Angels Agree To Terms With Lindsey, Bolden, Soto
SUNDAY, 6:31pm: Lindsey's bonus is worth $873K, according to Jim Callis of Baseball America. The shortstop's bonus matches MLB's estimated recommendation for the No. 37 slot in 2009.
MONDAY, 9:02pm: The Angels have agreed to terms with three of their top seven picks from the June Amateur Draft. Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times reports that supplemental pick Taylor Lindsey (the 37th overall selection) and third-rounder Wendell Soto (111th overall) agreed to deals with the club. Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com also broke the news that another supplemental round pick, 40th overall selection Ryan Bolden, had signed.
No terms were announced, though DiGiovanna believes that Lindsey and Bolden received bonuses worth roughly $800K, or the standard amount for sandwich-round picks. Bolden gets an $830K bonus, according to Jim Callis of Baseball America.
All three players are high-schoolers. Scottsdale native Lindsey was drafted as a shortstop but "will probably" move to second or third base (as Angels scouting director Eddie Bane told Lyle Spencer of MLB.com). Bolden is a Mississippi outfielder who Saxon notes (via Twitter) has been "compared to Rickey Henderson." Baseball America wasn't nearly as high on Bolden's potential, rating him as the 141st prospect overall in their pre-draft top 200 ranking. Neither Lindsey or Soto, a switch-hitting shortstop from Florida, made Baseball America's ranking at all.
Saxon heard from LAA general manager Tony Reagins that the Halos have signed "more than 20" other draft picks, though negotiations with third baseman Kaleb Cowart (18th overall) have been "complicated." As Saxon notes, Cowart has signed a letter of intent to attend Florida State and was rumored to be looking for a $3MM contract offer to begin his professional career. Reagins is "still optimistic something gets done" with Cowart.
Mets Will Transition Mejia To Starting
ESPN's Adam Rubin reports that the Mets have optioned Jenrry Mejia to Double-A Binghamton, where he will make the transition back into a starting pitcher.
Mejia, still just 20 years old, worked exclusively as a starter across two minor league levels last season, posting a 3.14 ERA in 94.2 innings (19 starts) and notching an 8.7 K/9 to go along with a 3.7 BB/9. So far, pitching out of the New York bullpen in 2010, he's held his own, though he hasn't pitched quite as well as his 3.25 ERA following today's game suggests. He's allowed 15 free passes in just 27.2 innings of work, while striking out 17.
Much has been made of the Mets' starting pitching woes. After receiving next to nothing from the combination of Oliver Perez and John Maine, they've turned to Hisanori Takahashi and R.A. Dickey, both of whom have excelled to this point in their respective rotation roles. However, it's likely a tall order to expect those trends to continue.
Mejia certainly has the makings of a successful major league starter. Baseball America ranked him as the Mets' top prospect coming into the 2010 season, and ranked him as the #56 prospect in all of baseball. So far this season, he's averaged 95.1mph on his fastball, and has a 66.7% ground-ball rate.
Those numbers mesh with this report from Baseball America's Ben Badler last November, stating that Mejia routinely sat in the mid-90's with a fastball that he could both cut and sink. That same pitch helped him induce grounders on 71% of his outs on balls in play during the 2009 minor league season.
We've heard the Mets mentioned in connection with available starters such as Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee, but stretching out Mejia gives them added depth in the event that their current starters falter, or Omar Minaya is unable to facilitate a trade.
Odds & Ends: Mejia, O’s, McGuire, Rangers, Valverde
Links for Sunday….
- ESPN's Adam Rubin tweets that the Mets have optioned Jenrry Mejia to Double-A Binghamton, where he will start their game on Wednesday.
- Jeff Zrebiec tells us that Buck Showalter will interview for the Baltimore managerial job this week, and Eric Wedge will likely receive a second interview. The club has yet to ask the Mets for permission to interview Bob Melvin.
- MLB.com's Jordan Bastian quotes Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos saying that despite first-round pick Deck McGuire's lack of participation in a media conference call, he's excited to have been drafted by Toronto. Anthopoulos says that negotiations, however, could go down to the wire as they did in 2009 with Chad Jenkins.
- Rangers manager Ron Washington feels that his team could use another front-line starting pitcher, according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. Texas has recently seen both Derek Holland and Rich Harden land on the disabled list.
- Nick Piecoro tweets that the D'Backs offered Jose Valverde a two-year deal worth about $10MM before he signed for two years and $14MM with Detroit. The story spawns from some heated comments that were exchanged between Valverde and former teammate Miguel Montero.
- Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times thinks Dan Haren would be a "perfect fit" for the Angels.
- The Cubs will soon face a decision on whether to become buyers or sellers, writes Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.
- Within a mailbag for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Paul Hoynes says that a little salary relief is the best the Indians could hope for in a Kerry Wood trade.
- Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch details how the Cardinals will handle their starting rotation for the time being. Even after signing Jeff Suppan, the club will be short-handed while they wait for Brad Penny to get healthy.
- The Tigers should exercise patience when it comes to acquiring a shortstop, according to Lynn Hennig of the Detroit News.
- Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets that the Tigers will have to think about trading for a starting pitcher, with Rick Porcello heading to Triple-A.
