Infielder Chase Lambin is looking to latch on with a team on a minor league deal, MLBTR has learned. The 34-year-old is the oldest active minor leaguer without any Major League experience despite a solid .272/.345/.438 career line in the minor leagues. Lambin played well in 24 games for the independent Atlantic League's Sugar Land Skeeters in 2013, leading to a minor league deal with the Royals, where he appeared in 22 games at the Triple-A level. After 11 seasons in the minors (and one in Japan), Lambin still hopes to achieve his dream of donning a Major League uniform. Here are some more notes from around baseball.
- The White Sox aren't likely to pursue Masahiro Tanaka, Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com writes. The money may be prohibitive, and it would be surprising if the White Sox were to take huge risks on both Tanaka and Jose Dariel Abreu in essentially the same offseason.
- Abreu impressed his new organization at the team's minicamp, reports MLB.com's Cash Kruth. "We try to keep in mind that it's Jan. 14 and we still have a ways to go," says GM Rick Hahn. "But just watching Jose go through his work, you saw that professionalism as well as the plus-plus power on display today in only his first couple of rounds of BP. He's a very serious hitter."
- The Yankees' brass agrees it needs to add talent to its rotation, but still hasn't reached a consensus about Masahiro Tanaka, Dan Martin of the New York Post writes. "We’ll find out soon enough, but it’s not like he’s a sure-fire thing," says one team official. "I’d like to think so, but I’m not convinced." Martin notes, however, that the Yankees haven't seriously pursued Ervin Santana or Ubaldo Jimenez.
- Chone Figgins worked out for teams on Wednesday in Tampa, and the Twins were in attendance, 1500ESPN.com's Darren Wolfson tweets. The Dodgers watched as well, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal notes. Figgins, who will be 36 next week, did not play in the Majors in 2013 after struggling through the 2010-2012 seasons with the Mariners.
Steve Adams contributed to the intro to this post.
Yankees officials haven’t made up their mind yet… Okay, I’ll help.
Tanaka would be worth his weight in gold! He’s a must get for New York.
Bringing in this International Superstar gives us fans something to look forward to!
The track record for Japanese pitchers has improved – Darvish, Iwakuma, Kuroda
A 25 year old right handed Ace who went 24-0 and carried his team to a Championship.
Plus you free up money without Alex Rodriguez on the books? Go get Tanaka! ASAP
The whole “gives fans something to look forward too” part shouldn’t even factor into the decision. Bottom line is winning, if he doesn’t improve the team the good will at the start of the year will quickly dry up, and knowing New York even if he comes in and has 6-7 years as a reliable 3/4 starter fans will still be angry he wasn’t the ace they were promised.
Speakin of “ace” I’m fine with him being refered to as a “Japanese ace” but he’s far from an ace here. I personally don’t think his ceiling goes that high, but even if it does he likley won’t reach that this year, and he certainly hasn’t earned that tag in the MLB before throwing a pitch regadless of his NPB stats.
At the end of the day there should be much more thought put into spending 100-160 million, on essentially a pitching prospect, than you’ve put in here. I’m not saying it’s the right or wrong move but it’s good they are having continued debate on his abilities.
Very good point in that this guy is still a great unknown. We are not talking about Kershaw, Verlander here.
But kershaw costs 30M aav.
Yeah, but you know already what you will get from Kershaw on the field.
You can definitely make the argument that a deal for Ubaldo at 4 yrs/60 MIL makes A LOT more sense then Tanaka at 5 yrs/120 (with fee). With Ubaldo you know what he is at least.
C’mon Lambin!! Someone should sign him to a NRI deal!
It looked like in 2010 he might have had a chance. He put up a solid first half in the minors earning a spot in the All-Star Game, but fell apart then after. Would love to see him make it.
He could be the Jays starting second baseman!
OK Yankees. What other pitcher available has the potential upside that Tanaka has? With top pitching getting locked up and not hitting FA, this could be the best chance in a while for the Yankees to add a true impact arm. Garza, Jimenez, and whoever else is available isn’t on the same level.
What proof do you have they aren’t on the same level? Jimenez posses better overall stuff right now than Tanaka does and he’s actually been very succesful in the MLB. You could argue Tanaka has the highest upside, though even then Jimenez has tremendous upside, just glance at his second half in 2013. Tanaka is young and unknown, that’s what’s driving the market, he may end up being very good but the market and hype is really starting to become insane. Nothing suggest he’s as good as Darvish, or even all that close in terms of stuff, let alone twice as good like he’s going to be paid.
I’m really wondering if a team is really setting themselves up for a huge bust in Tanaka. We are talking an awful lot of money for a guy that has not thrown one pitch in the major leagues. Talk about a gamble. Sure he is dominant in Japan but as we know the two leagues are immensely different in talent, guys go over there and perform when they can’t even get a job in MLB.
It’s more about the talent. This guy’s stuff is so good, he’d have been picked before Strausburg in his draft class.
When you are giving guaranteed big time money to guys who have not thrown one major league pitch, you always have to wonder in the back of your mind in such a situation. Hey he could be terrific, but you never know, he could just as well not live up to the hype.
Is this the Rick Ankiel scenerio you’re describing? I mean, if you want to base your baseball decisions off of one guy in 130 years of history, that’s fine. Most GM’s aren’t that closed minded. I don’t think any of them wonder if his talent will simply fall apart because he got 60 feet from home plate.
It’s more about the talent. This guy’s stuff is so good, he’d have been picked before Strausburg in his draft class.