Here’s the latest from Ken Rosenthal, via a video at FOX Sports:
- Some within baseball believe Dave Stewart might be a top candidate for the Diamondbacks’ open GM position, but that he can’t confirm that he’s overly interested in the job until he knows it can be his. Otherwise, he risks losing clients as a player agent.
- The Orioles are lucky to have avoided signing Manny Machado, Matt Wieters and Chris Davis, Rosenthal suggests. Machado and Wieters are dealing with injuries, while Davis has struggled through a disappointing season and is now serving a 25-game suspension for amphetamine use. The Orioles, meanwhile, have Nelson Cruz, J.J. Hardy and potentially Nick Markakis due for free agency this winter, and they’ll need to have money available if they want to keep them.
- Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine could be a candidate for a top position with the Rockies if Colorado decides to make changes in its front office. Levine is also a potential candidate for the open GM job in Arizona. The Rockies could choose an internal candidate if they do replace or reassign Dan O’Dowd and/or Bill Geivett, however.
machado should be resigned, his power really kicked in before he got hurt. he also had a great second half, and is probably the best fielding third baseman in baseball /
Machado is still under team control through the 2018 season. Rosenthal means the team was fortunate to have avoided committing large dollars to Machado at this particular juncture.
Baltimore still has plenty of time to make a decision on locking him up. He isn’t eligible for arbitration until after the 2015 season.
Machado is probably 4 years away from having to worry about signing him. They can try to buy out some of his first free agent years but it’s a touch too early, esp. after 2 consecutive knee surgeries.
The arbitration system still has plenty of value. Signing players to long term deals does have its risks and teams like Orioles don’t have a ton of wiggle room for bad contracts.
Agreed. Signing Davis last year at such a high would have been a disaster for the Os. Not extending him looks like a brilliant non-move today.
I also think the Orioles will have a better farm system in the future. I’m not an Orioles fan but I’ve always been a huge Duquette guy. As a Red Sox fan I give him a lot of credit for that 2004 team. Theo and co. finished off a strong nucleus built by Duquette and who can forget his tenure in Montreal.
O’s should let all three of Hardy, Markakis, and Cruz walk, with a few QO’s thrown in.
Markakis it is time to move on. Cruz and Hardy you have a good chance to sign. Davis definitely time to let him go if you can trade him.
The O’s have a great chance of signing all three. But just because they have a great chance, doesn’t mean they should. I just don’t think any of them are going to produce at a level that it would justify the O’s sinking their limited payroll into. Better to get a pick or two from QO’s, and try to make up the lost production with better investments.
The question comes down to the years. All of them will be looking for multi-year commitments. And, that means each of them, considering their ages, will look to get contracts that absorb a decline year or two, which I’d guess about 3 yr contracts each. That’s a lot of dollars tied up, which will detract from their chances at extending other franchise guys like Machado et al.
I would say replacing Hardy would probably be a big problem.
Finding a legit quality SS can be an ongoing year-to-year thing until a quality one becomes available. We could, and probably would be prompted to, move Machado there, but then that’s just solving one problem by creating a new one.
Moving Machado back to short after another injury would definitely be risky. I agree, I’d leave him at third.