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Latest On Masahiro Tanaka

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Free agent starters have largely been held up by Masahiro Tanaka, but Ubaldo Jimenez hasn't let them hurt his asking price.  Want to sign the right-hander?  It'll still cost you $14MM annually.  While we wait to see how that plays out, here's the latest on the Japanese sensation..

  • Braves president John Schuerholz says that he's not in on Tanaka but that his club did their "due diligence" on him, tweets Jim Bowden of SiriusXM.
  • The Angels may be a long shot to land Tanaka, but history shows us that they shouldn't be counted out, writes Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com.  Some would argue that it doesn't make sense for the Halos to spend big.  On the other hand, Gonzalez writes that this is as good a time as any to splurge, because Tanaka is a free agent at a relatively young age, has more upside than any other available pitcher, won't cost a Draft pick, and the Angels badly need high-upside starting pitching.
  • Tanaka will meet with the Cubs and White Sox this week, likely in Chicago, tweets Luke Stuckmeyer of CSNChicago.com.

Indians Have Spoken To Bobby Abreu

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4:59pm: Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer hears that the Indians are "not all that interested" in Abreu (Twitter link).

2:10pm: The Indians are interested in Bobby Abreu, who is playing in the Venezuelan Winter League and attempting a Major League comeback, according to Tony Lastoria of Indians Baseball Insider (on Twitter). Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports adds that the Indians have spoken to Abreu's agents at the Legacy Agency but have yet to make an offer (Twitter link).

Abreu has played in 50 games in the Venezuelan Winter League, hoping to catch the eye of a Major League club, and his stats are certainly impressive. The two-time All-Star has batted .322/.416/.461 with three homers, 10 doubles and three triple in Venezuela.

Abreu hasn't appeared in the Majors since 2012 with the Angels and Dodgers, when he posted the worst full-season OPS of his career (.693). His offense had been in a steady decline since 2008 — his final year with the Yankees.

A lifetime .292/.396/.477 hitter between the Astros, Phillies, Yankees, Angels and Dodgers, Abreu will turn 40 years old in March. He has parts of 17 Major League seasons under his belt and has already earned more than $124MM in his playing career.

Minor Moves: Gamboa, Clark, Bucci, Portillo

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Here are today's minor moves and outright assignments from around the league…

  • Troy Renck of the Denver Post reports that the Rockies have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Richard Castillo. A former Cardinals prospect, the 24-year-old Castillo split 2013 between St. Louis' Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, posting a combined 4.08 ERA with 5.3 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 147 2/3 innings. Baseball America twice ranked him among the Cardinals' Top 30 prospects, but he has not cracked that list for the past four years.
  • The Orioles announced that they've signed right-handed knuckleballers Eddie Gamboa and Zach Clark to minor league deals. Gamboa received an invitation to Major League Spring Training. The 29-year-old posted a 4.43 ERA with 7.2 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 142 1/3 innings between Baltimore's Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2013. Clark, 30, made his big league debut in 2013, allowing three runs in 1 2/3 innings. He had a 7.84 ERA in 111 1/3 innings across four minor league levels last season.
  • The Brewers released right-hander Nick Bucci, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (on Twitter). Formerly one of Milwaukee's top prospects, Bucci dealt with a shoulder injury this season and pitched just two-thirds of an inning this season. The injury-plagued 23-year-old has pitched just 43 1/3 innings over the past two seasons.
  • The Padres have outrighted right-hander Adys Portillo to Double-A San Antonio, according to the team's transactions page. The 22-year-old was designated for assignment over the weekend to clear a 40-man roster spot for Joaquin Benoit. Portillo received a $2MM signing bonus in 2008 but has yet to provide the Friars with much of a return on that investment.

A’s Avoid Arbitration With Jesse Chavez

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3:17pm: Chavez's one-year deal is worth $775K, reports MLBTR's Tim Dierkes (Twitter link).

