Hank Willing To Sign Top Starter For ’09
I am not a fan of the way all of Hank Steinbrenner’s public comments are considered newsworthy. However, it’s a slow morning so I’ll dutifully link to his comments to the AP yesterday.
Hank seems focused on ’09, which is reasonable given the Yankees’ slim chance of making the playoffs this year. He expressed his willingness to sign a "top veteran pitcher." Based on chats with fans, I get the impression they’re expecting C.C. Sabathia or Ben Sheets, plus new contracts for Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina. If Brian Cashman sticks around, I think he will have to get on board with this idea. It also wouldn’t be surprising to see Ian Kennedy traded this winter, if he really is turning into Kei Igawa.
Tigers To Sign Freddy Garcia
According to Jon Heyman of SI.com, Freddy Garcia agreed to a minor league contract with the Tigers. The Tigers hope to have him in the Majors by month’s end for a playoff drive.
The Tigers are eight games out in the AL Central and 9.5 out of the wild card, so their playoff chances hover around 2-4%. But there’s not much downside to adding Garcia just in case.
Lincecum Prefers Year-To-Year Gamble
I know we’ve already linked to this story, but I wanted to dig in a little further. John Shea heard from Tim Lincecum‘s agent that the 24 year-old pitcher prefers year-to-year contracts for now. As far as I can tell, Lincecum will be a Super Two player. That means he will be arbitration-eligible four times, the first coming after the ’09 season.
Lincecum surely knows that recent long-term deals given to young starters are quite team-friendly if the pitcher stays healthy. Matt Cain and James Shields look like huge bargains, as was Dan Haren. Then again, Noah Lowry and Ian Snell are probably happy they signed on the dotted line. The going rate is $13-14MM for the pitcher’s three arbitration years, often with multiple club options involved.
Lincecum, Felix Hernandez, and Cole Hamels are examples of young aces on the year-to-year path. Felix will be especially interesting – he could reach free agency at age 25.
Joe Blanton might be their role model. In his first arb year, he earned $3.7MM. He could get $6.5MM for ’09 and $10MM for ’10. By taking the year-to-year gamble, he could increase his arb-year earnings by 50% and reach free agency as soon as possible. Of course, Blanton may have preferred a long-term deal all along.
Odds and Ends: Ibanez, Dunn, Blake, Stewart
Let’s kick off the morning with some random links.
- Live chat here today at 2pm CST.
- Brian Matusz is hopeful about striking a deal with the Orioles by Friday’s deadline. Roch Kubatko has a source saying it’s likely.
- Baseball America’s Jim Callis warns us not to listen to the posturing – he still expects all the first-round draft picks to sign with the possible exception of Allan Dykstra.
- Should the Mariners offer Raul Ibanez a three-year deal at $10-11MM per?
- No word yet on possible Rays acquisitions in wake of the Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria injuries. Marc Lancaster wonders if Kenny Lofton or…don’t say it…Barry Bonds would make sense.
- The Mets had no interest in Adam Dunn. They wonder about his passion, according to Joel Sherman. Did you know he doesn’t like baseball?
- The Phillies were more interested in Casey Blake than Manny Ramirez.
- Athletics Nation looks at some free agent options for ’09.
- Shannon Stewart didn’t understand his latest Blue Jay Experience.
- The Yankees, Mets, Angels, and Padres have scouts at the Olympics to watch Hitoki Iwase, Koji Uehara, Kenshin Kawakami, Yu Darvish, and Kyuji Fujikawa.
White Sox Not Pursuing Washburn
TUESDAY, 9:30am: De Luca’s latest article confirms Chicago’s lack of interest in Washburn. De Luca says Washburn has "passed through waivers," by the way.
MONDAY, 10:22pm: Kenny Williams’ comments to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin seem to indicate a lack of interest in Washburn.
9:48am: According to Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times, the White Sox are pursuing Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn as a replacement for Jose Contreras. Contreras may be out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times heard from team sources on Saturday that Washburn cleared waivers. Based on the Yankees rumors last month, it appears the Mariners are unwilling to unload Washburn solely for salary relief ($10.35MM in ’09).
