Twins, Red Sox Eyeing Nishioka?
3:32pm: The Red Sox are also in on Nishioka, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. However, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe disagrees (Twitter link).
8:25am: The Twins' Orlando Hudson–J.J. Hardy middle infield combination may not stick around for 2011. Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune runs through the possibilities.
For starters, the Twins are expected to bid on Tsuyoshi Nishioka this week. However, Christensen finds the team unlikely to win the bidding. Nishioka was posted Monday, and the high bidder should be revealed next week.
Only one of Hudson and Hardy is expected to be retained, and Christensen writes of "growing indications" the Twins will tender Hardy a contract at the December 2nd deadline. In an August 17th poll, almost 84% of you expected Hardy to be tendered. If they keep Hardy and lose out on Nishioka, it looks like Alexi Casilla will get a shot as the regular second baseman.
Rockies Interested In Kouzmanoff, Cantu, Wigginton
The Rockies have expressed interest in Athletics' third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, tweets Troy Renck of The Denver Post. He adds that Jose Lopez, Jorge Cantu, and Ty Wigginton are also on Colorado's radar in a second tweet, calling the team "quietly aggressive" during the GM Meetings.
Kouzmanoff is a non-tender candidate, even moreso now that the A's have brought in Edwin Encarnacion and are aggressively bidding on Adrian Beltre. Renck adds that he would fill the role of Melvin Mora for Colorado, pushing Ian Stewart at third base and potentially platooning with him. Cantu, Lopez, and Wiggington could all do the same as well. Earlier today we learned that the Rockies also have interest in Alex Gordon.
“Six Or Eight” Teams Have Spoken To Pavano
"Six or eight" teams have had preliminary discussions with Carl Pavano's representatives according to Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post. He adds that the Nationals are one such team and have gauged the right-hander's interest during this week's GM Meetings.
Washington has already expressed interest in Jorge de la Rosa and Cliff Lee, potentially Brandon Webb as well, so they're clearly willing to spend money to upgrade their rotation. Pavano is generally considered to be the best free agent starter on the market after Lee, having thrown 420 1/3 innings to the tune of a 4.39 ERA over the last two seasons. The Rockies and Twins figure to be among the suitors. Ben Nicholson-Smith looked at Pavano's free agent stock back in September.
Odds & Ends: Gordon, Anderson, Phillies, Park
Links for Wednesday, the second day of the GM Meetings, as Ron Gardenhire and Bud Black take home Manager of the Year honors…
- Red Sox GM Theo Epstein says he'd like to add starting pitching depth, tweets Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald.
- The Rockies, Blue Jays, and Athletics are among the teams that have shown interest in Alex Gordon according to MLB.com's Dick Kaegel. "I surely don't want [a trade] to happen, but it's part of baseball and it could happen," said Gordon.
- Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star reports that outfielder turned pitcher Brian Anderson has opted for free agency after being designated for assignment by the Royals.
- David Murphy of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Phillies GM Ruben Amaro reiterated that he has not been given a firm payroll by ownership. Their payroll has increased steadily over the last several years, peaking at approximately $138MM last season.
- The Pirates and reliever Chan Ho Park have mutual interest in a new contract, writes MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch, but Langosch believes the Bucs would only do a minor league deal. Park posted a 3.49 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, and 0.6 HR/9 for the Pirates this year after coming over from the Yankees. Jeremy Bonderman is also on the Pirates' radar, reports Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
- White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf confirmed to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times that the Sox asked the Marlins for a particular player as compensation for talking to manager Ozzie Guillen. Reinsdorf told Wittenmyer the player was not Mike Stanton; the Sun-Times writer speculates it may have been Logan Morrison.
- As you might expect, the Rays are not in a big rush to trade B.J. Upton given the loss of Carl Crawford, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal feels the Rays will also be reluctant to trade a starting pitcher right now, but would be willing to part with shortstop Jason Bartlett.
Athletics Open Bidding On Beltre At Five Years?
2:48pm: SI.com's Jon Heyman hears that Beltre's camp is using Torii Hunter's five year, $90MM contract as a comparable for their expectations (Twitter link).
2:01pm: Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes tweets that Oakland offered Beltre five years and $64MM, the same contract he signed with Seattle before the 2005 season.
12:06pm: The Athletics made an initial offer of $45MM over five years to third baseman Adrian Beltre, according to Juan Mercado at the Dominican daily El Dia (link in Spanish). Enrique Rojas at ESPN Deportes recently identified the team as a serious suitor for Beltre.
