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Archives for February 2012

Week In Review: 2/5/12 – 2/11/12

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Here's a look back at the week that was..

Phillies Confident In Hamels Talks

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With an ever-increasing payroll, it would seem difficult for the Phillies to find room to sign Cole Hamels to a lucrative new deal.  However, team president David Montgomery told Matt Gelb of The Philadelphia Inquirer that he is confident that a deal can be reached.

"I don't think it's difficult," said Montgomery. "We've let [Hamels] know we're anxious to have him stay here. Cole enjoys it here…It'll probably come down to what we think is an appropriate length and what they think. You try to minimize risk by not going longer than necessary. And a player is looking for as much security as he can get. It's an equation that takes time to hopefully get worked out."

Recently, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports wrote that the Phillies will have trouble re-signing the left-hander for anything less than market value after giving hefty deals to Ryan Howard, Cliff Lee, Jonathan Papelbon, and Jimmy Rollins.  Hamels' agent John Boggs also says that he doesn't consider Jered Weaver's team-friendly five-year, $85MM deal as a parallel.

Cafardo On Oswalt, Burnett, Phillies, Rodriguez

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In today's column, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe takes a look at what we can expect out of David Ortiz's arbitration hearing on Monday.  The only way the hearing can turn bad, according to one source with experience in arbitration cases, is if the Red Sox mention that Ortiz's positive test for a banned substance in 2003. However, Boston may be reluctant to go there, for risk of inviting bad feelings.  Here more from Cafardo..

  • The Red Sox are willing to give Roy Oswalt a one-year deal worth $5-$7MM, but the veteran remains reluctant to pitch in Boston.  However, as we've heard elsewhere, the 34-year-old hasn't ruled Boston out.
  • Any money that the Yankees save in a potential A.J. Burnett trade will be put toward a lefthanded-hitting DH/outfielder type, with Raul Ibanez and Johnny Damon likely in that mix.
  • Don't be surprised if Vladimir Guerrero, Magglio Ordonez, Xavier Nady, or Manny Ramirez wind up with the Phillies.  The Phillies really want to add a righthanded hitter who can pinch hit and occasionally play the outfield.  However, they’re extremely close to luxury tax territory.
  • The Athletics, Orioles, and Blue Jays remain the main teams interested in Ramirez.
  • Mike Gonzalez remains the most high-profile lefty reliever on the market and agent Scott Boras is hoping teams reassess their needs right before camp.  The Phillies could be a fit, but they have budget concerns.  The Orioles also want to add one more bullpen piece but they might not want to go down that road again.
  • The lack of interest in Astros left-hander Wandy Rodriguez is surprising considering that the club would assume a fair portion of the $36MM left on his deal.  Houston is also surprised at the lack of interest in righty Brett Myers, who would appear to be a good piece for a contending club.
  • While interviewing for the Red Sox managerial job, Tigers third base coach Gene Lamont felt confident that he was going to get the nod.  Lamont met with Ben Cherington and Larry Lucchino in Boston, John Henry in Boca Raton, Florida, and Tom Werner in New York City.
  • After watching Ryan Flaherty in camp with the Orioles, Cafardo believes that the infielder and Rule 5 draft pick can win a spot with the club.

Indians Close To Deal With Jon Garland

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The Indians are working on a deal for free agent righty Jon Garland, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  This morning ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted that Garland "is getting a minor league deal" with the Indians, but still has to pass his physical.  Garland, 32, made nine starts for the Dodgers to begin the 2011 season before having July surgery to clean out debris in his shoulder.  

Two weeks after the surgery, Garland said he expected to be ready for spring training, explaining to MLB.com's Ken Gurnick and AJ Cassavell, "I was very satisfied with what the doctor said. He's upbeat. The labrum was almost pristine. The cuff was a little worse than he thought, but a lot of what he found was just scar tissue and bursitis. He shaved down the bone so things move smoothly. A layoff like this can only help the rest of my body."

The Indians added Derek Lowe and Kevin Slowey this offseason, with the latter likely battling for the fifth starter job with David Huff and Jeanmar Gomez, according to MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.  Fausto Carmona, who was previously penciled in, is an unknown due to false identity charges.

Prior to 2011, Garland had posted nine consecutive seasons of at least 190 regular season innings.  He signed a team-friendly one-year, $5MM deal with the Dodgers in November of 2010.  At that time it seemed likely to become a two-year, $13MM contract, as an $8MM option for 2012 was to vest with Garland's customary 190 innings.  Now it seems the California native may wind up back in the AL Central, after spending the first eight seasons of his career with the White Sox.

This post was originally published on February 13th.

