Mets GM Sandy Alderson joined Twitter with the handle @MetsGM today, opening with a joke about the team's financial situation. He told Newday's David Lennon (Twitter link) that he'll "probably keep doing it for a while … or at least until [I run] out of material." Here's the latest from baseball's two east divisions…
- The Yankees want Garrett Jones from the Pirates in any trade involving A.J. Burnett reports ESPN's Buster Olney, but Pittsburgh isn't interested in moving him and talks haven't progressed (Twitter links). Yesterday we learned that the Pirates are not on Burnett's no-trade list.
- Yoenis Cespedes met with the Marlins and toured their new ballpark on Wednesday, but he could head back to the Dominican Republic as soon as today according to ESPN's Jayson Stark. Agent Adam Katz said "nothing is scheduled for now" when asked about meetings with other clubs.
- Rays GM Andrew Friedman said it was a "dream scenario" to make the upgrades they did without sacrificing depth during an interview with 620AM radio, says Marc Topkin of The Tampa Times (Twitter link). Tampa added free agents Carlos Pena, Luke Scott, and Jose Molina this offseason.
- The Orioles merged their pro and amateur scouting departments under new GM Dan Duquette, but the club will now have two more scouts covering the minor leagues according Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun.
LOL I mentioned Garrett Jones for AJ Burnett in this weeks chat. GM’ed.
One million Internet points to you!
HUntington is being stubborn. Jones is not that special of a player. He is not a major star.
I would love to see Burnett go. Despite everything he does take the ball every 5 days and does give you 6-7 innings most games.That has to be of value to some team.
But, Heymann is wrong. Yankees owe him 33 million and the Yankees are willing to eat 3/4 of the contract. That should be more than enough for any team.
if I were the yanks, I’d move burnett for any 1
If the Yankees were to eat $25MM of the $33MM owed AJ and say Jones makes via his arbitration case $2.3MM that still gives the Yankees a net savings of $1.7MM the 1st year and $4MM the 2nd year. More then enough if they still want to sign Chavez as insurance and bench help for A-Rod to rest. JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Not if they want something of value in exchange and Jones has fair value, regardless of how much they eat.
granted, I am almost certain Burnett will return to good form once he goes to the NL, but regardless, his value is just that of a 4-5SP in teams eyes and of an innings eater and Jones is a fair player. Not an even swap.
With the exception that the Yankees and Burnett offer something the Pirates have been unable to obtain on their own, a pitcher. It doesn’t seem like anyone wants to go there even when they are willing to pay more then their competitors.
And besides in a year or 2 the Pirates probably won’t be able to afford Jones when he hits his 3rd year of arbitration.
yeah i agree, the pirates should not be picky on this. they want a veteran SP and cant get one even when they offer more then other teams for a SP, so when something like this falls on your lap you take it. i believe Burnett will be better in the NL and on a team with less publicity.
if the pirates would have offered more on their one yr deal to ex he would be wearing the black in gold next year.. it would have made no sense for them though just like the three year deal made no sense for Jackson. it looks like Oswald doesn’t want to pitch for anyone he turned down two contenders (bos,det) so its not surprising he rejected them
dude the pirates offered him a 3 year deal for around 10 million a year. The Pirates didn’t offer any of those pitchers more than the competition, they just made competitive offers and the bucs need to blow people away to get top to mid tier free agents to come to Pittsburgh. Also, Jones won’t cost much even in his third year of arb. The guys WAR last year was .9. He’s a platoon player who can’t hit lefties whatsoever or a decent power bat off the bench with average defense at first. He’s projected to get 3.1 million in arb this his second year so unless he has an All-Star campaign in 2012 he’ll be more than affordable to the bucs.
I’m not exactly sure where you get your facts but actually this is his 1st year of arbitration NOT his 2nd year. And since Jones submitted a number of $2.5MM and the Team a number of $2.25MM your off on that number as well.
