The seven-year, $140MM offer that the Yankees offered Shin-Soo Choo was only on the table for less than a day. As MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince notes, New York offered Choo the contract and then pulled it back almost as quickly in order to instead sign Carlos Beltran to a three-year, $45MM deal. "In my opinion, it takes some time to make a decision, maybe at least a couple days," Choo said. "You want to learn a city and a team. They gave me 21 hours." The Yankees' withdrawal could've been due to Beltran simply accepting his offer first, or perhaps because Scott Boras (Choo's agent), reportedly asked the Yankees to match the $153MM the Bombers gave to Jacoby Ellsbury. Choo didn't end up doing too badly for himself at any rate, signing a seven-year, $130MM deal with the Rangers.
Here's some news from around the baseball world…
- CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman lists 14 players who could traded during Spring Training. Most of these names have popped up on the pages of MLBTR over the last few weeks, though one new name is Marlins right-hander Jacob Turner. Heyman says there's "not a great chance" Miami would deal Turner but since the Marlins have a lot of good young pitchers, "folks on other teams speculate this could be the one arm the Marlins might move in that right deal" for offensive help.
- Ike Davis' calf injury has not only set back the Mets' first base competition, but it has also ruined any possible chance of a trade showcase for Davis during Spring Training, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes. The Brewers, Pirates and Orioles have all been connected to Davis in trade rumors during the offseason but obviously no move will be made any time soon, as Davis is currently in a walking boot and recently had an MRI on his right calf.
- Speaking of the Pirates' first base search, the team could end up finding its left-handed platoon partner for Gaby Sanchez already on the roster in the form of Andrew Lambo, Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. While maturity issues and a 50-game suspension reportedly relating to marijuana use have set back Lambo's career, he is still only 25 and has posted some strong power numbers in the minors.
- "I just don't see what we have to lose," Indians manager Terry Francona says about Carlos Santana's attempted conversion to third base. FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal recaps the reasons behind Santana's surprising decision to try the hot corner and how it could be a boon for the Tribe if Santana could handle the position.
- Nate Schierholtz wants to remain with the Cubs but is cognizant of the fact that could be traded, MLB.com's Carrie Muskat reports. The veteran outfielder said he hasn't spoken to Cubs management about staying beyond his current one-year contract. Recent rumors put Schierholtz on the trading block thanks to Ryan Kalish's progress, not to mention the fact that Kalish is playing on a minor league deal while Schierholtz is owed $5MM this season.
Miami would be better of going after someone like Morales right now and losing a 2nd round pick than moving one of the young studs from the rotation. Many teams would drool at the thought of adding someone like Turner to the rotation as a up and coming future #2-3, maybe even higher guy. Just because Loria has managed to build such a young and affordable corps of young kids in the rotation doesn’t mean he should already start selling them off.
Morales is out there, they need a 1b, just get with Boras and spend some of that income.. Offer him 2y with a mutual 3y and they will get a good bat and keep a young SP most any team wants badly.
Miami’s top paid player is Stanton at 6.5 million. They have shown no inclination to spend, seeming content with banking 30 million in revenue sharing dollars per year
Trading Turner would be a way of evening out their prospects, as they have way more pitching than hitting coming along. The Cubs have the opposite. I wonder if a deal works there?
I enjoy your proposal there. If they swapped half of there farm systems with each other they would both have a heck of a good young all around team! lol
Given the taxes in NY, Choo’s 130 million in Texas is probably equivalent to the Yankees 140 million offer. Few million short but maybe Boras shared some of the difference out of his 6.5 million dollar commission
Why would Boras share any of his 4% when Choo gets 96%? Both have to pay taxes on it.
Is that necessarily true? If Boras’s headquarters were in Florida (no income tax) and Choo were playing for the Yankees, would Boras’s commission be subjected to NYS income tax? Boras would technically be earning/working in Florida.
And it’s $5.2M.
Lambo was suspended for marijuana, not PEDs
Marijuana enhances a lot of things, but physical performance is not one of them.
At this point the Bucs have hitched their wagon to Lambo and might as well give him a solid few months to see what he can do. I don’t necessarily agree with the strategy but could very well be wrong. It’s not as if he can do much worse than Jones did last year (and they let him start for 3/4 of the season). I’d expect RF to be improved this year (with Tabata, an improved Snider, and Polanco by year’s end), so our other black hole at 1B should hopefully be a little less glaring.
Terry Francona watched third base destroy Kevin Youkilis’s body, and he can’t see what they have to lose by trying to move Carlos Santana there?
Third is much more demanding than first, and requires way more agility than catcher.
The fact Ortiz was such a fixture at DH for all those years forced Youk into the field when he really needed days off or days off from the field.
Are you insinuating third base is more taxing on the human body than catcher? Forgive me if I’ve misunderstood. As someone who played catcher and corner infield for most of my life, albeit at a very low, non-competitive level, third base has absolutely no comparison to the level of wear and tear that catcher does. This isn’t even a debatable topic.
Not exactly. I think they’re taxing in critically different ways, in my completely non-professional opinion. Catcher seems to require a stoic form, whereas third base requires an agile one. A buff, catcher-ready type seems more at risk to injure himself with the straining movements required of a third baseman. (The opposite positional switch seems just as likely to be bad.)
Catcher requires much more agility and fast twitch movement than people realize. As much as it pains me as a Cubs fan, watching Yadier Molina work behind the plate is poetry in motion. I feel he is much more agile as a stocky bodied man than say Even Longoria is as a large lean fluid moving man. I was wrong. This is a very debatable topic.
Let me add that my examples could be outliers as they are two of the best at their respective positions.
Let me ask u something – for over a month, you’re sitting home waiting for free agency to begin. Do’nt you think by the time teams start making offer you should have prepared to know what cities you would go to and which you wouldn’t? It takes the yankees handing you an offer before you even consider playing in NY? I guess that’s just me, by the time teams start making offers i’d already have a list of where i’d prefer to play and where i would play, and where i def wouldn’t play….at the time the report seemed like nonsense to me, i bet u boras planted that story to try to get some more teams in on Choo….and now his excuse is “oh, it was too quick, i couldn’t decide”……yeah, sure, ok, millions of dollars at stake, and u’d risk that b/c u’d have to wait for an offer to come in before the idea came ot your mind?
I’d have to agree. I’d also question anyone who needs more than 21 seconds, much less 21 hours to consider whether or not to play for the Yankees for $140 million.
Completely agree with your statement. He knows he is one of the top FA and will get offers from a lot of big name clubs. He should of had a list compiled of who he would and would not play for and weigh out the cities pros and cons from there. I would in just about any city in America for 500,000 a year, let alone millions. Should of been able to get back with them for sure in 21 hours.
could see the turner thing happening.
Kalish is 3 for 14 and 3 BBs this spring. Not quite forcing anyone’s hand on Scheirholtz.