Rangers Close To Signing John Patterson
MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan says the Rangers are close to a deal with John Patterson. The match makes sense for both parties. Patterson is from Texas and will remain in a low-pressure environment. The Rangers add some depth with no risk and decent upside. He’ll head to Triple A and try to regain his strength and velocity.
You can read all about Patterson’s lengthy injury history here.
Rockies Notes: Giles Fails To Make Team
The Rocky Mountain News is reporting Marcus Giles was informed he won’t make the club despite his solid spring. Giles wasn’t on the list of players being sent to the minors (a list which included Victor Zambrano), but the speculation is that he will be released and given a chance to hook on with another team. The Dodgers would seem like an obvious fit, but it’s likely several teams will be in the running.
Giles hit .321/.457/.536 over 13 games, with four doubles and nine runs scored. He was also 3 for 3 in steal attempts. However, the likely starter at second Jayson Nix was equal to the task, hitting .286/.459/.643 with three HRs.
The team also announced it plans to use Kip Wells out of the bullpen to start 2008. That seemingly leaves Franklin Morales (6.48 ERA in 16.2 innings), Mark Redman (7.23 ERA in 18.2 innings) and Josh Towers (7.20 ERA in 15 innings) in competition for the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation.
Aaron Shinsano writes for East Windup Chronicle.
Odds and Ends: Braves, Cruz, Breslow
Some nuggets from today…
- The Braves look to be the market for a bat off the bench and according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution it’s not likely to be a minor name. O’Brien asked Wren if the Braves "had money to add a player of significant salary to their payroll," throwing out an accompanying figure of $3-4MM, to which Wren said yes "without hesitation." Let’s use this to set the stage for what should be an interesting late spring Reed Johnson sweepstakes.
- Evan Grant of the The Dallas Morning News believes that Jason Botts 2 for 5 performance on Saturday versus the Mariners has locked up a roster spot for the young DH/1B. Speculation is that Kevin Mench, who can be optioned, would be sent to the minors and that Nelson Cruz could be designated for assignment.
- MLB.com speculates the ugly spring put up by Aaron Fultz may have played a part in the team’s decision to claim Craig Breslow off waivers from the Red Sox. Fultz has put up an 11.88 ERA in just over eight innings and last week he gave up four runs on five hits during a performance against Double-A Akron in an intrasquad game last week.
Aaron Shinsano writes for East Windup Chronicle.
Tigers Want Huston Street?
According to Dan Graziano of the Newark Star-Ledger:
The Tigers, desperate for a pitcher at the back end of their bullpen, are trying to have serious discussions with Oakland about closer Huston Street. But so far, the A’s have not even decided if they want to trade Street. And if they do, they’re likely to ask more than the Tigers have to offer.
We talked about Street a couple days ago. Jon Heyman believed the asking price would be huge; Susan Slusser suggested the A’s might wait until midseason. The Tigers aren’t a great fit given their farm system.
Jays Release Reed Johnson
SUNDAY: According to the Toronto Star, the Jays have released Reed Johnson. The Jays have to pay $546K of his $3.275MM salary. Not a huge deal, but non-tendering him several months ago would’ve been better. Joel Sherman describes the Mets’ interest in Johnson as "mild at best."
SATURDAY: The Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair refers to "scuttlebutt among scouts" about the Jays placing outfielder Reed Johnson on waivers. However, J.P. Ricciardi said this was not true. The Toronto GM said a choice is close regarding Johnson and Shannon Stewart, and both won’t make the team. The Mets might be a match for Johnson.
I’m surprised by the way the Jays have gone about things in left field this year. They brought back Matt Stairs, who can pretty much only play left since Frank Thomas and Lyle Overbay own the DH and first base spots. They’ve got a seemingly Major League ready (and cheap) outfielder in Adam Lind. They decided to tender a contract to Johnson, something I did not expect. And then they signed Shannon Stewart on top of it all. What are the Jays going to do with all these guys?
Giants Claim Jose Castillo
According to Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Giants claimed infielder Jose Castillo off waivers and the Marlins didn’t pull him back. I believe the Marlins can now either work out a trade with the Giants or just let them have him and his $650K salary. One of today’s writers, Alejandro, noted that Castillo is already on the Giants’ 40-man roster on MLB.com.
