Akinori Iwamura Has Agreement With Rakuten
NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman passes along a report indicating that infielder Akinori Iwamura has a basic agreement in place with the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Iwamura, 32 in February, hit just .173/.285/.250 in 229 plate appearances split between the Pirates and Athletics this season. In three seasons with Tampa Bay, he hit a far more respectable .281/.354/.393 while moving from third to second base. Iwamura played eight years with Tokyo Yakult Swallows before joining the then-Devil Rays, who won his rights with a $4.5MM bid.
Iwamura indicated a desire to remain in North America just last month, but perhaps the offer from Rakuten was just too good to pass up.
Poll: Are The Phillies Really Intent On Re-Signing Werth?
For some time now, the general consensus has been that Jayson Werth would be moving on in 2011 as the Phillies are not willing to dole out the money and years necessary to retain him. On Wednesday, a Phillies source told ESPN's Jayson Stark that there was "no chance" of the right fielder remaining in Philadelphia.
GM Ruben Amaro now says that he needs an answer from the 31-year-old quickly, a request that seems unlikely to be fulfilled by a Scott Boras client. Amaro wouldn't confirm or deny that the club has made Werth an offer but SI's Jon Heyman (via Twitter) hears that they are making a big push to keep him aboard.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Phillies' push to re-sign Werth is nothing more than a public relations move. The club, he says, wants to be able to say that they made the slugger a big offer and tried their best to hang on to him. Is the "big push" to keep the right-handed bopper nothing more than a PR ploy? We want to know your take on the situation.
Are the Phillies really intent on keeping Werth?
Padres Acquire Cameron Maybin From Marlins
The Padres have acquired Cameron Maybin from the Marlins, according to Tom Krasovic of Fanhouse (via Twitter). Florida will receive relievers Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica in exchange for the center fielder, Krasovic tweets. The Marlins have announced that the deal is now official.
The deal will provide Maybin with a much needed change of scenery, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports writes (via Twitter). The 23-year-old has yet to realize his potential after coming over to the Marlins in the 2007 Miguel Cabrera–Dontrelle Willis trade. Maybin's performance at the plate was particularly disappointing this season as he hit .234/.302/.361 with eight homers in 322 plate appearances. His arrival presumably bumps Tony Gwynn from the Padres' starting lineup and makes him an even more likely non-tender candidate.
The 6'6" Webb appears to be the key to the trade, Krasovic tweets. The right-hander could be a set-up man for the Fish and is not yet arbitration-eligible. Heading into the 2010 season, Baseball America rated Webb as the 24th best prospect in San Diego's system. The 24-year-old has a 94-96 mph fastball with a strong mid-80s curveball, according to the publication. In 54 big league games this year, Webb registered a 2.90 ERA with 6.7 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9.
Meanwhile, Mujica is arbitration eligible for the first time this winter. The 26-year-old hurler turned in a 3.62 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 0.8 BB/9 across 59 games this year.
Manager Rumors: Mets, Pirates
Here's the latest on the managerial searches in New York and Pittsburgh..
Mets
Jose Oquendo will be the last of the first round interviews when he meets with the Mets on Monday, tweets Jon Heyman of SI. The second round of interviews, he says, could begin this week in Orlando.
Meanwhile, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter) keeps hearing that Terry Collins is the most likely to land the job. We learned yesterday that Collins, Clint Hurdle, and Bob Melvin are all expected to receive second interviews.
Pirates
Speaking of Hurdle, the Pirates have ramped up their efforts to land him, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. Along with in-house candidate Jeff Banister, Hurdle is believed to be one of the finalists for the job.
Kuroda Close To Deal With Dodgers
12:12pm: ESPN's Buster Olney reports that the two sides are close to finalizing that one-year, $12MM contract.
SATURDAY, 7:52am: In a pair of tweets, Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker corrects an exchange rate miscalculation and says the deal is for one year and $12MM, not $8MM. He adds that the report is all over the Japanese media.
FRIDAY, 8:01pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com hears from a Dodgers source that Sanspo's report is "inaccurate" and it's "hard to tell" if the team and pitcher are close to an agreement. (Twitter link)
7:47pm: Free agent right-hander Hiroki Kuroda is on the verge of an agreement with the Dodgers, reports Japanese site Sanspo.com (as translated in this tweet from NPBTracker). The contract would be a one-year deal worth approximately $8MM. Though Kuroda will turn 36 in February, $8MM would be a nice bargain for the Dodgers given Kuroda's very solid numbers (3.60 ERA, 3.18 K/BB ratio) over his three seasons in the majors.
