Yoenis Cespedes Rumors

Tigers Notes: Fielder, Cespedes, Boesch

The Tigers agreed to sign Prince Fielder to the biggest contract in franchise history and the fourth biggest in MLB history less than 24 hours ago, so there’s lots of Tigers chatter today. Here are the latest links...

• Some ‘MLB bigs’ say the Fielder contract is too long and for too much money, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets. The first baseman agreed to a nine-year, $214MM deal.
• One rival general manager says Fielder has elite makeup, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney tweets. “He's great that way," the GM said.
• People in baseball aren’t sure if the Fielder signing takes the Tigers out of the running for Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com tweets. Cespedes has gained residency in the Dominican Republic, but he's not yet a free agent.
• Tigers outfielder Brennan Boesch joined Jim Bowden and Casey Stern on MLB Network Radio and said he's eargerly awaiting hitting in the same lineup as Fielder. Boesch added that he had no idea Fielder was joining the Tigers.
• Tigers right-hander Max Scherzer told John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press that "[his] phone has blown up talking about [the news]. It is Christmas come late."
• Here are some more reactions to the Fielder deal.

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Quick Hits: Zimmerman, McCutchen, Cespedes, Sano

MLB has announced that Tony La Russa will manage the NL team during the All-Star Game in 2012, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). La Russa retired from managing earlier this offseason, but he'll continue the tradition of the pennant winning managers from the prior year managing the two All-Star clubs. Here's the latest from around the league...

• Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post reports that Ryan Zimmerman is open to a creative contract extension that would allow the Nationals to build a strong team around him. "We want to do a deal so it helps me and the team at the same time, so they can go out and sign guys like Prince Fielder or other free agents," said Zimmerman. Fielder is off the table now, and the Nats know what it'll take to sign their star third baseman long-term.
• "Never say never," said Pirates GM Neal Huntington to Jeff Nelson and Jim Memolo of MLB Network Radio when asked about a potential Andrew McCutchen trade. "If someone wants to back up the truck and give us one of those organization-altering deals, it's something that we'd have to listen to...It would have to be a dramatic overpay on the part of the other club."
• The Nationals consider Yoenis Cespedes a corner outfielder or even a first baseman, reports MLB.com's Bill Ladson (on Twitter). Earlier today we learned that Cespedes has gained residency in the Dominican Republic, and now awaits MLB's approval to become a free agent.
• The Indians are "making the necessary moves to get [Robert Hernandez Heredia] to the United States," reports the AP (via ESPN). Heredia, better known as Fausto Carmona, faces a judicial process in the Dominican Republic after lying about his identity.
• Twins top prospect Miguel Sano has changed representation according to SI.com's Melissa Segura (on Twitter). He is now with SFX agent Troy Caradonna.

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Cespedes Gains Residency In Dominican Republic

Yoenis Cespedes has gained residency in the Dominican Republic according to agent Edgar Mercedes, reports MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez. The outfielder is now waiting to be declared a free agent by MLB.

The 26-year-old Cespedes went 5-for-35 with no walks and ten strikeouts in winter ball this month, and won't play again according to Baseball America's Ben Badler (on Twitter). Yesterday we heard that the Cubs, Marlins, and Tigers are the teams most actively targeting him, though the Prince Fielder signing presumably takes Detroit out of the running.

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Quick Hits: Cespedes, Pierzynski, Molina, Selig

A few news items to wrap up a busy Monday...

• The Cubs, Marlins and Tigers are the three teams most actively targeting Yoenis Cespedes, reports FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).  Last week, Cespedes said the Cubs were his most ardent suitor, with the Marlins, Tigers, Orioles, White Sox and Indians also showing "more interest" in him.
• White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski tells MLB.com's Scott Merkin that he plans to continue playing after 2012.  Pierzynski, 35, has spent the last seven years with the Sox and is a free agent after this season.
• Yadier Molina's future with the Cardinals is debated in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch roundtable.
• Bud Selig's two-year contract extension was officially finalized and announced today, Major League Baseball announced.  Selig will remain commissioner through the 2014 season.  The extension was approved by a unanimous 30-0 vote amongst team owners.
• Derrek Lee could retire if he doesn't find "a perfect situation," tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.  Yesterday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post said Lee could be in for a Jermaine Dye-esque "forced retirement" since no team would be willing to meet his desired price.
• The Rays reportedly have interest in Edgar Renteria for a bench spot, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
• The Astros will consider uniform changes and even possibly a name change for 2013, new club owner Jim Crane announced at a press conference today (passed on by Zachary Levine of the Houston Chronicle).
• Indians catcher Lou Marson could see a lot of playing time against left-handed pitching, writes MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.  Regular catcher Carlos Santana could play at first base on the days the strong-armed Marson (who threw out 33.3% of baserunners last year) is behind the plate.  The right-handed hitting Marson has a .285/.367/.395 career line against southpaws and would add balance to an Indians lineup that is very heavy on left-handed bats.

