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NL Central Notes: Pujols, Cubs, Huntington, Jones

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Here are some notes from baseball's only six-team division…

  • Cubs owner Tom Ricketts was very vague when asked about the possibility of Albert Pujols becoming a Cub according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun Times (on Twitter). Chicago has been speculated as a potential landing spot for Pujols if he does in fact become a free agent after the season.
  • Ricketts did however say that there will be "a little more financial flexibility" at the end of the season and he's open to "mega" contracts for certain players, according to Bruce Miles of The Daily Herald and Gordon Wittenmyer of The Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter links).
  • Ricketts also told Cowley (on Twitter) that the team has some room in the budget to add at the trade deadline, though revenue in the first few months of the season will be key.
  • The Pirates have not yet extended GM Neal Huntington's contract according to Rob Biertempfel of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Team president Frank Coonelly said "it's our expectation that Neal will be here for a long time." Huntington's contract expires after the 2011 season.
  • MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reports that right-hander Mike Jones, the Brewers first round pick in 2001 (12th overall), is retiring. The 27-year-old never reached the big leagues, and owns a 3.75 ERA in 623 1/3 minor league innings, all in Milwaukee's system.

Tigers Not Trying To Void Miguel Cabrera’s Contract

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In the aftermath of Miguel Cabrera's DUI arrest late Wednesday night, his second alcohol-related arrest in the last 17 months, Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski told ESPN's Jayson Stark (on Twitter) that "right now there's no language that can void [his contract], and we're not trying to do that." Two days ago we heard that some executives believed Detroit would try to make the contract non-guaranteed as a result of the incident.

Cabrera, 28 in April, signed an eight-year, $152.3MM contract extension before the 2008 season, not long after the trade that brought him to Detroit and before he ever played an official game for them. There are still five years and $106MM left on the deal, between $20MM and $22MM annually through 2015. It was the fifth richest contract in baseball history at the time it was signed.

Despite his off-the-field troubles, Cabrera is one of the game's premier sluggers, hitting .328/.420/.622 with career highs in doubles (45) and homers (38) last season. He's hit .317/.392/.558 in his seven full seasons, and his 247 homers before age 28 are the 12th most all-time. 

Dombrowski told Tom Gage of The Detroit News and SI.com's Jon Heyman that he'd be surprised if MLB sanctioned Cabrera in any way, though his star first baseman will miss the start of camp to be evaluated by doctors (Twitter links). The absence is not expected to spill over into the regular season.

Rockies, Matt Belisle Agree To Two-Year Deal

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The Rockies and Matt Belisle have agreed to a two-year contract worth $6.125MM according to the right-hander's representatives, CAA (on Twitter). The deal also includes performance bonuses.

The two sides agreed to a one-year deal worth $2.35MM last month to avoid arbitration. The new contract buys out Belisle's final season of arbitration-eligibility and one year of free agency. 

Belisle, 30, found a home in Colorado's bullpen in 2009 after years of trying to cut it as a starter with the Reds. He broke out in a big way in 2010, leading all big league relievers with 92 innings pitched. Belisle struck out 91 batters (8.9 K/9) and walked just 16 (1.6 BB/9) in all those innings, though it's worth noting that five of those walks were intentional. He was also adept at getting ground balls, with a 46.3% grounder rate.

Colorado has now signed a total of six players to multiyear contract extensions this winter, as our Transaction Tracker shows. The others: Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Matt Lindstrom, Jason Hammel, and Rafael Betancourt. The total value of those extensions is north of $220MM, with most going to Tulo and CarGo.

Scott Boras Will Advise Anthony Rendon

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Anthony Rendon tells Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Scott Boras is acting as an adviser to the college baseball star (Twitter links).  In the second tweet, Kovacevic notes that since Boras is just an adviser to Rendon, the relationship doesn't affect Rendon's amateur status.  Rendon, a junior at Rice, is eligible to declare for the amateur draft after this season, and is a favorite to be selected with the first overall pick, held by the Pirates. 

As Kovacevic mentions in his initial tweet, the Bucs could once again find themselves negotiating with Boras over a highly-touted amateur third baseman should Boras eventually become Rendon's agent.  Pittsburgh selected Boras client Pedro Alvarez second overall in the 2008 draft, and the two sides became embroiled in a dispute over whether or not Alvarez agreed to a contract before the August 15 deadline.  The situation was eventually resolved, but one wonders if the Bucs might use this incident as motivation to instead take George Springer, Gerrit Cole or another top prospect with the first pick.

Boras has represented the last two #1 picks in the amateur draft (Bryce Harper in 2010, Stephen Strasburg in 2009) and three of the last five overall (Luke Hochevar in 2006).

Offseason In Review: Chicago Cubs

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The Cubs are next in our Offseason In Review series.

