Rolen, Glaus Can Opt Out After ’08
As a player traded in the middle of a multiyear deal, new Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen has the right to opt for free agency or demand a trade after one year with Toronto. This right has since been eliminated but players who signed their deals before October ’06 are grandfathered in. Troy Glaus has the same right.
The stipulations make it less likely for players to opt for free agency or demand a trade. If the player chooses free agency he has to wait until mid-March to leave and also give up three years of free agent eligibility. If he chooses a trade he can only block six teams. That said, we have seen this happen before when a guy just wants out. The most recent example I can think of is Javier Vazquez in November of ’05.
It seems the Jays still expect to have Rolen through 2010, and he’d have to really hate it there to back out of his deal.
Cubs Interested In Marlon Byrd
According to MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan, the Cubs asked the Rangers about Marlon Byrd. Sullivan says the Cubs may be willing to give up Matt Murton for Byrd. This swap could make sense given each team’s needs. Sullivan cautions that the discussions are only preliminary. The Byrd rumor first popped up via Bruce Levine about a week ago.
Byrd, 30, will make $1.8MM in ’08 in a newly agreed-to contract. He’s set to reach free agency after the 2009 season. He’s been with the Phillies, Nationals, and Rangers. He had decent years in ’03 and ’07. He’s not a guy you want to use in left field, but the Josh Hamilton acquisition would push him there unless he’s dealt.
Murton is under team control through 2011, if my calculations are correct. He’s a bit of a tweener in that his power is a bit light for a corner outfielder. Still, a career line of .296/.365/.455 in 289 games is interesting and there is room for growth if he’s left alone (he’s 26).
Odds and Ends: Gregg, Howard, Shingo, Valentin, Ankiel
Some loose ends and links from today…
- Closer Kevin Gregg is the highest-paid Marlin at $2.5MM. Quick! Trade him!
- Ryan Howard and the Phillies submitted salary figures: Howard wants $10MM, the Phillies want to pay him $7MM. If they can’t meet in the middle then an independent arbitrator will pick one of the two amounts next month. MLB.com has a handy table showing all the figures submitted today by players and teams.
- Fun fact, the Cubs signed Shingo Takatsu. He’s 39 now; he saved 19 games for the ’04 White Sox. He had a 6.17 ERA in 23 innings in Japan last year though. Mr. Zero is the all-time saves leader in Japan.
- Jose Valentin‘s minor league deal was announced today. The free agent market is pretty much barren of middle infielders now.
- The Cardinals and Rick Ankiel agreed on $900K plus another $100K in incentives for ’08. He was an oddball case without comparables given his career progression.
- The Royals appear to be done this offseason.
Rays Dealings: Pena, Kazmir, Shields
We discussed the Carlos Pena deal here, but now we have the breakdown via Marc Topkin. He’ll get $6MM in ’08, $8MM in ’09, and $10.125MM in ’10. Meanwhile fellow Boras client Matt Holliday will get $9.5MM in ’08 and $13.5MM in ’09. Holliday may be the superior player, but is he 60% better? Seems Pena just wanted the security and likes Tampa Bay.
Topkin wrote earlier today that Scott Kazmir expected to have an arbitration hearing with the Rays. However, Kazmir and the Rays were able to agree on a $3.785MM salary for ’08. Avoiding a hearing might help a bit if the Rays attempt to sign Kazmir long-term in the future.
Topkin adds that the Rays are trying to sign Jamie Shields to a six or even seven-year deal (and he’s not even arbitration-eligible yet). I believe he’s not due for free agency until after the 2011 season. Marc Lancaster says it could be a five or six year deal with Shields and "it may be wrapped up within the next week."
Miguel Cabrera Gets $11.3MM
Miguel Cabrera agreed on a salary around what was expected with the Tigers – $11.3MM for 2008. I recently talked to the Detroit Free Press’s Jon Paul Morosi about the long-term possibilities, if you’re interested.
Danny Knobler says this was Cabrera’s agents’ preference – get the one-year deal done with today’s deadline and then work on a something long-term.
