Johnny Cueto tops the list as the key player to watch at the Winter Meetings, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman writes in his latest Inside Baseball piece. Several big-market clubs have already checked in on Cueto and the Dodgers may hold particular interest since they considered trading for Cueto at the deadline last summer but held off out of a desire to keep their top prospects. Heyman’s piece was written before the news of Zack Greinke’s deal with the Diamondbacks broke, so it stands to reason that the Dodgers’ interest could be even greater with Greinke off the board. The Cardinals, Heyman reports, haven’t checked in on Cueto, as the righty “had a rough relationship with Cardinal Nation while starring in Cincinnati.”
Here are some of the hot stove highlights of Heyman’s lengthy news roundup…
- The Giants may pursue not one but two pitchers now that they’ve missed out on Greinke. San Francisco is “believed to have big money to spend” and they’ve been connected to such names as Mike Leake and Jeff Samardzija.
- The Rangers are receiving a lot of interest in many of their top relievers, including closer Shawn Tolleson, Jake Diekman, Sam Dyson and the newly-acquired Tom Wilhelmsen.
- The Rangers’ shopping list includes a right-handed bat for lineup balance and a starting pitcher likely to fill out the back of the rotation. Texas is also looking for a young catcher. Earlier this week, the Rangers were said to be working on a deal to add a catcher but no trade materialized.
- Pedro Alvarez has received calls from five teams, including the Indians, since being non-tendered by the Pirates earlier this week.
- Another non-tendered Alvarez, former Marlins righty Henderson Alvarez, is also drawing a lot of interest on the open market, with 10 teams checking in. Though 2015 was a lost year for Alvarez due to injuries and he may miss some time in 2016 in the wake of shoulder surgery, it’s no surprise that Alvarez is a hot commodity given his track record.
- The Marlins’ desire to trade Marcell Ozuna is well-known, though Heyman notes that one obstacle is Miami’s lack of a ready-made replacement in center field. In a tweet from this morning, Heyman wonders if Dexter Fowler could be pursued since Fowler was formerly tutored by new Miami hitting coach Barry Bonds. There hasn’t yet been any sign that the Marlins are interested in Fowler, however.
- Speaking of Marlins trades, closer A.J. Ramos and third baseman Martin Prado have both drawn interest but Heyman figures the team isn’t too likely to part with either player.
- A few teams called the Dodgers to ask about Yasiel Puig’s availability but the Dodgers aren’t keen on selling low on the outfielder. The team intends to “try to reach him” and inspire Puig to return to his old form. The Dodgers are more likely to trade Carl Crawford or Andre Ethier if they do decide to move an outfielder, though dealing either could be hard given the crowded outfield market (not to mention both players’ salaries).
- Daniel Murphy was connected to the Dodgers this offseason but he “doesn’t appear to be at the forefront” of the team’s plans at the moment.
- The Mets seem to be more serious about adding a platoon partner for Juan Lagares in center field rather than sign an everyday center fielder like Fowler or Denard Span.
- Brett Gardner’s name has surfaced in trade rumors this winter but “there isn’t currently any traction for a trade” between the Yankees and any other teams.
- The Yankees are another team monitoring the free agent pitching market and New York “may be laying in the weeds” to make its move on Samardzija or Wei-Yin Chen.
- Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar would be a fit with the Cubs but there is “nothing to that one at the moment.” It’s hard to see Toronto dealing the defensively-spectacular Pillar given how their next best center field option (Dalton Pompey) is still unproven at the Major League level and struggled badly when given the everyday job last April.
Ethier or Crawford could end up in SD
What?????? Do you live in a cave? Didn’t Pads just trade last year for like a billion overpaid outfielders?? Lol
don’t need to pay for them if the other team is paying – need a lefty hitter for LF
Dodgers are not paying for Kemp now other then only $5million. The rest is now on the Padres payroll unlike last year
After last winter’s splurge blew up in their face, the Padres are in limbo. And in limbo, I mean a train wreck.
Fowler tutored Bonds? You learn something new every day!
Fowler WAS tutored by Bonds, not the other way around
Any chance giants go after a big name OF like heyward?
No. It’ll just be another Giants’ rumor.
Heyward is a RF by trade….and a left-handed hitter….more likely they check in with Cespedes. ….a natural LF, and considerably less expensive than Heyward.
I don’t know why Cespedes would be “considerably less expensive than Heyward!” Cespedes is coming off a career best season and he’s only 30. Yes, Heyward is a couple years younger but his best season is only as good as Yoenis’s worst season. If you want someone who can provide some thump in the lineup….it’s pretty clear who is more valuable.
