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Archives for February 2011

2012 Options Notes: Wainwright, K-Rod, Sabathia

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Some rumblings about 2012 options from around the league…

  • The Cardinals could still pick up the 2012 ($9MM) and 2013 ($12MM) options they hold on Adam Wainwright even though he's having Tommy John surgery, writes Joe Strauss of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A pitcher of Wainwright's caliber is a bargain at that price, even if he doesn't get back to being himself until midway through the 2012 season. The options will not vest now that the right-hander will spend the season on the disabled list.
  • When asked about the possibility of the options not being picked up and becoming a free agent, Wainwright simply told Strauss "I think I'd end up doing all right."
  • SI.com's Jon Heyman says (on Twitter) there's a zero percent chance the Mets will allow Francisco Rodriguez to finish the 55 games needed to vest his $17.5MM option. The player's union figures to be vigilant, especially if K-Rod is healthy.
  • Rival GMs told Heyman (on Twitter) that the chances of Yankees ace CC Sabathia opting out of his contract after the season are "100 percent." Sabathia was non-committal when asked about the clause two weeks ago.

Pitching Notes: Hudson, Buehrle, Carpenter

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A few pitching notes from around the league…

  • In today's blog post at ESPN (Insider req'd), Buster Olney reports that the Yankees did not inquire about Tim Hudson. Yesterday we heard that the Braves aren't looking to move one of their starters anyway.
  • Within the same post, Olney says he finds the timing of the report about White Sox ace Mark Buehrle's willingness to accept a trade interesting. It's been presumed that the Missouri native would embrace a chance to pitch for the Cardinals at some point, and St. Louis now has an opening in its rotation with Adam Wainwright headed for Tommy John surgery.
  • Joel Sherman of The New York Post believes Cardinals co-ace Chris Carpenter could potentially be a fit for the Yankees, and the news of Wainwright's injury makes him wonder if Carpenter will "become available in a stronger way." I looked at how Wainwright's injury could have a trickle down effect on the Yankees over at River Ave. Blues. 

Cardinals Will Be Open-Minded About Pitching Help

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10:48am: Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has some more from Mozeliak…

"We haven't played a game yet, that throws a wrench into a little bit," said the GM. "Internally we don't want to have a knee-jerk response to this. We certainly feel we have some players in camp that can fill this role."

10:14am: Now that Adam Wainwright will officially be out for the entire 2011 season, the Cardinals need to begin thinking about potential replacements. GM John Mozeliak told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that the team will not look outside the organization for help initially, but they "have to be open-minded." (Twitter link)

The Cardinals won't find a pitcher of Wainwright's caliber on the market, but there are plenty of options that could give them innings. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch broke down the internal candidates today, and I took a look at external candidates yesterday. 

Wainwright Will Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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THURSDAY, 10:01am: GM John Mozeliak confirmed that Wainwright will undergo Tommy John surgery according to the team's official Twitter feed. The injury will keep him on the shelf for all of 2011.

WEDNESDAY, 8:59am: Adam Wainwright is heading back to St. Louis to have his right elbow examined, and right now the team expects the worst. "I can say just based on the initial evaluation from our training staff, things do not look encouraging," said GM John Mozeliak according to Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. ESPN's Buster Olney says (on Twitter) that it appears the team is expecting their ace to have Tommy John surgery, which would keep him out for all of 2011.

Wainwright, 29, has been one of the game's best pitchers in recent years, pitching to a 2.53 ERA with 8.3 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 463 1/3 innings over the last two seasons. He finished second in the NL Cy Young voting last season and third in 2009. Rival executives are speculating that the Cards will pursue Kevin Millwood in the wake of the injury, according to Olney (on Twitter). Over the weekend we heard that Millwood was "waiting for the right widespread panic."

If Wainwright finishes the 2011 season on the disabled list, his $9MM option for 2012 and $12MM option for 2013 will not vest. 

Casey Close Leaving CAA Sports

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Agent Casey Close is leaving CAA Sports when his five-year contract expires at the end of the month, reports Liz Mullen of The Sports Business Journal (subs. req'd). A hat tip goes out to Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball.

Mullen says that CAA and Close are still trying to work out the details of his departure, "which may involve CAA and Close sharing the representation of some of the clients going forward." Close represents Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard, Michael Cuddyer, and Derrek Lee, among others.