Opening the bidding at five years for the 31-year-old is certainly an aggressive opening salvo toward the dozen or so teams that reportedly hope to land Beltre. Mercado cites a source saying this is the first offer made thus far to Beltre, though at $9MM annually, the A's offer is a good step below the four years, $52MM that Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe recently labeled a likely ceiling for the Red Sox.
Minor Deals: Balentien, Bailey, Hoffpauir, Miller
Collecting the day's minor league signings…
- Outfielder Wladimir Balentien is joining the Yakult Swallows in Japan, according to this report passed along on Twitter by NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman. The 26-year-old hit .282/.337/.536 with 25 home runs in 452 Triple-A plate appearances for the Reds' affiliate.
- The Twins signed 32-year-old outfielder/first baseman Jeff Bailey, reports Seth Stohs. Bailey hit .289/.387/.462 with 12 home runs in 564 Triple-A plate appearances for the Diamondbacks' affiliate.
- The Twins also signed infielder Chase Lambin, tweets Baseball America's Matt Eddy. The 31-year-old hit .252/.327/.414 with 15 homers in 548 plate appearances for the National's Triple-A affiliate in 2011. He has never played in the the big league, but did spend 2009 in Japan.
- MLB.com's Carrie Muskat reports that Micah Hoffpauir has signed a one-year deal with the Nippon Ham fighters. The 30-year-old hit .251/.312/.421 in 394 plate appearances with the Cubs over the last three seasons.
- The Mariners have signed right-hander Justin Miller according to Eddy (via Twitter). In 24.1 innings with the Dodgers last year, the 33-year-old pitched to a 4.44 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9. The Mariners are his ninth organization.
- Seattle also signed shortstop Sean Kazmar, tweets Eddy. He hit .275/.326/.381 for San Diego's Triple-A affiliate this year, and saw some big league action with them back in 2008.
- The Rays signed righty reliever Cory Wade, says Eddy (via Twitter). The 27-year-old had a 2.27 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 71.1 innings for the Dodgers in 2008, but he missed most of 2009 and all of 2010 after having shoulder surgery.
- Eddy tweets that the Athletics have signed outfielder Jai Miller. They lost him on a waiver claim to Kansas City back in April. The 25-year-old hit .252/.326/.490 in Triple-A last year, then .236/.300/.345 in 60 plate appearances with the Royals.
- The White Sox signed third baseman Dallas McPherson, tweets Baseball America's Matt Eddy. The 30-year-old hit .267/.339/.541 with 22 home runs in 354 plate appearances for Oakland's Triple-A affiliate this year. He hasn't spent significant time in the bigs since '06.
- The Phillies signed lefty reliever Dan Meyer, reports Bill Evans of the Gloucester County Times (hat tip to Matt Gelb). The 29-year-old signed with his hometown team after drawing interest from the Giants, Astros, Pirates, Padres, and Twins. Meyer, a big part of the Tim Hudson trade six years ago, had a strong '09 but was designated for assignment by the Marlins twice this year. He posted a 3.38 ERA, 6.1 K/9, 3.6 BB/9, and 0.9 HR/9 in 40 Triple-A innings in 2010.
Tigers In Serious Talks With Adam Dunn
2:04pm: ESPN's Jerry Crasnick tweets that a source says talk about Dunn going to the Tigers is "way too premature." Detroit likes the first baseman/outfielder/DH, but they're not that far along in talks.
12:42pm: Adam Dunn is moving closer to a deal, maybe with the Tigers, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. SI's Jon Heyman tweets that Dunn and the Tigers are in serious talks, but big man is not close to an agreement with any team. The powerful left-handed slugger is known to be among Detroit's targets. He could fit as their regular left fielder, perhaps getting the occasional start at DH or first base. The Tigers have been aggressive so far this offseason, and to secure Dunn this early they'd probably have to guarantee four years.
Stark On Cubs, Kemp, Werth, Quentin
ESPN's Jayson Stark leads his latest Rumblings and Grumblings with scouts' opinions on pitchers Jorge de la Rosa, Vicente Padilla, Carl Pavano, Brian Fuentes, Randy Choate, Joaquin Benoit, and Koji Uehara. His rumors:
- Adrian Gonzalez's labrum cleanup surgery downgrades the chances of an offseason trade considerably.