Cash has been pretty careful recently with his farm system and draft picks. I could see them going big on a Maeda/Leake type, or another option that doesn’t require compensation. Chen and Samardzija could both be over $100m with the way the market is going, so going for an option in the same price range or slightly cheaper without the draft pick might match their tendencies the past year+
How about a braves deal, Shelby Miller, Tyrell Jenkins, Nick Markakis, and Christian Bethancourt for Brett Gardner, Gary Sanchez and Luis Severino.
If you also put Julio T. also in deal maybe the Yankees gives up Severino.
No way Cardinals get Gordon because Holiday plays LF,hasn’t played 3B since been a Rookie same with RF/1B maybe but Carpenter could move over to 1B.
Add Teherán and Freeman LOL
The trademeister seems to have somehow managed to unlock the liquor cabinet and consume it’s entire contents in a short visit……..LOL
No brett gardner or severino and we will give them beltran and sanchez
Cueto will never be a Cardinal. Mo needs to sign Chen or the Shark, Alex Gordon, and Ryan Madson.
I could see them doing something like that or maybe another buy low option like Kazmir
That would work too. If the Cardinals are really planning to spend big this offseason, I would mainly like to see the Cardinals spread that 180-200Million around on a few players like the ones I mentioned above. This three players could easily be attainable within the $170-180 million range.
Cards don’t really need an OF…..they have Holliday, Grichuck, Piscotty, Jay, and Pham……..I wish they’d ink Heyward (Holliday contract up after ’16)….but they don’t typically spend that big. They tendered Moss, so they think they are set at 1st (with Adams
The cards don’t need to bring heyward back, they have plenty of in house options to fill the void of heyward. But they lost lackey, who was actually their ace when wainwright went down, Wacha had a great year but Lackey was the glue to the rotation. I can see the Cards going after maybe chen or kazmir
Spot on angelsfan…….Their “future OF” certainly does look awfully solid without even adding Heyward….doesn’t make sense to spend the 200+ million (might reach 240 if teams value youth & defense)
they were willing to spend 190 on price, which he would of taken that offer but then boston gave him 217, he would of been better of going to the cards, a better playoff atmosphere. I think the angels actually take a risk on getting heyward, they need a left fielder badly and a lefty bat, if its not heyward I hope gordon.
Angels were never afraid to dole out big contracts, but will the new FO do the same? You’ve said yes before, but Gordon seems to be a much better value if he stays around $100 – 120 million……doesn’t he? Heyward is going to want an “opt-out” in 4-5 years…….in case he rakes!
I think gordon will be cheaper honestly, 5 years maybe over 100 million, Heyward could be around 6-7 years for like 185-200. Also they need to fill the void at third base
You kind of proved my point on Gordon here.. Holliday will be gone after 2016 (unless he has a crazy season and they pick up his option). Gordon would take over LF when Holliday exits. Till then he can flip back and forth from RF-CF-LF.
The giants always have money but they always missed the players that they try to sign.For instance, David Price and Zack Greinke. I was hoping to see Greinke with the Giants.On the other hand, the Cardinals will not sign Cueto because they are not planning to pay 18-22 millions per year.
I agree with you on the giants, it seems that they have always feigned interest on players just to raise the price ever since the Barry Zito deal went south
The Cardinals were prepared to give $180MM to Price. I don’t think they’ll sign Cueto, but not because if the AAV.
With Price, Grienke, and Zimmerman all off the market and still a handful of suitors Cueto must be sitting back with a big smile on his face right now.
He played his cards well for sure.
I don’t want to see Texas move any of their relief depth. Its a nice thing to be able to shut down games after the 5th or 6th inning. I’d like to see them pony up the cash for Cespedes. Beltre’s contract comes off the books after next season and all of our rising prospect bats are left handed. Go get that right handed bat JD!
Rangers need to leave the bullpen intact.With the addition of Wilhelmsen it pretty much gives the Rangers the best pen in the A.L west and probably in contention with Kc for best bullpen in the A.L…..A good righty bat would be nice but not at the expense of any of the hard throwing guys in the pen.
Samardzija is a Giant. Cueto is a Dodger. So thats the end of the top end pitching. The real question is who has money left for Heyward, Cespedes, Davis, Upton? Yankees, Angels, Mariners, Astros, Nationals, Cardinals?
