Quick Hits: Bautista, Brian Gordon, Kuroda
A year ago today, the Athletics traded reliever Sam Demel to the Diamondbacks for first baseman/outfielder Conor Jackson and cash. Demel is on the DL with a shoulder injury, though the groundballer should prove useful for Arizona. Today's links:
- Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista is profiled by Yahoo's Jeff Passan in a must-read article.
- YES Network's Jack Curry talked to Brian Gordon, the 32-year-old converted outfielder who could start for the Yankees tomorrow. Joel Sherman of the New York Post has more on Gordon, who he's heard compared to Aaron Small or Dustin Moseley.
- Sherman also discusses Hiroki Kuroda, who he feels could be a target for the Yankees if the Dodgers want to dump his salary and the righty is willing to waive his no-trade clause.
- Baseball America's Ben Badler looks at the top Dominican shortstops for July 2nd, including Raul Mondesi's son Adalberto.
- The Red Sox will not be serious players for Jose Reyes in free agency, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. They would probably not be inclined to block Jose Iglesias.
- Yusei Kikuchi's NPB debut was unimpressive, writes Patrick Newman. Kikuchi was a popular MLBTR topic in October of 2009, as the teenage southpaw considered bypassing Japan's draft to sign with an MLB club.
Marlins Designate Brad Davis For Assignment
The Marlins designated catcher Brad Davis for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster for recently-signed infielder Jose Lopez, tweets Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. Righty Elih Villanueva, who was hammered by the Phillies today in his big league debut, was optioned to create a spot on the 25-man roster.
Davis, 28, was hitting .212/.294/.303 in 187 Triple-A plate appearances this year, a big step down from his work at that level in 2010. Davis spent some time in the Majors last year, but lost the spring battle with Brett Hayes to be the Marlins' backup catcher.
Draft Notes: Lamb, Bichette, Josh Bell, Beede
Two months away from the signing deadline, we won't be seeing over-slot signings anytime soon. Still, here's the latest.
- Clemson lefty Will Lamb, chosen 83rd overall in the second round by the Rangers, signed at slot for $430,200, tweets Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
- Dante Bichette Jr., drafted 51st overall by the Yankees in the supplemental round, tweeted that he'll "officially a Yankee very very soon." The Yanks received that pick as compensation for the loss of Javier Vazquez. Slot for that pick is around $695K. You can learn more about Bichette over at River Ave. Blues, where Mike Axisa profiled the slugger.
- ESPN's Keith Law tweets that he's told there is no dollar figure that would change Josh Bell's mind about going to college. Bell, drafted 61st overall by the Pirates, was one of the top draft talents but has made it clear he will honor his commitment to the University of Texas. Of course, he also hired Scott Boras as his advisor, so clearly the Pirates think there's a chance he can be signed.
- The Blue Jays' first pick (21st overall) was high school righty Tyler Beede; Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein tweets of rumors that the Jays had a pre-draft deal done with him. Law tweeted a few days ago that Beede is going to sign for about $3MM, which would be about $1.7MM over slot.
- The Rays exceeded slot on second round pick Granden Goetzman, signing the prep outfielder for $490K according to Baseball America's Jim Callis. The Rays went over slot by less than five grand, though, and Callis says teams can exceed slot by up to five percent without going through the commissioner's office. Goetzman went 75th overall but was actually the Rays' 11th pick.
- If you have ESPN Insider, Law has a post up with names to watch for the 2012 draft.
If The Nationals Become Sellers
Nationals GM Mike Rizzo made one significant trade last July, sending closer Matt Capps to the Twins for catcher Wilson Ramos. After a hot start the 23-year-old Ramos is hitting an acceptable .248/.320/.410 on the season, and he belongs in the NL Rookie of the Year discussion with Danny Espinosa, Darwin Barney, Josh Collmenter, Brandon Beachy, Fernando Salas, Craig Kimbrel, Dillon Gee, and Mark Melancon. Let's see who Rizzo might part with this year, with his team ten games out in the NL East and 6.5 out in the wild card.
- Trading Jason Marquis (pictured) at the deadline would enable the Nationals to save about $2.4MM in salary. Marquis is showing career-best control, and an ERA under 4.50 from here on out would be a reasonable expectation. Though Marquis would probably be willing to turn down an arbitration offer again to help the team, he's nowhere near Type B status. Livan Hernandez is a free agent after the season as well, but given his ties to the organization he is more likely to stay put.
- Ivan Rodriguez's value can't be quantified by his .200/.273/.322 batting line, or at least that's probably what Rizzo is telling teams about the catcher. Rizzo said last month he'd want some kind of long-term piece for Pudge. Rodriguez is earning $3MM this year.
- Reliever Todd Coffey, non-tendered by the Brewers last offseason, has a 2.13 ERA, 8.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 0.4 HR/9, and 44.1% groundball rate in 25 1/3 innings this year. The Rangers appear interested, and Coffey should be popular at the deadline. He's a free agent after the season and looks like a Type B in the National League. Coffey is earning $1.35MM this year plus incentives.
- Laynce Nix is an intriguing platoon bat, as he's hitting .275/.324/.506 with 28 home runs in 613 plate appearances against right-handed pitching since the beginning of the 2009 season. Type B status is a possibility once he reaches free agency after the season.
- Jerry Hairston Jr., Rick Ankiel, Alex Cora, Matt Stairs are veterans on one-year deals who could be shipped to contenders for bench roles.
- Click here to read articles about other potential sellers.
Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.
Prince Fielder Won’t Rule Out Any Team
First baseman Prince Fielder, who is headed toward a massive free agent payday after the season, told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday he "doesn't have any problems with any team." Fielder was answering a question about whether he'd listen to an offer from the Cubs. The Scott Boras client was quick to emphasize that his focus is on the Brewers, his current employer.
