2:05pm: Broxton is down to a small handful of teams and will choose before the Winter Meetings next week, says ESPN's Jerry Crasnick in a series of tweets. Crasnick says Broxton seeks a one-year deal to re-establish value, and about a dozen teams requested his medical records. The Rangers were in on him before signing Joe Nathan, and the Rockies discussed him as an option if they trade Huston Street. Crasnick thinks the Rays, Marlins, Red Sox, Twins, and Reds could be in the mix.
MONDAY, 12:13pm: A friend of Broxton tells Joel Sherman of the New York Post that all things being equal, the reliever wants to be close to his Georgia home. Sherman finds the Braves unlikely, but thinks the Marlins or Rays make sense. Abbott told Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times this morning that a tentative deal should be reached in the next few days, but his client won't be returning to the Dodgers.
SUNDAY, 8:40pm: Jonathan Broxton's agent, BB Abbott, doesn't think his client will wind up signing with the Mets but does think that he could sign somewhere soon, tweets Mark Hale of the New York Post. Broxton underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery in September and pitched just 12 2/3 innings for the Dodgers last season.
Last Sunday it was reported that more than ten teams are interested in the 27-year-old and the Blue Jays are among the teams in the mix. Ben Nicholson-Smith took a look at Broxton's free agent stock in late September and predicted a one-year deal with plenty of incentives.
Cards for $3.5 million to be set-up man
im a huge card fan…would be shocked if it happened…their closer isn’t even making 2 million
Id rather have Aaron Miles set up.
Blue Jays please
If he wants a legitimate opportunity to pitch in high leverage situations and re-estabish himself as a top-tier reliever, TB or TOR, in the belly of the AL East beast, should be his destination. I’m hoping the maple syrup is enough to convince him and his… husky figure up north of the border.
I’m hoping that the Twins don’t sign Broxton. Please Terry Ryan, stay away from Broxton.
Broxton to Minnesota on a one-year deal?
Maybe 3 mil plus incentives and closer role?
I’d be okay with that. He doesn’t even have to close, the whole bullpen needs work.
That’s what I’m thinking, but like I said, I hope not.
Beacuse Georgia is just a 2 hour drive away!
Denard Span is from Florida. He doesn’t seem to have any problems playing in Minnesota.
Denard Span isnt Jonathan Broxton…
Broxton tells Joel Sherman of the New York Post that all things being equal, the reliever wants to be close to his Georgia home”
He should be good now.
Matt Stairs is retired.
It is reported that Broxton wishes to sign with whatever team Prince Fielder signs with, as he LOVES to be taken out to dinner.
As long as that headcase does resign with my Dodgers, I’ll be happy.
Thank god.
Jays?
(enter fat joke here)
(enter Wilpon joke here)
He would be a good replacement for Bell. Even with the poor offense he will get his save oppurtunities. Balsley and Petco will do wonders for him as well.
Broxton will be better than people think.
Broxton is great…. if hes not pitching vs the Phillies.
Which is why I want the Mets to sign him! 18/19 times a year! Yes, Please!
Nah, I’d rather he go to another potential post season opponent. St. Louis, Colorado, Boston, etc.
I hate these closers coming in and shutting us down: Mariano Rivera, Brian Wilson, and Jason Motte. I like guys like Houston Street and Jonathan Broxton.
Very short list of CP the phills own
It’s either Boston or Boston i think Boston
By signing with Boston, he may lose his value significantly since Boston and fans don’t have the patience to wait him to show his old stuff. He may be released before even he turns him self. I think Broxton can improve his future value by signing with Jays. They will be more patience like they showed last year with Dotel, Franky and Rouch.
Being that Bosox are in a desperate need for some pen help and having that Broxton is just around 3M they can pick him up so he can be closer or if not then the setup man and they can still pickup a closer.. Broxton would help the Bosox pen would be the only reliable guy in there pen if he returns to himself again
Minor league deal and makes the team out of Spring Training, or 1 year contract?
