Yoenis Cespedes has gained residency in the Dominican Republic according to agent Edgar Mercedes, reports MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez. The outfielder is now waiting to be declared a free agent by MLB.
The 26-year-old Cespedes went 5-for-35 with no walks and ten strikeouts in winter ball this month, and won't play again according to Baseball America's Ben Badler (on Twitter). Yesterday we heard that the Cubs, Marlins, and Tigers are the teams most actively targeting him, though the Prince Fielder signing presumably takes Detroit out of the running.
Today is a good day, pointless headline 1 and pointless headline 2 are gone!!! (Cespedes and Fielder) NOW BRING ON THE CRAP ABOUT E-JAX BEING WORTH 17MIL
What headline amuses you?
the interesting ones, “Fielder to Tigers” instead of “Fielder won’t sign today”, the “pineda for Montero” headlines, the action headlines…
Yea now we can get more of the “Red Sox panicking and looking for everyone while realizing they have no cap room”
as they put up the best record in baseball for 4 months of the year…
…because that’s what every team strives for, to be the absolute best for 66% of the season.
Lackey’s out for the year, that solves 32 losses
Of course, because the guy who replaces him will magically win every single one of those games.
Of course they will Jason! You are talking to red sox fanboys!
i didn’t say that, but i’m pretty sure anybody can post an ERA better than 6
The guys you brought up in September didnt…
The best record in baseball doesn’t matter for a damned thing unless the team is raising a World Series banner, and getting their rings during an early homestand…
new year, new outcome come October
My guess is Tiger’s fans are rejoicing at this logic. Especially after their team actually upgraded this off-season.
There’s a reason that they play the games, and don’t just determine records based on the teams overall WAR above a .500 season (or whatever it would be based on).
Anything can happen between now and October – that’s what makes baseball (and really all sports) so beautiful – it’s played by humans and not robots (mostly), who can have fluctuations, both positive and negative from their career norms that can determine the outcome of multiple teams seasons.
Does anyone think that Sabean expected Cody Ross to be as integral to that WS Championship as he was when he claimed him (specifically to keep him from divisional rivals). But he and Pat Burrell got hot down the stretch, and not only got the Giants into the Playoffs, but knocked the Padres out on the last day (as well as distancing themselves from the Rockies and Dodgers who were in it as well that season).
Let the teams at least get to Spring Training before declaring World Series victors….
Okay? Pirates were best team in the Central for half the season, sample sizes mean NOTHING. Its about the total product. But keep telling yourself whatever you need as your 90 win team keeps getting WORSE. Nick Punto. Sweeney. Ross. Lulz.
Ross and Sweeney>Reddick and Drew…Punto was supposed to be a utility but that ship sailed when Cherington shipped Scutaro away for a pitcher who is arguably worse than Lackey
Are you kidding me? This is a rumor site. If you only want news, go to ESPN and check out the headlines.
Stay away Dave…stay away
Dombrowski or Hester?
Dave Winfield.
Since the Tigers appear to be out, and Theo and Jed most likely driving up the price, the Marlins look like the frontrunner.
Thank you for restating what the story said.
Not really, it never said anything about the Cubs just trying to drive up the price. I think they didn’t go big after anyone so they could gear up for Cespedes and Soler.
Marlins have got to be the favorite.
Going to go out on a limb and say the Tigers are probably out of this one. But who knows, they might have a $300mm offseason spending spree in them too.
Who ever said the Tigers are out of the running. That is what the sports writers are saying. Illitch wants to win. He is 85 years old and he wants a World Series ring before he goes. He has a big pocket book and I don’t think he is afraid to use it. He proved that today. That wasn’t Dombrowski’s deal, that was Illitch’s deal…lol
he has been running little ceasers adds like crazy out here in the chicago land area, I saw 6 alone in a 2 hour span. He is trying to get people to buy as much pizza as possible so that Prince contract does not hurt his bottom line, even though it will, or at least hurt the next owners bottom line…there is no way they shell out the 30-40 mill its probably going to take to get cespedes considering they have glaring holes in the bullpen, 2nd base, 3base, short stop(no peralta is not the answer there long term he isnt consistent enough) and left field…
With Dotel, Benoit, and Valverde at the back end, how can you call the bullpen a glaring hole? And Peralta is not a glaring hole for this season, just because he may not be a long term solution does not mean it is a glaring hole, otherwise teams would have “glaring holes” all over the place. And while a platoon at 2nd base of Santiago and Raburn certainly isn’t ideal, it isn’t a glaring hole either.
I guess the White Sox have 9 glaring holes in their lineup?