This is the second L.A. free agent pitcher that the club has moved quickly to re-sign this offseason, after Ted Lilly was inked to a $33MM contract in October. As Sanspo's story indicated, Japanese clubs Hiroshima and Yomiuri were interested if Kuroda decided to return to his home country, plus we knew that the Rockies had Kuroda on their list of pitching targets.
Amateur Signing Bonuses: Rays
Next up in our amateur signing bonus series, the Rays…
- Matt White, $10.2MM (1996)
- Tim Beckham, $6.15MM (2008)
- David Price, $5.6MM (2007)
- B.J. Upton, $4.6MM (2002)
- Dewon Brazelton, $4.2MM (2001)
The then-Devil Rays spent years in the AL East cellar, and the result was a lot of high draft picks and huge signing bonuses. White signed two years before the team even started playing, though he was originally selected seventh overall in the '96 draft by the Giants. Instead of signing with San Francisco, he was granted free agency when the team failed to tender him a contract within 15 days of the draft as per league rules. Travis Lee and John Patterson went through the same thing. Tampa pounced shortly thereafter, though White never reached the big leagues. He pitched to a 4.64 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 672.2 minor league innings and was out of baseball by 2004.
Beckham was the first overall pick in the 2008, signing for what was then the largest bonus ever given to a player as part of a minor league contract in draft history, at least until Buster Posey broke it a few weeks later. Still just 20 years old, Beckham is a .263/.332/.371 hitter in his two-plus year old minor league career.
A year before they took Beckham, the Rays selected Price first overall, making them the first team in history to have the first pick in back-to-back drafts. His bonus was part of a six-year, $8.5MM major league contract, the fourth richest deal in draft history. Price helped the team to their first ever World Series berth just a year later, and he just wrapped up his first full season as a big league starter by posting a 2.72 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 208.2 innings.
The elder Upton brother was the second overall selection in the 2002 draft, and the team rushed him up to the big leagues just two years later. At 19 years old, he was the youngest player in franchise history. After a 45 game cameo that season (.258/.324/.409), Upton returned to the minors and didn't get back to the majors for good until 2006. He eventually moved out of the infield and became of the game's best defensive center fielders, and is a career .260/.345/.413 career hitter with 165 steals.
Brazelton was the third overall pick in 2001, right behind Joe Mauer and Mark Prior and right before Gavin Floyd and Mark Teixeira. He reached the big leagues the very next season and made a total of 41 starts (and 13 relief appearances) for a franchise from 2002-2005, posting a 5.98 ERA with more walks (142) than strikeouts (136) in 253 innings. He was traded to the Padres for Sean Burroughs after the 2005 season in a deal that gave each former top prospect a much needed change of scenery.
It's worth noting that the Devil Rays signed Rolando Arrojo to a deal that included a $7MM bonus in 1997 after he defected from Cuba. That was a year before the team started play, but Arrojo was already 29 years old and had been the long-time ace of the Cuban National Team. Hard to consider him an amateur in terms of experience. Evan Longoria, Tampa's franchise player, signed for a $3MM bonus as the third overall pick in the 2006 draft.
Braves Outright Kenshin Kawakami To Double-A
10:38am: According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution's Dave O'Brien (Twitter link), Wren responded "We've had a number of discussions over the last couple of weeks. I'll leave it at that," when asked about potentially trading Kawakami or selling him to a Japanese club.
9:01am: The Braves have outrighted Kenshin Kawakami to Double-A Mississippi, reports MLB.com's Mark Bowman. The move gets Kawakami off the team's 40-man roster, though they are still on the hook for his $6.67MM salary for 2011.
The 35-year-old right-hander was solid during his first year with Atlanta, posting a 3.86 ERA with 6.0 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.9 HR/9 in 156.1 innings in 2009. Things fell apart last season despite similar peripheral stats (6.1 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.0 HR/9), as he put up a 5.15 ERA in 87.1 innings and was at one point sent to the minors. Kawakami signed a three-year deal worth $23MM in January 2009 after spending more than a decade with the Chunichi Dragons.
Last month we heard that several Japanese teams were not only interested in acquiring Kawakami, they were also willing to take on some of his salary. So far GM Frank Wren's attempts to move him have proven unsuccessful.
