Odds and Ends: Peavy, Ellsbury, Montero, Fukumori
More random rumors to devour…
- The Braves are looking at adding Damian Miller as their backup catcher. The Nats are known to have interest and more playing time for Miller. The Padres are considering him as well; Miller will definitely play in ’08.
- Jake Peavy will get a three-year, $52MM extension with a $22MM option for 2013. Who knows how the Padres will feel about that option when they get there. Peavy will earn $15MM in 2010, $16MM in ’11, and $17MM in ’12. The ’13 option has a $4MM buyout attached.
- Jacoby Ellsbury signed on with the Scott Boras Corporation. I made an error earlier saying Jon Lester had as well.
- Pirates inked utility man Chris Gomez for a million bucks.
- The Nationals have their eye on Arizona’s Miguel Montero. They’re also one of the ten teams in on Kazuo Fukumori. Barry Svrluga tosses a new Japanese reliever into the mix: Katsuhiko Maekawa. Don’t know a thing about him yet.
- Larry LaRue tries to explain why the Mariners didn’t offer arbitration to Jose Guillen.
Braves Offer James For DeJesus?
UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 4:21pm: Debunked! David O’Brien says the Braves aren’t in talks about DeJesus, and the Royals have a negative opinion of James anyway.
FROM 12-4-07 at 2:09pm:
According to the KC Star’s Bob Dutton, the Jose Guillen signing puts the Royals in a better position to trade David DeJesus or Joey Gathright. The Rangers and Braves are on DeJesus’ trail. Dutton believes the Braves offered up lefty Chuck James for him. It seems a little light, as I’m not sure James could be effective in the American League. Royals GM Dayton Moore, of course, came from the Atlanta organization.
Dutton says not only is Hiroki Kuroda looking for four years, he may want $48MM. The Royals could move on and spend the money on Andruw Jones instead, if he’ll take a one or two-year deal. The money could also be diverted to Carlos Silva if he’ll take 4/40. Otherwise the Royals will just chase rehab guys like Jason Jennings, Kris Benson, and Matt Clement.
Cubs Send Infante and Ohman To Braves
UPDATE: 12-4-07 at 10:05am: Rosenthal confirms this baby, noting that the Cubs freed up a few mil for other pursuits.
FROM 12-4-07 at 9:23am:
According to Bruce Levine of ESPN Radio 1000, the Cubs have sent lefty reliever Will Ohman and infielder Omar Infante to the Braves for righty reliever Jose Ascanio. Ascanio closed a bit for the Braves’ Double A affiliate last year; he turns 23 in May. He seems to have strong groundball tendencies.
Infante (acquired for Jacque Jones) and Ohman were a bit redundant on the Cubs’ roster. They already had Scott Eyre and perhaps Sean Marshall coming from the left side out of the pen. And they’ve got plenty of middle infielders in Ronny Cedeno, Mark DeRosa, Mike Fontenot, and Ryan Theriot.
Who knows how this one will play out, but the Braves filled a couple of needs more cheaply than they might’ve on the open market. Ohman makes $1.6MM next year; Infante should be under $2MM.
Cubs Looking At Hamilton, McLouth
The Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan has a new column up discussing a couple of outfielders in the Cubs’ sights aside from Kosuke Fukudome. Apparently they’re after someone who can handle center field in case Felix Pie falters.
- Those Josh Hamilton rumors are real – and the Reds are asking for Sean Marshall. I think the Cubs would pull the trigger on that one. Jerry Crasnick first suggested this match about five hours ago. He thought Marshall wouldn’t be enough and I agreed. Guess we’ll see. Sullivan notes that Lou Piniella had some contact with Hamilton back when he managed the Devil Rays.
- The Cubs are also in talks regarding Nate McLouth. Sullivan thinks McLouth would come cheap – for a reliever like Carmen Pignatiello, Neal Cotts, or Will Ohman. Damn, that’s cheap. We learned today that the Giants, Padres, and Marlins like McLouth; Sullivan adds the Braves to the mix as well.
O’Brien’s Latest: Andruw, Marte, James
The AJC’s David O’Brien has a rumor update on his blog. Let’s summarize.
- The White Sox are very reluctant to go after Andruw Jones, because of Scott Boras. They’d offer three years and less than $30MM, which would result in a dial tone. Unless it was a cell phone.
- The Braves need a lefty reliever, and might turn to the Pirates for Damaso Marte. That’d be easier to pull off if the Yankees opt to sign Ron Mahay or Jeremy Affeldt for their lefty reliever.
- O’Brien suggests the Braves have collected a starting pitching surplus, which is a dangerous thought. What do you want to bet there’d be no surplus six months from now, if the current group is maintained? O’Brien believes some team might push hard for Chuck James, anyway.
- Matt Diaz may be available, if Brandon Jones proves MLB-ready. First baseman Scott Thorman may also be on the market.
Pirates Rumors: Bay, Morris, McLouth, Nady
Dejan Kovacevic and John Perrotto have the latest on the plans of Neal Huntington’s Pirates.
- Both beat writers are saying not to expect Jason Bay to be traded at the Meetings. It would be a sell-low move with bad PR.
- Both also agree that Matt Morris staying put. Kovacevic spins it as if the Pirates should actually want to keep Morris, while Perrotto’s sources suggest the Bucs would have to eat more than 70% of Morris’ contract to ditch him.
- Kovacevic also suggests that the Pirates need Jack Wilson, and that’s why he won’t be going anywhere.
- Relievers Salomon Torres, Damaso Marte, and John Grabow are available and drawing some interest. Marte in particular interests the Yankees.
- Chris Duffy can be had; the Braves and Marlins have previously expressed interest. Maybe they’ll renew that with center field vacancies and a new Pirates GM. Duffy will start in Triple A if he’s not dealt.