12:27pm: The A's and Jesse Chavez have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal, according to Jane Lee of MLB.com (via Twitter).  Chavez is represented by Sosnick/Cobbe, according to the MLBTR Agency Database.

Terms of the deal are not yet known, but MLBTR's Matt Swartz projected the reliever to earn $600K through arbitration.  Chavez, 30, turned in a 3.92 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 35 relief appearances last season for the Athletics.  Oakland acquired the right-hander from the Blue Jays in August 2012 for cash considerations shortly after Toronto designated him for assignment.

The A's now have seven arbitration eligible players to go.

Padres Sign Xavier Nady

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The Padres have signed first baseman/outfielder Xavier Nady to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training, according to MLB.com's Corey Brock (on Twitter).

Nady, a client of Scott Boras, last appeared in the Majors in 2012, batting .184/.253/.316 in 166 plate appearances between the Nationals and Giants. By signing in San Diego, he returns to the organization that drafted in the second round back in 2000. Nady spent parts of five seasons in the Majors with the Padres and was a semi-regular player in the Majors in the middle of the last decade.

In his best years, from 2005-08, Nady hit .284/.339/.474, averaging 486 plate appearances and 19 home runs per season with the Padres, Pirates, Mets and Yankees. He split last season between the Triple-A affiliates for the Rockies and Royals, posting a robust .296/.360/.456 slash line with 15 homers and 26 doubles.

Rays Claim Pedro Figueroa, Designate Jerry Sands

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The Rays have claimed Pedro Figueroa off of unconditional release waivers, according to Roger Mooney of The Tampa Tribune (via Twitter).  To make room on the roster, the club has designated outfielder Jerry Sands for assignment.

Figueroa, 28, has 24 big league appearances to his credit over the last two years with the Athletics.  He spent the bulk of last year at Triple-A Sacramento, posting a 4.10 ERA with 7.4 K/9 and 5.0 BB/9 in 45 relief appearances and one start.

Sands, 26, was claimed off waivers from the Pirates just before Christmas and didn't get a chance to go house hunting in Tampa Bay.  Sands batted just .207/.311/.329 with seven home runs in 106 games (397 PAs) at the Triple-A level in 2013.  Once a favorite in the Dodgers' farm system, he became one of the players in the Adrian Gonzalez/Carl Crawford/Josh Beckett blockbuster of August 2012.  The Red Sox included him in another notable trade last offseason – the deal that sent Mark Melancon to Pittsburgh and Joel Hanrahan to Boston.  In his minor league career, Sands is a .276/.366/.526 hitter with 128 homers in 2433 plate appearances. 

Ubaldo Jimenez Still Seeking $14MM+ Annually

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Though it's been a somewhat quiet offseason on the Ubaldo Jimenez front thus far, the lack of chatter doesn't mean his asking price is going down. The right-hander's agents are still telling teams that they seek an annual salary north of $14MM on a multiyear deal for their client, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.

Jimenez, represented by Relativity Baseball (formerly known as SFX), has seen his market slowed by the uncertainty surrounding Masahiro Tanaka. To this point in the offseason, no pitcher has secured a $14MM annual salary on a multiyear deal, though that again is likely due to the Tanaka market. Tanaka himself should clear that mark with ease, and Jimenez, Matt Garza and Ervin Santana also figure to top that mark with their eventual deals.

Because Jimenez rejected a qualifying offer, any team other than the Indians will be required to forfeit a top draft pick in order to sign him. Though he comes with a spotty track record in recent years, Jimenez is relatively young for a free agent (he turns 30 this month), and it's hard to argue with the performance he turned in this season. Many are quick to glance at Jimenez's splits and state that he had a dominant second half. While that's true — he had a 1.82 ERA after the All-Star break — Jimenez's rebound began much earlier than that. After allowing 19 earned runs in his first 17 innings, Jimenez pitched to a 2.61 ERA with a 179-to-69 K/BB ratio from April 29 through season's end — a span of 28 starts.

