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Archives for October 2012

Pettitte Likely To Return Next Season

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Throughout the 2012 season, Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte has been non-commital when asked whether he would return next year.  However, the 40-year-old gave a strong indication that he will be back in 2013 as he gets ready to take on the Orioles in Game 2 of the ALDS, writes Mark Hale of the New York Post.

“I know one thing: I know the competition and the desire to compete is still there, and I don’t feel like I kind of got that itch out from the 70 innings or so that I threw this year,” Pettitte said.

Pettitte signed a one-year, $2.5MM minor league contract with the Yankees in March with no incentives attached.  The left-hander joined the varsity squad on May 13th but was sidelined in late June when a batted ball fractured his left fibula where it meets the ankle.  In 12 starts, Pettitte turned in a 2.87 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9.

Poll: Will Josh Hamilton Return To The Rangers?

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Immediately after the Rangers' 5-1 loss to the Orioles in the AL Wild Card game, the focus shifted to Josh Hamilton and his impending free agency.  The slugger reiterated his desire to stay in Texas and said that he would allow the club to match any offer that is put in front of him.  He also took a crack at quantifying his chances of returning and pegged them at 50/50.  It's possible that the outfielder knows just as much as we do about where he may wind up.

Typically, someone with a .285/.354/.577 batting line and 43 home runs in their walk year would be a lock for a hefty, long-term deal, but Hamilton's injury history and off-the-field concerns make him a risky signing.  He may also have less big market suitors than a free agent of his caliber would expect.  The free-spending Dodgers are already set in the outfield with Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Carl Crawford.  The Red Sox have plenty of room to work with thanks to their blockbuster deal with the Dodgers, but all signs point to them exercising caution in this offseason in order to avoid more ill-advised long-term deals.  The Cubs expect to spend, but reportedly, spending $150MM+ on one player isn't what they have in mind.  

The Rangers know that there's a limit to how much they can budget for the 31-year-old, but they may not have to stretch too far to sign him given his question marks and his fairly limited pool of suitors.  When the dust settles, do you see Hamilton in Arlington or elsewhere in 2013?

Arbitration Eligibles: San Diego Padres

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The Padres are next in our 2013 Arbitration Eligibles series.  With a dozen players, they have one of the largest arbitration groups.  Matt Swartz's salary projections are below.

In Moseley, Owings, Stauffer, and Blanks, the Padres have four arbitration eligible players who barely played in 2012 due to injury.  Moseley had April shoulder surgery and is likely to be cut loose.  Owings, who wants to focus on being a position player, had elbow surgery in July and is another likely non-tender.  

Paying Stauffer $3.2MM again would be risky given his August 31st surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his elbow.  Padres manager Bud Black told MLB.com's Corey Brock Stauffer will be "ready to go by Spring Training," but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be tendered a contract next month.  The 30-year-old had a breakout 2011 season and was ticketed for the 2012 Opening Day nod, so clearly there's talent here.  The ideal scenario for the Padres would be to non-tender Stauffer and then quickly re-sign him for less guaranteed money.  Failing that, they could tender him a contract and, if things look bleak in Spring Training, cut him then and owe about $530K.

Blanks had been ticketed for the minors, in which case he would not have been arbitration eligible, but he found his way onto the Padres' 25-man roster due to Carlos Quentin's injury.  Blanks quickly went down with season-ending shoulder surgery, but the 26-year-old is still interesting and cheap enough that the Padres wouldn't be risking much by tendering him a contract and seeing how he looks in Spring Training. 

Baker seems a capable backup catcher, and he actually caught as many games for the Padres as Yasmani Grandal and Nick Hundley this year.  Grandal is the clear starter for 2013, and Hundley might have first track at the backup job given the $7MM guaranteed to him through 2014.  The Padres still seem likely to retain Baker, so maybe Hundley will become trade bait.

Richard and Volquez emerged as the leaders of the Padres' rotation this year and are locked in for 2013. Volquez, the more explosive pitcher of the pair, will be entering his walk year and would like to remain with the club beyond 2013.  He seems to prevent home runs and hits enough to survive in Petco despite an MLB-leading walk total.  Richard might be Volquez's mirror image, with a stellar walk rate and MLB-worst hits allowed total.  I wouldn't attempt to lock up either pitcher at this point.

Relievers Thatcher and Gregerson had solid campaigns, with Gregerson picking up nine saves and 24 holds.  Thatcher will soon undergo knee surgery that could have him behind in Spring Training, but I see no reason the Padres wouldn't keep him around.  Venable did a nice job as the team's primary right fielder, especially away from Petco.  Cabrera provided value on the basepaths, and while the rest of his game is lacking, he'll be tendered a contract as an expected Super Two player.

Near the trade deadline, a Headley deal was actually considered likely, but GM Josh Byrnes wisely kept his asking price high.  The 28-year-old third baseman stayed with the Padres and went off in the season's final two months, to a point where MVP votes would be justified.  Matt Swartz has Headley, a client of Hendricks Sports, snagging nearly a $5MM raise en route to an $8.3MM salary.  Headley qualified as a Super Two player in 2010, so this will be his third time through arbitration and he'll have one more after that.

