kicks in to take him through his age 37 season. That's pretty much why.

It seems that the Rangers have totally bungled the situation, typical for this organization.

They've put themselves into a situation where they've angered one of their most popular players, a player that has been a loyal soldier in the past (moving from 2nd to short when Soriano was acquired). If they had handled the situation differently, Michael Young may not be so angry.

This is the absolute worst time to try to move a big contract as most teams are either set at payroll or trying to unload payroll. The few teams that are looking to add have many options still available on the free agent market. There are even cheaper (in dollars) trade options such as Jack Wilson than to trade for Young's huge contract. Also, add in the fact that the Rangers have a history of eating a large part of a contract of an unhappy player (A-Rod) and they end up with absolutely no leverage.

What a total disaster for the Rangers. This is another example of the ineptness of their GM (Jon Daniels). This is sure to end badly for the Rangers, no matter the outcome.

Yeah, if the asking price wasn't assuredly so high, I'd ask why the Braves don't inquire. However, I'd be disappointed to see them make any move to get Young, because it'd most likely be a dumb one. Good move to hold off.

I think the Braves will be fine if they can get Lowe, trade/sign a short-term outfielder like Dunn or Abreu, and get a bargain-bin grab like Sheets.

The Cubs would be a great match. Trade Theriot, Vitters, Pie (out of options) and a young pitcher.

I think that is a reasonable and fair trade for both sides and it fills holes.

Or they can trade Theriot and Marshall and Pie. Fills 3 holes for the Rangers

why would the mets want young? he has a much worse contract than castillo and is on the decline. He is a good player, but hes not worth the money. How about they just pay lowe whatever they need to get him here and explore a trade for a guy like nady to strengthen the bullpen. There's no need to give up young talent to get another guy late in his career. i saw alomar, vaugn, burnitz, i dont need to see them and their huge contracts again.

the red sox might make sense:

sox get:
michael young

rangers get:
jed lowrie
daniel bard

Lowrie is a sensational young SS, whoever would want to block him with a kind of declining "name" player doesnt know what theyre talking about.

SS is a severeky diluted talent pool, the RS should be stoked they have 2 everyday guys on the roster. Lugo is a better player than at least a half dozen guys who are starting on other teams.

the red sox might make sense:

sox get:
michael young
jarrod saltalamacchia

rangers get:
julio lugo
daniel bard
mid level prospect

Despite it not making sense, Jeter is the Yanks SS until he's no longer playing baseball anymore, and Cano is the 2B because he is an excellent player too, yanks+RS fans can just zip it, your teams are stacked.

turnthe2,

that actually makes sense but people are so hung up with names you will get slaughtered...

Tony-

No way the Cubs give up Vitters for Young. That's mad.

Young is overpaid by a pretty good amount, considering his poor defense and offensive decline.

I agree that Young could be a good fit, but I think the Cuba really need to stay away.

We already have Zambrano, Ramirez, Soriano, Lee, Fukudome and Dempster signed to big money contracts.

Theriot is already a similar player to Young, and outside of power, he's probably a better all around player at this point.

Adding Young in favor of Theriot would just give us another big name and a higher payroll, but not necessarily a better team.

Lugo isn't better than anyone. He's awful on both sides of the ball. If by "better than" you mean "gets paid a lot more money than"... you have an argument.

Orioles, Jays, Nats, and Reds might be possible.

turnthe2, i like it but it heavily favors the red sox. if we got young and salty and only had to give up lugo, someone in texas would need to be shot, the burden would lay heavily on the tigers to push that deal over the top

The Rangers aren't going to add a young catcher in order to deal MY and get crap in return. That's just wishful thinking.

"Red Sox: Nick Cafardo wrote earlier this month that they do not have interest in Young."

ITS WRITTEN IN THE POST!

They only tried to get Hanley back to combat the Teixeira move.

If the cubs trade away anyone but vizcaino for michael young i will be furious. He is over rated, over paid and Theriot is a decent player. Vitters shouldn't be traded at all, but with the possibility of peavy he def will not go to texas for michael young. Theriot is fine and makes nothing. Let him go to the south side

I see the Dodgers as the most likely trade candidate since DeWitt can play 3b and be the 3b for the future for the Rangers. Young will move to second for a team that's close to his Santa Barbara home and made the playoffs last year. A Young+Byrd for DeWitt+Jones is a deal that makes sense to me.

How about Young and a good reliever to the Cards for Carpenter, Greene, and a young 3Bman?

Isn't Carpenter's contract nearly as much of a burden as Young's at this point?

