Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for December 2013

Yankees Notes: Roberts, Luxury Tax, Robertson

By | at

Should Yankees fans be rooting for Alex Rodriguez to avoid a lengthy suspension?  Joel Sherman of the New York Post points out that the Yankees' only chance of staying under the $189MM luxury tax limit is if A-Rod is suspended for the entire 2014 season, but the club would then have very little spending room to address its remaining needs.  If Rodriguez is only suspended for 50 games or so, Sherman argues that the Yankees should abandon their plan of staying under the tax limit and spend freely to improve next year's roster.  “We either have to be under $189MM or up over $200MM or more," a member of the organization tells Sherman. "Think how dumb it would look if we worked for a few years to get under $189MM and we didn’t and we were at like $192MM and just missed. Either we go under or way over.”

Here's some more from the Bronx…

  • Also from Sherman, while the modified posting system will hurt the Yankees' chances of signing Masahiro Tanaka at a relative bargain (in terms of avoiding the luxury tax), the delay in finalizing the new posting agreement puts Tanaka's market closer to the Rodriguez arbitration decision.  This will give the Yankees a better idea of their payroll situation and a better idea of what they'll be able to offer Tanaka.  Sherman predicts a Rodriguez decision will come on either January 3rd or January 13th, with the latter date being preferable to MLB since it be after the Hall of Fame announcements.
  • Brian Roberts' contract with the Yankees contains $2.6MM worth of incentives, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports.  All of the incentives are tied to plate appearances.
  • The Yankees have stayed away from the closer market this winter, which The New York Post's Ken Davidoff interprets as a sign that the club has a lot of confidence in David Robertson to finish games in 2014.  While the Yankees could still acquire a reliever with closing experience, Davidoff believes such an acquisition would likely be for depth rather than as legitimate competition for Robertson.
  • Johan Santana could be a good investment for the Yankees on a minor league deal, ESPN New York's Wallace Matthews opines.  Matthews also suggests Roy Oswalt could be a similar type of low-cost veteran signing, while Paul Maholm could be a safer (if more expensive) choice for the back of the rotation. 
  • In news from earlier today, the Yankees' signing of Carlos Beltran was made official, and New York created 40-man roster space for the slugger by designated righty Brett Marshall for assignment.

Orioles’ Deal With Grant Balfour In Jeopardy

By | at

7:53pm: Balfour's issue concerns his right shoulder, Connolly reports (Twitter link).  The righty underwent surgery to correct a torn rotator cuff in that shoulder in 2005, Connolly notes, though Balfour hasn't had any subsequent problems.  "More I hear, more it looks like Balfour deal could collapse," Connolly tweets, adding that the Orioles have traditionally been very cautious of signing players (particularly pitchers) with medical concerns.  

7:18pm: A source tells Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter links) that the Balfour deal "may be in jeopardy," though "serious jeopardy" is probably too strong.  The Orioles would look at other closer options on the open market if Balfour's physical issue is a deal-breaker.

THURSDAY, 6:16pm: The Orioles/Balfour deal is "in serious jeopardy" and could fall apart altogether, MASNsports.com's Roch Kubatko reports.  Balfour's physical revealed issues that "need to be resolved," according to a source.  More word about this setback could come on Friday.

TUESDAY: The Orioles have agreed to a two-year, $15MM deal with Grant Balfour, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (via Twitter).  He'll have $500K deferred in each season.  The deal is still pending a physical.

Balfour

Recent reports indicated that three teams had two-year offers on the table to Balfour, with the Orioles being the most aggressive team and the favorite to land him. Balfour reportedly wanted to pitch for the O's, but was holding out for a three-year deal. There was talk of adding a vesting option to the deal as a compromise, but it appears that a two-year pact was enough to get the job done.

Balfour, who celebrates his 36th birthday on December 30th, turned in a 2.59 ERA with 10.3 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 on his way to a first career All-Star selection.  Balfour doesn't have the near-95-mph fastball average that he boasted in his best season with the Rays in 2008, but his 2013 average of 93.4 mph was still solid.  The right-hander hasn't had an ERA higher than 2.59 in his last four seasons.