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Quick Hits: Cespedes, Fielder, Lee, Nationals, Indians

On this day in 2006, the Mets traded Kris Benson to the Orioles for Jorge Julio and John Maine.  Benson, who pitched for five different teams in his 12-year career, announced his retirement earlier this month.  Here's a look at today's links..

• Yoenis Cespedes has yet to establish residency in the Dominican Republic and a source tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter) there is no guarantee it will happen this week.
• A surprising number of baseball executives think that the Dodgers will ultimately be in play for Prince Fielder, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
• More from Sherman (via Twitter) as he writes that some executives think Derrek Lee could end up in something of a forced retirement, similar to Jermaine Dye.   Lee wants to continue playing, but only at price that he likely won't get.
• The silence surrounding the Nationals' pursuit of Fielder is in line with GM Mike Rizzo's standard operating procedure, writes Pete Kerzel of MASNsports.com.
• The oft-traded Aaron Cunningham has a positive outlook on getting dealt and views each deal as an opportunity to start fresh, writes Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer.  The 25-year-old, who was recently acquired by the Indians, has been dealt four times in his career.
• No team has gone through a more significant clubhouse-culture makeover this winter than the Rockies, who have added Michael Cuddyer, Casey Blake, Ramon Hernandez, and Marco Scutaro, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com.

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Quick Hits: Rizzo, Rangers, Garza, Johnson

It was one year ago today that the Angels and Blue Jays pulled off the huge trade that sent Vernon Wells to Anaheim in exchange for Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli.  The Jays were considered immediate winners for getting Wells' huge contract off their payroll and the swap looks even better for Toronto given Wells' .218/.248/.412 season in 2011.

Some news from around the majors...

• New Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo holds the top spot on this list of baseball's top 10 first base prospects from MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo.
• Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine acknowledged that there are "active discussions internally" about improving the team when speaking with Todd Hollandsworth and Jim Memolo on MLB Network Radio (mp3 link), but it's unlikely the Rangers will make another significant move. "It won't be from a lack of creativity," he said.
• Matt Garza told Hollandsworth and Memolo that he's "definitely open" to signing an extension with the Cubs (mp3 link).
• Josh Johnson tells Glenn Geffner of the Marlins Insider 790 AM radio show (and passed on by Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post) that he will begin throwing off a mound next week, the first time the Marlins ace has done so since September.  Johnson was limited to nine starts last season due to shoulder injuries.
• Yoenis Cespedes is still not an established resident of the Dominican Republic, which is holding up his free agency, reports MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez.
• Kyle Blanks may only realize his potential if he leaves the Padres, opines Fangraphs' Paul Swydan.
• Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune is back with his weekly online chat about the Padres.
• The Tigers, Indians and the "sleeper choice" Brewers are all possible fits for Derrek Lee, writes Tony Andracki of CSNChicago.com.

MLBTR's Mike Axisa also contributed to this post

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Tigers Notes: Damon, Cespedes, Turner

The Tigers announced this week that Victor Martinez is likely to miss the 2012 season with a torn ACL and though GM Dave Dombrowski said the team won’t act rashly, the Tigers figure to be on the lookout for a bat. Here’s the latest on the defending AL Central Champions...

