THURSDAY: The Orioles and Mariners are among the teams involved in talks about Porcello, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter).
FRIDAY: The Pirates and Padres are interested in Porcello, Jim Bowden of ESPN.com and MLB Network Radio reports (on Twitter).
TUESDAY: Quite a few National League teams asked about Tigers right-hander Rick Porcello at last week’s Winter Meetings, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com reports. However, the Tigers need Porcello at this point, so he’s not available.
If the Tigers re-sign Anibal Sanchez, they’d have an abundance of starters and could move Porcello. Detroit’s front office executives hope to sign Sanchez, but they were told that their early offers weren’t close to being enough, according to Knobler. It appears that the free agent right-hander seeks more money than the Tigers are willing to offer. The Tigers pursued a trade for James Shields, but they haven’t pursued free agent starters other than Sanchez, Knobler writes.
Porcello, 23, posted a 4.59 ERA with 5.5 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 53.2% ground ball rate in 176 1/3 innings this past season. He earned $3.1MM in 2012 and has a projected salary of $4.7MM for 2013. He’s under team control through 2015 and could be a fit for the Rockies, Padres or Pirates in my view.