Ian Snell Clears Waivers
SUNDAY: Snell has cleared waivers and accepted a minor league assignment to Triple-A Tacoma, according to a team press release.
TUESDAY: The Mariners designated Ian Snell for assignment and called up Brian Sweeney, according to the team. Snell, who came to Seattle last summer in the Jack Wilson trade, started respectably for the Mariners, but has been ineffective of late. He has allowed at least three earned runs in each of his last four appearances with 11 walks, five strikeouts and a 11.77 ERA in that time.
For the season, the 28-year-old right-hander has a 6.41 ERA with 5.1 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9 in 46.1 innings. Snell got off to a similar start last year before the Pirates demoted him to Triple A and saw him dominate for six starts. Snell has promise, but his recent struggles suggest he isn't close to fulfilling it.
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Cafardo’s Latest: Oswalt, DeJesus, Aardsma, LaRoche
There are a handful of big names that could be moved before this July's trading deadline, and Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe opens his latest column by taking a look at some of the possibilities. Let's check out the highlights from Cafardo's piece….
- There's skepticism within the Astros' organization that owner Drayton McLane would want to trade Roy Oswalt to the Rangers, baseball's other Texas team.
- The return the Royals are requesting in exchange for David DeJesus is higher than any team is willing to pay for now.
- Mariners closer David Aardsma is "already drawing a lot of interest."
- Pedro Feliz, Willie Bloomquist, and Jay Payton could be small-scale trade bait.
- Adam LaRoche on his brief time as a Red Sox: "The ballpark was perfectly suited for the way I swing, and it would have been nice to have stayed there and see what would have happened over a full year."
Olney On Lee, Carmona, Rockies, Torre
In his newest blog post at ESPN.com (Insider-only link), Buster Olney tells the story of a phone call Michael Young made to Rangers GM Jon Daniels last summer. Just before the trade deadline, Young dialed up Daniels to tell him the players were happy with the young talent on the roster, suggesting that giving up the farm for someone like Roy Halladay wasn't necessary.
"Do what you have to do," Young told Daniels. "But don't do something just to appease us down here."
Here are Olney's other hot stove notes:
- The Mariners have yet to shop Cliff Lee, but will soon make a decision about his availability (Twitter link).
- The Mets are interested in Fausto Carmona, who is under contract beyond this year, unlike many of the oft-mentioned pitchers on the trade market. Olney warns that the "Oliver Perez factor" is in play, meaning that if the Mets acquired Carmona, it's unclear how he'd adjust to pitching in baseball's biggest market.
- A hitter like Aaron Hill or Dan Uggla would fit very nicely in Colorado right now, though neither the Blue Jays or Marlins have indicated yet that they're willing to sell. Olney figures that the Rockies will try to avoid making a trade, moving forward with their current roster until Troy Tulowitzki returns.
- As we heard earlier in the week from SI.com's Jon Heyman, Joe Torre appears unlikely to manage the Dodgers next season. "There are a couple of folks in power who are ready to turn the managerial page," according to Olney.
No Fire Sale Coming For D’Backs
Even with his club 15 games below .500, Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes doesn't expect to hold a fire sale in the coming weeks, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Although recent reports have indicated that the D'Backs will continue trading, and are considering major moves, Byrnes tells Piecoro that he isn't predicting any "monster" deals.
"We'll explore a lot of possibilities and see where we end up," said Byrnes. "I do think a lot of our players are guys we value and want to keep and I think if we're going to make trades, we'll have to get the type of things – particularly young pitching depth – that would make sense to us."
Piecoro notes that the Diamondbacks will still probably field offers on "just about anybody," but the players most likely to be dealt are Adam LaRoche, Aaron Heilman, and Chris Snyder. If the team does decide to move players like Kelly Johnson and Stephen Drew, they'll likely demand a top pitching prospect in return. Presumably, the D'Backs would have to be blown away by a package of multiple young arms to consider trading Dan Haren.
Brewers Outright Chris Smith
The Brewers have sent Chris Smith outright to Triple-A Nashville, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The move clears a spot on the roster for Todd Coffey, who is returning from a stint on the disabled list.
After Smith recorded an impressive 1.71 ERA and 12.4 K/9 in 23 appearances as Nashville's closer, he was called up when the Brewers parted ways with Jeff Suppan. The 29-year-old appeared in just three games for Milwaukee, allowing a pair of runs in 3.1 IP.
Ryan Franklin Plans To Retire After 2011
Ryan Franklin's $6.5MM contract keeps him under St. Louis's control through 2011, and when it expires, the right-hander isn't sure he'll sign another one, according to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Strauss writes that, for now, the Cardinals closer is planning to retire after the 2011 season.
"I think I owe it to my family," Franklin said. "I've missed a lot of things that have been going on. I don't want to miss a lot more…. I'm financially sound. I don't see having to keep playing for that reason."
The 37-year-old currently sports a 2.40 ERA, along with 13 saves and a career-best 1.2 BB/9. He's enjoyed his best years in St. Louis, posting a 2.85 ERA and 69 saves in 232 appearances with the team since 2007. If he does indeed retire following the 2011 campaign, he'll have earned approximately $20MM in his major league career, according to Baseball-Reference.