Ken Rosenthal’s Latest

Ken Rosenthal has been hard at work with his sources, and he has a new article at FOX Sports.  Some highlights:

• The Marlins and Dodgers are interested in Byung-Hyun Kim as a reliever, and the A’s could add him as the fifth starter instead of Joe Kennedy.  Kim, a 28 year-old sidearmer, hasn’t closed since ’03 with Boston.  A trade to Florida would make him the ninth inning favorite though.  He’ll earn $2.5MM this year.
• The Rockies like Mark Hendrickson of L.A., and they may release Josh Fogg this spring.  I wouldn’t discard Kim while acquiring Hendrickson; Kim projects as a slightly better pitcher.  Advantages to acquiring Hendrickson from Dan O’Dowd’s point of view: a slightly better groundball rate and two years remaining until free agency.
• The Blue Jays want to give Josh Towers a rotation spot.  Towers has nine Ks in nine innings this spring while allowing two runs.  Does spring training really have that kind of influence on a team’s decision-makers?  Towers will make $2.9MM this season, but he’s still pretty far from free agency.  The Jays would like to trade John Thomson; otherwise they may release him.  As a newly signed free agent Thomson can veto any deal.  He’d be wise to take a trade to the NL, in my opinion.
• Rosenthal thinks the Orioles and Nationals will be competing for Mark Teixeira, who will become a free agent after the 2008 season.  Tex is a Maryland native, which usually doesn’t matter for a Boras client.  But Boras might actually be able to use this to get the two clubs bidding against each other.