Headley's agency hasn't done many arbitration year extensions in recent years, though Byrnes is no stranger to such contracts.  Though the Padres' GM might prefer to use some 2013 data to determine whether Headley is an MVP-caliber player or more of an above-average regular, the price goes up the longer he waits.  One potential comparable is Kevin Youkilis, who signed a four-year, $41.25MM deal with the Red Sox after a breakout '08 season, also with four-plus years of service.  A more recent comp might be Alex Gordon's four-year deal, worth $50MM if he exercises a player option at the end.

Assuming Moseley, Owings, and Stauffer are non-tendered and no one signs a multiyear extension, we're estimating $27.4MM in salary for nine remaining arbitration eligible players.

Matt Swartz's arbitration projections are available exclusively at MLB Trade Rumors.  To read more about his projection model, check out this series of posts.

Week In Review: 9/30/12 – 10/6/12

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As we wind down from a Sunday chock full of playoff baseball, let's take a break from the action to catch up on the week that was here at MLBTR…

  • The Indians announced the hiring of Terry Francona and will formally introduce him at a press conference on Monday morning. For his career, the 53-year-old has a 1,029–915 record across a total of 12 seasons as a big league skipper.
  • Manager Bobby Valentine will not return to the Red Sox next season. Valentine led the Sox to a 69-93 record and a last place finish in his only season at the helm. 
  • The Twins announced that they removed the interim label from Terry Ryan's job title, making him the permanent general manager once again. Ryan, who first became the Twins' GM in 1995, spent more than a decade in the role before stepping aside in September of 2007.
  • The Angels agreed to sign catcher Chris Iannetta to a three-year extension worth $15.5MM. When healthy he appeared in 79 games, hitting nine home runs and posting a .240/.332/.398 batting line in 253 plate appearances. 
  • The Red Sox received right-hander Rubby De La Rosa and outfielder Jerry Sands to complete their blockbuster deal with the Dodgers from earlier this summer. In a related move, the club has designated catcher Guillermo Quiroz for assignment.
  • Starter Ben Sheets retired on Wednesday after joining the Braves at midseason. The Brewers selected Sheets with the tenth overall pick in the 1999 draft and he spent most of his career in Milwaukee.

AL Notes: Duquette, Red Sox, Showalter, Neshek

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On the night that playoff baseball returns to Baltimore for the first time since 1997, we take a break from the action to catch up on the latest news and stories making headlines around the American League…

  • Orioles general manager Dan Duquette says there's no need to increase the team's payroll for next season given Baltimore's current success, says Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). The Orioles' payroll for the 2012 season saw the team spend $82MM — down $6MM from one season ago.
  • History says that the Red Sox will have to pay a steep price to the Blue Jays if they hope to secure John Farrell's services next season at manager, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. Most recenly the Marlins sent the White Sox their fourth- and fifth-best prospects in exchange for manager Ozzie Guillen. The trade proved to be an ill-fated one for Miami as the front office may not retain Guillen for the 2013 season.
  • O's manager Buck Showalter has done a masterful job taking undesirable pieces and shaping a competitive club under his tutelage, says Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports. "I kind of noticed this right when I got here," Nate McLouth said. "He's the kind of guy who even when he's not looking at you, he's watching you. He knows what's going on. All the time. Everywhere."
  • Mere days after the death of his newborn child, Athletics reliever Pat Neshek and his wife turned to baseball as a tool to aid in the mourning process, writes Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News. Neshek returned to the team on Saturday after tragedy struck on Wednesday to retire two batters in a row and successfully guide the A's out of a jam. "You could just see the emotion in his eyes," said Derek Norris. "You could see how much it meant to him."

MLBTR Originals

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A look back at the original reporting and analysis found on MLBTR this past week:

Derrick Hall On Diamondbacks’ Offseason Priorities, Miley As ROY

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Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall recently held an online town hall meeting with fans (transcript courtesy of MLB.com). Here are the highlights:

  • Hall says there will not be a major overhaul of the Diamondbacks this offseason, but more of a tweaking. The focus of that tweaking will be the left side of the infield and "it is safe to say" a left-handed bullpen specialist. The club will look to do so through trades. Hall, however, would like to keep their pitching (both starting rotation and bullpen) and any of their young talent, so look for the Snakes to use their outfield logjam as trade bait.
  • One outfielder mentioned as a trade candidate is Chris Young. "If we decide to move anyone, we always take chemistry into account and how such a move will impact our club," Hall explained. Neither the fans nor Hall brought up the Justin Upton trade rumors.
  • On picking up the $6.5 MM option on closer J.J. Putz for next season, "It is likely a priority of ours," said Hall. "He has been outstanding. He is a great leader in that bullpen and mentor to our relievers. We have had so much confidence turning the ball over to him to close out games, it is hard to imagine us not doing so."
  • Admitting his bias, Hall said left-hander Wade Miley should win the NL Rookie of the Year award, "He was fantastic and clearly our most consistent starter. He was dominant most of the season, which is difficult to accomplish as a rookie."
  • Though the team finished third after winning the NL West a year ago, Hall saw some positives in 2012, "I think we all expected more. But we had some great individual years when you look at Aaron Hill, Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero, Jason Kubel, J.J. Putz, Brad Ziegler, David Hernandez and Wade Miley, to name a few. And our Minor League system is very strong. We had five teams make the playoffs and they brought home four different championships."

