The White Sox aren't likely to sign Rafael Soriano unless his price drops "way, way down," according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter). The White Sox were reportedly eyeing the reliever early in the month, but like other teams, they moved on.
Soriano, the top reliever and arguably the top free agent on the open market, will cost more than money. Since the Type A free agent turned down the Rays' offer of arbitration, the team that signs Soriano will lose a top pick.
That possibility scared the Yankees away, even though Soriano would have considered a setup role behind Mariano Rivera. The AL Champion Rangers signed Adrian Beltre, but they are not pursuing Soriano, another Scott Boras client. The Cardinals don't appear to have much interest in the closer either.
As MLBTR's Mark Polishuk explains, the Angels are a possibility for Soriano. In a separate piece, Morosi argues that finding a substantial contract for the right-hander could be Boras' biggest coup of the 2010-11 offseason.
Sucks to be Soriano today!
It’d be comical if Soriano returns to the Rays. Of course, they value that first rounder far more than his arm.
If he does return maybe they could trade him for prospects
Soriona makes a lot of sense for the Rangers if they have to move Feliz into the rotation. Seems like that organization, with its good minor league depth, would care less than most about it costing a draft pick.
Edit: Soriano, of course.
Sox just need one more arm in the bull pen then there set
Excepting arbitration should be a last resort for Soriano. Next years FA market for closers is loaded with long term and short term options, if hes going to get his money its going to have to be this year.
I love to see Soriano get jammed. He got greedy, and now he will pay.
Dude, he’s just looking out for himself. He isn’t being greedy, just smart. If he accepts arbitration, he gets screwed next year.
Good point. I was just about to say the same thing. Next year, you have the following closers hitting free agency.
Closers
Heath Bell (34)
Jonathan Broxton (28)
Matt Capps (28)
Francisco Cordero (37) – $12MM club option with a $1MM buyout
Octavio Dotel (38) – $3.75MM club option with a $750K buyout
Ryan Franklin (39)
Brian Fuentes (36)
Mike Gonzalez (34)
Brad Lidge (35) – $12.5MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout
Joe Nathan (37) – $12.5MM club option with a $2MM buyout
Jonathan Papelbon (31)
Francisco Rodriguez (30) – $17.5MM club/vesting option with a $3.5MM buyout
Koji Uehara (37) – vesting option
Jose Valverde (34) – $9MM club option
Taken from MLBTR’s 2012 free agent list. That is a monster squad for closers. Soriano is the quintessential big fish in the little pond this year. His best option would be to capitalize on it by signing a multi year deal.
Wow, that’s pretty much every good closer in baseball and then some!
The real problem is that there are quality closers who will only comand short contracts,
Its hard to see guys like Paplebon, Rodrguez and Broxton grabbing huge deals if you could get Lidge, Nathan, Cordero, Gonzalez and maybe even Valverde one 1-2 year deals.
That’s it???
matt thornton is also a FA while he is not a for sure closer he will more thank likely be one this year depending on sale and he will probabl be in the closer market next season unless extended by the sox. Bell wants to stay in SD so he might take a pay cut to stay there for long term(security over max $$ is smart for a reliever) lidge will be bought out due to his decline but depending on how nathan does after coming back you can almost bet he will have his option picked up. If he doesnt the twins will be in big trouble
The same can be said about Ryan Madson as Thornton next year, with Bell the question is if he is still in SD at the end of the season. But i imagine most of the older guys will be religated into set up roles (Dotel, Feuntes, Franklin, Uehara) if they look to be on contenders.
there could also be some retirements…franklin, nathan are getting pretty old
Wow, I had no idea Nathan and Franklin were 37 and 39, respectively.
Wait a minute… How will the Twins be in trouble?
If the Twins decline (buy out) Nathan’s option, they will not be in trouble. As stated by other posters, a lot of these top closers will have to take less than market value deals due to the saturation in the free agent class. That means, the smart thing to do may be to buy Nathan out, and try to get a cheap closer that can give them somewhat comparable numbers as Nathan.
Edit: They may even opt to bring back Capps at like 3m a year or something similar.
Would have been a big coup, but I’m not that disappointed that they declined to pursue him. Upon further inspection of his career numbers he only had decent closing experience over the past two years and he’s 31 years old. He had 27 saves in 2009 and 45 last year, but before that he 16 in the 7 previous seasons. No reason to throw Boras money at him with that track record.
Juan Cruz 2.0.
Last year was the first time he didnt have to play second fiddle to another pitcher. He had to pich behing Eddie Guardado and J.J. Putz in seattle and Bob Wickman in Atlanta. not to mention haveing to split closing duties with Mike Gonzalez for two years.
