Stark On Reyes, Bell, Astros, Slowey

Jose Reyes’ injuries have hurt his free agent stock, as we saw earlier today. ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark surveys people around MLB to determine what kind of contract the shortstop will obtain in free agency. Here are the details and the rest of Stark’s rumors:

• There’s buzz that the Mets were prepared to offer Reyes $100MM over five years earlier in the summer, Stark reports. It’s not hard to imagine the Mets scaling back their offer or replacing guaranteed years with vesting options now.
• One of Stark’s sources estimates that each day on the disabled list costs Reyes $500K. However, there's no doubt that Reyes will see some substantial offers this winter.
• Rival teams expect the Padres to trade Heath Bell this month, Stark reports. The Cardinals and Diamondbacks are the serious NL contenders with the worst record (62-53), which makes them prime candidates to make a claim on Bell. Assuming he does get claimed, the Padres will only be able to trade with the claiming team, so they’ll want to time his placement on waivers carefully.
• The Astros’ sale is just a week away, Stark writes. Other clubs are hearing that incoming owner Jim Crane may drive payroll down to $50MM or below from $71MM.
• One executive expressed his surprise at the Twins’ decision to keep Kevin Slowey, a non-tender candidate who’s currently earning $2.7MM at Triple-A. “If they'd traded him, at least they would have gotten something,” the person said. At least they would have gotten rid of the money. So I'm just not sure why he's still there."