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Archives for March 2009

Boras On Long-Term Deals For Young Players

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Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald spoke to agent Scott Boras, who sounded off on long-term extensions for young players.  Silverman says only a couple of Boras clients, Jeff Weaver and Carlos Baerga, have been locked up to such deals in recent years.  Boras’ take on the deals:

"All teams are instructed to take their premium players and do their best to remove them from the arbitration market.  It’s good business for them to receive premium talent for a grossly devalued cost."

Boras believes position players in particular should not be signing these deals, due to the low probability of injury.  He also implies certain agents are not acting in their clients’ best interest:

"It’s good business for ballclubs, and they are very aware that these contracts are needed because the majority of young agents have few clients and few reserves to work off of for their future."

I imagine young Boras clients such as Chris Davis, Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Gomez, Jair Jurrjens, Mike Pelfrey, Max Scherzer, and Jered Weaver will be on the year-to-year plan.

On a related note, Rays third baseman Evan Longoria signed his six-year, $17.5MM deal partially on the advice of then-teammate Eric Hinske according to John Perrotto.

Gammons On Sheffield, Tazawa, Kearns

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ESPN’s Peter Gammons posted a new blog entry last night.  Let’s take a look.

  • Gammons sees Gary Sheffield as a "serious comeback player of the year candidate."
  • Rangers GM Jon Daniels told Gammons his team bid $7MM for Junichi Tazawa, but the Red Sox signed him for $3MM due to their presence in Japan.  According to Larry Stone of the Seattle Times, the Rangers also offered more money to reliever Chad Cordero but he preferred the West Coast.
  • Kicking Jim Bowden while he’s down: Gammons says Nationals outfielder Austin Kearns was claimed on waivers last summer but the Nationals pulled him back.

Rockies Sign Lew Ford

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We haven’t written about Lew Ford in years.  According to Jack Etkin of Inside The Rockies, Colorado signed the outfielder to a minor league deal.  Ford spent ’08 in Japan.  He seems to have little chance of making the big league team.  It seems that Seth Stohs had this news way back on March 4th.

Back in ’04, Ford played regularly for the Twins and hit .299/.381/.446 in 154 games.

Red Sox, Lester Announce Extension

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5:22pm: WEEI Alex Speier has the year-by-year breakdown of Lester’s deal.  He’ll be paid pretty well over the next five years.

11:08am: Gary Dzen of Boston.com reports the Red Sox have announced the five-year deal. No details were given.

10:41am: Ron Borges of the Boston Herald reports the Red Sox and Jon Lester are expected to announce the signing of his $30MM extension this morning. The extension is expected to include a $13MM club option for 2014.

The cat was out of the bag last Sunday when Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan had the scoop.

Week in Review: 3/8 – 3/14

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Just a few weeks away from Opening Day after a long offseason! Let’s take a look at the last week:

  • The Red Sox and Jon Lester agreed on a five-year, $30MM extension with a $13MM option for 2014. Lester was great in 2008, and Boston rewarded him with the largest contract  ever for a pitcher with two years of service time. Lester’s rebound from cancer has been a great story, and this extension is another nice chapter.
  • A lot of talk about where Pedro Martinez will end up lately. We’ve heard him linked to the Pirates, the Dodgers are curious about him, and he was even mentioned as a closer candidate for the Cardinals earlier this month. According to Buster Olney, there’s a "zero percent chance" that the Mets will sign Pedro. He’s looking for about $5MM-$8MM last we heard, which is hurting teams’ interest levels.
  • Chad Cordero finally found a home this week; he’ll attempt to make a comeback in Seattle. The Mariners signed him to a minor league deal and he’ll make $750K if he makes the big league club. Great move for both sides. The Mariners make a low-risk move on a guy who’s been an outstanding closer, and Cordero goes to the team that gives him the best opportunity to close.
  • Joe Beimel is close to signing with a team as well. The Padres are apparently out, but we could see him land with the A’s or Dodgers still.
  • Any team in need of pitching could have two options available via trade as Spring Training winds down. Both Jeff Niemann and Jason Hammel are out of options, and when David Price claims his spot in the Rays’ rotation, one of them will likely have to go.
  • Don’t look for any new faces in the Bronx. The Yankees won’t be trading for anyone to replace Alex Rodriguez for the beginning of the season.
  • On the other side of New York, the Mets released Duaner Sanchez this week. Sanchez hasn’t been able to regain his velocity following an accident while riding in a taxi back in 2006. Sanchez will attempt a comeback as a Padre; he signed with San Diego earlier today.
  • Offseason in Review updates from Tim this week included the Pirates, Athletics, Braves, Tigers, and Rockies.
  • It may be a small sample size, but if you’re curious to see how the top free agents from the offseason are faring so far, Cork did a nice write-up of their progress so far in Spring.

