Reds GM Walt Jocketty is of the mindset that his team will need to either be “all in” or “all out” in 2015, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. In other words, if the Reds decide to trade one of four starters who is eligible for free agency following the 2015 season — Johnny Cueto, Mat Latos, Mike Leake, and Alfredo Simon — others may very well follow. Sherman lists Jay Bruce and Aroldis Chapman as names to watch if Cincinnati does elect to go into a full rebuild. Both can be free agents after 2016, though the Reds have a club option on Bruce for the 2017 season.
Here’s more from the game’s Central divisions…
- Sherman also tweets that the Cubs aren’t likely to spend big on a closer this winter, which seemingly eliminates a potential suitor for David Robertson. Earlier today, reports indicated that Robertson is seeking a contract comparable to Jonathan Papelbon’s four-year, $50MM contract.
- The Tigers are willing to listen to offers on Alex Avila, tweets the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo. Avila has a $5.4MM club option for his final arb year and was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn the same amount in arbitration. Cafardo notes that the Braves and Red Sox are both looking for left-handed bats. While both have inexperienced catchers (Christian Bethancourt and Christian Vasquez, respectively), adding Avila would limit each team’s ability to get an extended look at how their young backstop handles a full workload.
- John Manuel of Baseball America tweets that the Tigers’ defense up the middle in 2015 could be special with Jose Iglesias and the newly acquired Anthony Gose. He also notes that Devon Travis, who went to the Blue Jays in the deal, now has a clear shot to Major League playing time that he may not have had in Detroit.
- The Royals could scout Yasmany Tomas in the Dominican Republic next week, reports Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star. Royals officials will be in the Dominican Republic on other business anyway and met with Tomas’ agent, Jay Alou, earlier this week at the GM Meetings. The team’s payroll could surpass the $100MM mark for the first time next season, and there’s perhaps room for one significant expenditure such as Tomas, Ervin Santana or Melky Cabrera, McCullough writes.
- Billy Butler is receiving interest from a number of clubs — even one National League club — tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The interest in Butler likely means that a return to the Royals isn’t the best fit, he adds. McCullough reported Tuesday that K.C. doesn’t seem inclined to go beyond two years to retain Butler.
- Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wonders if the Brewers will consider trading a starting pitcher (Twitter link). The Brew Crew needs some payroll flexibility, and the Braves are one team that has been poking around at the GM Meetings.
Good, the Cubs don’t need a closer. I don’t see why they feel Rondon didn’t earn his spot.
Even lets say Rondon doesn’t do what he did this past season, they still can use Neil Ramirez or Arodys Vizcaino
RONDON is still healing from tommy john surgery !
Still healing from the Tommy John surgery he had in 2010? His 2014 performance says otherwise.
Just didn’t see the Cubs signing Robertson. I think a dream scenario offseason for the Cubs would be to sign Lester, Martin, and Miller. That would be perfect
MIL already traded a SP, Estrada.
True but the Brewers have nearly maxed out their payroll and still have other needs. Trading either Gallardo or Lohse and slotting Jimmy Nelson in the rotation will give them the financial flexibility to add some bench and bullpen depth.
As great as Robertson is, I don’t see a reason a team should pay a closer more than $10MM AAV. Performance bonuses can be added/included.
Robertson should have banked the 15 million and become an unrestricted FA the next year. Someone will give him 3 years and 30 million all day long so why not bank the 15 million and make the extra 5 million? Too many suspect players have passed on the Qualifying Offer and end up waiting and siging for less. 3 guys last year lost over 20 million combined. One (CRUZ) is the only one who will get a 3 year contract and make up the difference while the other two will probably get 2 year contracts at 10 million a year best.
I would not touch Avila, despite my love for his skills. He is a concussion away from retirement. His head is just too beaten up to take the chance in trading away a long-term asset to get him.
I wonder if it would take a long term asset. Last year Fister went on the cheap because they needed to drop salary to sign Nathan, and they had a replacement ready in Smyly. This year they have McCann ready to replace Avila.
The more desperate the Tigers are to get rid of him, the less I want him. So the failure to hold out for a B-/C+ prospect for him would make this trade seem even more troubling. One doesn’t drop their quality starting catcher in his prime years over a $5MM salary. Dombrowski is no fool, and neither are we.
I was thinking the same thing……that’s a reasonable contract and his own father is in the front office. It doesn’t make sense for a team who appears to be all in again next year.
Unless they use the money to sign Melky Cabrera.
Who catches? 5.5 million is reasonable for a decent starting catcher. It would seem to me that they would be hard pressed to fill that role on the cheap.
Good question. I’m just trying to put two and two together. Word is they were very interested in Melky. Seemed like a back up plan in case they couldn’t resign Victor. But with the Avila trade rumor, maybe they feel they could go with James McCann and Bryan Holaday if the cleared enough money to add Melky.
Billy butler is probably going to Texas because I heard the rangers might be interested
No way the Reds just give up in 2015. Might as well make the most out of Votto while you can, because that contract is going to be a huge hindrance if they choose to rebuild. I mean, it already is a huge hindrance, but you might as well try to win if you’re overpaying a guy that much.
But his contract is a good reason to try and put cheap young talent around him, not guys like Brandon Phillips and Homer Bailey.