Marlins Measuring Trade Interest In Dan Uggla
The Marlins broke off contract talks with Dan Uggla and are now gauging potential trade interest in their second baseman according to MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. A source says the team is not confident they can sign Uggla long-term after he rejected a four-year contract that would have paid him $48MM.
Frisaro says the team has been "initiating and field calls" about the 30-year-old Uggla, and two unidentified National League clubs have expressed interest in addition to the Tigers. He adds that the Marlins have been asking for relief pitching return, and they're expected to have more discussions about Uggla at next week's General Manager Meetings. In his middle infielder buyer's guide at ESPN (Insider req'd), Keith Law said he'd "love to trade for one year of Uggla, especially a walk year, but I don't want to be on the hook for his age 34 or 35 seasons, by which point his defense will probably have moved him off second base."
Uggla is arbitration eligible for the final time this offseason, and will become a free agent after the 2011 season. He is likely to see his salary climb past $10MM after earning $7.8MM this year. Uggla is a .263/.349/.488 career hitter, clubbing no fewer than 27 homers in each of his five seasons as a big leaguer. He is one of just nine players to eclipse the 30-homer plateau in each of the last four years.
Odds & Ends: Royals, Pena, Alderson, De La Rosa
Happy 133rd birthday to Archie "Moonlight" Graham. Arguably baseball's most famous one-game player (Eddie Gaedel also has a great case for this distinction), Moonlight Graham's only taste of the majors was one half-inning as a defensive replacement for the 1905 New York Giants. That half-inning grew into immortality thanks to his characterization in W.P. Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe and its film adaptation Field Of Dreams. Graham, who passed away in 1965, went on to become a doctor in Chisholm, Minnesota following his brief playing career.
Onto some news items…
- Dayton Moore tells Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star that the David DeJesus trade won't deepen the Royals' interest in the free agent market. “It’s not cost effective at this time for us to be real aggressive with major-league free agents,” Moore said.
- Even if Aubrey Huff re-signs with the Giants, CSNBayArea.com's Mychael Urban thinks the team should look into signing Carlos Pena.
- Fanhouse's Tom Krasovic looks at the pros and cons of Sandy Alderson's tenure as CEO of the Padres and what Mets fans might expect from their new general manager.
- Add the Brewers, Pirates and Rangers to the list of teams believed to be interested in Jorge de la Rosa, tweets Troy Renck of the Denver Post. We know that list already includes the Nationals, Rockies and Yankees.
- If San Francisco really has soured on Pablo Sandoval due to the Panda's conditioning issues, Fangraphs' Matt Klassen thinks other teams should be contacting the Giants about a buy-low trade.
- During the season, an American League executive told Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com that Adam Dunn will stay in the NL since he genuinely wants to keep playing in the field. However, this executive predicted "Dunn will consider AL teams at least long enough to try to use them as leverage."
- The Mets will interview Jose Oquendo about the manager's job on Monday, tweets ESPNNewYork.com's Adam Rubin.
- Chad Durbin is receiving interest from teams as both a bullpen and rotation option, tweets ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. Durbin has made 75 starts in his career, but none since 2007.
- Most of the free agent catching crop will wait until "the lead domino" (Victor Martinez) signs before they look at joining new teams, says Newsday's Ken Davidoff. (Twitter link)
- Chris Coghlan will move to third base next year, reports MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. You can tentatively cross the Marlins off the list of teams exploring the free agent market for help at the hot corner, though it's possible Coghlan could be needed to play second if Florida trades Dan Uggla.
Phillies Want Quick Answer From Werth
8:48pm: The Phillies are "making [a] big push to keep Werth," tweets Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman.
7:13pm: Ruben Amaro is hoping to know soon if Jayson Werth is willing to return to the Phillies, reports Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I don't think it's something we're going to let go on for a while," Amaro said. "Hopefully we'll find out if he's a viable option to bring back in a short period of time. Regardless of what happens with Jayson, there are things we need to do."
ESPN's Jayson Stark heard from an unnamed Phillies source that there was "no chance" of Werth remaining a Phillie in 2011. Amaro denied being the source himself and said that the statement wasn't true, though he didn't confirm or deny if the club had already made Werth an offer. An early offer probably wouldn't make much difference since any high-profile Scott Boras client will thoroughly test the market before considering re-signing with his previous club.
The general consensus is that Werth will be playing elsewhere next season. To wit, in MLBTR's own free agency predictions list, none of our five writers believe Werth will re-sign with Philadelphia.