Rockies Sign Holliday For Two Years
As I mentioned earlier, I won’t post about every one-year deal reached for arbitration-eligible players since they are quite common. However many of the multiyear contracts reached deserve a mention.
Matt Holliday, a Scott Boras client, signed a two-year, $23MM deal today with the Rockies. When the deal is up after the 2009 season he’ll be a free agent. That Holliday required this amount for two years shows what a fine deal the Rays struck with Carlos Pena. I wonder if Boras recommended against the contract Pena signed.
Perhaps Holliday’s extension indicates that the two sides have similar enough thinking that a longer-term deal could be reached before he reaches free agency. Hard to say.
Brewers Not Interested In Feliz
The Brewers have no interest in Pedro Feliz, according to Tom Haudricourt. Not a big surprise; why would they trade Bill Hall to sign Feliz? Hall seems likely to stay put, though it’d be surprising if Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas, and Chris Capuano all do.
Speaking of which, let’s bust out an MLBTR survey! Choose which of those three Brewer starters is most likely to be traded before the season begins. You can see the results of the poll here.
Multiyear Contract Discussions: Teixeira, Tulowitzki, Morneau
With today’s deadline for arbitration-eligible players, it only makes sense that all sorts of long-term contract discussions are going on. Even players and teams who do agree to one-year deals for ’08 may find themselves with groundwork laid for bigger deals.
- That could be the case with Mark Teixeira. His agent, Scott Boras, had "quite a bit of dialogue" with Frank Wren about an extension prior to Tex signing for one year and $12.5MM. I recently guessed the Braves have a 10% chance of getting this done.
- The Rockies have had "intense, serious dialogue" with Troy Tulowitzki‘s agent about a long-term deal. Tulo isn’t arbitration-eligible yet though, so Dan O’Dowd may choose to resolve his arb cases and get back to his shortstop afterwards. Tulowitski could sign a six-year, $30MM deal, a record for a player with his service time.
- Justin Morneau signed for one year and $7.4MM. LEN3 says the Twins may contact his agent about a multiyear deal but haven’t yet.
MLBTR Visitors By State
A reader recently mentioned that it might be interesting to see which states are best represented among MLBTR readers. I could do a straight ranking of visits by state for this month, sure. But that would be skewed toward the most populous states. Instead let’s look at MLBTR January visits as a percentage of each state’s population. Here’s how they rank:
District of Columbia
Illinois
New York
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Missouri
New Jersey
Rhode Island
Minnesota
New Hampshire
Maine
Iowa
Maryland
North Dakota
South Dakota
Vermont
Wisconsin
Pennsylvania
Kansas
Indiana
Delaware
Washington
Virginia
Ohio
California
Kentucky
Nebraska
Nevada
Texas
Georgia
Montana
Arizona
Florida
North Carolina
Tennessee
Alaska
Oregon
Colorado
Hawaii
Michigan
Oklahoma
Arkansas
South Carolina
West Virginia
Idaho
Alabama
Utah
Louisiana
Mississippi
Wyoming
New Mexico
- No surprise that Illinois loves MLBTR, since I’m from there and can’t help but be a little more plugged in with the Cubs and Sox.
- 10 million people in Michigan, how come more of them don’t read MLBTR? Same question, Florida, Texas, and Colorado. You have baseball teams, come visit!
- North Dakota residents go to the most pages per visit (1.53), Wyoming the least (1.23).
- North Dakota residents spend 2 minutes and 44 seconds on the site on average, tops among the states. West Virginians only spend 1 minute and 1 second on the site.
Mariners Hesitant To Part With Jones For Bedard?
Jason Churchill has an update on his right-hand sidebar. He now believes that the holdup in the Mariners-Orioles Erik Bedard discussions is Adam Jones. Churchill’s source thinks the Mariners aren’t sure about giving him up. Waffling on Jones would seem to jive with the Mariners’ recent move of pulling him from winter ball for just a few days.
Maybe the Mariners have been reading blogs again.