Heath Bell, Jason Kubel, and Carlos Pena were placed on trade waivers today, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal tweeted earlier about Jim Thome being placed, also. The placement on waivers starts a 48 hour period during which teams can put in claims. Hundreds of players are placed on waivers in August, but these four are notable because they do appear to be trade candidates.
Bell, the Padres' closer, sports a 2.60 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.35 HR/9, and 42.9% groundball rate in 52 innings this year. That's a big dropoff from his typical strikeout rate. The 33-year-old has $1.5MM left on his contract. He projects as a Type A free agent, but has said he'd accept arbitration if the Padres offer. Owner Jeff Moorad said this month that Bell accepting arbitration would be preferable in some ways, but if the Padres aren't actually interested in a potential eight-figure one-year deal for Bell, they've got two days to move him. Dan Mennella took a look at the fantasy impact of the move at CloserNews.
Kubel, 29, is hitting .295/.350/.456 in 326 plate appearances for the Twins, playing right field and DH. The left-handed hitter has about $1MM plus incentives left on his contract and currently profiles as a Type B free agent in the American League. He earns more than Thome, but not so much that we can rule out a team claiming him mostly for the draft pick.
Pena, 33, is hitting .222/.342/.455 with 23 home runs in 480 plate appearances this year for the Cubs. Though he projects as a Type B, teams might be reluctant to offer arbitration given his salary. He's owed about $1MM for the rest of the year, and the Cubs will be on the hook for a deferred $5MM in January even if they trade him.
Two players who will not be traded this month: Oakland's Rich Harden and Coco Crisp, who were claimed on waivers but pulled back according to this report yesterday from Rosenthal. Today, ESPN's Buster Olney tweets that the Indians won the claim on Harden, but could not work out a deal.
Nit sure the biggest suitors for Pena are either A still contenders or B in dire need if his services. Are the Diamondbacks still a suitor, and what would they offer?
Is it weird that the cubs said they weren’t going to trade Pena then put him on waivers?
No not really usually teams put players up just to see if they get some prospect back so not really
The Cubs’ lack of activity at the deadline was due to Hendry already being informed of his dismissal. All the reasons were speculation. Your Bucs could have used him about four weeks ago.
And Hendry said he didn’t make any moves because he wanted the next to be able to make his own personnel decisions. Just seems to go against that statement if they trade him.
that is the Cubs front office lying to the fans again, they really don’t care about us, I am really getting tired of the Cubs. He was the only player I really liked this year.
Pena should go unclaimed.
He is due 5 million in January 2012. A team taking him would be on the hook for nearly 6 million dollars. If the Cubs were smart whoever claims Pena can have him for nothing.
They might as well try to get a deal. If nothing else, they can get some minor league depth.
If the Cubs were smart, the situation in the NL Central would be vastly different.
Oh, thanks a lot, now you put Kubel and Pena on waivers, would much rather have them than the rejects we got at the deadline. Derrek Lee hurt his hand so he’s packed it up for the season I guess.
Wow. Ludwick has been fine and Lee was hitting before he got hit. Pena and Kubel would not cure our ills of the last month.
Derrek Lee was good at packing it in, he was a waste the last two or three years with the Cubs.
Not 2009.
Bell is smart to say that he’d accept arbitration, but he’d be silly to actually do it. He can make much more as a free agent.
there are actually some players out there playing because they love the game, not to see how big a paycheck they can get.
You can love the game AND still want to make what the market dictates is “fair”.
I love my job and have been with the same company for 15 years, but if someone else offered to pay me twice as much for doing the exact same job I’d be foolish not to entertain the idea, right?
Wholly circumstantial. If it’s a paybump from 40k to 80k, then almost certainly yes. But if it’s the difference between 25m and 29m, then surely environmental factors can come into play. Ultimately you’ll have enough not to need to worry about money for the rest of your life, so one ought to think about the things money can’t buy…
I would agree if people who made what we all consider “tons of money” lived at lifestyles below their income. However, peoples’ lifestyles tend to bump right on up against their income. I realize lots of players leave money on the table for something that’s more important to them (playing close to family, playing for a chance to win, playing their whole career for one team, etc.) and that’s great. I’m just saying that a guy making a decision to opt for free agency rather than accept arbitration isn’t necessarily a sign that he is a money-grubbing d-bag that isn’t playing because he loves the game.