ESPN’s Buster Olney had a conflicting report in yesterday’s blog. Olney heard the claiming window remains open on Washburn until 12:30pm CST today, and the White Sox are considering putting one in. Additionally, Ken Rosenthal said on Saturday that the Yankees will put a claim in for Washburn. The Yanks have a worse record, so they’d win such a battle.
Olney also mentioned that Paul Byrd might make sense for the Sox. Byrd has already cleared waivers. Phil Rogers believes Aaron Poreda could be an option.
Gammons’ Latest: Sheffield, Pujols
ESPN’s Peter Gammons has a new blog post up.
- The Tigers called the Rays, shopping perpetually unhappy DH Gary Sheffield. The Rays’ baseball people were not interested.
- Albert Pujols‘ elbow is barking a bit, but he expects to finish the season. I wonder what a healthy Albert could do.
- Gammons notes a failed waiver trade back in ’03. The Cubs acquired Rafael Palmeiro, but Raffy nixed the deal when they wouldn’t add a year to his contract.
Heyman’s Latest: Lucchino, Manny, Rangers
I wanted to let the Dunn trade cool off a bit before diving into Jon Heyman’s latest.
- Heyman "people in high places in baseball" who believe Red Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino might leave after the season, possibly for the Dodgers. He’s still butting heads with Theo Epstein apparently.
- Heyman doesn’t buy the idea that Scott Boras orchestrated Manny Ramirez‘s departure from Boston. He also doesn’t buy the idea of Ramirez playing in New York.
- Nolan Ryan would like Tom Hicks to sell the Rangers to him, but Hicks has shown no willingness to do so.
- Players such as George Sherrill, Brian Fuentes, and Raul Ibanez are not expected to clear waivers. No surprise there.
Blue Jays Release Shannon Stewart
According to the Globe and Mail, the Blue Jays released outfielder Shannon Stewart today. He’d signed a minor league deal in February.
Stewart, 34, hit .240/.325/.303 in 200 plate appearances. He dealt with a sore groin and ankle sprain during the season. Stewart was paid $1.5MM. Adam Lind had an excellent July and seems entrenched in left at least for the rest of the year.
Could Moyer Pitch To 50?
MLB.com’s Joseph Santoliquito talked to Pirates manager John Russell, who opined that Phillies lefty Jamie Moyer could pitch til he’s 50. When asked about the idea, Moyer wouldn’t rule it out.
At the least, Moyer intends to pitch next year. He said:
"I have an obligation here that I plan on upholding next year with the Phillies, so I will be back at 46."
The quote comes as a surprise to me, because I had Moyer listed as a free agent after the season. Perhaps he is referring to a verbal, rather than contractual, agreement in place with the Phillies for ’09? The old dog learned a new trick this year, bumping his groundball rate to 44.8% to push down his home run rate. His average fastball velocity is holding steady at 81 mph.
Odds and Ends: Kielty, Ellis, Bonds, Poreda
Time to for today’s link collection.
- The Twins signed Bobby Kielty to a minor league deal. The former Twin was released by the Red Sox in July. When he’s going good, he can hit lefties pretty well.
- Peter Magowan is glad the Giants didn’t successfully pull off an attempted trade for Manny Ramirez before the ’07 season. However, as Henry Schulman notes, that might’ve prevented the Barry Zito contract.
- The Reds haven’t talked to the agents for any of their potential free agents, and no decision has been made on Adam Dunn.
- Susan Slusser wonders if the D’Backs will try to acquire second baseman Mark Ellis in the wake of Orlando Hudson‘s season-ending injury, though manager Bob Melvin does not expect an acquisition.
- It’s a moot point since they’re not interested, but Astros manager Cecil Cooper would quit if the team signed Barry Bonds.
- Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune notes that the Rockies asked for ’07 first-rounder Aaron Poreda for Brian Fuentes. Instead, Rogers believes he could get a big-league look.
- Ken Davidoff talks to agent Joe Bick about how Brian Giles went about choosing the teams on his no-trade list.
- The Rangers made their first Korean amateur signing, inking a high school righty named Tae-kyeong Ahn. They also signed Dominican outfielder Esdras Abreu, among others.