Major League Signings

Notable Minor League Signings

Trades and Claims

Notable Losses

Summary

The mandate for Cubs GM Jim Hendry this winter: turn a bloated fifth-place team into a contender for 2011 despite limited payroll flexibility.  The Cubs were in sell mode last summer, but Hendry switched back to a win-now approach this offseason.  Let's sift through the transactions.

Ramirez was awful for the first two months of 2010, driving his value so far down that he didn't dare test the free agent market.  If he can return to career levels in 2011, the Cubs might just be compelled to choose his $16MM club option for 2012 over a $2MM buyout.  Overall it's a positive to have him penciled in for another season, given the weak market for third basemen.

Pena replaces Derrek Lee at first base on a standard-issue Boras Corporation make-good contract.  If Pena finds his first National League season to his liking at age 33, perhaps he can ride a 35 home run season to a big free agent deal. 

Pena's one-year term opens up the possibility of the Cubs bidding on the big names next winter: Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, and Adrian Gonzalez if his rumored extension isn't finalized for some reason.  A $140MM payroll would allow the Cubs to sign any of these sluggers, as they'd be under $110MM in 2012 commitments even with Ramirez and accounting for arbitration raises.  Still, I doubt the Cubs are thinking about next year's free agents whatsoever at this point.

Back to 2011: the Cubs were able to augment their bullpen on the cheap, with Wood's $1.5MM deal drawing comparisons to Andre Dawson's blank check offer.  Wood doesn't need to win an MVP award, though - he just needs to give the Cubs 50 solid innings and keep the walks down.  Wood will be setting up Carlos Marmol, whose odd statistical profile didn't prevent the Cubs from buying out his last two arbitration seasons and one free agent year for $20MM.  Marmol's 15.99 K/9 was the highest in baseball history among pitchers with 25 innings in a season, and it followed that he was stingy on hits and home runs.  But like Wood, Andrew Cashner, and John Grabow, he struggled with walks.  It's easy to dream on the back end of the Cubs' bullpen this year, but this seems to be an especially volatile bunch.

Garza

Hendry's big splash was the addition of Garza.  It wasn't clear Garza would be made available at the outset of the offseason, but the Rays seemingly held a covert bidding war and cashed the righty in for a big chunk of the Cubs' farm system.  Baseball America ranked the Cubs' system eighth in baseball prior to the deal, but the Rays now have the Chicago prospects formerly ranked #1, 4, 10, and 16.  In Archer, Guyer, and Chirinos, the Cubs surrendered prospects almost certain to play in the Majors soon.  The Cubs restored a touch of depth with the signings of Cuban players Silva and Cabezas as well as the Gorzelanny trade.

As you'd expect, the Cubs paid dearly for three years of Garza, who posted a sub-4.00 ERA over about 600 AL East innings over the last three seasons.  Garza has the stuff and reputation of a #2 starter, even if his strikeout rates in '08 and '10 don't quite match up.  It wasn't surprising to see the Cubs move Gorzelanny, though even with the lefty's inconsistency he might have been nice to have around with Carloses Zambrano and Silva not considered reliable.

The team's minor league signings focused on players who had already been in the organization.  They also coaxed Looper out of semi-retirement, and the Cubs are probably hoping he or Casey Coleman is Gorzelanny's equal as a sixth starter.  In the Cubs' perfect world, Andrew Cashner would beat out the less exciting rotation candidates, pushing Silva or Randy Wells to the pen.

Despite a rookie-filled second half last year, the Cubs are going for it in '11 with Mike Quade at the helm for his first full season.  Hendry chose to pay the price in prospects as opposed to cash, after watching the Brewers do the same on a more exaggerated level.  The Cubs enter 2011 as an expensive underdog in the NL Central, but with enough young talent and wild cards to make things interesting.

Photo courtesy Icon SMI.

Belisario Could Miss Season Due To Visa Issues

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Dodgers right-hander Ronald Belisario's arrival at Spring Training has been delayed by visa problems for the third straight season.  The reliever told Venezuelan newspaper Lider en Deportes (as passed on by Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times) that he had lost his passport and was working to get it replaced, but this news surprised Belisario's agent Paul Kinzer, who told Hernandez a day earlier that Belisario was unlikely to be approved to enter the United States and would probably have to miss the seaason.

Kinzer said on Wednesday that he was "not very optimistic" about Belisario pitching in the majors, and said the following day that Belisario's claim of a lost passport was "news to me."  Kinzer also admitted that he hadn't heard from his client "in a few weeks."  If Belisario isn't at Spring Training by February 26, Hernandez notes the Dodgers could remove him from the 40-man roster but still retain his rights by placing him on the restricted list.

Belisario posted a 2.04 ERA and an 8.2 K/9 rate in 69 relief appearances in his 2009 rookie year, but struggled both on the field (a 5.04 ERA in 59 games) and off (a month-long leave of absence from the team that was reportedly due to substance-abuse rehab) in 2010.  ESPNLosAngeles.com's Tony Jackson hears from Kinzer that Belisario's problems in obtaining a visa are related to his off-the-field problems last summer.   