I think he has more value then a ML contract or 1 yr deal
If I’m Broxton I’m not pitching in the AL East coming off an injury. I say the Pirates or Twins.
If im Broxton im going to do exactly that..To prove myself and to give the Bosox a reliable closer and make them forget Pap even existed.
makes sense
twins are further awat then the reds, doesnt work geographically.
If the Jays take him… I’d say he earns 4.5m tops for a year who knows
Tje Mets will sign nobody that is my prediction. First off they are cheap second nobody wants to go there. Ha and i am a Met fan.
whoever ends up with him will know what they’ve got once they see if his slider gets sit upon and knocked around or misses bats. i think even if he’s lost 2-3 mph off his fb it won’t be an issue
Softbanks Hawks with Wily Mo
i know the braves don’t make any since but i could see them signing him to get a veteran presence in the bullpen and they do like signing washed up bullpen (saito,linbrink,sherrel) who do fairly decent. maybe the marlins as a possibility since they trying be be big spenders?
Could you imagine though if he did come back to form, how formiddable the Braves bullpen would be? Broxton could be used anywhere from the 6th to the 8th depending on the lineup at the time. That would be a big power arm added to 3 headed monster already out there.
this times a thousand
Frank Wren plays the quite game, I wouldn’t be surprised is Broxton is a Brave bay the end of the day.
this
I would be. Until/if Wren trades Prado/Jurrjens, the Braves don’t have payroll room to get a SS. Unless Broxton signs for minimum with no incentives, he’s out of the Braves price range…
Cincinnati is closer to ATL than Tampa or Miami.
He is from Augusta not Atl only makes him 75 miles closer to Reds then Marlins
But with the price of gas these days…
I would love to see Broxton and Bailey in the Orange and Black. That would be an interesting combination in the back of the Bullpen. Baltimore isn’t that far from Georgia and it’s a heckuva lot closer then LA. Of course I am taking into account that the Orioles trade for Bailey and Broxton wants to come to Charm City. Call them the Killer B’s of Baltimore! Yes, I could go for that. Sadly, though I wake up and realize we still have Kevin Gregg in the bullpen and Angelos as owner, so this will never happen.
I wonder if the braves are interested for the right price. Don’t really NEED another reliever but you can always use more arms… Especially if he gets his velocity back
Not to mention the fact Broxton and Chipper are deer hunting buddies, makes me wonder if Chipper has something to do with this.
You know he does.
I bet Chip has been telling the front office about Brox for a few weeks now.
Probably no team is going to take him on at this point as their Plan A closer. He’s a reclamation project. Brox could be a waste of a roster spot or a huge bargain, and nobody can say which will come true at this point. It’s also not really a matter of velocity at this point. He had lost a few MPH but the real issue was no movement and his offspeed pitches weren’t working.
The Braves still need to spell Venters and Kimbrell… they tried to use Linebrink and Sherrill in this way last year. A Broxton addition would be quite reasonable as an ‘off-days/lower-leverage closer’.
From reading what I have on this just a minute ago.. it seems like he will probably go to the Marlins or Rays, I’m hoping the Marlins but I can’t see them picking him up if they want to sign all the other big names they’ve been linked to…
If Brox wants to sign close to his Georgia home, I can’t imagine why the Braves wouldn’t pursue him. Linebrink and Sherill are gone, which is $6.7M off the books. They need to replace those two, and even half of $6.7M seems like more than enough to give Broxton a “rebuild your value” deal. Adding him to the mix would give Atlanta a deadly 1-2-3 punch of Broxton-Venters-Kimbrel in the late innings. With so many young guys expected to get a shot in the Atlanta rotation next season, having a good bullpen will be more important than ever.
Also, it would be hilarious to see a team’s 7th, 8th, and 9th inning relievers get progressively smaller while the speed of the pitches gets progressively faster.
If Brox isn’t demanding a closing role or silly amounts of money from the Braves, they’ll be signing him. We’ve seen this more times than not, just love our Georgia natives.
It also helps that he was a elite closer when healthy. I hope he does well and is healthy. Damn you Joe Torre.
Godspeed Jon Broxton.
