The relative inactivity of the Yankees and Red Sox on the market for expensive free agents has rendered this offseason a strange one, writes Peter Gammons of MLB.com. Both clubs are concerned about the luxury tax in both the short and long terms, one GM tells Gammons. Here are some other tidbits of note …
- Gammons wonders whether there’s a fit for free agent Prince Fielder other than the Nationals: “Where is there a team with local media rights that Fielder could impact? And local media rights is what's driving the cars these days, as Albert Pujols knows.”
- However, if the Rangers get a deal done with Yu Darvish, the "Fielder watch will come into focus," especially if the Nationals back off and Prince doesn’t want to play for the Mariners.
- As for Ryan Madson, the race between the Angels and Rangers for supremacy in the AL West could re-shape the market for the free agent closer. Halos GM Jerry Dipoto, in particular, is keeping an eye on the right-hander to see if his price comes down.
- The Red Sox are looking at lefty Paul Maholm, and they might be interested in Aaron Cook if the righty is amenable to signing a minor league deal with incentives. Cook has a history with new Boston pitching coach Bob McClure.
- The Red Sox inked right-hander Carlos Silva in hopes of making him 2012’s Freddy Garcia, who was a nice value signing for the Yankees on a one-year, $1.5MM deal last season.
The Rangers have quickly supplanted the Marlins as the team that’s interested in everyone, everywhere. Your move, mystery team.
The Rangers have reclaimed the role. They’ve been in on everybody since their ownership situation got settled.
Garcia put up decent enough numbers before he came to the yankees i dont think silva did that last year so i dont see him becoming the garcia. though it would be cool to see it happen again. With that said someone should sign colon already
Don’t mention Colon’s name too loudly, that may be Ben Cherington’s next low price pick up…only kidding I’m a Sox fan and truthfully I’m not disappointed in Ben’s moves so far–he’s doing what his employers want–signing capable low cost players that might be able to contribute. I hope Maholm is the next signing and /or a trade for Guthrie or Jason Werth.
His trades have been well thought out and to date has saved the farm for perhaps a trade that may benefit the team as ST approaches.
Good job Ben.
If the Rangers do or don’t get a deal done with Darvish? I’m confused.
It says “do”, which makes very little sense. Then again, neither does Peter Gammons.
I don’t see Silva doing well in the AL East. As a matter of fact I think he will be beaten up.
Red Sox sign Silva, and heard throughout the rest of the AL East..
youtube.com/watch?v=GjjZGyYcH9E&feature=relat…
Don’t go out on a limb or anything…
Going out on a limb would be like saying Alonso and Quentin may experience lower home run totals this year.
The Carlos Silva signing will not pan out, at best he’ll pitch average for Pawtucket. The Red Sox are basically throwing crap at a wall and hoping some of them will stick. Last year’s signing of Garcia and Colon were not random like this one. Colon dominated Winter ball and Garcia showed he was an effective starter the previous year. Cashman at least had numbers to make his decision of whether to sign them or not. Red Sox are better off with one of their guys from AAA.
I tend to figure Silva is more of a Pawtucket mainstay and emergency starter than anything else.
Since when do people take Gammons seriously?
I think the only reason they are waiting til Darvish is done is in case he wants more than they think they can sign him for. I think they got their number they will be able to sign him for, and that number allows them to still sign Fielder, but say that number ends up being 20 million higher, they may not be able to get Fielder. Either way, I say they should not go after Fielder. Give the money to the coming FAs, keep one of the best offenses together, and spend the extra on pitching.
This just goes to show that the agents are worth their fee for FA’s! Because Boston and the Yankees I guess you have to put the Angels in this list have proven they will pay waaaaaaay more than any other team for something that has little demand!
Aaron Cook = LOL
What Bank are the Rangers going to rob? They sign Darvish, they won’t be able to afford much else? I know this is a baseball website, however Bob McNair owner of the Houston Texans invested a billion dollars of his own money to bring football to Houston and as for the Orioles they get stuck with Scrooge McDuck.
Anyway, are the Orioles going to jump on board with any free agent signings with some meaning? This is getting very discouraging to sit here and watch other teams appear like they are doing something and the Orioles appear to be doing nothing!
Sell the Team Peter Angelos or Start spending some money and give the Orioles fans something to hope for in 2012!
ur situation is worse..but i feel your pain
The Orioles haven’t jumped on board with any free agent signings with some meaning since 1998. Why would they change that now?
Sure, the obvious answer is “So they could actually improve”, but we’re talking about a team that’s run by Peter Angelos, who is a terrible combination of miserly and gun-shy.
I thought for a while that Angelos might be desperate enough to make a big splash this winter, but considering the fact that every rumor linking a marquee free agent to the Orioles has also included something along the lines of “they’re only interested if the market collapses”, I was way off.
I think the Orioles new slogan should be “Same Story, Different Year”.
Angelos claims to love the Orioles and that they are his legacy to Baltimore. What a crummy gift !! The O’s will never get on track until Angelos is out of the picture. No top players are anxious to play in Baltimore. The fans are in effect boycotting the O’s and won’t be back until ownership changes and there’s proof of hope for the future in the farm system & FA desirability.
The Rangers robbed the bank of Fox Sports for about 3 billion over 20 years starting in 2015. They also have two oil barron biollionaires that don’t mind spending to win. DFW is the 4th largest market and largest that doesn’t have 2 teams in it (NY, LA, Chicago). The owners also realize that we are in a great position to win now and are taking advantage of it.
Fox Sports headquarters in New York, while admitting an agreement had been
reached, called the $3 billion figure “wildly inflated” before reporting that
was all it would have to say on the matter.