Jim Tracy Resigns As Rockies Manager

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The Rockies have announced, via Twitter, that Jim Tracy resigned as manager and the resignation is effective immediately. 

"Jim Tracy is a man that has brought professionalism to the Rockies organization since 2009," said Rockies senior vice president of Major League operations Bill Geivett in a statement. "However, Jim has decided that he no longer wants to move forward as manager. We respect Jim's decision, and we wish Jim and his family the best of luck as we begin our search for the right person to become the next manager of our organization."

Geivett and Tracy began discussions on Friday regarding Tracy's future.  Tracy had a handshake agreement to manage in 2013 and was due to be paid $1.4MM.  Troy Renck of the Denver Post, who broke the story, tweeted there are no plans for Tracy to remain with the organization. 

In a separate tweet, Renck reports bench coach Tom Runnells and Triple-A manager Stu Cole are expected to be in-house candidates to replace Tracy, but not Jason Giambi because he wants to continue his playing career.

Tracy had been under fire after leading the Rockies to a last place finish in the NL West with a franchise record for losses at 64-98. It was a tumultuous season in Colorado. Pitching coach Bob Apodaca resigned only to be replaced by co-pitching coaches Bo McLaughlin and Jim Wright. There was an experiment with a four-man rotation that has since been scrapped, although the concept of hybrid relievers and a strict pitch count will continue. GM Dan O'Dowd also relinquished day-to-day Major League duties to Geivett, who moved into an office in the Coors Field clubhouse and was with the team for every road trip.

Tracy, the fifth manager in Rockie history, also has the distinction of helping guide the Rockies to their best record (92-70 in 2009) resulting in a Wild Card berth and Tracy being named NL Manager of the Year. Since then, however, Tracy has posted a 220-266 record with declining win totals in each of those three seasons.

NL Notes: Braves, Adrian Gonzalez, Cubs, Cardinals

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The Nationals and Cardinals began their NLDS today, 79 years to the day of the last playoff game for a Washington franchise. The series will also feature the largest age gap between two managers facing off in the post-season (27 years and 235 days between 69-year-old Davey Johnson of the Nationals and 42-year-old Mike Matheny of the Cardinals), according to the Elias Sports Bureau via a tweet by ESPN.com's Jayson Stark. Other notes and nuggets from the Senior Circuit:

  • It is highly unlikely the Braves will attempt to sign Josh Hamilton because they typically don't pursue top-of-payscale free agents who come with questions, tweets the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's David O'Brien.
  • Adrian Gonzalez told Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times that he felt he struggled this season because he was "trying too hard." Gonzalez was even disappointed by his career-high 47 doubles. Also in the profile, the Dodger first baseman discussed the responsibility he feels as a Mexican-American athlete in a heavily Latino city.
  • The Dodgers will continue to strengthen their starting rotation which could lead them to target Zack Greinke, writes Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times.
  • The Cubs will need to acquire two or three starting pitchers merely to put a representative team on the field, opines Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Wittenmyer adds don't look for the Cubs to sign Greinke or Jake Peavy, as Shaun Marcum and Anibal Sanchez are more in line with the current front-office thinking.
  • Jake Westbrook, rehabbing from discomfort in his right oblique, threw a bullpen session this morning and hopes to be available for bullpen duty if the Cardinals advance to the NLCS, reports MLB.com's Jennifer Langosch. The throwing schedule for Westbrook is fluid because he will be leaving the team after Game 2 to be with his wife, who is scheduled to be induced into labor for the birth of their fourth child on Thursday.
  • The Cardinals will win the World Series in six games over the Tigers, predicts Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com in his playoff prognostication column.

Everth Cabrera Leaves ACES

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Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera has left the ACES agency run by Seth and Sam Levinson, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Cabrera is the third player to leave ACES this week following Shane Victorino and Nyjer Morgan. ACES has come under a cloud because of the PED suspension of client Melky Cabrera (no relation to Everth) and a related investigation by MLB into the agency's links to a steroid distributor.

Cabrera, who will likely make more than $1MM through arbitration next year as a Super Two player, became the Padres' starting shortstop upon his recall from Triple-A in mid-May. He led the NL in stolen bases with 44 despite playing in only 115 games. In addition to his stolen base crown, Cabrera posted a batting line of .246/324/.324.

No word on who Cabrera has chosen to represent him. Check out MLBTR's Agency Database for information on player representatives from around the game. 

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