The Braves' front office has a busy day on its hands, notes David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (on Twitter). Atlanta has seven arbitration eligible players they'll hope to take care of today: Craig Kimbrel, Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman, Mike Minor, Kris Medlen, Chris Johnson and Jordan Schafer. He also tweets that a multi-year deal is unlikely to be reached with any of the seven. As MLBTR's Tim Dierkes tweeted earlier today, the Braves are one of several "file and trial" teams that either settle before exchanging figures or say they will head to a trial, which means GM Frank Wren and his staff will have their hands full today. Here's more out of baseball's Eastern divisions…
- Rays ace David Price knows there's still a chance that he will be traded even after agreeing to a one-year, $14MM contract to avoid arbitration, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. However, Price wants to remain with the Rays and says that the closer Spring Training gets, the more confident he is that he will stay. Price said that he can't imagine being traded once camp opens, and he thinks making it to February would be a good indicator that he won't be dealt: "Probably Feb. 1 would be a time period that I think would kind of let me know that I would be here."
- Clayton Kershaw's record extension will impact future deals for starters, but its impact on Red Sox lefty Jon Lester is minimal, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. Lauber writes that there are no other players in Kershaw's stratosphere, noting that Lester compares more favorably to Cole Hamels. Boston will likely approach Lester about an extension during Spring Training, he adds.
- The Orioles and Manny Machado received good news yesterday following Machado's visit with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, as one source told the Baltimore Sun's Dan Connolly that Machado is six to eight weeks ahead of schedule. That would place Machado ready to contribute on Opening Day, Connolly notes (Twitter links).
- Signing closer Steve Cishek to a multi-year deal has not been considered as a serious option by the Marlins, MLB.com's Joe Frisaro reports in his latest Marlins Inbox piece.
Hamels > Lester
WOW! Good for Os and Machado. When most of us saw that play last year, we thought the worst case scenario. good to know he will be back sooner!
I hope Rays can trade Price and get more talent in return now, instead next off-season. But I have difficulty seeing Rays compete without Price in 2014. Their rotation is basically Hellickson, Cobb, Moore, and Archer. Do they have any ML-ready SP to take Price’s slot?
Odorizzi is ready to step in. Obviously he is no Price, but he has a 3.15 ERA in 231.2 AAA innings and 3.94 ERA in a small sample of 29.2 MLB innings last year. Last year he also had 9.0 SO/9, 2.9 BB/9 and 0.9 HR/9 in AAA and BA recently ranked him the Rays top prospect. Nothing screams ace about him, but he should be a solid mid-rotation guy who really has nothing left to prove in the minors. Hopefully Moore takes the next step in his development that everyone is waiting for and he can be the ace to replace Price.
If Odorizzi can provide 2+ WAR, Rays can be in great shape.
Hellboy isn’t as good as you think he is. Cobb Moore and Archer = solid arms. But Hellboy eh..
“Price wants to remain with the Rays” but he’s not willing to take a pay cut to do so.
When you say it like that, you make it sound like Price is a flawed, selfish person. If we were talking about $2 or $3 million a year, maybe you have a point. The truth of the matter is the Rays best offer would probably be somewhere around $15-17 million/year, whereas the market has set his value at $25-27 million/year. He would probably be leaving somewhere around $70 million dollars on the table over the life of his next contract. I challenge you to find me anybody who wouldn’t do the same.