Also, since the Pirates offered Jackson 3 years/$10MM per when the only other confirmed offers were 1 year at $10 or $11MM. I’d say a 3 offer even at roughly the same AAV is clearly “more than the competition”. But that part is just my opinion.
agreed
Pirates can’t get free agent pitchers to come to them. Example Oswalt and Jackson. They can ill afford to be so choosey on who is going to eat innings for them
25 million is too much to eat. Make it 20-22 million. And don’t say it can’t be done. 3 names , Alex Rios , Veron Wells and Carlos Zambrano. True, Rios was acquired in August by the White Sox, but they took on his whole contract.
It’s worth eating $25MM to get rid of AJ. Aside from at least giving the Yankee a little bit of salary relief it also opens up a spot on the roster so the Yankees don’t have to move someone else.
Captain, just a quick comment about the 3 players you mention. I’m not sure that Rios and Wells are comparable. First off both are position players and both were much younger than Burnett at the time they were moved. Also, Rios was picked up on waivers. Burnett as you probably know has previously been put on waivers by the Yankees and they had no bits. As for Zambrano, it pains me to say this but for as big a pain as Zambrano was/is or might be he is a better pitcher than Burnett. Check out their comparable numbers the past 2 years if you don’t believe me.
If the Yankees can find a taker for Burnett and they have to eat $25MM of his salary they should take it and move on.
I love you, Andrew Friedman.
Would you have taken Kotchman over Pena?
I would have. Carlos disappoints when he whiffs and strands runners. Both are pretty awesome defensively. Carlos does have a big following as he was probably the heart and soul of the team before he left. Casey really did a nice job and I thought he was capable of doing it again or close to it if he stayed. Plus he’s a native of St. Pete.
I would of taken Pena over Kotch for the sheer fact that he isn’t putting those numbers up again. You at least know what you’re getting with Pena, an awesome glove, big bombs and strike outs.
I wonder if Cespedes got the “Pujols treatment,” a picture of him on the big screen wearing Marlins gear and a lineup card with him in it.
I also wonder what he thinks of that new home run… um… structure?
the pirates are not going to move garret jones. this is sad but we don’t have anyone better to play first base. I still want the bucs to try and take Burnett off the Yankees hands. pnc park most likely won’t help his home run problems but being in the NL central probably will. if we end up paying a little more salary to and give up a C+ prospect this has to potential to work out nicely for the pirates. could bomb but at 4-7mil a year I think it’s worth the risk
why throw rich team’s trash to the arms of one of the worst teams? the rebuilding pirates have no reasons to trade for an expensive, old psychopath for a cheaper guy who is covering a position of need.
the problem is the pirates need starting pitching. id be more than willing to accept their garbage if they pay for most of it and we don’t give up anything significant. he’s a decent bounce back candidate moving to the NL central and even if he doesn’t he’ll eat ~200in and I won’t have to watch Kevin correia every five games.
The Pirates need GOOD starting pitching. Burnett was GOOD. Now he’s just really expensive…
hes not really expensive if the yankees are paying 25 mil of the 33 million he’s owed. all he would have to do is put up 1+ WAR to be worth the 4mil/yr. hes not good but looking at our options hes more reliable than all the rest.
Funny thing is the Pirates have plenty of replacements for Jones at first. All of them would produce similar results. I don’t know who everybody thinks Jones is but he’s a 1 WAR player. Not that good. The bucs have Casey McGhee, Nick Evans, Jake Fox, and prospect Matt Hague that put up a .309/.372/.457 line in 594 ABs in triple A with only 68 strikeouts. So in trading Jones they could either platoon some of the above guys listed or give Hague a shot at the bigs. It also wasn’t too long ago when McGhee was a very solid MLB regular in the NL Central. So I am not worried about losing a guy like Jones because I doubt he’d do much better than any other below average options they have. Jones’s average against lefties in his career with 400 ABs is an inexcusable .199 and was .147 against lefties last year.
*Dan Duquette
Garret Jones for AJ Burnett = Rajai Davis for Matt Morris
Why do they want Burnett-an overrated, overpaid, malcontent who won’t do anything to help the Pirates in the long run? The pirates already have five 4th starters.
