Randy Wolf Rumors: Wednesday
11:36pm: MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick believes the Dodgers and Wolf "will remain apart until the Mets sign a pitcher," perhaps because the Mets have more money to spend than the Dodgers. Braden Looper is the Dodgers’ fallback plan.
4:42pm: Ken Rosenthal addresses Randy Wolf‘s situation now that Jon Garland is no longer an option for the Mets and Dodgers.
Wolf’s agents are still talking to both teams; the Mets are currently focused on Oliver Perez though. The Mets are also talking to Ben Sheets‘ agent. One Rosenthal source said the Mets "could sign Wolf quickly if they made him a pre-emptive offer." That won’t happen unless Perez is ruled out.
Rosenthal says the Dodgers "reassessed their positions with Wolf and Garland after the Yankees re-signed free-agent lefty Andy Pettitte for $5.5 million with the chance to earn $6.5 million in incentives." We’re left to read between the lines; does it mean the Dodgers are now offering less to Wolf?
White Sox Rumors: Garland, Dye
Scot Gregor of the Daily Herald has some White Sox info this evening.
- White Sox GM Ken Williams considered attempting to re-sign Jon Garland, but decided against it due to money as well as the possible emergence of Jeff Marquez. Williams "would rather save that money for a possible in-season addition," says Gregor.
- Gregor has touted the idea of the Sox signing Ivan Rodriguez as a backup catcher. Gregor believes Williams does intend to add a veteran backup of some kind. Mark Gonzales, however, says any backup catcher addition would not seriously cut into A.J. Pierzynski’s playing time.
- Williams "shot down" speculation that Jermaine Dye could be traded, says Gregor. Gonzales adds details – Williams told Dye it was unlikely he’d be traded, but would never be willing to give a player 100% assurance.
Twins End Talks With Gagne
According to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Twins have broken off talks with Eric Gagne. Christensen reports that the Twins are now turning their focus to finding eighth-inning relief help through a trade. Gagne’s talks with the Twins had advanced pretty far – he was ready to accept a one-year deal with a $3MM base and $500K in incentives. Hopefully we’ll find out why the Twins slammed on the brakes.
Odds And Ends: Heilman, Pedro, Twins
A few more links for Wednesday…
- Ryan Howard said a long-term deal with the Phillies would be "beautiful," for what it’s worth.
- The New York Times’ Ben Shpigel comments on the Aaron Heilman deal and its effect on new teammate Jeff Samardzija.
- Marty Noble of MLB.com learned that Mets GM Omar Minaya met with Pedro Martinez in the Dominican Republic today, but did not make an offer (and re-signing him remains a long shot).
- Yahoo’s Tim Brown has the roundup on the Twins’ hot stove happenings.
- Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com takes on the Manny Ramirez-to-Mets conspiracy theorists.
Glavine Meets With Braves GM
According to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, Tom Glavine and Braves general manager Frank Wren met face-to-face on Wednesday morning:
"The meeting was more about letting him know how I feel [physically] and what my program will be leading up to the games during Spring Training," Glavine said. "I let him know that I’ll be ready at the start of the regular season if there aren’t any setbacks."
While Glavine is encouraged by his arm strength, the Braves remaining payroll may not be as strong. The team is playing with $6-7MM at this point, and would like to take a look at an outfielder.
Orioles Looking At Braden Looper
According to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun, industry sources say that the Orioles continue to have talks with the representative of Braden Looper.
Orioles president Andy MacPhail isn’t naming Looper specifically, but has said that the team is taking a close look at the free-agent pitching market. The Orioles’ rotation still has holes following the acquisition of Koji Uehara, though they have good young talent on the way.
The 34 year-old Looper went 12-14 with a 4.16 ERA with the Cardinals last year.
Brian Roberts Addresses Contract Situation
On MASN’s weekly Brian Roberts segment, the Orioles’ second baseman touched on his contract situation, as well as teammate Nick Markakis‘ new deal. In regard to his own contract, Roberts made it clear that though he’s focused on Opening Day, he believes that there’s time to make a deal before spring training:
"It is going to come to a point where we have to make a decision one way or the other," he said. "I don’t want this to drag out once we get into kind of midway through spring training as I start getting ready to play for the season. I think there will be sufficient time up until then to get this worked out if we can. And if not, then we’ll see what happens at the end of the year. We’re not at that point yet."
Ken Rosenthal reported previously that Roberts wants a four-year extension to stay in Baltimore. The Orioles made Roberts an offer earlier this month, which was believed to be for $10MM per season, but only for three years.
Sheets Wants A Guaranteed Contract
According to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy, Ben Sheets and the Brewers have not spoken since the Brewers asked whether Sheets would consider an incentive-based contract similar to John Smoltz‘s ($4.5MM in incentives) or Brad Penny‘s ($3MM in incentives). It appears that Sheets was not open to an similar offer, but the Brewers won’t offer a multi-year deal.
GM Doug Melvin maintains the club isn’t likely to sign Sheets, but he hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility.
Cubs-Peavy: Nothing Cooking
6:23pm: I just spoke to a source familiar with the Cubs’ thinking. Hopefully I can further douse the flames of the Peavy-Cubs rumors – the Cubs aren’t planning to restart the Peavy talks, and none of their recent trades for pitching were related to Peavy. Keep in mind that the team’s ownership situation is far from resolved. – Tim Dierkes
5:58pm: MLB.com’s Barry Bloom heard from Cubs assistant GM Randy Bush that the Cubs have had "no talks about Jake Peavy since they were well-documented during the Winter Meetings." However, this doesn’t mean that talks won’t restart.
Bush said the Cubs could go into Spring Training without further changes, but sounds open to adding players if they come at the right price.
5:16pm: In an ESPN.com video Buster Olney says, "at some point you can expect the Cubs and Padres will again start talking about a Peavy deal" now that the Cubs have added pitching in trades.
Earlier in the winter, the Padres wanted more young arms than the Cubs could offer. Since then, the Cubs added pitching to the organization in the Mark DeRosa deal and created flexibility by trading for Aaron Heilman.
The Cubs could structure a deal for Peavy around prospect Josh Vitters and young pitching.
Angels Avoid Arb With Maicer Izturis
According to Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times, the Angels avoided arbitration with Maicer Izturis, signing him to a one year deal worth $1.6MM. Izturis also earns $25K for reaching 475, 500, 525 and 550 plate appearances.
Izturis originally asked for $1.885MM in arbitration and the Angels countered with $1.4MM.
The Angels have now avoided arbitration with all of their eligible players except Ervin Santana.