It's unclear if Close will join a new a firm or work independently, though Brown notes that high profile agents (such as Dan Lozano) have been going out on their own recently. Close was one of the first sports agents that CAA hired when it launched its sports division in April 2006. It is primarily a Hollywood talent firm.

Nats Agree To Terms With 14 International Prospects

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In addition to the previously reported Randy Novas and Raudy Reed, the Nationals have agreed to terms with 14 international free agents per a team press release. Here is the list of players, per the release…

Left-handed pitchers Joel Barrientos (17, Dominican Republic), Brian Escolastico (18, Dominican Republic) and Hector Silvestre (18, Dominican Republic); right-handed pitchers Anderson Martinez (18, Venezuela), Gilberto Mendez (18, Dominican Republic) and Felix Moscat (20, Dominican Republic); catchers Pedro Severino (17, Dominican Republic) and Jorge Tillero (17, Venezuela); first baseman Arialdi Peguero (18, Dominican Republic); shortstop Yewri Guillen (18, Dominican Republic); third baseman Diomedes Eusebio (18, Dominican Republic); and outfielders Juan De Los Santos (17, Venezuela), Wilman Rodriguez (19, Dominican Republic) and Dioncio Rosario (17, Dominican Republic).

Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post wrote about the team's efforts to improve its presence in Latin America earlier this month.

Kiko Calero To Throw For Cardinals

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Kiko Calero originally broke into the big leagues with the Cardinals back in 2003, and now he's trying to see if he can revive his career with them. SI.com's Jon Heyman reports that Calero will throw for the Cardinals as a tryout (on Twitter).

The 36-year-old right-hander signed a minor league contract with the Mets last year, only to be released. He then hooked on with the Dodgers only to be released yet again. In 25 Triple-A appearances last year, Kiko (whose real name is Enrique) posted a 7.03 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in 32 innings.

Prior to last season, we heard that Calero, who pitched to a 1.95 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in 60 innings with the Marlins in 2009, wasn't drawing much interest because his "medicals [were] so bad that everybody [was] wary." He's battled major shoulder injuries in the past.

The Cardinals are faced with the possibility of not having Adam Wainwright in 2011, and reliever Kyle McClellan is a candidate to fill his rotation spot. St. Louis could be looking at Calero as bullpen depth if they do go that route.

Offseason In Review: Florida Marlins

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The Offseason In Review series continues with the Marlins.

Major League Signings

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Trades and Claims

Notable Losses

Summary

The Marlins had barely made a ripple in the free agent waters since the 2004-05 offseason, but this winter president Larry Beinfest and GM Michael Hill broke out the checkbook.  They made early November strikes for Buck and Vazquez, and also dealt away Uggla, Maybin, and Miller in a four-day span that same month.  The Fish are pushing payroll over $50MM for the first time since '05, but did they spend the extra money wisely?

Buck What was more surprising – that Buck scored an $18MM deal, or that it was with the Marlins?  Buck is a useful catcher, though a .247/.299/.484 line got him non-tendered by the Royals after '09.  In 2010 with Toronto, Buck reached a career high in playing time and hit for average for the first time in his career, but didn't seem to become a drastically different player than the one Kansas City cut loose.  Clearly the Marlins viewed Buck as a notch above the available catchers, with Victor Martinez out of their price range.  I imagine they assigned a premium to Buck's intangibles and felt they needed the leadership.

I can get behind the Vazquez gamble, even though the price was on the higher end for a reclamation project.  He turned down multiyear offers to play close to home.  Maybe Vazquez's velocity won't come back in 2011, but perhaps a return to the NL means 200 innings of 4.00 ball from the 34-year-old righty.  It's possible that after so many years of starting every fifth day, Vazquez just couldn't get back on track once the Yankees skipped starts and sent him to the pen.  I also like the addition of Shawn Hill, who seems like a poor man's Justin Duchscherer.

Choate is a strong bet to continue shutting down lefties, though his agency deserves a nod for snagging a second year.  I like Choate more than Will Ohman, who received $1.5MM more.  Buck, Vazquez, and Choate are all represented by ACES, a firm that also pounced on the Tigers' desire to act early by getting strong deals for Brandon Inge, Jhonny Peralta, and Joaquin Benoit.