Coming off surgery, he can do neither of those things. I would warn the fans of any prospective team where he might sign that Brox’s problems were probably not just the shoulder. He went from a pitcher with great location, velocity and movement to a pitcher having problems with all three. If anybody knows why all of his skills failed him, they aren’t saying. It sure didn’t happen in one inning of one game, as some would have you believe.
Torre had him throw like 120 pitches in 3 games, he was done after that.
But Torre didn’t do that, he never did that to any pitcher as some would have you believe.
According to the stats, it was 99 pitches over five days. Too many? Sure, especially since he was having trouble making good pitches to anyone from the very start that infamous game. But the idea that a pitcher can go from fine and dandy to totally broken in three games is kind of silly. A pitcher can throw that hard for only so many years. Eventually he needs to start mixing in more breaking and offspeed pitches, which Broxton was not willing to do. Maybe that’s why Broxton never tried to blame Torre for overuse. Maybe that’s because he understands something that some fans don’t, that it was at least partially his fault.
it took Cory Wade 2 seasons to get over torre’s abuse of him
i’m thankful torre retired, God only knows what he might have done to Kershaw’s arm–might have seen the dodgers go to a 4 man rotation
Well if it wasn’t one game Blue Sky it certainly was one series. The Dodgers played the Yankees not the (my edit)(Angels) just before the All-Star Break in 2010.I could have sworn it was the Angels….ne way I saw Broxton completely unravel. He got himself together for that All-Star game afterwards, but that was it. He stunk for the rest of the year and the following season. I think if Broxton gets healthy and a change in scenery preferable in Baltimore. It might do him some good. The only problem is the Orioles don’t seem to want to hire a new pitching coach. Showalter wants to stick with Adair, I mean that’s no good. Showalter needs to take a little bit more care and re-evaluate the situation. Anyway, it should be interesting to see what happens either way.
PS: I love Vin Scully, he is still the Man!
I think what happened to Broxton in mid-2010 might have been hastened by heavy use, but almost certainly would have happened later if not sooner if he kept relying almost exclusively on his fastball. It’s not like the first time we’ve ever seen it. Most of the closers who’ve had long careers in this game learn to mix pitches. Brox didn’t want to go there, for whatever reason. Also, it’s the responsibility of players to report soreness, tiredness or aches and pains to coaches. Most managers will assume a player is good to go unless they tell him otherwise. I’ve said before that Broxton should have been taken out of that awful game in June 2010 because he was ineffective from nearly the start. That part is Torre’s fault — but Broxton’s shoulder? No, that was in the cards already.
Broxton fits right in with the Rays.
I don’t think the Reds would spend over 2 cents for a closer in free agency. It’s trade for one, or look within the organization. I’m hoping for Boxberger.
If Broxton comes to the rays, they dont need to resign Joel Peralta. Of course im just a fan
Peralta is not FA, he is only arb-eligible and is expected to make somewhere between 1.5~2m for 2012. More depth in bullpen never harm especially when the one is fairly cheap and you can always get something in return when it comes to deadline, when everyone is just dying hard for bullpen arms.
Twins? Makes sense.
One Broxton = Twins.
Rays is the best organization for Broxton to re-establish his value.
1. It is close to his hometown.
2. Rays is playing the toughest division of baseball.
It would increase his value significantly if he does well in the beast AL East.
3. Playing well in AL East would attract biggest spenders of baseball along
with Toronto as they are approaching contending level.
4. Red Sox does not have closer and Bard will likely make transition to starter.
Mariano Rivera already declared following season could be the last one.
5. Warm place like Florida is beneficial to pitchers.
6. Joe Maddon is one of the best managers in baseball when it comes to
properly operating bullpen arms to maximize their abilities.
7. Rays has the best defense in baseball and their park is pitcher-friendly.
8. Rays is doing extremely well re-establishing pitchers value in one year
and help them getting good amount of money in the market.
(i.e. Soriano, Benoit, Balfour, Wheeler, …)
Steve Dilbeck reports Broxton to Royals.