Here’s the latest on a number of free agent or trade candidate relievers…
- The Astros have discussed former Nationals closer Drew Storen as a potential backup plan, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. Storen could become of more interest to Houston if it fails to land one of its bigger-name targets like Aroldis Chapman, Jake McGee or Ken Giles.
- The Astros’ search for bullpen help is the major focus of this Houston Winter Meetings preview piece from MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. Within the piece, McTaggart notes that there’s mutual interest between the Astros and free agent Tony Sipp for the lefty to return to Houston though the price tag remains an issue. It could be that the Astros will focus on landing a big name closer first and then address other relief needs like adding a sorely-needed lefty to the bullpen.
- The Cubs, Padres and Twins have shown the most interest in Fernando Rodney, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. Rodney would ideally prefer to return to closing, a source tells Berardino, so the Padres could have the edge in this respect since the back of their bullpen is wide open with Craig Kimbrel and Joaquin Benoit gone. Rodney followed up three years of excellent closer numbers from 2012-14 with a disastrous stint in early 2015 that cost him his stopper job with the Mariners, though he regained some old form after catching on as a setup man with the Cubs late in the season.
- There haven’t been any developments between the Twins and Joakim Soria since the team made its initial contact, Berardino tweets. The Royals, Blue Jays, Giants, Rangers, Tigers and Red Sox have all been among the other teams linked to Soria this winter, though the latter two are said to be out of the running after their respective acquisitions of Francisco Rodriguez and Craig Kimbrel. Soria is looking for a big salary in the form of a three-year deal in the $27MM range, which may eliminate at least a couple of those teams who were only looking at Soria as a setup reliever.
- Also from Berardino (via Twitter), Rafael Soriano is pitching well in the Dominican League and has drawn attention from a few MLB teams. The Twins aren’t one of those clubs.
The Twins need lots of relief help. They should start by re-signing Boyer and/or Cotts, and then adding one of Clippard, Cishek, Sipp, Soria, Madson, or Bastardo.
Does anyone think Tony Sipp really enjoyed those carton iced tea boxes from the 90s called SSIPS? I remember they had commercials w Scottie pippen
No
Oh, ok
I really think houstons bullpen would be phenomenal if they snagged storen and brought back Sipp, the only questions would be if storen can transition from NL to AL and if Sipp can be as good as he was last year
I think houston is aiming for higher caliber closing than storen, aroldis or giles. They have the prospects to get a trade for either of them done.
I get that but I mean if storen can transition he would be a very good closer his stuff is nasty and they can keep the farm system in tact, I for one as a Phillies fan dont fully understand them shopping Giles as young and talented as he is when they are in a rebuild, and chapman a price is way to high that no team wants him, if they get storen they won’t give up as much as they would for either Giles or chapman
Rodney’s gonna play another year? How old is he now?
Cubs interested in Rodney? I’m a bit surprised. He seems kind of in-between. He’ll cost too much to be a roster fill guy, and isn’t really good enough to close.
how much does he even cost right now, though, after the season he just had
If Rodney can repeat his September for all of 2016 then some team going to get lucky. Padres if cheap , get him!