I believe the angels will go all in for one of the outfielders, they prefer a left handed bat, but if they are off the board then i would get cespedes, a great arm and a lot of power
But at a career .318 obp, they have to be weighing their options. With what people are predicting him to sign for, I wouldn’t touch him
Well Eppler values defense, that shows when they made the trade for Simmons,
What kind of contract would Henderson Alvarez be looking for? Wondering if the Pirates could make sense.
I kinda had the angels looking to scoop him up, they have plenty of depth but they traded away their top two pitching prospects for simmons, Alvarez could be really cheap for any club, then the angels could look to trade a pitcher to make room.
Be careful what you wish for. So. Florida guy here….HA has shoulder issues that “won’t go away”….albeit he should come pretty cheap if somebody wants to take the risk.
The White Sox are just sitting, waiting for the right time to strike.
I can feel it!
You might be right. They should have plenty of cash to spend.
they could shock everyone and win the bid for Maeda, they need a right handed pitcher in that lefty heavy rotation, or even a mike leake.
Looking at Desmond?
Didn’t desmond turn down like a 6 year 107 million offer from the nationals?
Again…..Why can’t the Cardinals General Manager Ever get any top deals done on Top top of the line impact players??? The only top tier players he has ever spent money were our own players!!! Top pitchers are already gone. We just feel that as long as Moe is the GM, big players will NEVER come to St. Louis!!!! He’s out of the loop! He’s always 2nd or 3rd on the bidding list, just to make things look good. Then signed the low hanging fruit that spoils by the end of the season, or trades off top prospects for virtually nothing I’m return!! (The Miller-Hayward deal, trading Kaminisky, acquiring Masterson, Moss, Cisnek, McReynolds, and keeping Kozma on the roster just for example). If he can’t pull off a big deal this week for 2016. I wish the Cardinals could get someone in his place that could be effective.
Lol if you think Mozeliak is a bad GM you haven’t paid attention to baseball. #1, was spent 15 MM a year on Jhonny Peralta a couple years ago, and before that we inked Beltran. Before that Holliday to a long contract. We signed numerous players to contract extensions, that were well out of the Cardinals’ comfort range.
We’ve competed for an Ace like David Price, coming up second, offering almost 25 MM a year on him. And also, we’re set to make a very big offer to Heyward, wether he accepts is a different story.
Also under Mozeliak we have 1 World Series ring, and have been there twice, and gone to the postseason every year. If we want to continue that success, it’s gonna be by playing it safe and not spending 30% of our payroll on one player. Historically, signing big players never work out.
Remember a guy named Pujols? Yeah, I’m glad we didn’t resign him. You need to understand the smartest way to run a ball club, is not always the most popular, or isn’t always by making the biggest headlines. But it is by a consistent core, with occasional signings of bigger FA players. 2011 it was Carlos Beltran, 2013 was Jhonny Peralta, 2015 could be Hayward, or Upton, or Gordon or somebody else we don’t yet know if. No offense, but Cardinal fans like you are what make a lot of people in baseball dislike us. We have the world, and some people want more. We’re not the Yankees, so we don’t need to spend like them. We can win using the method that has got us here before, and it sure won’t be by spending 300 MM in one offseason.
willriley nailed it perfectly. How many people whined about losing Albert? Think the Halo’s would like a redo on that one? Peralta isn’t a superstar but he’s delivered the numbers he did before the Cards signed him which is all you can ask of a player. Mo’s done a good job. the fact he isn’t breaking the bank to bring in someone is ok with me. His track record speaks for itself.
Maybe Mo is waiting on the Winter meetings?
Cueto will never be a Cardinal because most of us Cards fans hate him or seriously do not like him.
Everyone please remember that we have an ace ourselves coming back this year in Wainwright. No need to panic about not signing one of the top over paid pitchers this off season. A hitter with power is what we need more than a pitcher. Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha should both be able to handle more innings next year and hopefully Jaime Garcia too. Losing Lynn is a big hit because he ate up innings but there are other innings eaters out there.
I’m not too worried about changing our team that much since we just won 100 games. If we had Martinez and Wainwright (as a starter) in the Playoffs things might have been different.
I have faith in Mo to do what is best in the long term and that has been what he has done for years. We are spoiled. We are spoiled to the point it is win the World Series or bust every year now. Let’s see what the team looks like at the Trade deadline next season because that is all that matters. It is good to see us losing the dead weight of Kozma and Cruz off the bench. We are already better by subtraction of their bats off the bench.
Go Cards and keep the faith Redbirds nation.