I never once said the whitesox didnt have holes or were in a good position to win the division, if they get sale to pitch to his potential(ace) get the offense FINALLY from beckham, dunn to bounce back, morell to improve off of september and rios/ deaza/ lilibridge to score some runs from CF and LF they have a chance…but the tigers are better suited to win the division the whitesox have holes at center, dh, catcher, offensively at 2nd, left field, offensively at 3rd, and one more pitcher(doesnt have to be an ace but a guy who can be counted on)…yeah they have a ton of holes….looks like the AL central is the division of teams with holes…but again Prince for 2012 is not that great of an upgrade over V-mart…this signing is going to be awesome if they can effectively find a way to play Aviles, V-Mart,Miggy and Prince in the same line up every day, 2013 is when this signing is going to pay off like crazy assuming miggy doesnt have to move to 3rd(miggy at 3rd and prince at 1st their bats might not be enough to make up for the defense)
you need to learn to write in paragraphs
Well with Fielder on the team he should see a good portion of his investment go back into Little Caesars.
You lost all credibility when you said the Tigers have a “glaring hole” at SS. Peralta had a WAR of 5.2 last year.
I also said he was not the answer going forward and inconsistent was the biggest part of my argument .8 WAR the year before 1.0 WAR the year before that..as i said inconsistent!!!
Who ever signs him better hope he is 26 and not 30!! I’m just glad the Cardinals aren’t going after him!!
why?
Trying to make fun of Pujols, I presume… Bah-dum tiss.
i was referring to the picture
I wonder how many times we can continue to beat this dead horse? Has there been a single example of a non-Dominican player having lied about their age? Let alone a Cuban player? Cuba has a much better infrastructure than many Latin American countries, and one that is infinitely better than the D.R.’s, which would make it near impossible to lie about his age, or take on an assumed name.
To put it into perspective, Cuba actually has a higher literacy rate than the US right now. Something tells me that their bureaucracy is pretty on point when it comes to birth dates and names.
“cuba has a better infractructure than many latin american countries” “cuba actually has a higher literacy rate than the US right now” facts?
I guess this is what happens after you smoke a cuban cigar. No wonder it is banned in the US
Orlando Hernandez.
Touché, salesman…
Other than you being a fan of them, I don’t get what this picture has to do with anything.
hes makin it like hes cheering that they’re not going after him
I see a Marlin overpay on the horizon. Personally, I think what analysts expect he will get is an overpay.
That will happen!
Have any of the prospect “experts” came out and said where they would rank him in a Top 100 list? Just curious how he would rank in a system
Everyone knows Miami is the Cuba of America. This says Marlins all over it.
That explains why Little Havana is located there. Wouldn’t make sense if they put Little Havana in American Fork, UT now would it?
BUT the whitesox and the cuban national team of America
Sooooo he hit .143 with 10K’s in the dominican winter league?!
THIS is suppose to be worth a multi million dollar MAJOR LEAGUE contract?!? This guy is destined to be the next CRAIG MONROE!
I don’t think he’s very good for a lot of reasons..
but 35 AB’s in the dominican league after he hasn’t picked up any game action in who knows how long, isn’t one of them
35 at bats
Is it just me, or have you (or possibly you and someone else) mentioned Craig Monroe more times in the last two days than he has been mentioned over the last 5 years. And that includes over the loud speaker at games.
This was the first time I personally have drawn the comparison. He just looks like him behind the plate, sitting dead red fastball to be crushed a mile. Maybe Delmon Young in a better comparison.
The entire Rangers front office just happens to be there this week. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.
They were scouting Concepcion. And they prefer Soler to Cespedes. So yeah, I’d say coincidence.
Hanley Ramirez to Boston – Cespedes to CF in MIA – Bonafacio to 3B. Hanley takes over at short for Boston. Not sure who they would send down to Mia in exchange – I’ll let someone else figure it out. Cespedes makes sense for MIA from a marketing standpoint – HUGE Cuban market there for them to tap into.
Yeah, the Marlins will just give Hanley to Boston for…….. who exactly? They don’t need anything as the team appears set at all positions. Heck, The marlins don’t even need Cespedes since their OF is set.
He’ll sign for $40mm-$42mm. 4 years and $32mm is probably the most ideal and makes sense. I could see up to $40mm for the same or for 5 years total. No one knows too much about the guy, it’s late in the offseason and if he wants to play, they’ll be reasonable with their demands. He has no MLB experience and at his age (caught in btw prime and young) 4 years may be the best for him. If he seeks a 5 or 6 year deal, he’ll have less leverage at the age of 32, than if he was 30 going back into free agency.
No more room for one more mystery team this offseason?
Detroit has already had Darko Milicic. They should not want another one..
