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Archives for January 2011

Brewers Sign Takashi Saito

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The Brewers signed reliever Takashi Saito to a one-year deal, the team announced today. The contract guarantees Saito $1.75MM and gives him the chance to earn $1.5MM more through incentives, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Saito has a chance to match last year's $3.2MM salary through appearance and roster bonuses; his physical is already done.  Nikkan Sports was first to report the possible deal, which NPB Tracker passed along on Twitter.  Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the agreement.  Saito is represented by CAA.    

Saito, 41 in February, posted a 2.83 ERA, 11.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 0.7 HR/9, and 43.6% groundball rate in 54 innings for the Braves this year.  He dealt with hamstring and shoulder injuries and has had serious elbow issues in the past, so the deal reflects the health uncertainty despite Saito's fantastic numbers.

The Brewers' bullpen ranked 12th in the NL with a 4.48 ERA this year.  Saito will join John Axford, Kameron Loe, LaTroy Hawkins, and Sean Green in the 2011 pen.  Todd Coffey, Trevor Hoffman, Carlos Villanueva, and others have departed.

Alomar, Blyleven Voted To Hall Of Fame

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Congratulations to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven, who were voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame today by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. 

Alomar was one of the most complete players in baseball for 17 years, making spectacular plays at second base and adding value at the plate and on the bases. He played on the World Series Champion Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993 and also spent time on the Padres, Indians, Orioles, Mets, White Sox and Diamondbacks. Alomar won ten Gold Gloves and made 12 All-Star teams. He posted a career .300/.371/.443 line and retired with 210 home runs, 474 stolen bases, 504 doubles, 2724 hits and 1508 runs scored.

Blyleven first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1998 and has steadily gained support; he was just 0.8% short of the 75% threshold last year. He retired with a 3.31 ERA (118 ERA+) in 4970 innings. Blyleven ranks 14th all-time in innings and fifth all-time in strikeouts (3701). His 287 wins place him 27th in baseball history.

Royals Interested In Jeff Francis

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The Royals are one of seven teams with interest in Jeff Francis, according to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (on Twitter). Crasnick named the Nationals, Pirates, Rangers, Yankees and Mets as suitors for the left-hander late last month. Those clubs, along with the Rockies, maintain interest in Francis, Crasnick writes.

Francis missed all of the 2009 season as he recovered from shoulder surgery. He was generally healthy in 2010, when he logged 104 1/3 innings and posted a 5.00 ERA with 5.8 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 for the Rockies.

The Royals expressed interest in Kevin Millwood early in the offseason. Now that they've traded Zack Greinke, their need for starting pitching is even more apparent. Kyle Davies, Luke Hochevar, Sean O'Sullivan and Vin Mazzaro are internal rotation candidates, but GM Dayton Moore figures to add at least one starter by the time Spring Training begins.

Rangers To Sign Adrian Beltre

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The Rangers have won the bidding for Adrian Beltre and agreed to terms with the third baseman on a deal that keeps him away from Texas' AL West rivals, the A's and Angels. The team has announced the agreement.

Beltre and the Rangers agreed to a five-year $80MM contract that includes a $16MM vesting option for a sixth year, ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports (on Twitter). The agreement includes a limited no-trade clause, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). Agent Scott Boras represents Beltre.

Beltre led the American League in doubles last year and added 28 homers, hitting .321/.365/.553 in 641 plate appearances. He made the All-Star team, won his second career Silver Slugger and played standout defense. The defensive metric UZR/150 suggests that Beltre was significantly above average with the glove (12.7 UZR/150) for the eighth time in the past nine seasons. Beltre, 31, would be 37 in the final season of a six-year deal. 

Michael Young said this week that he'd be willing to move from third base if the Rangers sign Beltre. Young shifted from second base to shortstop when the Rangers traded Alex Rodriguez and from short to third when Elvis Andrus reached the majors, so position switches are nothing new for him. If the Rangers don't trade him, Young figures to appear in the lineup most days as a DH and utility player.

Young has no-trade protection, $48MM remaining on his contract and ten and five rights that take effect this May. The Rangers discussed a potential deal with the Rockies last month, but the team would have to overcome many obstacles to move Young.

Since the Red Sox offered Beltre arbitration, they will obtain two top draft picks next year. One will be a supplementary first rounder and the other will come from the Rangers. It will be Texas' first rounder as long as the Rangers don't sign Rafael Soriano. If they do sign the closer, the Rays would get the Rangers' top pick and the Red Sox would get their second rounder.

The Angels already missed out on Carl Crawford, so losing Beltre to a division rival is a considerable blow for a franchise that finished below .500 for the first time since 2003 last year. The A's, another one of Beltre's suitors, will once again face the longtime Mariner as a division rival.

This is the second long-term deal of Beltre's career. He signed a five-year, $64MM deal with the Mariners after the 2004 season. In five seasons in Seattle, Beltre hit 103 homers and posted a .266/.317/.442 line while playing stellar defense (that's 3.4 WAR per season, in case you're wondering).

Boras and Beltre accepted a $10MM offer from the Red Sox last offseason, though other clubs offered more guaranteed money. That decision positioned the third baseman for a considerably larger payday.

PioDeportes first reported the agreement over the weekend. Yahoo's Tim Brown reported that the sides were nearing a deal and that the sides had an agreement (Twitter links). Heyman reported that the Rangers were making progress on a deal in the $90-100MM range (Twitter links) and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports and others also contributed to the story.

Cardinals Open Extension Talks With Albert Pujols

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The Cardinals have opened extension talks with Albert Pujols, according to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Negotiations between the team and agent Dan Lozano have been “positive” so far, Strauss reports.

