There’s no World Series game to watch tonight, but you can always count on MLBTR for the latest links. Can the updates below make up for the postponement of the big game? We'll let you be the judge…
- Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com wonders if it's time for the Mets to trade David Wright.
- Andy Mota, a representative for Hanley Ramirez, says no one from the Marlins has asked the shortstop about switching positions, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. Earlier in October, manager Ozzie Guillen didn't rule out a position change for Ramirez.
- Free agent third baseman Aramis Ramirez told Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com that he's glad the Cubs brought in Theo Epstein. Ramirez says he's willing to discuss a new deal and agent Paul Kinzer also expressed optimism about a contract that would keep Ramirez in Chicago.
- Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times suggests the Mariners should bid on Grady Sizemore this offseason.
In fairness, who’s better in the system? (Edit: Or on the free-agent market?)
If the Cubs are serious about building from the bottom up, I’d rather spend some of the money coming off the books on Ramirez as opposed to giving up what would surely be a wealth of prospects for Wright. Who will end up costing as much or more anyway, while providing production that, while better, wouldn’t be worth the talent going back to the Mets.
Wright is set to make $15m in 2012 and Ramirez’s option is for $16m, so there’s no financial benefit to replacing ARam with Wright. Wright has one year left on his contract with a club option for 2013 that he can void if he gets traded. I also don’t think there would be any production improvement. Wright and Ramirez have had fairly similar production number with the exception that Wright strikes out a lot more than Aramis. Even though Ramirez tops the 3B FA market this year, I could see him giving a bit of a discount to the Cubs now that Epstein & Co. has moved in. I’d be fine going another 3 years on Ramirez until the organization can produce a successor.
Nolasco’s contract is almost half of Z’s over the next two years.
The only upside to Wright would be that he’s younger than Ramirez, but Ramirez has been more consistent. With the few assets the Cubs have in their system currently, I don’t think you deal 2 of them for 1 year of David Wright.
How long after seeing Wright traded for Castro did you awake from your slumber?
Yes, Marmol blew 10 games last season. That’s really only 4 or 5 more than the average closer last year, and with the Cubs situation this year, I’m surprised it wasn’t worse. And yes, Gregg won the closer’s spot 2 years ago, but he didn’t hold onto it… I’m not really sure why I’m bothering to respond to this.
Agreed. Castro isn’t going anywhere.