“The 26-year-old Cespedes went 5-for-35 with no walks and ten strikeouts in winter ball this month, and won’t play again according to Baseball America’s Ben Badler ”
Now why would he do that? Fail
“5-for35” small sample size fail!
What about the other Cubans? Soler?
I fully agree the relationship MLB has with cuban born players makes me feel that these guys are exactly as old as they say they are. If Cespedes was lying about his age why would he say 26? why wouldnt he say 23 or 24?
White Sox, complete the Cuban triple threat. Ramirez, Viciedo and Cespedes!
White Sox seem so desperate to assemble the entire cuban national team. Castro is on the short list to replace Kenny with the Chi-Sox suck it up again this season.
Unless there is a surprise team come up I would verture to say that it is down to the Cubs and Marlins. The Marlins have more money, but The Cubs have showed the most interest. So I guess it’s a crap shoot.
the cubs probably have more money to spend at this point. they’ve been very modest with their spending this offseason, and that’s after plenty of big contracts came off the books.
only one big contract came off the book they are essentially paying 18 million for volstad…
Wrong. Silva, Grabow, Ramirez, Pena. That’s like $40M. The Volstad issue is irrelevant as that was already considered a sunk cost.
Doesn’t sound like reality. 18 million is irrelevant cause it is considered “sunk” cost. hhhhhmmmmm nope not buying it. Wouldn’t Silva also be? What about Soriano? I am sure those are “sunk” costs also so heck why didn’t the Cubs sign Fielder? I think you would find yourself going in circles if you were to actually explain the logic behind this “sunk” cost, maybe you could call it toxic payroll sounds better more marketable.
it’s a sunk cost because the team pretty much conceded that the value they were going to get from the player was not going to be proportionate to his cost value. They were going to have to pay that money anyway, but traded him for a player that would offer similar value.
Silva would be considered a sunk cost if he was to be under contract further, because the team has that debt to be paid to him. he ceases to be a sunk cost once his contract expires as the money previously apportioned to him becomes free to spend on a new contract.
Soriano is a sunk cost, but no matter what, that contract must be paid, unless a team is willing to trade for his contract and it’s cost. but that’s highly unlikely.
If you have to pay a player a certain amount, but you know that his value as a player will be much lower, the difference between his value as a player and value as committed cost is essentially a sunk cost as it is money being paid for nothing.
But once a contract expires, again, it no longer a sunk cost as it is no longer a cost at all. Toxic payroll basically describes a payroll riddled with sunk costs.
As far as Fielder, I believe the two biggest factors against it were 1) They doubted his ability to produce on par with his monetary cost in the latter years of his contract, especially since the contract length he was seeking was so high, and 2) Once they acquired Anthony Rizzo, the need to commit long term for a first baseman was gone as Rizzo is under team control for six years and is deemed Major League ready from year one.
I would love to see the Mets sign this kid
You sure you guys want a power hitter who can’t hit with PED already in his name?
I wouldn’t, I’ve seen some people compare him to Adam Jones, I’ve even seen comparisons of the kid’s swing to Juan Uribe. Not really a glowing endorsement, if they insist on signing one of these guys, I’d prefer Soler. Doubt anything gets done.
I would be pretty happy with Adam Jones
Right now i would take any young talent.Soler is 19 but i heard the yankees are the favorites for him.I wish we would make some type of splash in the international market
Do you think that cespedes hurt his valure playing in the winter ball league??
Absolutely. I wouldn’t have wanted him before @ 50 million, I definitely don’t want him now, small-sample size and all. I’d guess he’s probably lost at least 10 mil, but MLB teams always have a way of ridiculously outbidding each other (see: Jayson Werth, etc), so what do I know.
*value
If I ask Yoenis Cespedes to roll me a cigar would this be legal?
is this serious? would it be illegal to ask anyone? cmon mann
im really happy my team isnt going for him. i feel like there are going to be alot of busts from the FA class this year.
I bet that the Marlins are gonna spend a crap load of money for him
I’m saying he ends up in Chicago
Marlins overpay big time for Cespedes, Cubs end up with Soler and Concepcion
Hi, I’m mysterious!
Don’t really understand all the hype about Cespedes. The guy is already 26 (probably), and hasn’t played a single game in the MLB. If I were a GM, i’d be more attracted to Jorge Soler, who is only 19! Cespedes is going to need time to adjust in the MLB and because he’s already 26 he’s already getting pretty old in baseball terms. At least with Soler, a team can afford to give him time to adjust to United States baseball and by the time he’s ready, he will probably be 21-22 years old. I don’t know but to me, that seems like a wiser investment
five tool player with really good power. There will probably be a learning curve but after he adapts, he could hit 30+ hrs