Several Teams Interested In Pedro

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SUNDAY, 1:50pm: Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com writes that the Pirates won’t be signing Pedro unless his asking price comes down. They’ve shown interest, contacting his agent, but are unwilling to meet the $5MM-$8MM asking price.

Pittsburgh’s $51MM payroll gives them a bit of flexibility, and signing a veteran starter was one of their offseason priorities. However, Langosch writes that they’re very pleased with the depth of their starting pitching this Spring. Seems like they don’t consider adding Pedro a necessity.

SATURDAY, 8:07pm: The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers writes that Pedro "insists he could have signed a contract long ago but wasn’t ready to commit." He cites a commitment to the World Baseball Classic as the reason he has waited to sign. (Scroll down to Miller’s first note after the main story.)

Pedro added the following: "The major leagues have, unfortunately, become more of a business than something to be proud of."

1:15pm:SI.com’s Jon Heyman reports that several teams have interest in free agent Pedro Martinez. 

The Dodgers have already made it known that they’re "curious," and now the Indians, Pirates and Mets have joined the fun.  Pedro is still seeking between $5MM and $8MM on a one-year deal, but will probably have to settle for an incentive-laden package with a low base salary.  According to his agent, Fern Cuza, Martinez "feels better than his first year with the Mets."

Padres Sign Duaner Sanchez

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Corey Brock of MLB.com reports that the Padres have signed Duaner Sanchez to a minor league deal.

Sanchez, 29, was released by the Mets on March 10, a move that saved them roughly $1.4MM of Sanchez’s $1.6875MM contract. He has a career record of 18-10 with a 3.91 ERA, but his fastball velocity has dropped off from the mid-90s to 87mph right now.

Sanchez maintains that he can still throw hard when needed:

"I know I have it," Sanchez told the New York Times on Monday of his velocity. "I’ve got no problem with that. I just don’t want to come out of the chute throwing hard. That’s not me. I want to make sure that when I reach back, I know I have it there."

Mariners Claim Jesus Delgado

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Alden Gonzalez from MLB.com writes that the Mariners have claimed 24-year-old reliever Jesus Delgado from the Marlins.

Delgado pitched two innings for the Marlins last season, allowing one run, but spent most of the year pitching in Double-A Carolina, where he was 5-2 with a 3.45 ERA.

Delgado was a part of the trade that sent Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to Boston, and Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez to Florida. He has allowed four runs in three innings of work this Spring.

Bay, Red Sox Stop Negotiations

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12:40pm: Rob Bradford of WEEI.com has Jason Bay’s side of the story:

“I don’t think anybody in my situation wants to play for six years and then you earn the right to be a free agent and on some levels sell yourself short, and that doesn’t mean there doesn’t have to be some concessions… But you put yourself in this position and I think it’s in my best interest to kind of explore. Not to say we’re ever going to go that far, but I definitely want to make sure it’s the right fit.”

Bay is making no predictions about the market:

"Like I said, if something comes up that makes some sense … I mean, you get to this position you don’t want to sell it short, but I also understand it’s a different time that it was three or four years ago.”

12:30pm: Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe has an explanation from Theo Epstein:

"The market has changed so much from two years ago to this winter, from a year ago to now… Who knows where it’s going to be a year from now? So that unpredictability, I think, has created a landscape that’s been difficult for us to navigate in terms of getting an extension done a year early. Both sides wanted it, so we tried. But both sides recognized that it’s just too difficult to get done right now. We had some talks [earlier in the offseason], but they weren’t really substantive. Recently, we’ve had more substantive talks. It’s become clear that because of the unusual marketplace, we’re not going to get anything done during spring training. We’re going to sort of halt talks for now, just table them. But both sides have committed to maintaining good dialogue throughout the course of the season."

11:59am: Alex Speier of WEEI.com reports the Red Sox have halted negotiations with Jason Bay. Both sides feel an agreement is not possible at this time, after the market for power-hitting corner outfielders has experienced dramatic changes.

Speier says the two sides remain open to discussion resuming during the season. Bay will make $7.5MM during the final year of his 4 year $18.25MM contract.

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