Pure speculation, but this may be a signal that the Giants are done considering trade options such as Wes Helms, Brandon Inge, and Joe Crede. Giving up something decent for Inge or Crede never made sense for this team anyway. Castillo probably won’t do much for the Giants, but at least he doesn’t cost anything.
Survey Results: Redesign
Over the next week or so some posts will be labeled as Survey Results, where I’ll talk about your suggestions and the future of MLBTR. If you come here strictly for rumors you’ll want to skip these. By the way please take our anonymous six-question survey if you haven’t already.
Over 1,000 people gave suggestions for improving MLBTR. The predominant theme was to ditch the drab white text on black background color scheme. I couldn’t agree more – a change is long overdue. Here are some details about the upcoming MLBTR redesign.
- I had been targeting April 1st. Due to various circumstances I’ll just say to look for it sometime in May instead.
- Right now the site is pretty damn hard to read. We are going to widen the whole site, use a larger/better font, and do the standard black text on white background for posts. It will be much, much easier to read.
- Navigation will be improved. Under the site logo there will be five buttons: ABOUT, CONTACT, ADVERTISE, TEAMS, and ARCHIVES. Some will be drop-downs if you hover over them. Hover over teams, and then you get a dropdown with all 30. Doing it this way will unclutter the sidebar somewhat.
- The site already has a search box, but this will be moved up to the top of the page.
- The ads will be less intrusive. They will no longer be inside posts; the two main placements will be above the banner up top and a box in the lefthand sidebar. There may be some ads between posts. I also want the ads to be more relevant, a longer-term goal.
- Finally, here’s a draft of the new logo. You get a better look at it if you click on it.
Could Cubs Switch From Roberts To López?
Nationals infielder Felipe López has been adamant about being their starting second baseman, but word out of National’s camp is that Ronnie Belliard is their guy at second. López has played some short this spring, but Cristian Guzman has that position locked up, which all but ensures López a backup role and a warm seat in the bench.
López isn’t too happy about that, but will he demand a trade? The Nats’ front office says it won’t be forced into making a deal. However, according to the Washington Post, the Nats are indeed actively shopping López. The Cubs had scouts in the seats for Friday’s game.
As you’re more than aware, the Cubs have been in constant discussions with the Orioles about Brian Roberts, but both teams are far from reaching a deal. It’s possible the Cubs are considering Plan B.
Alejandro Leal writes for umpbump.com. He can be reached here.
Mariners Looking To Deal Out Of Options Players?
As the Mariners set their roster for the regular season, options become an important consideration. Earlier this month, Seattle Times reporter Geoff Baker answered some Rumor Royalty questions for MLBTR. Baker highlighted two of those players, Mike Morse and Cha Seung Baek, as likely to make the team or find work elsewhere.
M’s manager John McLaren said he’d like to have his squad set before breaking camp and leaving for their San Francisco-Las Vegas swing.
And this morning, while speaking with Baker’s colleague, Ryan Divish, McLaren hinted at possibly going the trade route with the team’s "out of options" personnel:
Unless there’s something going on with one of these guys – Dickey, the Rule 5 guy, if we’ve got a deal going for one of our guys who’s out of options. That may push us back, but I’d like to be set when we hit that plane. I don’t know that we can do that, but that would be my goal.
Any team interested in Morse has to be willing to forgive and forget as he was suspended in 2005 for violating MLB’s drug policy (Morse has said it all stemmed from an "enormous mistake" he made in 2003). Other than Morse and Baek the Mariners’ other "OOO" (how’s that for an acronym!) player is Charlton Jimerson. Check out MLBTR’s full Out of Options list here.
Alejandro Leal writes for umpbump.com. He can be reached here.
Javy Lopez Retires
After being reassigned to minor league camp by the Braves, Javy Lopez says he will retire.
"It didn’t happen in spring training," Lopez said. "This is the only chance I get. They give me the opportunity to come back and prove to myself that I can still play. I had the chance and didn’t do what I’m supposed to do, or at least not good enough."
The 37-year-old was banking on a comeback with the Braves, the team with which he played the bulk of his career (1992-2003), but his .188 average all but killed his chances of becoming Brian McCann’s backup.
The Braves still have Brayan Pena, Clint Sammons and Corky Miller competing for the backup catcher role.
Alejandro Leal writes for UmpBump.com and can be reached here.