There could finally be some movement on the new ballpark front for the Rays, according to a report from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times. A deal is in the works between the team and the city of St. Petersburg that would enable exploration of possible stadium sites. Any resolution would appear to be a long way off, but Romano explains that this is an important first step towards the sides working together on the matter.
Here are a few more notes from around the American League:
- Newly-acquired Athletics DH Adam Dunn continued to walk back from the notion that he was set on retirement, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter. “Obviously, things have changed now,” he said. “I owe it to myself to put that on the back burner for at least a couple months.”
- Though the White Sox considered a call-up for recent first-rounder Carlos Rodon, the club ultimately decided against the promotion. But GM Rich Hahn tells Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com (via Twitter) that, given “how far along [Rodon] is,” he “fully expect[s] him to come to big league camp next year and compete for a spot on the 2015 White Sox.”
- The moves to acquire soon-to-be free agents Brandon McCarthy, Chase Headley, and Stephen Drew were obviously designed to bolster the Yankees’ chances this year, but had a side benefit looking forward, writes Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. In the cases of the former two players, says Feinsand, the brief audition has shown both sides that a longer commitment could be beneficial. As for Drew, his poor showing since heading to New York now makes him an unlikely candidate to take over for Derek Jeter at short in 2015, according to Feinsand.
Not sure what the Yankees plan is for Headley with A-Rod coming back. Unless they plan on making Beltran the everyday RFer (not a smart move) and A-Rod the everyday DH and make Headley the everyday 3B.
I don’t see him re-signing with them to be a platoon player if that is what the Yankees wanted to do with him (not likely though)
Of course….another solution for the Yankees, just get rid of A-Rod.
I still think they sign Hanley to replace Jeter and move him over to 3B when A-Rod’s contract is up. Headley hardly deserves a big commitment so he could fit into this mix as well. It’ll be interesting to see what they do about 2B as well.
Instead of wasting $120+ million to Possibly sign Lester or Scherzer and Hanley, I think a better move for the Yankees, assuming they want to spend in the offseason, would be to go more towards mid-tier FA (kind of like your Sox did last offseason) and go for Hardy and Shields. Yes, they are older than Hanley and Lester/Scherzer but they’d get less money per year and the contracts in all liklihood wouldn’t kill them for many years
Yes I know the Yankees can spend as much as they want and they probably don’t have a budget, but I’d like to see them at least spend the $ wisely. Something they don’t really do that much.
Point is, I’d rather them have Shields for possibly 4 year/$65 million and Hardy for 3 year/$35 million than Lester for 7 year/$140 million and Hanley for 7 year/$150 million (these are estimates of course, but I think you get my point)
I think you’d get better value for 7 year/$100 million than 14 year/$290 million
I agree with your thought process. I’m not sure if Hardy is a flashy enough replacement for Jeter, but this postseason could change that.
I think the Yankees are going to go less flashy at SS. Deliberately.
I know baseball is a little more stable than other sports, but would the Yankees really sign Hanley with the plan to change his position in 2018? He’d be 34. His defense is already not good, and you’d have to watch him boot the ball around for three more seasons at SS.
Probably use Prado and/or one of their AAA prospects Jose Pirela or Rob Refsnyder at 2b to start 2015.
Good point. I forgot about Prado.
Given how many injury problems the perpetually old takes Yankees have, seems like there will be more than enough playing time for Headley
Well of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if A-Rod played no more than 40-50 games next year. I think they should sign Headley to a 1 year deal so he can possibly get another good contract after next year if he rebuilds his value. Similar to Nelson Cruz with the O’s.
Headley could serve as Eric Chavez did for them a few years ago, but I doubt he would want to be in a place where he wasn’t guaranteed a full time playing spot. The problem going forward for the Yankees with both A-Rod and Beltran (and you can throw in Tex in there) is that the Yankees have no idea what any of them can be reasonably be expected to do, and they have an enormous amount of money tied up.
Yes, that’s why I said I don’t see Headly re-signing as a platoon (Eric Chavez is a good example like you said). He should definitely find a starting job somewhere.
Tex if healthy will pretty much always be at 1B. He’s one of the not so many players who doesn’t play much even through mild injuries. Joe always rests him and uses platoon backup 1B.
If he wants to build value in a hitters park he may want to stay. But then again a part time role could hurt his value as well. If Beltran gets that surgery on his elbow then he may not be ready at the start of the year and we’ll need Tex at first more then DH since we don’t really have a true backup first basemen.
I think everyone blew Dunn’s “retirement” statement wayyy out of the water
Wishful thinking on everyone’s part
I’d love to see Adam Dunn stick around long enough to get to 500 HR’s. He’s one of the more under-appreciated power hitters I’ve ever seen. Yes, I am well aware of the strikeouts..blah, blah, blah. There’s something to be said about being so consistent with power (Exactly 40 HR’s 4 straight seasons) and never being connected to PED’s.
I have heard White sox fans call him a lot of things, but never ‘under-appreciated’.
He was good, until he got his big contract. From what I understand he is a good guy, and the fact that fans booed him at the Sox fest makes me sick to my stomach. If you want to boo the guy for striking out, fine, but that stuff should stay on the field. All in all you cannot blame the player for his performance but for the GM who loved to collect, and over pay, guys based on what they did for the first 10 years of their career instead of seeing the decline coming and forcing a guy to play DH when it is obvious that not all guys can do this successfully.
I would think if Rodon’s camp hadn’t held out that month, he probably would have been up.
My thoughts exactly, and I’m guessing this is the way of letting Boras know it as well.
I would love to see the Yankees sign Chase Headley to be their everyday 3B going forward and trade A-Rod to either the Angels (with or without Carlos Beltran to balance the money) for Josh Hamilton, Dodgers for Carl Crawford (money is virtually identical unless A-Rod starts earning his HR bonuses), or the Phillies for Ryan Howard. I think that the upside of having a player like Headley at 3B and getting rid of A-Rod by any means necessary is worth a potential clog at 1B, DH, or the OF.
The first trade is a ludicrous. Hamilton still has value (and is 6 years younger), even if he’s inconsistent.