But don’t be feeling too poorly for Chuck Greenberg-Nolan Ryan
Rangers. There is in fact a 20-year deal in place. A more accurate figure
for the Fox Sports Southwest-Rangers deal, reports a TV executive in the know,
“is somewhere between $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion.” That translates into the
neighborhood of $75 million to $80 million a year.
In December there were many reports that came out saying otherwise. Google it and look for new articles from this past fall, not from 2010. Here is a snippet:
Brown: Reports Of Rangers’ $3B TV Deal “Closer To Truth” Than $1.6B
Joey Matschulat | Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 1:40 PM | Print Article | Share Article
Maury Brown has a good article up right now over at BP detailing why the Rangers aren’t saddling themselves with quite the level of monetary risk that the combined amount of their successful bid + eventual contract would suggest, and talking about how the hire of Joe Januszewski from the Red Sox — a hire made by now-deposed owner Chuck Greenberg — now figures to be especially valuable to Texas, as Januszewski was part of Boston’s initiative to create international sponsorships with Japanese companies at the time of the Daisuke Matsuzaka signing, and should be able to help the Rangers tap into significant new revenue streams that they’ve never had access to previously.Which, of course, is all very well and good and deserving of our excitement … but Brown also has this on the Rangers’ much debated TV deal:When it was reached shortly after Nolan Ryan and former owner Chuck Greenberg won the auction for the club, it was reported that the 20-year deal was worth $3 billion. And then, for some reason, that changed to between $1.5-$1.6 billion, which has now circulated about enough to become “fact.”But, in speaking with two sources that were close to the negotiations on the television deal yesterday, they say that the original figure of $3 billion is closer to the truth… and possibly then some (the sources would not elaborate as to the total but said that based upon certain escalators in the deal, the package could be worth more).”My thought and this is just speculation is that Fox signing the big deal with the Angels caused some of the escalators to kick in. Probably some language stating that if they signed any of the other AL West teams to a contract of a certain amount, then the Ranger’s deal increases. Pure speculation on my part but it wouldn’t surprise me. If you can find an article that is more current (anything with Chuck Greenberg stated as the owner is over a year old) I would be interested because it is not completely clear.
Both Silva and Cook have awful track records over the past few years. Silva weighs 280 lbs. and is considered to be poison in the locker room. The Red Sox appear to be thinking about throwing crap against the wall to avoid the luxury tax. Things have not changed. If you want to be competitive (especially in the A.L. East), you need to spend money to make money and results. Kuroda anyone?
Tampa disagrees about spending money. They had the lowest payroll in the AL East and finished second. It is not about how much you spend but how well you spend.
And in the case of the Rays, how much you suck for the past 10 years. They are only competitive with a low payroll because they were terrible for the past 10 years and have been stockpiling high draft picks. There’s now way to be competitive with a low payroll like the Rays unless you suck royally for numerous years (and have a FO with good scouting).
There was an article on here, wish I could find it, explaining that they aren’t competitive because those high draft picks didn’t pan out. It showed them being competitive because they have a shrewd GM and the draft well. Draft well as in getting good value from picks other that the first few rounds.
Gammons is a toad! He won’t be happy till my Mariners trade Felix to the east coast.
AA: “Me too”
Sorry cool but that’s not gonna happen no matter how hard you wish.
Cashman is prepared to pay through the nose for Felix so I’m gonna guess AA’s pretty happy keeping him where he is.
There’s a team with local media rights sitting about 35 miles up the BW Parkway. (Hint: it’s the “B,” not the “W.”)
Local media rights? Sounds like the Blue Jays…
There is a team on the west coast with “issues” and its TV rights up for grabs…
Come on Ned, make it happen.
If the Rangers get Darvish then take Fielder from whoever the favorite to land him is (Boras’ mystery team is my guess) then I think that’ll make the AL West that much more fun to watch this year, the 2 best hitters (Pujols & Fielder) & the 2 best pitchers (Wilson & Darvish) going to 2 teams?
On what planet are Wilson/Darvish the best pitchers?
I think he meant the two best free agent pitchers available this offseason
yes, that’s what I meant, sorry for the confusion
Nats? Maybe, if they can find a time machine and change that dumb Jason Werth contract…
You think a team in the 7th largest media market in the country (who’s tv revenue is about to double), with an owner worth 4 billion and a fanbase who is crazy about supporting winning franchises (see the Capitals recently) can’t support multiple $20 million dollar contracts?
Dumping money down the toilet is a bad idea no matter how much you have.
The Nats would only be dumping money down the toilet if they gave him a 7-10 year deal.
How about exchanging a couple of contracts that never should have been offered: Jason Werth for Carl Crawford?
Why would the Mariners sign Prince?? Lock up Felix or trade him and rebuild!
why would they extend him now?
Sick of hearing Prince doesn’t want to play in Seattle. I want to see a report or interview that has him saying those exact words. Just because he lives far away from Seattle doesn’t mean anything. Money can buy happiness.
If I were a hitter, I’d take less money to play somewhere else. That stadium is hitters hell.
20 Million dollars less?
And are a multitude of other very good players clamoring to find happiness in a Mariners uniform?
Well there seems to be a never ending supply of players willing to play in the hell hole we call the east coast! So I don’t see why some wouldn’t want to play in the beautiful NW?
Clean air sucks.
It continues to amaze me that media types keep alive the idea that it’s Boras driving the bus on the Fielder situation. Fielder is a commodity. He is subject to the laws of supply and demand just like any other commodity. Boras can demand any ludicrous number he wants but that doesn’t make Fielder’s value any higher. The marketplace determines Fielder’s worth, not his agent. Is Fielder going to sit out 2012? I doubt it. The question is when will Boras drop his silly “demands” and take the highest bid or most advantageous deal (perhaps short term) offered. Apparently he’s not to that point yet.