Quick Hits: Kershaw, Moreno, Cespedes, Joyce

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Here are a few items from around the Majors as we head into Sunday…

  • The first priority for the new Dodgers owner should be to sign Clayton Kershaw to a long-term extension, says ESPN's Buster Olney in a video blog.  Kershaw's recent two-year contract only covers his first two arbitration years, putting him on track for free agency (at age 26) after the 2014 season.  "The entire landscape of baseball would be all over Kershaw as a free agent," says Olney, who believes the Dodgers should offer Kershaw something akin to a five-year, $100-120MM deal to lock him up.
  • Arte Moreno expects the Angels to be "a highly competitive team" and discussed several other topics about the upcoming season with MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez.
  • As part of a piece about the risks of signing Yoenis Cespedes, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald explores how other heavily-hyped Cuban stars have been the victim of high expectations in the Major Leagues.
  • Rays outfielder Matt Joyce has changed agents and is now represented by the ACES firm, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  Joyce, a possible extension candidate, will be arbitration-eligible for the first time next winter and is under team control through 2015.
  • Asdrubal Cabrera's arbitration-avoiding deal with the Indians prompted Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer to examine the possibility of signing Cabrera to a multiyear deal.  Last month, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes looked at what a Cabrera extension could cost the Tribe.
  • From that same piece, Hoynes says that the Indians' lack of guaranteed contracts past 2012 is probably not a sign that the Dolan family is "streamlining the franchise" as a prelude to a possible sale of the club.
  • Four of top seven prospects in the Athletics' system came via the Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez trades, writes MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo.

Extension Candidate: Yadier Molina

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For the second straight winter, the Cardinals could face the prospect of losing a long-time star to free agency.  Yadier Molina is not Albert Pujols, but the catcher's defensive prowess and his underrated bat will make his long-term future a major topic of concern for the Cards throughout this season.

Molina's next contract is likely to pay him in the neighborhood of $10MM per season, though his skillset makes him markedly different from the only other two catchers (Jorge Posada and Joe Mauer) who have signed deals with a $10MM AAV.  Those players were both known primarily for their bats — Posada was a below-average defensive catcher while in Mauer's case, it's seemingly just a matter of time before injuries will eventually force him to move from behind the plate.

In Molina's case, however, defense is his calling card, be it throwing out would-be base-stealers (a 44% caught stealing rate over his career), picking off baserunners or his four Gold Gloves.  As if being considered the best defensive catcher in baseball wasn't enough, Molina is also an underrated threat at the plate.  Molina has hit .291/.348/.396 over the last four seasons, culminating with a career-best .814 OPS and 14 homers last season.

Molina is entering the last year of his contract with the Cardinals after the team made the no-brainer move of picking up their $7MM option on Molina for 2012.  GM John Mozeliak said last month that there was a mutual interest between the team and the catcher in an extension, and that the Cards were "going to try to find a way to make it work."

Though he turns 30 in July, Molina's age shouldn't prevent him from finding at least a four-year deal on the open market, provided of course that he produces as usual in 2012.  Between his consistent numbers, his defense, the scarcity of the catching position and his reputation as a clubhouse leader, Molina should be on pace to receive a four- or five-year contract worth $10MM per season, plus probably a club option year tacked onto the end.  

Molina and his representatives at MDR Sports Management could certainly find a contract like that on the free agent market, but would they find it in St. Louis?  One bright side of Pujols' departure is that it leaves the Cardinals with a good deal of long-term payroll flexibility.  Lance Berkman and Kyle Lohse come off the books after this year and Jake Westbrook's $8.5MM team option is unlikely to be exercised, so that frees up just under $33MM.  The Cards will have to decide about extending Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright (the latter is likelier than the former, though Wainwright's health is a bit of a question mark post-Tommy John surgery) and also maybe explore multiyear deals for young stars like Allen Craig, Jason Motte and David Freese.  With just $68MM committed to the 2013 payroll, there seems to be no financial reason why the Cardinals couldn't bring Molina back.

There have been whispers that Molina may be disenchanted with the Cards' organization because they let his close friend Pujols leave, though new manager Mike Matheny denied this after recently speaking to Molina.  While most St. Louis fans have made their peace with Pujols' departure given the sheer size of his Angels contract, it wouldn't be good for the Cardinals from a PR perspective if another homegrown star (one who would've commanded far less of a financial commitment) also left town. 

Only Molina and his inner circle know if he truly wants to remain a Cardinal or not, but even if he doesn't, the Cards at least need to make every attempt to re-sign him.  Molina is too much of a pro to carry any negative feelings onto the field, so if the two sides can't work out a new deal before Opening Day, expect a relatively drama-free season akin to how Pujols carried himself in his walk year.  An extension would essentially guarantee that Molina retires as a Cardinal and, ironically, would mean that he would be supplanting his old friend as the face of the franchise.

NL Central Links: Molina, Cards, Dempster, Reds

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Congratulations to Brewers GM Doug Melvin for his induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.  Joining Melvin in the 2012 CBHOF class are former Major Leaguers Rheal Cormier and Rusty Staub, plus Canada's gold-medal winning baseball team from the 2011 Pan Am Games.  The official induction ceremony takes place on June 23 in St. Marys, Ontario.

Some news from around the NL Central….