Though the Indians would like Jimenez back, he's likely to be too pricey for their tastes. Jimenez was recently connected to the Blue Jays and could draw interest from clubs such as the Yankees and Diamondbacks as well. The Orioles were at one time linked to Jimenez, but they, like the Indians, seem unable to afford him.

Royals Sign Ramon Hernandez

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The Royals have signed catcher Ramon Hernandez to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter).

Hernandez, 37, picked up a career-low 55 plate appearances with the Dodgers in 2013 and batted just .208/.291/.438. He did belt three homers in that time, showing that he still has some pop left in his bat. The Eric Goldschmidt client is a lifetime .263/.327/.417 hitter in parts of 15 Major League seasons with the Athletics, Padres, Orioles, Reds, Rockies and Dodgers.

In addition to starter Salvador Perez, the Royals already have a pair of catchers on their 40-man roster in Brett Hayes and Francisco Pena. Hernandez will compete with those two for a backup role in Kansas City.

Pirates Sign Robert Andino

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The Pirates have signed infielder Robert Andino to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training, the team announced on Twitter. Andino is represented by the Legacy Agency.

The 29-year-old Andino collected just 85 plate appearances for the Mariners in 2013, batting .184/.253/.237 in that time. He played slightly above-average defense at shortstop in that small sample, however, as he's done throughout his career at the big league level. Andino has 1073 Major League innings at shortstop and 1870 innings at second base, and Ultimate Zone Rating pegs him as slightly above average at each position.

Andino will provide the Bucs with additional shortstop depth beyond likely starter Jordy Mercer and defensive standout Clint Barmes (who recently re-signed in Pittsburgh). Andino, a 2002 second-round draft pick, has a career .232/.294/.318 batting line in 1467 plate appearances between the Orioles, Marlins and Mariners.

The Latest On The Orioles’ Pitching Search

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Reports yesterday once again connected the Orioles to right-hander Bronson Arroyo, reviving some early offseason linking between the two sides. In his latest piece, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun runs down the list of potential targets for Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette, including Arroyo.

Connolly offers a familiar refrain regarding Arroyo, writing that the right-hander seeks a three-year guarantee. Arroyo has been linked to many clubs to this point, but none has been willing to offer a third guaranteed season to the longtime Reds hurler to this point. Though Arroyo is as durable as any starter in the game, having authored nine consecutive seasons of 199 or more innings, he also turns 37 in February, making such a commitment a risk. Connolly writes that there is a sense that Arroyo would go to Baltimore if guaranteed a third season, and the club is "definitely interested." Duquette and the Orioles have maintained an ongoing dialogue with Arroyo's agent, Terry Bross, Connolly adds.

The Orioles have also had internal discussions about bringing back a familiar face in the form of left-hander Bruce Chen, Connolly reports. Chen's name has scarcely been mentioned to this point in the offseason, but the soft-tossing southpaw is coming off a season in which he posted a 3.27 ERA with 5.8 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 121 innings for the Royals. Of course, Chen also posted an astoundingly low 27.7 percent ground-ball rate in 2013, and his 51.9 percent fly-ball rate was the highest in the Majors for pitchers with at least 100 innings. Clearly, such trends would not bode well for a transition to the hitter-friendly parks of the AL East. LIke Arroyo, Chen will turn 37 this year.

Jason Hammel still doesn't figure to be an option for the O's, though Connolly seems to think the idea is becoming more plausible than it was earlier in the offseason. Both sides enjoyed their time together, he writes.

Names like Masahiro Tanaka, Ervin Santana, Ubaldo Jimenez and Matt Garza can all be effectively ruled out, writes Connolly. That's not surprising to hear, given Duquette's earlier statement that the club wouldn't be in the mix for Tanaka and the team's budgetary constraints. Santana, Jimenez and Garza are all likely to sign at least four-year deals, pricing them out of Baltimore's range.

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