Is it just me or does it seem like all of the top contenders pretty much have a closer already? And being so, it makes it cost-prohibitive to acquiring Soriano because it means they’d have to give up a 1st round pick.
Does that mean that a top-15 draft team are suddenly likely landing spots for Soriano?
Problem is he would become a salary dump, The rays cant afford the 12-15 mil he’s seeking and all of baseball knows it, Teams would just low ball the rays.
White Sox, Yanks, Rangers, Cards all out? Yikes. Unless Soriano can get the Orioles involved, it really looks like his 2011 salary is going to be whatever Arte Moreno says it is.
I don’t know– if it gets “that” low, the Sox probably come back into the fray having already surrendered pick #1. Maybe KW is pushing it this way intentionally with these comments…
That is exactly what Kenny is doing. He realizes that he is in a bidding war against him with the Yankees out and the Angels seemingly set in their pen. No point in being a sucker for the Boras game.
Hahaha, gotta love the good ol’ Boras backfire!
Yeah, I’m really sure Boras is that worried about this. C’mon man… He got the homeless man Werth $126 mil… I’m sure he’ll easily get Soriano good money.
but he got werth the moey right away, small bidding war and look at the nats and said if you want him you have to pay and before anyone knew it he took the biggest deal there was even before the nats probably saw the market and relized it was an over pay
This is why relievers shouldn’t be eligible to become type A free agents, its too costly to give up a pick for a reliever.
They should max out at type B, losing team still gets a pick, new team doesn’t have to give one up
draft compensation should be done away with all together…well it all should be changed. Teams should not be forced to give up draft picks just because they signed player other teams could not afford. Too many times, not just relievers, have we seen players markets drop because they are Type A…type B’s get bought up fast because no one gives up a pick. And look more recently at the influx of the clauses where if said player qualifies for type A the team wont offer arb, this hurts the team but helps the player…It should simply be if a player qualifies for draft compensation the buying team should not give up a pick but the losing team should be given a supplemental pick..IF that no other sport has this system and they all do just fine. Do away with surrendering a pick and you will see players get signed fast and to better deals and..please next comish(because bud is horrible and will never do this, this guy has no business being the comish he could have stopped roids and didnt) please allow teams to trade draft picks again every single other major sport allows for this and it does two things,1 helps teams 2 makes draft day more interesting thus more ratings.
I agree (well, I agree with the part I read before I lost interest). AND sometimes teams get screwed like the Jays when the Yankees signed Tex, Burnett, and Sabathia all in the same season.
Agreed, I think this is why any reliever who enters free agency should have a clause in thier contract that states the team cannot offer arbitration if he is a type A or even B although, It might lower the cash total.
Or why relievers should accept arbitration more often. It’s the job of their agents to correctly assess the value of their client and Boras may have steered Soriano wrong in this case.
he seems to do that alot, i dont remember the exact player last season but i remember reading and thinking, along with other mlbtr readers that he did not steer a player in the right direction and didnt read the market correctly..i believe it was damon. but he spends all his time on a few huge money guys then forgets about the rest of his guys
Yep. It’s the “Jerry Maquire” syndrome. Boras gets his stars a lot of money but I wonder how many smaller guys get handed off and he costs them. In fairness, Boras probably steered Soriano right last year telling him to accept arbitration when the Braves almost certainly only offered it because they thought he would decline. Helped Soriano and screwed the Braves.
How about the Jays, Angels, or O’s for Soriano! Maybe a two year deal 2/18.
if his price dropped to 9 per avg more teams would get involved
Soriano’s price has to drop now. No teams left looking for a closer can afford what he’s asking for now.
You can do worse than Chicago for a one-year FA audition at closer… just ask Putz. Tough market next year, though, as someone already pointed out. He’ll want at least a couple years.
not if kenny offers hiim a 1 year deal if he qualifies for type B kenny can offer arb if he becomes a type A(more than likely will happen) kenny cant offer arb
I agree with a lot of people on here. Everyday spring training drasws closer and Soriano I am sure is on a beach somewhere (like he should) saying ah just let my agent handle it. But how much longer til they start hand wringing.
Business part aside Soriano would be a good addition to the pen. I just want to see this written out Pena, Santos, Crain, Sale and Thornton…..ok we need another arm or two as I am not a huge fan with the other options on the 40 man roster but who knows maybe 1 could surprise.
Yeah thats true who could’ve forseen Santos and Sale being solid options at this point last year.
Will you please stop mentioning the Cardinals in these Soriano posts? They never had interest in him.