  • Yadier Molina's contract negotiations shouldn't impact either his or the Cardinals' performance in 2012, manager Mike Matheny tells Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Matheny said that Albert Pujols' departure won't influence Molina's own contract situation, though Molina is understandably disappointed that his good friend left St. Louis to sign with the Angels.
  • Also from Strauss, he runs through 11 outstanding questions facing the Cardinals heading into the season.
  • Ryan Dempster expressed an interest in remaining with the Cubs for the rest of career during an interview on MLB Network Radio's First Pitch on Thursday (interview highlights courtesy of CSN Chicago's Patrick Mooney).  Dempster exercised a $14MM player option to stay with the Cubs in 2012 but it's uncertain if the rebuilding Cubs would try to bring him back in free agency.
  • The Reds' current TV contract is believed to run through 2016 and pays the team around $10MM per year, reports John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer.  Fay thinks the Reds will need a major upgrade in their next cable contract to compete with teams like the Angels and Padres, who have completed, or are close to competing, much more lucractive TV deals.
  • MLB.com's Tom Singer thinks Edwin Jackson (and agent Scott Boras) made a mistake in turning down one-year and three-year offers from the Pirates to sign a one-year, $11MM deal with the Nationals.  Singer feels Jackson would've re-established his value better pitching in the NL Central on the one-year contract, and the three-year deal would've given Jackson some security against either a drop in form or getting "swallowed up by a market that might include the likes of Matt Cain, Zack Greinke and Cole Hamels."

Padres Notes: TV Deal, Cashner, Byrnes

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It was on this day in 1982 that the Padres made a trade with the Cardinals that brought shortstop Garry Templeton to town.  Though Templeton spent the next 10 seasons in San Diego, it's still a trade that Padres fans shake their heads over.  The centerpiece of the package that went to the Cards was another shortstop — future Hall-of-Famer Ozzie Smith.

Here are some notes from the modern-day Padres….

  • The Padres will have about a 20% ownership stake in the new FOX regional TV network that will air their games, reports Tom Krasovic of Inside The Padres.  The ownership stake is part of the pending 20-year broadcasting contract between the club and the new cable outlet.  The Padres would get $30MM in the first year and that total would gradually increase to $65-70MM by the final year of the contract. 
  • Based on these ownership shares, Krasovic reports the Padres could receive around $1.5 billion from the contract, close to the $75MM annual payout that USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported on Thursday.  Krasovic notes the $1.5 billion figure is "a best-case scenario" for the team, which may explain why club president Tom Garfinkel said yesterday that Nightengale's reported terms were too high.
  • Andrew Cashner tells MLB.com's Corey Brock (via Twitter) that the Padres have promised him a chance to start again after this season.  Cashner made his first Major League start in 2011 but pitched in just seven games due to a strained right rotator cuff.
  • Josh Byrnes seems to have more room to operate than did former GM Jed Hoyer, writes Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune as part of his weekly fan chat.  Byrnes has already convinced owner Jeff Moorad to spend an extra $7MM on payroll this winter and Center doesn't "think Hoyer would have had the freedom to pull the trigger on the Carlos Quentin trade."

Rangers, Mike Napoli Avoid Arbitration

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The Rangers have avoided arbitration with Mike Napoli, agreeing to a one-year, $9.4MM contract for 2012, MLBTR has learned. Agent Brian Grieper of Paragon Sports International represents Napoli.

Napoli had filed for $11.5MM, while the Rangers countered with $8.3MM, as MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker shows.  Napoli, 30, earned $5.8MM in 2011 and obtains the second-highest raise any third or fourth-time eligible position player has obtained (trailing just Prince Fielder). He is the fourth catcher in baseball history to average 20 home runs per year in his first six MLB seasons, joining Roy Campanella, Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza. The Rangers have now agreed to terms with all of their arbitration eligible players.

Friedman On Catching, Offseason, Maddon Extension

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Rays executive VP of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was interviewed on 620-WDAE radio on Thursday, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times has a few of the interview's highlights…

  • The team is "a little uncomfortable" in pairing an inexperienced catcher like Jose Lobaton or Robinson Chirinos alongside veteran Jose Molina, but Friedman thinks the Rays' catching situation has been upgraded from 2011.  The Rays looked at a few different catchers this winter but, aside from Molina, weren't able to work out a deal with any of them.  The 36-year-old Molina has spent much of his 12-year career as a backup, reaching the 245-plate appearance plateau just twice in his career.
  • Friedman was very pleased with the fact that the Rays were able to add hitting and bullpen depth without giving up a starting pitcher or making a move that would hurt the team's defense.  "If you had told me then where we stand now with upgrading where we did and also maintaining our depth in the meantime, I would have said that that was a dream scenario,'' Friedman said.  "We still have a lot of work to do in terms of this division and this league, but as far within the scope of what we can do, this off-season worked out very well in our estimation.’’ 
  • Friedman expects Joe Maddon to remain in Tampa Bay for years to come.  Topkin reported two weeks ago that Maddon and the Rays are expected to announce a three-year contract extension for the manager before the start of Spring Training.

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