Still don’t understand the Bailey signing. There is like no vision for this team, I still thank that if they could resign 2 of Latos, Cueto Leake and Simon to deals than the Reds could be good for 3 to 4 more years before everyone starts getting old and out of prime.
I really don’t see them having the money to sign Latos or Cueto, but I think signing Leake and Simon is possible. I don’t see Simon as anything special, despite the numbers he put up this year, but he’s good enough to be 5th in the rotation.
I can agree that now is the time to move Chapman, but Bruce’s down year has hurt his value. I’d rather hang on to him and see if he can get back to his norm in 2015.
They’ve already made their bed with Bailey. Nobody is going to touch that deal.
The player can ask for whatever they want but Robertson has not earned a four year top dollar contract. When Paplebon got “Paplebon” money he was a four time all star with over 200 saves and that deal is still panned as an overpay.
I never understood how anyone linked Robertson to the Cubs in the first place, especially since the Cubs have Rondon, Grimm, Ramirez, and Strop already in the pen. Vizcaino could be a good pen arm in ’15, too.
Probably because of all the reports earlier saying Cubs will spend big, so a lot of people linked Cubs to the top free agents. It’s not that Cubs can’t make room for Robertson its more that funds would be better spent elsewhere. Bullpen depth is a good thing to have but as you said it’s not a weakness for the Cubs. White Sox and Yankees are still the best fit for Robertson IMO.
White Sox are likely more inclined to spend the money elsewhere…they’ll work on the pen…but not on the contract Robertson is demanding.
Cubs are the Dodgers who are the new Yankees
Considering the Reds payroll limitations and their current roster, if it was up to me, I would start over. They have pretty good trade pieces, which they could still turn into very valuable prospects, but they would need to move now before they lose those players for nothing and/or before those trade chips grow old and become useless.
What about a Hamels/Howard trade to Cincinnati for Joey Votto? Phils pay almost all of Howard’s salary, gives a legitimate chance for the Reds to win because he is unhittable on that mound at GABP. Rubin, pull the trigger!!!!!
You must be a Reds fan
I’m actually a Phillies fan…..just makes sense for both clubs. Reds can get out of Votto’s contract, they get a super number 1, anything they get from Howard is a bonus, and if Adam Dunn can hit it in the river there, Howard can hit it to Covington….just makes sense….
So you want to trade a bad contract for a bad contract and give them your best player? Actually makes no sense
The Phillies are in a dire situation. It’s bad enough when your President/VP/whatever he is(Gillick) says we have no chance for the next 2 years–that may be true, but he doesn’t have to publicly say it. They are going to move Hamels if they are “overwhelmed”. Votto is overwhelming and young enough to rebuild around. They can also afford him, so it makes sense for the Phillies. The Reds are (according to this article above) potentially going for it this year, so Hamels gives them that shot to put them over the edge, and they need to replace 1B and the Phillies want to move Howard and since the Reds can’t afford Howard’s contract, the Phillies pay th e$60 mill to move him. They are going to eat that anyway. Just talked to a DIE HARD Reds fan and he agrees. It’s essentially Hamels for Votto, with a free Howard throw in. Why doesn’t that make sense?
Because soon that Votto contract is going to look like Howard’s contract.
Fair point–we can only speculate on what Votto does the rest of his career, but at least he’s an upgrade at first defensively. It’s definitely a risk, but the Phil’s can afford it with their Comcast deal. I guess this could be a second option to trading Hamels to the Red Sox and hoping to steal all of their top-tier prospects(that isn’t going to happen).
Votto is 31. I don’t know if I’d call that young enough to build a team around. Either way, this trade would never happen in a million years. Ruben wanted 3 top prospects for Hamels, so I doubt he’ll settle with a declining veteran with a bad contract.
Looks like a good deal to me, but yeah, I am a Reds fan. It does seem like the Phillies would want more than just Votto though, especially if they are taking on the bulk of Howard’s salary too.
I think there’s a good chance that Ryan Howard is DH for KC next season
Wouldn’t Kimbrel’s contract be the one to measure against? He’s the best closer in the game, and recently signed a contract. Robertson is not better than Kimbrel, so I don’t see why anyone would offer him what his contract is (4 year/ $42m).
Not totally valid because that was an extension and not a FA contract, as was Papelbon’s (PHI). FA market yields more significant returns, whether or not they’re justified.
I see your point, but not sure I totally understand it. I know it’s about supply demand (Robertson is the best closer on the market, and apparently there is solid demand for his services), but wouldn’t GM’s consider that the best closer in the games contract? I guess what you’re saying is that the demand is going to drive up the price, whereas you do not have the same demand when someone is already under contract and it’s simply an extension?
Very happy that the Tigers are getting players that fit their stadium. Gose is like Jackie Bradley Jr. with a reasonable OBP and without the Boston, over inflated hype.
TheTigs have been scouting the jays for a while ,that team north of the boarder is only 2 starting pitchers from contending, Tigers might have more dealings with them!
I love Gose and I’m sad to see him join Rajai in Detroit but don’t get excited about his ability to get on base. He can’t hit or bunt. He’s a great glove and he’s great once he gets on base (though he got caught often stealing).
Anthony had some spectacular moments in ’14 with Toronto and I hope he reaches his potential.
But he’s not a starting center fielder yet..
If the Reds are serious about a rebuild, then the Cards should definitely be inquiring about Jay Bruce. Although I doubt Jocketty would be in a big hurry to deal him within the division.