• Tigers manager Jim Leyland said on MLB Network Radio that the Tigers probably aren’t going to find someone as good as Martinez. “So if you say it’s not gonna hurt us, you’re lying,” he added. Hat tip to Jason Beck of MLB.com, who has a partial transcript of Leyland's comments.
• Leyland said Johnny Damon’s name will likely come up since he can contribute to a club, even if he's not a "prototype DH."
• Leyland knows there are a lot of options remaining for teams in search of hitters. “How good they produce anymore, I don’t know,” he said. “And I always ultimately leave that up to Dave. We’ve already had some discussions, I won’t say who they are, of some guys internally.”
• John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press suggests Vladimir Guerrero and Raul Ibanez could be fits for the Tigers and notes that it remains to be seen whether Martinez's injury will affect the Tigers' pursuit of Yoenis Cespedes.
• Right-hander Jacob Turner, third baseman Nick Castellanos, left-hander Drew Smyly and left-hander Casey Crosby top Baseball America's list of the Tigers' best prospects entering the season.
• Leyland said the Tigers could round out their rotation with a trade or a free agent acquisition, James Schmehl of MLive.com writes. Turner and others would compete for the team's final rotation spot if Dombrowski doesn't add a starter.
• Right-hander Max Scherzer is an extension candidate and I previewed a possible deal last night.

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Quick Hits: Motte, Cespedes, Garcia, Angels

On this date last year, the White Sox selected Philip Humber off of waivers from the Athletics. The right-hander posted a 3.75 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 163 innings in 2011 and projects to start for Chicago in 2012. We didn't see anyone claimed on waivers today, but we do have these links...

• A multiyear deal between the Cardinals and Jason Motte is ‘in play,’ though nothing is close, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Motte filed for $2.4MM in arbitration, with the Cardinals countering at $1.5MM, as our Arbitration Tracker shows.
• Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes hit his first home run since joining the Dominican Winter League and you can view a clip of it here (hat tip: Keith Law).
• Another Cuban, left-hander Onelkis Garcia, will be eligible for the 2012 amateur draft, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. MLB made Garcia eligible to MLB teams as last year's draft approached, before making him ineligible at the last minute. Scouts tell Badler the 22-year-old projects as a reliever and could be selected in the third round this June.
• Angels GM Jerry Dipoto explained to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times that at one point during the Winter Meetings, the Angels had people negotiating with representatives for C.J. Wilson, LaTroy Hawkins and Albert Pujols in three different places.
• Indians president Mark Shapiro, who is depicted in the Moneyball movie, told Jordan Bastian of MLB.com that he enjoyed the film for what it was. "I appreciate why most people would like it,” Shapiro said. “But I felt like it was an oversimplified kind of view, which is kind of what you have to do when you take a lot of history and condense it into an hour and a half."

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Quick Hits: White Sox, Guerrero, Gonzalez, Hart

By this time tomorrow, we'll know whether the Rangers were able to work out a deal with Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish. In the meantime, here are tonight's links...

• Dayan Viciedo says he tried to recruit fellow Cubans Yoenis Cespedes and Jorge Soler for the White Sox, tweets Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune. Cespedes appears to be drawing substantial interest from Chicago’s other team.
• The representatives for Vladimir Guerrero and Raul Ibanez contacted the Yankees about their DH opening, Newsday’s Ken Davidoff tweets. The Yankees have also been in touch with the representatives for Carlos Pena, Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, though they aren’t inclined to spend big on a DH.
• Mark Zuckerman of NatsInsider.com has the salary breakdown for Gio Gonzalez’s recent five-year, $42MM extension (Twitter link). The Nationals have two $12MM options for 2017 and 2018, Gonzalez’s second and third free agent years.
• Brewers GM Doug Melvin said right fielder Corey Hart will be asked if he's willing to play some games at first base, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Mat Gamel is the Brewers’ projected first baseman, since Prince Fielder will almost certainly sign elsewhere.

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Cespedes: Cubs Are Leading Suitors

Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes says the Cubs are his most serious suitor, according to Dionisio Soldevila of the Associated Press (link via DiarioLibre.com). The free agent outfielder isn’t yet a free agent, but he’s playing Winter Ball in the Dominican Republic and MLB teams continue eyeing him. 

"Of all the teams who have come, the Chicago Cubs have been most interested in me," Cespedes said.

Last week Cespedes said the six teams with "more interest" in signing him were the Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Orioles, Tigers and Indians. The Yankees, Phillies, Blue Jays and Rangers also have some interest in Cespedes, but the Nationals aren’t involved. Marlins president David Samson recently acknowledged that his team intends to make an aggressive run at Cespedes, who is represented by Adam Katz of Wasserman Media Group.

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