Gallardo Injury May Change Brewers’ Plans
When the Brewers’ rotation was eight-deep, trading one starter before Opening Day seemed like a given. MLBTR readers believed Chris Capuano to be the most likely to go. However, young ace Yovani Gallardo tore cartilage in his knee and is set to miss four weeks. This may stop Brewers GM Doug Melvin from making a preseason move. The old adage holds true; you can never have too much pitching.
Gallardo, 21, pitched 110 innings with a 3.67 ERA as a rookie. His ERA goes down to 2.84 if you take out an 11 earned run thrashing at Coors Field in August. Fortunately it’s a knee injury rather than an elbow tweak or something.
Gallardo Injury May Change Brewers’ Plans
When the Brewers’ rotation was eight-deep, trading one starter before Opening Day seemed like a given. MLBTR readers believed Chris Capuano to be the most likely to go. However, young ace Yovani Gallardo tore cartilage in his knee and is set to miss four weeks. This may stop Brewers GM Doug Melvin from making a preseason move. The old adage holds true; you can never have too much pitching.
Gallardo, 21, pitched 110 innings with a 3.67 ERA as a rookie. His ERA goes down to 2.84 if you take out an 11 earned run thrashing at Coors Field in August. Fortunately it’s a knee injury rather than an elbow tweak or something.
Murton Reads MLBTR
It was pretty cool to learn today that Cubs outfielder Matt Murton reads MLBTradeRumors.com. Welcome! Unfortunately, I can’t imagine it’s thrilling to read about yourself in trade rumors all winter.
Murton is a left fielder, and the Cubs obviously have Alfonso Soriano there. Right field is now filled by Kosuke Fukudome. Lou Piniella couldn’t help but admit that Murton’s role on the Cubs is as a fourth outfielder. The Herald’s Bruce Miles has heard rumblings that the Cubs will try to trade Murton to a team where he can play regularly. ESPN’s Keith Law thinks Murton would be good for a .290/.360/.470 line in regular duty.
Baltimore wouldn’t make sense, now that the team has accumulated an outfield surplus of their own. San Diego remains a strong option, though those talks were said to be slow going last time we checked. And the Rangers appear to want more than just Murton for Marlon Byrd, something the Cubs may be reluctant to do. My own speculation – the Indians could be a fit.
White Sox Never Offered Crede Multiyear Deal?
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times has received conflicting reports from Joe Crede and the White Sox. It seems that Sox GM Kenny Williams claims multiyear overtures were made to Scott Boras regarding Crede, while the player says nothing was ever offered.
Additionally, Crede implied that he never spoke to Aaron Rowand about being traded to the Giants. I find this a little hard to believe; it would be kind of weird for the topic not to come up. Crede’s mindset right now is that he’s a member of the White Sox, though a trade before Opening Day seems inevitable.
Crede will earn $5.1MM in ’08. He won’t find much competition among free agent third basemen next year – Casey Blake, Nomar Garciaparra, and Wes Helms comprise the others.
K-Rod May Leave Angels After ’08
It’s looking more and more like 2008 will be Francisco Rodriguez’s last season with the Angels. His ’08 contract situation is not said to be the reason he’s late to camp. But the two sides are a solid $2.5MM apart and Rodriguez will try to become the first player to win a hearing this year on Thursday. Mike DiGiovanna thinks the hearing "could lead to animosity."
Rodriguez recently turned 26. He has a career ERA of 2.37 in 383 innings, with 146 saves under his belt. That’s the most saves in baseball history for a pitcher before his 26th birthday. Gregg Olson is next with 131, then Chad Cordero with 128.
Currently scheduled to join K-Rod in the free agent closer class of 2008-09: Joe Nathan, Brad Lidge, Jason Isringhausen, Trevor Hoffman, and Eric Gagne. My very unofficial research says B.J. Ryan received the largest-ever total for a reliever in November of 2005 with $47MM.
Fogg Turns Down Rockies
According to ESPN’s Buster Olney:
The Rockies talked again about re-signing Josh Fogg, but again, Fogg’s side has turned down a one-year offer. The Rockies dangled a $5 million deal, while Fogg has been looking for a multi-year contract.
As each day goes by, the remaining free agents lose what little leverage they have left. I predicted Fogg would get a three-year, $21MM deal. Instead, only five starters received deals worth $7MM or more annually: Tom Glavine, Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, Kenny Rogers, and Carlos Silva. Pettitte at $16MM seems a little out there, doesn’t it?
I think we’re going to see some solid free agent bargains next week. Maybe a free agent bargain just means paying a guy what he’s worth instead of significantly more than that.
Fogg Turns Down Rockies
According to ESPN’s Buster Olney:
The Rockies talked again about re-signing Josh Fogg, but again, Fogg’s side has turned down a one-year offer. The Rockies dangled a $5 million deal, while Fogg has been looking for a multi-year contract.
As each day goes by, the remaining free agents lose what little leverage they have left. I predicted Fogg would get a three-year, $21MM deal. Instead, only five starters received deals worth $7MM or more annually: Tom Glavine, Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, Kenny Rogers, and Carlos Silva. Pettitte at $16MM seems a little out there, doesn’t it?
I think we’re going to see some solid free agent bargains next week. Maybe a free agent bargain just means paying a guy what he’s worth instead of significantly more than that.
Orioles Asked For Ceda In Roberts Deal
According to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, the Orioles asked the Cubs for 21 year-old righty Jose Ceda as part of a Brian Roberts deal at some point this winter. However, Ceda is untouchable for Jim Hendry.
Ceda is a large righty swiped from Kevin Towers for Todd Walker at the ’06 trade deadline. Baseball America ranks him fourth among Cubs prospects, first among pitchers. When Ceda switched to relief in July, he threw 23 hitless innings in A ball. His fastball and slider are of Major League quality and Lou Piniella has noted that he could make the jump from A ball to the bigs.
Andy MacPhail said yesterday that he didn’t expect to trade Roberts before the Orioles’ Spring Training reporting date next week.
Marlins Reach Stadium Agreement
Great news for Marlins fans – an agreement has been reached to build a new stadium for the team for $515MM. It still needs to be approved by county and city commissioners on Thursday though.
The Marlins don’t have any players earning even $3MM on their roster. Baseball Prospectus sees them finishing fourth in the NL East this year with a 76-86 record. BP thinks the Nationals, Astros, Cardinals, Pirates, and Giants will all be worse than that.
Odds and Ends: Perez, Jones, Howard, Burnett
Let’s round up today’s linkage.
- No more long-term discussions with Oliver Perez and the Mets.
- Andruw Jones already wants to talk extension with the Dodgers.
- The Cardinals are not likely to make anymore acquisitions. In my view the team has question marks in right field, the middle infield, and the rotation. Here’s a look at their MLB.com depth chart. By the way, could Ryan Franklin be a league average starter? They could try it if the current options don’t pan out.
- Jim Salisbury thinks the Ryan Howard contract situation is a nonstory. I think this is partially because (and I hope this doesn’t sound condescending) most fans do not understand the arbitration process. Anyway Salisbury’s source says the Phillies would match Chase Utley‘s seven-year, $85MM deal and might approach $100MM. He says Howard may want "significantly more."
- Ivan Rodriguez would like to play beyond the 2008 season and retire a Tiger. If the Tigers can’t find a taker for Brandon Inge this year, he could be their starting catcher in ’09.
- Carl Pavano doesn’t seem too popular in the Yankees’ clubhouse.
- J.P. Ricciardi does not plan to do an extension during the season with A.J. Burnett. I think Burnett will stay healthy enough to top the two years, $24MM he could get if he does not opt out.