Here are a handful of interesting notes from around baseball's West divisions:
- The Athletics' interest in re-signing impending free agent DH Hideki Matsui is waning, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Oakland wants to get younger, according to Slusser, and Matsui, now 37, doesn't fit that bill. A return isn't entirely impossible, though, and A's GM Billy Beane will meet with Matsui's agent, Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group, next week.
- Angels owner Arte Moreno said that the Halos' 2012 payroll will be in the $130-140MM range, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), which would prevent them from pursuing any expensive free agents. In the Angels' installment of MLBTR's Offseason Outlook series, Ben Nicholson-Smith calculated that the Angels will have about $120MM on the books before accounting for players making the league minimum, so new GM Jerry Dipoto will have about $10-20MM to play with.
- Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson's 2013 club option vested when the Snakes reached the playoffs this year, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The D'Backs almost certainly would have picked up the option anyway considering Gibson's success in his first full season as skipper, but Arizona's postseason berth assured it. Gibson's coaches have all been extended through 2013, as well.
- D'Backs GM Kevin Towers will focus on position players this offseason rather than pitchers, according to Steve Gilbert of MLB.com, with second base being a key spot of interest. It's been expected that Aaron Hill's $8MM 2012 club option will be declined, though Arizona would like to re-sign him, according to Gilbert.
- Towers doesn't expect to find a new vice president of scouting and player development, the position vacated by Dipoto, according to Piecoro. As well, Towers and Dipoto will hash out which executives the latter will be allowed to bring to Anaheim, with director of international scouting Carlos Gomez expected to be a person of interest in those talks. "That'd be a tough one," Towers said. "He's good. International guys are hard to find, especially young guys. He is under contract. I plan on offering him even a second year."
I want the A’s to re-sign Matsui so we can see Ichiro vs Matsui at the Tokyo Dome.
They can cut him after that series.
If AZ can pull Hill back in for 50-80% of his option price, then obviously that’d be a great deal for them. Though they do have internal options for 2B, which will obviously lead them to be more frugal than they already seem to be…
Assuming the new CBA keeps the same rules, is there anywhere I can find a list of Rule 5 draft eligible players for this upcoming season? I was simply going through the tedious task of looking at every minor league teams rosters, but that grew dull quickly.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had $30m to play with and no Vernon Wells clogging up a roster spot …
More like 40M. Could you say hello to Fielder and Pujols?
I think the Dbacks should sign Hill. Can you imagine a better middle infield than Drew and Hill and with Goldsmidt and Roberts on the corners, one of the best infields in the majors. Defense was the backbone of the 2001 World Champs and I really think we need focus on that plus, the way Hill hits the ball and his approach at the plate, speed on the bases, with the other big bats in the lineup, we should be able to put a lot of runs on the board.