The Cardinals are discussing potential deals with considerably more urgency than they were a year ago, when Pujols was two seasons away from free agency. The first baseman is now just months away from the open market, so he’s the team’s top remaining offseason priority.

Lozano did not exchange figures with Cardinals GM John Mozeliak when the pair discussed a Pujols extension at last month’s Winter Meetings. Pujols has said he will not negotiate once he reports to Spring Training in February, so the sides have less than two months to work out an agreement.

 

Odds & Ends: Pena, Mets, Angels, Soriano

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The Orioles announced a deal they agreed to a month ago. Cesar Izturis is officially an Oriole again and these are officially the day's links…

  • Stop by at 2pm CDT for this week's chat.
  • The Red Sox signed Tony Pena Jr. to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training, according to ESPN.com's Jayson Stark (on Twitter). Pena, who spent parts of four seasons as a big league shortstop, spent the 2010 season in the upper minors with the Giants and posted a 4.13 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 76 1/3 innings.
  • The Mets deny that they offered Chris Young a contract, according to Dan Martin of the New York Post. ESPN.com's Buster Olney reported last night that the Mets had offered the tall right-hander a deal that's likely worth over $1MM.
  • Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports argues that the Angels have "holes to fill and explaining to do" after missing out on Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre. 
  • Rafael Soriano told Enrique Rojas of ESPNDeportes that he has “no preference” between the AL and the NL (link in Spanish). The closer says he isn’t worried even though he’s on the market after most top free agents have signed.

Cubs, Rays Have Discussed Matt Garza

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10:53am: Major League sources tell David Kaplan of CSNChicago.com that the teams have discussed Garza, but other names have not been exchanged. Though the Cubs are willing to part with talent for the right-hander, the Rays would have to be overwhelmed to move him, Kaplan reports. 

8:32am: The Sun-Times report surprised club officials, according to MLB.com's Carrie Muskat (on Twitter). The Rays want a lot for Garza and may be inclined to wait until July. Earlier this morning, ESPN.com's Buster Olney reported that a deal for Garza is not close and is more likely to occur in July than now (Twitter links).

7:41am: The Cubs are close to trading for Rays righty Matt Garza, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times.  He says the Cubs "appear to have moved past the Rangers" in their efforts to acquire the 27-year-old.  

Garza has been a hot topic all winter, with teams like the Nationals and Brewers also inquiring.  A deal has seemed unlikely up to this point, with manager Joe Maddon showing amusement with Winter Meetings trade rumors and saying, "Matt Garza will be pitching for us."  Executive VP Andrew Friedman indicated later that he's open-minded to any trade that meets the team's objectives, but he values his starting pitching depth highly.

Garza posted a 3.91 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 1.2 HR/9, and 35.8% groundball rate in 204 2/3 innings this year.  He could earn $6MM+ in arbitration for 2011 and is under team control through '13 due to his Super Two status.  The Brewers had to give up Brett Lawrie to acquire Shaun Marcum from Toronto; in theory the price for Garza should be higher due to an extra year of control.

With Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano, Tom Gorzelanny, Randy Wells, and Carlos Silva already penciled into the Cubs' rotation, acquiring Garza would give the Cubs flexibility to move a starter unless Gorzelanny or Wells is part of the deal.

Indians Sign Doug Mathis

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The Indians announced that they signed right-hander Doug Mathis to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training.

The 27-year-old appeared in 13 games for the Rangers last year, but spent more time at Triple-A Oklahoma City. In 89 innings for the RedHawks, Mathis posted a 5.66 ERA with 5.5 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. Mathis has a 4.84 ERA with 4.5 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in parts of three seasons with the Rangers.

Mathis joins non-roster invitees Justin Germano, Anthony Reyes, Luke Carlin, Paul Phillips, Jack Hannahan, Adam Everett and Travis Buck. As MLBTR's Transaction Tracker shows, rookie GM Chris Antonetti has had a quiet offseason. He has added the players above on minor league deals, signed Austin Kearns and traded for Joe Martinez.

Nationals Rumors: Free Agents, Lee, Pavano

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The challenge for the Nationals, writes Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post, is convincing elite players to come to D.C. Zack Greinke, Jorge de la Rosa and Derrek Lee are among the players who declined Mike Rizzo’s overtures this offseason; the GM says luring players to Washington isn’t easy.

"It shows the difficulty of trying to build something," Rizzo said. "The only thing that convinces players to come is winning. It's the chicken and the egg. Which comes first? Do you win and then the players come, or do the players come and then you win?"

The Nationals have agreed to deals with top free agents like Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche this offseason. But the team faced rejection along he way.

“We liked [Derrek] Lee a lot,” Rizzo said. “I don't know why he went to Baltimore over us."

The Nationals have been linked to Carl Pavano for months, but Rizzo says he hasn’t talked to the right-hander at all. The Nationals last spoke to agent Tom O’Connell at the Winter Meetings, so they don’t appear to be frontrunners. Conflicting reports about the Nationals’ interest in Pavano emerged yesterday.

Tigers Consider Adding Rotation Depth

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Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski told Tom Gage of the Detroit News that the Tigers have “talked to some people” and remain open minded about adding a starter to compete for a job at the back of the team’s rotation. Dombrowski told reporters last month that he was “comfortable” with his pitching staff, but open to potential changes or additions.

The Yankees have interest in Jeremy Bonderman, and the Tigers haven’t ruled out a reunion with the 28-year-old. The team is “keeping an open mind about Jeremy," Dombrowski told Gage. The team would not sign Bonderman and another starter, though.

FOX Sports reported in December that the Tigers had considered veteran starters, including Brad Penny. Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello and Phil Coke are pencilled in to the team’s rotation and Armando Galarraga will likely compete with any new additions for the final rotation spot.

 

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