- The Cubs "seem a lot less inclined" to trade Kosuke Fukudome and Carlos Zambrano, though some clubs believe they'd discuss the latter. Stark says there's a vibe the Cubs will not go after Adam Dunn for their first base opening, instead looking for an above-average defender.
- One team official who kicked the tires says of the Dodgers, "They ain't trading Matt Kemp."
- The Phillies are far apart with Jayson Werth and are exploring right field replacements. They've done extensive groundwork on Chicago's Carlos Quentin, and are considering Jeff Francoeur or Jermaine Dye for lesser roles. The Red Sox, by the way, are not willing to spend $100MM on Werth.
Small Market Teams Time Free Agent Bids Carefully
If MLB teams want to sign top free agents, they can’t wait much longer than the Winter Meetings. But if they can’t afford to sign elite players, they generally keep waiting. The Rays, for example, will likely see Carl Crawford and Rafael Soriano sign elsewhere, since they are rarely able to bid aggressively on free agents early in the winter.
“We don’t necessarily have the resources ever,” Rays president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told MLBTR at the GM Meetings in Orlando.
It doesn’t take long to review the early forays into free agency that Friedman has made since taking over baseball operations late in 2005. They signed Akinori Iwamura to a three-year $7.7MM deal in December, 2006, added Troy Percival on a two-year $8MM deal in November, 2007, signed Joe Nelson to a one-year deal in December, 2008 and signed Rafael Soriano to a one-year deal in December, 2009.
Other than those four signings, the Rays have added all their big league free agents in January or February. History suggests the Rays will be patient this offseason, but Friedman says he isn’t necessarily going to wait the market out.
“It’s something for us that most likely it plays out [late],” Friedman said. “But sometimes there are guys who really want to sign earlier, have that peace of mind and I think we’ll be prepared enough to know which guys to move more aggressively on than others.”
Two offseasons ago, Oliver Perez, Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn, Dennys Reyes, Juan Cruz and Ty Wigginton were the only free agents to sign multi-year deals between February 1st and the beginning of the season. Last offseason, no free agent signed a multi-year deal between February 1st and the beginning of the season and Johnny Damon, Orlando Hudson, Orlando Cabrera and Kevin Gregg were the only free agents to sign for more than $2MM in guaranteed money after February 1st.
There is no question that spending slows down later in the winter. It’s partly because there are fewer players to spend on and partly because the players remaining have less leverage. There is a limited number of major league jobs, (especially at DH and closer) so unsigned players don’t have much bargaining power if they want to play.
That’s why Padres GM Jed Hoyer is likely to wait a couple months before replacing Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica.
“I think frankly we’ll do a lot of our damage late in the offseason as opposed to early, given the market,” Hoyer said. “So we’ll probably wait and we will probably add some relievers, but I have a feeling it’ll be later in the offseason.”
Small market teams like the Padres and Rays wait patiently and spend cautiously because they can’t afford to make Carl Pavano-sized mistakes.
“Our margin for error is significantly less than our competitors',” Friedman said. “And so it obviously makes it that much more challenging.”
The Rays did spend considerably more than usual in 2010, when they opened the season with a $72.8MM payroll. As they prepare to field a less expensive team, the Rays are looking ahead beyond 2011.
“The one mistake we can't make is treat each year like a disparate event and try to be as good as we can that year without being mindful of the future years,” Friedman said. “And so people talk a lot about 2010, that we went all in and I would agree with that from a financial standpoint. We way over-extended ourselves to field the team that we did, but we definitely didn’t from a talent standpoint. We didn’t trade off a lot of guys that are going to be key members of the 2011 and beyond.”
Call it a balancing act, call it a waiting game, the Rays’ approach has earned them a pair of division titles and, back in 2008, even more success.
“We won the American League Championship with a mid 40s payroll,” Friedman said with a grin. “It’s doable [but] it’s obviously very difficult.”
White Sox Willing To Discuss Gavin Floyd
The White Sox are willing to discuss righty Gavin Floyd, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. I'm sure the return would have to be significant, as Floyd is locked up affordably through 2012 with a club option for '13.
Floyd, 28 in January, posted a 4.08 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 0.7 HR/9, and career-best 49.9% groundball rate in 2010. He'd be preferable to almost every other available starter, even Cliff Lee if you're not keen on top dollar six-year free agent commitments for pitchers. The Brewers, Rangers, Yankees, Marlins, Nationals, Astros, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Dodgers are among the teams I'd expect to have interest in Floyd.