Could have some upside while teach their young, heralded arms how to never exceed your potential. I do like their pick-up of Erik Bedard.
he will teach the youngsters how to be a crazy and getting paid tens of millions.
Malcontent? He’s beloved by all of his teammates and coaches. The only guy who ever had an issue with him was Posada and Posada had an issue with everyone, especially difficult-to-catch pitchers.
If I were the Yankees I’d be careful demanding anything for that p.o.g. Give me a pack of smokes and a 6 pack of pabst blue ribbon and you got a deal. I’ll hire a clown for $100 a game to throw pies in my players faces when we win and cut a check to the bucs for his plane ticket.
93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh also reported that the pirates would be picking up $4 million per year for Burnett. So they would be picking up $8 million. Jones also hits .190 against lefties… if i were the pirates… i would have this trade done already.
I’d give the Yankees McCutchen for Burnett’s blonde hair.
Looks like Cespedes is going to the Marlins.
The Bucs seem to have a hard time getting pitchers, so this looks to be a good deal for both teams. I think AJ will do better in the NL, he still has good stuff.
J
This deal needs to get done if you are the Pirates.
Simply put, at 30, Jones is clearly not part of Pittsburgh’s future, not to mention that with his average against LHP, he should not even be considered for a starting job (as he does compensate with overwhelming power like Carlos Pena).
Moreover, McGehee is as option at 1B, meaning that Jones is somewhat expendable.
With Burnett, the Pirates get a bonafide veteran starter at $4 million a year, meaning that he would come cheaper than Bedard! Not to mention, as ridiculous as it sounds, Burnett would actually put a few extra people in the seats on the nights he pitches at PNC Park.
Overall, there is no logical reason whatsoever forth Pirates ton balk at this offer by overvaluing average talent in Jones when he could be replaced by a solid in a that is lacking serious talent.
At $4 million a year for two years, Burnett comes fairly cheap and will be replaced by Cole in 2014. In short, this deal needs get done for the Pirates.
I would trade GI Jones for AJ. I think he’d be a decent bounce back guy. Plus, I want the Bucs to be forced to bring up Matt Hague to play 1st. McGehee would play 1st for about a month, then Hague could take over.
If Burnett only costs 4 mill per yr for 2 yrs, he’d at least get trade value at that low cost at some point. If he has a WAR 1 or higher he could be flipped for a legit AA prospect which would be worth more than Jones in the long run.
reunite aj with halliday , even up for dominic brown
dominic brown for aj he would thrive reunited with halladay
YEAH! Let’s thrown in Pence for Pedro Feliciano too!
no but throw in a good prospect browns not going to play in that of this year
Banuelos isn’t going to pitch for the Yanks this year. Brown for Banuelos???
Uhm AJ Burnett for Garrett Jones… hrmmph, are the Yankees intending to eat all but like $10.50 of Burnett’s contract? Thats not even a trade proposal I would make in a video game.
Not sure why my comment got deleted? Im a new user and only said something in regard to it being a bad trade proposal?
Why is everyone the Pirates sign or go after defective? I guess they can get no normal free agents so they have to overpay for bad old players or guys who flat out suck. Burnett might be ok here with no pressure but trading Jones is not worth it, he’s actually a decent bat. Unless the Yanks pick up a TON of his contract, I say no.
If the Yankees were to eat 24-26MM, that’d make Burnett a low rish/high reward player for the Pirates. The odds of him bouncing back would increase drastically once moved to the NL Central. Also, I’m sure one of the three hundred players NY invited to spring training could man first for the Bucs of Jones were to be traded.
I’m not actually sure how this works, maybe somebody can clarify.
Is it that:
All players on the 40 man are automatically involved in spring, then a limited amount of other players get invites?
And overrated? By whom? The man is criticized by everyone on earth, including Yankees’ fans.
Pirates should just move on and grab Blanton from philly. They won’t ask for anyone in return. just want to clear $
I am sorry but the yankees could give me Burnett for free and I wouldnt give up Jones, not a chance.
Burnett 5-6 years ago… maybe, but after a couple of bad years with him struggling to find his stuff, no thanks.