There's not much of a story here, as we rarely see an elite free agent publicly rule out teams, especially midseason. Sure, Fielder probably hates the Cubs from a competitive standpoint, but eliminating them publicly would just be bad business.
Wittenmyer doesn't think the Cubs can afford to make a huge bid for Fielder – his source says the team's debt structure all but precludes a free agent megadeal for the next two or three years. Still, the Cubs appear to have a crazy amount of payroll flexibility after the season. Even if they slash payroll from $134MM to $120MM, they'd still have almost $50MM to play with in 2012 salaries. Of course, I'm not an accountant and it's more complicated than that.
Fielder, just 27, is having a season reminscent of the '07 and '09 campaigns that landed him among the top four in the MVP vote each year. He's at .300/.416/.617 with 19 home runs in 291 plate appearances. Fielder could aim for the biggest contract in baseball history for a player not named Alex Rodriguez.
MLBTR’s Agency Database
Wondering who represents your favorite players? Here at MLBTR we are constantly updating our agency database; check it out today. The database currently has about 1,300 players and their agencies, and you can filter by agency or team.
A few players we don't have: J.A. Happ, Brandon Beachy, Sergio Romo, James McDonald, Neftali Feliz, and Charlie Blackmon. If you represent any of these players or know who does, an email to mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com would be much appreciated.
Scott Kazmir Likely To Be Released
"It appears the Angels will have no choice but to release" lefty Scott Kazmir, writes Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times. That would mean eating about $7MM in remaining salary, plus a $2.5MM buyout for 2012.
GM Tony Reagins was on hand to watch Kazmir's fifth rehab start, writes DiGiovanna, and it was the lefty's fourth ugly outing. Kazmir's recovery from back stiffness has been drawn out, as he attempts to regain his old form within the 30-day rehab window. Last year, Kazmir's 5.94 ERA was the worst in the American League among those with 150 innings. Kazmir led the American League in strikeouts in 2007 as a 23-year-old, but his work has gone downhill since.
Kazmir is still only 27, so don't count him out of baseball quite yet. Perhaps another fresh start will lead to him becoming a serviceable starter in time.
As for the August trade with the Rays, the Angels sent Sean Rodriguez, Alex Torres, and Matt Sweeney to Tampa Bay. Torres could be the gem of the deal, as he was ranked sixth among Rays prospects by Baseball America prior to the season.
How To Use MLBTR
An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:
- If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi. It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
- If you're an iPhone user, be sure to pick up our app for the latest news and rumors.
- If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket. You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS.
- To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title.
- The navigation bar will cover many of your needs. Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers.
- The Contact button takes you to a page where you can write an email message to the MLBTR writers. If you have a link to a rumor we've missed, please send it in through the Contact page! Also use the Contact page to inquire about advertising on MLBTR.
- The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth. If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page. Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
- The Tools dropdown takes you to a number of different places. The MLBTR Widget allows website owners to easily add a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines to their sites.
- Also under the tools tab is our Transaction Tracker, which enables you to search about anything and everything to do with baseball trades, signings and extensions.
- Be sure to check out our Free Agent Tracker for a look at last offseason's free agent activity.
- Our Arbitration Tracker is also under the Tools tab. It enables you to look back through all of the year's arbitration cases.
- MLBTR's Agency Database lets you know which agencies represent which players. It's searchable by team, agency or player, so be sure to check it out.
- The Forums button takes you here, to a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 8,200 members. You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
- Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown. Hover over it to see all 30 teams. Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top. These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc. Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons. Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter. Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams? For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would get the latest Tigers updates.
- You can also follow Tim Dierkes and Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter for more MLBTR content.
- On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS. MLBTR has over 80,000 Twitter followers, over 35,000 Facebook fans, and over 53,000 RSS subscribers. Sign up for these and you'll be the first to receive all of our posts.
- Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.
- On to the sidebar. It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs. Go here for a quick update on the most important stories. Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him.
- MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists, 2011 draft order, list of Scott Boras clients, and GM-related stuff. Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh.
- Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines. Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts. Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
- Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy. For example, read about a potentially historic arbitration case.
Quick Hits: Miller, Dodgers, D’Backs, Rays, Trades
Here are a few items of note as Justin Verlander narrowly misses his second no-hitter of the season:
- Red Sox lefty Andrew Miller, currently in Triple-A, will remain with Boston and not opt out of his contract, as we inferred earlier today. Now, we know why: Miller will likely soon be called up and added to the rotation, according to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.
- With their financial future hazy, the Dodgers should take notes on how successful small-market teams like the Rays and Marlins operate, writes Tom Krasovic of West Coast Bias.
- The Diamondbacks have agreed to terms with seven more Draft picks — bringing their total up to 30 of the 52 players they selected — including third-rounder Justin Bianco, according to a club press release.
- The Rays signed second-round pick Granden Goetzman, writes Anthony Chiang of MLB.com.
- This season's relative league-wide parity has led to a slow-developing trade market, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com (via Twitter). An AL executive told Morosi, "Too many teams still in it."
Ronnie Belliard Retires
Ronnie Belliard, currently with Lehigh Valley, the Phillies' Triple-A affiliate, is retiring, according to Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter).
Belliard, primarily a second baseman, played in 13 Major League seasons, most recently with the Dodgers in 2010, when he posted a .216/.295/.327 line in 185 plate appearances. He began his career with the Brewers, by whom he was drafted in the eighth round in 1994, and was once traded for Hector Luna. He also spent time with the Rockies, Indians, Cardinals and Nationals.
Belliard signed a minor league deal with the Phils after being released by the Yankees toward the end of Spring Training but did not see a promotion. He calls it a career with a .273/.338/.415 line.