Hmmm... if the Rangers would pony up about 5-10 MM in salary relief, accept the Cardinals' offer of Adam Kennedy, Joel Piniero, and either David Freese or Alan Craig, and a pitching prospect, say Mitchell Boggs, (and maybe throw in Chris Duncan, who would have then a great opportunity to resurrect his career in Arlington) in trade for Young and Kevin Millwood or Padilla... then that would be a win-win... if the Cards would take on Millwood's salary. That would fix the 2B problem and later, SS, and the rotation flux. Young is a .300 hitter w/ gap power and 80-90 RBI guy in the NL batting ahead of Pujols.

I don't know if the Cardinals are visionary enough to do this type of deal nowadays ...Walt Jocketty might have been.

Derek....I doubt that the Dodgers would take Lugo back...he did not perform well when he was traded there.

You could have the Sox ship Lugo to the Giants with cash for someone like Cain to flip to the Rangers. They need the pitching and he would be young.

"Even though they acquired Khalil Greene not too long ago, I wish the Cards could acquire Young. The Cards could give up either Wallace or Freese to the Rangers, but I know that Young's salary will scare off the Cards too. I know it won't happen but I think Young would great in the Cardinal Red."

You do realize that the difference between Brett Wallace and David Freese is MASSIVE (!!)?

Wallace is one of the best pure hitters in the minors. BP rated him as a 5 star prospect, and it's likely that he'll be up in 2010 solely because of the greatness of his bat, because his glove at third is quite poor.

Freese is a nice player, but he's already almost 26 and before 2008 there wasn't much reason to think he'd be anything more than a bench guy.

He's posted some great numbers in the minors, but his raw tools prevent him from having a lot of upside.

Either way, the Cardinals are highly unlikely, because they haven't proven willing to take on big contracts, as least recently.

Something like Freese and a low level guy for Young could work.

Wallace can't be dealt until July, but if you wanted to deal him, he'd have huge trade value.

The Cardinals just added Greene, sure, but who cares? Let's think about this. If the Rangers would pick up half of the deferred money and $15 million of the regular contract ($3 million a year), I could see it working. Something along the lines of:
3B David Freese, OF Jon Jay, OF Daryl Jones, RHP Clay Mortenson, RHP Kyle McClellan, SS Pete Kozma, 2B Adam Kennedy. Of course, you could replace the trio of Jay/Jones/Kozma with Rasmus. Kennedy is added in to play 2B so they can move Kinsler to LF or RF to hide his bad defense.

That would give the Cardinals a dynamic offense and they could shift Greene to 2B or Young to 2B and have the best middle infield in the league. They'd sell the farm, but Young is a game changer. The Cardinals would also only pay $50 million over 5 years (with $7.5 million deferred) for one of the top shortstops of the league. And with no good middle infield prospects coming up (specifically at shortstop), it would fill an organizational hole.

Long term? Jess Todd replaces McClellan in the bullpen, Walters and Boggs compete for a rotation spot, and they could still sign Jon Garland. Garland and Young would raise payroll by about $16 million (which would push it to $115 million), but DeWitt said he would raise payroll for the right player(s), and these two are those right players.

omg did someone just say Lugo for Cain????

these postings are out of control....what about Lugo for Albert Pujols huh great move for both sides rofl

Back to reality the LAD and STL options seem to be the most grounded in reality ones in this thread so far, kudos to those posters, in particular "allan".

Young to the Cubs for Vitters and a mid-level arm. Move Theriot to 2nd and have him platoon with Fontenot. Makes a ton of sense to me, Young would be excellent in the 2nd spot of the lineup for the Cubs.

vizcaino and fukudome for young. If only we could get rid of these two...

"If the Rangers would pick up half of the deferred money and $15 million of the regular contract ($3 million a year), I could see it working. Something along the lines of:
3B David Freese, OF Jon Jay, OF Daryl Jones, RHP Clay Mortenson, RHP Kyle McClellan, SS Pete Kozma, 2B Adam Kennedy. Of course, you could replace the trio of Jay/Jones/Kozma with Rasmus."

No way the Cardinals would have to give up even close to that for Young.

Once again, as has been said many times, YOUNG IS VERY OVERPAID.

Why trade all that stuff for Young, when you could sign a very, very similar player in Orlando Hudson??

The Cardinals would definitely not have to give up Rasmus, they're not giving him up for anyone. I doubt they'd have to give up Daryl Jones either.

I could see something like Young for Freese and Kozma, or Freese and Mortensen, but Young's value is low enough that it shouldn't have to take 4+ players.

While I see the point of view of people who think Young is in the wrong here; its not like he signed this extension 3 years ago.

The Rangers could have brought this move to his attention when they were extending him but they didn't and Young is upset because he could have opted for Free Agency and signed someplace to be the SS or 2B for the next 5 years.

On another note: I wonder how long it is before an Agent adds a "position clause" to a players contract where the team must designate which position the player will play and if they ask them to move to another spot on the field they get a raise or can opt out the following year.

Can't believe Boras hasn't come up with this yet.