Some may point to Balfour's significant home/road split over the last three seasons as a big reason for his recent success.  Oakland's O.co Colliseum is one of the game's most pitcher-friendly environments, and Balfour has a 1.58 ERA in 113 2/3 innings there, compared to a more pedestrian 3.78 ERA in 85 2/3 innings on the road.

The Aussie missed two full seasons thanks to Tommy John surgery and shoulder surgery following a promising debut with the Twins in his age 25-26 seasons. He rediscovered himself in Tampa Bay before heading to the A's in 2011. Balfour was handed the ninth inning in his second season with Oakland, and has racked up 62 saves from 2012-13 for the back-to-back AL West champions.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter) first reported that the two sides were nearing agreement.  Additional details courtesy of CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman (on Twitter).  Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Giants, KIA Tigers Close To Brett Pill Deal

By | at

The Giants have a deal in place with the Korean Baseball Organization's KIA Tigers to sell Brett Pill to the Gwangju-based club, with just financial details left to be finalized, reports.  Pill is negotiating with KIA Tigers about a new contract, though the deal will fall through if Pill and the Tigers can't come to terms.

The Giants are expected to receive around $500K in the sale, Baggarly notes, which is roughly twice as much as teams usually receive in such transactions.  Earlier today, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle tweeted that the Giants were asking for as much as $1MM for Pill's rights and multiple teams in Korea and Japan were interested.

Pill, 29, has blossomed as a prospect over the last five seasons, culminating in a 1.010 OPS in 298 PA for Triple-A Fresno in 2013.  He's received only 259 PA over three seasons at the Major League level, however, and there seemed little hope of more playing time given the Giants' depth at first base, Pill's ideal position.  Brandon Belt looks to be the everyday first baseman in 2014, with Mike Morse also a candidate for playing time and Buster Posey also likely to get more time at first over the years in order to protect him from the rigors of catching.  Pill has also seen time in left field and the Giants have experimented with him at second and third in the minors to try and find a place for his bat in the lineup.

Giants Notes: Evans, Infante, Pill

By | at

MLBTR's Zach Links spoke to Giants vice-president and assistant GM Bobby Evans about the team's remaining offseason plans and about one move that didn't pan out…
  • The Giants were linked to Omar Infante earlier this winter but Evans said the two sides weren't that close to a deal.  "I think that we really were more or less trying to stay flexible in terms of where we might have the best fit, but the challenge for us was that we didn't necessarily have Omar's first position available," said Evans of Infante, whom the Giants were said to be considering in left field.  Ultimately, Evans said San Francisco wasn't ready to make the four-year commitment that Infante got from the Royals.  The Giants took care of their left field situation last week when they signed Mike Morse.
  • Echoing recent comments from Giants GM Brian Sabean, Evans said that most of the club's "boxes are checked" at this stage of the offseason, meaning they'll be focusing on organizational depth rather than moves that will affect the 25-man roster.
  • While the club has been getting some calls on Brett Pill, Evans says he doesn't have a read on whether Pill will wind up staying or going.  Evans spoke highly of Pill while also acknowledging that he's more or less blocked in the Giants organization.  The Brewers were recently said to have some level of interest in Pill to address their first base vacancy. 

Commenting Policy

By | at

MLBTR is increasing efforts to enforce our commenting policy.  The goal is to raise the level of discourse in the comments, part of which involves eliminating inappropriate language and insults.

Comments of this nature are not allowed:

  • Attacks or insults towards other commenters, the post author, journalists, teams, players, or agents.
  • Inappropriate language, including swearing and related censor bypass attempts, lewdness, insults, and crude terms for body parts, bodily functions, and physical acts.  Overall, we don’t want any language that a parent would not want their kid to see.
  • Juvenile comments or extensive use of text message-type spelling.
  • Comments written mostly or entirely in capital letters.
  • Spam-type links or self-promotion.  Please submit to our weekly Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature if you have a website or blog.  Currently, permissible links in the comments are limited to MLB.com, Cot’s Baseball Contracts, FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, and MLB Trade Rumors.  Comments linking to other sites will be deleted.
  • Comments about how you're sick of this topic or it's not newsworthy.
  • Anything else we deem bad for business may be removed.

Also keep in mind the following general guidelines:

  • No inappropriate avatars or images are allowed.
  • Comments should be kept to approximately 200 words or less.
  • Corrections for errors made in our posts are welcome and appreciated.  We ask that you be cordial in doing so.