Belisario was pitching extremely well in the Venezuelan Winter League this offseason, but given these repeated problems, you wonder how long the Dodgers will tolerate him.  The team's recent acquisitions of Juan Rincon and Lance Cormier — plus their interest in Jeff Weaver — indicates the Dodgers are already getting some right-handed options in place should Belisario indeed not be able to pitch.

Indians Outright Joe Martinez

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The Indians have outrighted right-hander Joe Martinez off of their 40-man Major League roster, according to a team press release.  Martinez is now on the club's Triple-A roster, but will remain in the Major League Spring Training camp as a non-roster invitee.

Martinez, who turns 28 next week, came to the Tribe in a deal with the Pirates in January after being designated for assignment by Pittsburgh two weeks earlier.  In 18 career Major League games (six of them starts) with Pittsburgh and San Francisco, Martinez has a 6.16 ERA and a 13.0 H/9 rate.  Originally a 12th-round pick of the Giants in the 2005 draft, Martinez has a career 3.58 ERA and a 3.63 K/BB ratio in 128 minor league appearances, all but eight of them starts.

AL East Notes: A-Gon, Yankees, Rays, Pujols

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A few items from baseball's high-rent district…

  • John Boggs, agent for Adrian Gonzalez, tells Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald that he'd be "surprised" if his client isn't signed to a long-term deal with the Red Sox once the season begins.  Boggs said he hasn't been in negotiations with Sox managment since December, but will travel to the team's Spring Training camp in March to continue talks.  There have been rumors that Gonzalez has already agreed to an extension but the deal isn't being announced until April so the club can avoid a luxury tax hit; the first baseman denied these rumors in December.
  • The Yankees, for a change, head into Spring Training with a lot of competition for jobs, writes Fanhouse's Ed Price.
  • In his profile of the Rays' "sleeper" pitching prospects, John Sickels of Minor League Ball says Tampa Bay's collection of minor league arms is so deep that "in other organizations, some of these would be Top Ten prospects and considered anchors for the future, rather than 'oh yeah, him too' pitchers."
  • Albert Pujols in a Red Sox uniform?  It's not a hint about next winter, but rather a what-if from the 1999 draft that ESPNBoston.com's Gordon Edes explores with Boston scout Ernie Jacobs.

Michael Young Rumors: Friday

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Michael Young is scheduled to arrive at the Rangers' Spring Training camp tomorrow, where he is expected to address the media in regards to his trade request.  MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan writes that the Rangers "are still talking to other teams about a trade, although nothing is imminent."  As we heard on Wednesday, talks with the Angels, Rockies and Diamondbacks all seem to be stagnant at this point.

Here are today's Young-related items, with the most recent updates on top…

  • The Marlins have "no interest" in Young, tweets MLB.com's Joe Frisaro.  We heard earlier today that an even longer-shot Young trade partner, the Royals, were also not interested.
  • Young's friend Vernon Wells isn't pleased with how the Rangers went public with Young's trade demand, reports Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com.  Wells praised Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos for working out Wells' deal to the Angels without any media attention until the move was announced.  "I dealt with it in-house, which was the right way to do things.  [Young is] having to deal with it, unfortunately, publicly," Wells said. "It creates all kinds of problems. It's been handled poorly on their end, I'll say that."  This is just total speculation on my part, but you wonder if Wells would consider restructuring his contract to free up some money for the Halos to acquire Young.  It's a longshot, but Wells might be willing in order to both upgrade the Angels and to once again play alongside his long-time friend.

Rangers To Discuss Extending C.J. Wilson, Others

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The Rangers are looking to discuss a contract extension with left-hander C.J. Wilson in the coming weeks, reports FOXSports.com's Jon Paul Morosi.  Wilson, 30, avoided arbitration with Texas by agreeing to a one-year, $7MM pact last month and will be a free agent after the 2011 season.

Wilson was drafted as a starting pitcher in 2001, but made just six Major League starts in his 2005 rookie season before being converted to a reliever.  He pitched well enough out of the bullpen that the Rangers stretched him out and gave him a rotation spot last spring, and Wilson delivered in spades.  Wilson posted a 3.35 ERA and a 1.83 K/BB ratio, though he also allowed a league-leading 93 walks.  With Cliff Lee once again a Phillie, Wilson is ostensibly the ace of the Texas staff.

In addition to Wilson, Rangers GM Jon Daniels says the team is also looking at signing other "core players" to multiyear deals.  Daniels didn't name names, but Morosi cites Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz as extension candidates.  Andrus will be arbitration-eligible for the first time next winter, while Feliz is just finishing his first full season in the majors. 

Feliz, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, could have more in common with Wilson than just a contract extension.  The Rangers plan to try Feliz out as a starter this spring, so if the transition goes smoothly, Texas could save itself a lot of future arbitration dollars on a future ace by locking Feliz up right now.

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