The Marlins also bucked their traditional minor league free agent approach to bullpen-building.  Aside from signing Choate, they added big arms Dunn, Mujica, Webb, and Richardson through trades.  It seems early to give up on Maybin, who turns 24 in April and has yet to reach arbitration.  Even Beinfest admitted Maybin "never really had the sustained time in the big leagues to show what we think he was capable of doing at the time of the trade [with Detroit]."  In Florida's defense, they received two controllable relievers for a player who could simply flame out in San Diego.  The price for a guy like Webb might have risen as the offseason progressed and free agent relievers started signing for good money.  The Marlins will turn to Chris Coghlan in center field, a position he's never played as a pro.     

Florida's free agent spending was made possible in part by trading Uggla to the division-rival Braves after he wisely rejected a four-year, $48MM extension offer.  I found the return for Uggla to be disappointing for the Marlins, who could have kept him for $10-11MM for 2011.  They lose about 25 home runs out of the second base spot, and Infante is a year away from free agency as well.  Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said that "the home run hitters didn't win enough games for us" as justification for the power subtraction.  The Marlins may have felt that they'd be better served redistributing Uggla's money toward pitching and defense.  And if they weren't necessarily willing to offer arbitration to the slugging second baseman after the 2011 season, they risked getting no players in return.  

The Marlins deserve credit for hammering out an extension with Nolasco, buying out a free agent year from their number two starter.  With Josh Johnson, Nolasco, Vazquez, and Anibal Sanchez, the Marlins have a formidable front four.  

A year after signing zero Major League free agents, the Marlins committed over $27MM to three this offseason.  Beinfest and company focused on Buck's leadership, Vazquez's innings, and upgrading the bullpen, with the expectation that they'll still have a strong lineup one through seven without Uggla.  The Marlins may not be considered the NL East favorite, but their top-shelf young talent makes them a sleeper for 2011.

Photo courtesy Icon SMI.

AL West Notes: Lowe, Young, A’s Facilities

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A few items of note coming out of the AL West …

  • The Mariners may miss Mark Lowe, whom they dealt to the Rangers in the Cliff Lee swap, what with David Aardsma likely to miss the start of the regular season as he mends from offseason hip surgery, writes John Hickey of SportsPressNW.com. Lowe, who was sidelined after back surgery at the time of the Lee deal, was considered then as something of a footnote to the big-name Lee. But the Rangers insisted on acquiring Lowe, according to Hickey, and had Seattle not included the right-hander, it would not have gotten prized first-base prospect Justin Smoak in return. Now, Lowe is the leading candidate to claim closing duties in Texas while Neftali Feliz tries his hand at starting.
  • The Rangers either signed Adrian Beltre simply to prevent him from going to the Angels, or there is a serious personality conflict between certain members of Texas' front office and Michael Young, writes Mitch Williams of the MLB Network. These are the only scenarios that could possibly explain the Rangers' curious handling of Young, according to Williams, because Young is a good player who does things the right way.
  • Athletics managing partner Lew Wolff held court with a few reporters, writes Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com. Wolff is pleased with the on-field direction of his team, but he is still seeking a resolution to the Athletics' stadium situation, which has been under MLB review since 2008. The A's looked into moving to San Jose then, but the Giants have remained opposed to that because of the city's proximity to San Francisco. As well, the A's are seeking to improve their Spring Training facility at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, but funding is tough to come by in these hard economic times. In all, Wolff is frustrated but understands that he must be patient, although, as he quipped, at 75, patience is something of a luxury.

Minor Moves: Sisco, Mujica, Russell, Armstrong

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Some Minor League moves of note as some teams try to trim rosters and others look to amass organizational depth.

  • The Yankees released left-handed pitcher Andy Sisco, tweets Matt Eddy of Baseball America. Sisco has bounced around in recent years and last appeared in the big leagues with the White Sox in 2007.
  • The Yankees and Braves each inked a veteran international free agent, with New York signing Cuban shortstop Yadil Mujica and Atlanta signing Australian outfielder-turned-pitcher Andrew Russell, a righty, tweets Eddy.
  • The Angels signed catcher Cole Armstrong, who could claim a spot on the Halos' 40-man roster as a defense-first specialist, tweets Eddy.

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