If you see comments that violate our policy, please flag them and/or contact us.  Bans may be handed out liberally by our moderators, without second chances or warnings.  Remaining civil is not that difficult, though, and most commenters have no problems doing so as well as helping rein each other in.  We at MLBTR are grateful for long-time commenters and readers, though this policy applies equally regardless of tenure.  This policy is always available at the bottom of the site, and will be re-posted monthly.

Indians Designate Trey Haley For Assignment

By | at

The Indians have designated right-hande Trey Haley for assignment in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for new closer John Axford, according to the team's Transactions page.

Haley, 23, was selected in the second round of the 2008 draft. The Texas native posted solid ERA numbers and big strikeout totals in 2011-12 despite a poor walk rate. His command worsened in 2013, however, as he walked 39 batters in 44 frames. Haley still managed to strike out 46 batters in that time and keep his ERA at 4.70, but command looks to be a persistent problem for him. In 323 minor league innings, Haley has a 299-to-241 K/BB ratio to go along with 42 hit batters and 58 wild pitches.

Orioles To Sign Xavier Paul

By | at

The Orioles have signed outfielder Xavier Paul to a minor league contract with an invite to big league camp in Spring Training, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. The Paragon Sports International client was non-tendered by the Reds on Dec. 2 this year. He had been projected to earn $1MM via arbitration, per MLBTR's Matt Swartz.

Paul, 29 in February, enjoyed a solid season at the plate, batting .244/.339/.402 with seven homers in 239 plate appearances. Paul hit right-handed pitching particularly well in 2013, slashing .253/.349/.426 with all seven of his homers facing opposite-handed pitching. Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs saved are not optimistic about his defense, however, as both grade him as a below-average left fielder.

Luke Scott Signs With Korea’s SK Wyverns

By | at

1:06pm: Scott will receive a $250K base salary in addition to a $50K signing bonus, according to Korean media outlet Yonhap (hat tip: MyKBO.net's Dan Kurtz on Twitter).

11:38am: Luke Scott has signed a one-year deal with the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization, according to Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish. Scott is represented by PSI Management.

The 35-year-old Scott batted .241/.326/.415 with nine homers in 291 plate appearances for the Rays last season. He spent time on the disabled list for the fifth straight season in 2013, missing time due to a strained lower back and a calf strain.

Scott's numbers over the past three seasons are roughly league average — .231/.303/.421 (100 OPS+) — but he was a force for the Astros and Orioles in the five previous years. From 2006-10, Scott batted .272/.357/.512 with 103 homers in 2233 plate appearances.

Cubs Sign Tsuyoshi Wada

By | at

The Cubs have signed Tsuyoshi Wada to a minor league deal with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, the team announced. Wada, who is represented by Octagon, is viewed by the Cubs as a starter, tweets Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.

Wada, 32, posted a 2.76 ERA with a 60-to-22 K/BB ratio over his final 78 1/3 innings for the Orioles' Triple-A affiliate in 2013 as he worked his way back from 2012 Tommy John surgery. Though he inked a two-year, $8.15MM contract with the O's prior to the 2012 campaign, Wada's injury prevented him from ever pitching in Baltimore.

The Cubs have plenty of starting pitching depth with Jeff Samardzija, Travis Wood, Edwin Jackson, Jake Arrieta, Carlos Villanueva, Justin Grimm, Chris Rusin and Arodys Vizcaino all in the system, so Wada will have to be impressive in order to earn a spot.

Yankees Designate Brett Marshall For Assignment

By | at

The Yankees announced that they have designated Brett Marshall for assignment.  The move will make room for the newly-signed Carlos Beltran on the 40-man roster.

Marshall made three big league relief appearances in the bigs last season but spent the lion's share of the year in Triple-A where he posted a 5.13 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 in 25 starts.  Baseball America ranked Marshall as the No. 6 prospect in the Yankees' system after the 2012 season and noted that he boasted the best changeup of any pitcher in the bunch.  Unfortunately for the Yanks and Marshall, the right-hander didn't shine in his first season at the Triple-A level.

To keep up with everyone in DFA limbo, check out MLBTR's DFA Tracker.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top