Archives for December 2012

WEDNESDAY: MLBTR's Tim Dierkes says (on Twitter) teams would not be permitted to make sign-and-trade deals to avoid the draft pick compensation rules. MLB would view it as collusion.

MONDAY: Some executives are already anticipating that clubs will make an effort to find a loophole for free agents attached to draft pick compensation according to ESPN's Buster Olney (Insider req'd). Forfeiting a draft pick for a free agent also means forfeiting the draft pool money associated with that pick, which is very valuable in this age of restricted draft spending.

Olney says teams have already internally discussed a modified sign-and-trade scenario, and he uses the Indians as an example. Since Cleveland has a protected first round pick and forfeited their second rounder to sign Nick Swisher, the next compensation free agent they sign will cause them to lose just a third rounder. They could sign a compensation free agent, then trade that player to another club in a pre-arranged deal, preumably for something deemed a bit more valuable than a third round pick.

The Yankees explored sign-and-trade scenarios with the Diamondbacks for Carl Pavano and Grant Balfour during the 2010-2011 offseason. Michael Bourn, Kyle Lohse, Rafael Soriano, and Adam LaRoche are the remaining unsigned compensation free agents, and there has been a limited market for all four this winter despite their on-field value. Players signed as free agents can not be traded until after June 15th without their written consent, so they would have to be on board with a sign-and-trade scenario.

You might think that finding an innings eater is a simple task, but there were ten teams last season that didn't have a single pitcher crack the 200 inning plateau*.  It helps tremendously to have a pitcher who can give you that level of output.  Statistically, the Blue Jays (73-89) had one of the weaker bullpens in baseball last season with a combined 4.33 ERA with 8.58 K/9 and 3.51 BB/9.  However, their relievers were asked to cover 527 and 2/3 innings.  Had they gotten more work out of their starting rotation, their pen would have had more time to rest and as a result likely would have performed better.

At this point in the offseason, most of the durable starters are off the market.  The Angels picked up on this last week when they flipped Kendrys Morales for Seattle's Jason Vargas, who has logged 611 innings across the last three seasons.  In fact, the only pitcher still available on the open market who pitched more than 200 innings in 2012 is Kyle Lohse, who delivered 211 IP for the Cardinals last season.  Obviously, Lohse will be expected to bring more to the table than just soaking up innings and his contract will reflect that.  Teams looking to get creative can look to a couple of other available names who have demonstrated the ability to go deep into games in years past.

Brett Myers was converted into a reliever in 2012 but says that he hopes to start (and, presumably, command starter money) again in 2013.  The right-hander logged 439 innings between 2010 and 2011 for the Astros.  Shaun Marcum missed a large part of last season with elbow issues, but he hovered around 200 innings in the two years prior to that.  Left-hander Joe Saunders missed the cut in 2012 (174.2 IP), but had no trouble earning the innings eater label in '10 and '11. 

At this time last winter, Saunders, Hiroki Kuroda, and Edwin Jackson stood as the only true innings eaters left available on the market.  There are even fewer free agent options this time around for teams hoping to ease the burden on their bullpen.

*Nationals' innings leader Gio Gonzalez came dangerously close as he pitched 199 and 1/3 innings.  The Rockies are one of the ten clubs, but it should be noted that they earned this distinction by design with their "Project 5,183" system.