The bottom line is it’s a job and they have a short window of opportunity to make the money that is going to set them up (more comfortably than most) for the rest of their lives… I don’t begrudge a player for getting what the market dictates he should make.
I think you’re going down a different path.
I don’t “begrudge” players for making a lot of money, nor do I think that an opt-out makes the individual a “money-grubbing d-bag” either. Players are perfectly entitled to bargain as hard they can.
But in your original post you were making comparisons between the average user’s salary and that of a good baseball player. I think it is disingenuous to suggest that multimillionaire baseball players have to budget as hawkishly as the average person does; and that ultimately the point of having good money is to give yourself the freedom to do what/live where you want.
I think that if somebody downgrades the quality of their life for the sake of extra dollars – which ultimately do not affect their lifestyle at all – then they’re making a big mistake. But that’s a philosophical point and not a slight on contract numbers in the least. I can appreciate how, for example, a player may move on against their wishes because the club showed disrespect by deliberately lowballing them with a contract offer, etc.
Actually all I was trying to convey in my original post is that a player can love the game and still want to make the most money possible. The comparison was only to create a backdrop that it is still just a job for those guys just like real people.
All in all I think you and I are actually pretty much on the same page, I was just defending the guy that wrote “Bell is smart to say that he’d accept arbitration, but he’d be silly to
actually do it. He can make much more as a free agent.” because that was spot on.
I hope you are right. With the new dedication to the draft that the Padres ownership has shown in the last 2 drafts, the 2 picks the Padres would get for Bell would come in awfully handy in trying to build up the farm system. I can’t see the Padres signing any type A free agents this off season, so having 4 picks before the 2nd round would be great.
Bye Kubel. Thanks for being one of two players on the Twins to play good baseball this season. Hopefully they won’t trade him…..check that…..give him away to a division rival like they did with Young. And hopefully MN won’t go all “Jayson Werth” with Cuddyer.
Twins are going to have some payroll issues next year. I don’t see Kubel sticking around. Mauer and Morneau’s deals are going to cripple the twins. I wonder what they are going to offer Cuddyer?
What exactly were they supposed to do with a 26-year-old DH who’s miscast as an outfielder and hasn’t been able to carry out his only appealing function all season (hitting)? Young has been one of the worst players in the American League for three out of four seasons in Minnesota. It’s not as if there was a good alternative.
You’d think that you could cut a better deal for somebody *before* the trade deadline when you can talk to the other 29 teams instead of just the one team that claims him off waivers. That kinda limits your options. Same for Kubel & Cuddyer. There was a story before July 31st that quoted a Twins rep as saying they plan to re-sign Cuddyer OR Kubel next year…not both. So, why not move one of them and get something for them instead of just letting one of them walk or taking a garbage deal on waivers? Twins FO at its finest.
I can’t believe they are going with Cuddyer over Kubel. I’m sorry, but Cuddyer does not live up to the 10.5 million contract he will receive. He has 2 good years and 3 mediocre over the course of his last contract. I can’t believe they’d place Kubel on waivers along with Thome. This team will be flat out awful without any power at all. Minnesota is in the process of gutting its team. Disappointing.
KEEPING GARZA
Bell blew a save last night (on the day that Trevor Hoffman’s number was retired. Oh irony!). So maybe the Padres think they can sneak him through? Doubtful though.
I hope you are joking, else a fickle GM you be.
Angels!! Grab, Bell!! And try to grab Kubel, and talk Abreu into retiring =)
Somebody will claim them.
Good luck to Kubel. Any team that claims him will be lucky to have him if he stays healthy. Not many guys in the MLB can see a fastball as well as him.
Kuuuuuuuuuubel!!!!
I wouldnt mind seeing the Padres going after Kubel in the offseason, stick him in RF and improve the power in the lineup.
And there goes the little power the twins actually had…
I wonder what the Padres want for Bell. It’d be nice to have him as a set up man for the next month and a half and then in the playoff.
This is great news for Heath Bell!! Now he can seek out a team which he will be able to be
with a team that is in contention for a division title & possibly win a WorldSeries ring. Something that this team wouldn’t be able to give him!!