- The Pirates are still talking to Shawn Chacon about returning.
- Perrotto notes that interest in center fielder Nate McLouth is picking up, with the Padres and Marlins interested.
- Xavier Nady won’t be non-tendered, contrary to previous reports.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Roberts, Barrett, Piazza
Ken Rosenthal is presumably in Nashville doing what he does best – collect trade rumors by the dozen. His latest column is an excellent example. What’s the over/under on Rosenthal scoops over the next four days? I’ll set it at 10.
- Rosenthal says the Mets are unwilling to extend the contract of GM Omar Minaya, who is signed through 2009. The lack of job security could compel Minaya to mortgage the future, and the Lastings Milledge trade was a good example. Carlos Gomez, watch out. Here’s MLBTR’s look at Omar Minaya’s Mets trade profile.
- The Astros, Giants, and Cardinals aren’t really in the running for Miguel Cabrera, so they don’t need to wait for that shoe to drop to go after Miguel Tejada. However it sounds like all three clubs don’t have the talent even for a Tejada trade. Jon Heyman mentioned today that the Orioles do have interest in Adam Everett and Michael Bourn of the Astros.
- Here’s a good one: Peter Angelos favorite Brian Roberts might be available. The Mets and Astros inquired but moved on, but Roberts might be just what the Cubs are looking for. The Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec recently told us that he doesn’t expect Andy MacPhail to move Roberts unless he’s "totally overwhelmed."
- The Marlins, Rays, and Orioles have interest in Michael Barrett. In the case of Baltimore, the interest indicates the availability of Ramon Hernandez. If Barrett can find a multiyear deal from one of those teams, he may decline the Padres’ offer of arbitration. It’s a catch-22, though, because that would make Barrett much less signable in terms of draft pick compensation.
- If Barrett does decline, the Padres might bring Mike Piazza back.
- The Nationals keep asking for Rickie Weeks for Chad Cordero, and the Brewers keep saying no.
- The Braves are big fans of Coco Crisp, and could have a passing interest in Corey Patterson. But they certainly wouldn’t mind going with internal options in center next year.
- Aaron Rowand is definitely getting that five-year deal – a Mystery Team has already offered one. The Yanks could pursue him if they trade the Melk Man.
- Deja vu – the Yanks and Mets both like Octavio Dotel, again. It’s known that Octavio loves New York.
Today’s Arbitration Decisions
The decision whether to offer your own free agent arbitration can affect your team in two ways: you may end up retaining a player you didn’t want, or you may score a draft pick or two as compensation. With that in mind let’s run down the rumors regarding some Type A and B free agents.
- The Red Sox plan on offering arbitration to Type B Eric Gagne. Worst case scenario, they hang onto him for one more year. Best case, they get a sandwich pick.
- The Astros have to decide on Trever Miller and Mark Loretta. Both are Type Bs, but the Astros might not want them back. Richard Justice notes that the old Astro regime made a mistake not offering arbitration to Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte.
- The Angels decided not to offer arby to Bartolo Colon, because the most they could give him would be a 20% pay cut. So best case scenario they could get him for one year, $11.2MM. Colon is not a Type A or B, so there’s no compensation regardless.
- The Phils will offer arb to Aaron Rowand but not Freddy Garcia. Rowand is a Type A, Garcia a Type B. It’s a no-brainer with Rowand, who will hopefully net them a first-round pick plus a supplemental depending on who he signs with. With Garcia they risked getting burned as he might’ve accepted.
- The D’Backs will offer arbitration to Livan Hernandez, who will likely decline it to pursue a three-year deal. He’s a Type B so they’ll snag a sandwich pick.
- The Padres will offer arbitration to Michael Barrett, and Kevin Towers actually hopes he accepts. No worries if he doesn’t – Barrett is a Type A. The Friars will also offer arby to Mike Cameron and Doug Brocail. Brocail nets them a sandwich pick for sure; Cameron still has a slight chance of accepting.
- The Braves did not offer arb to Andruw Jones but did for Ron Mahay. Both are Type Bs; I’m surprised they didn’t want to risk Andruw returning on a one-year deal.
Braves’ Arbitration Plans
David O’Brien of the AJC writes about the Braves’ arbitration plans.
- No arby for Andruw Jones, meaning no draft pick compensation. Frank Wren must really have thought there was a chance Andruw accepts and they get "stuck" with him for one more year. Would that really have been so bad? Not sure I get this move. Anyway Scott Miller lists the teams in need of a center fielder thusly: Rangers, Phillies, Padres, White Sox, Giants, Dodgers, Royals, and Orioles. We could see the Rangers, Dodgers, or Royals signing Jones.
- Ron Mahay will get offered arby, which he will certainly decline. So there’s some draft pick goodness there.
- Curious who’s a Type A, who’s a Type B, and who’s nothin’? Check out the free agent list.
Odds and Ends: Santana, Hunter
Let’s kick off the morning with some odds and ends, absent any earth-shattering rumors. I’ll keep adding to this post.
- Awesome inside look at the Torii Hunter deal via Bob Nightengale. Hunter’s first choice outside of Minnesota was the Cardinals, but they weren’t interested.
- Hunter – not overpaid? So says J.C. Bradbury.
- Still some confusion about Johan Santana‘s no-trade clause. Buster Olney says it’s full and doesn’t indicate that the rights change on any certain date. Matthew Cerrone says it’s a full NTC only until Opening Day ’08, when it switches to 12 teams. Those are not mutually exclusive comments, so I guess we’ll see.
- Phil Rogers doesn’t think the Cubs will re-sign Kerry Wood. He also sees the Giants in the lead for Miguel Cabrera now.
- My coworker Jonathan makes a good point – thought the Sox wouldn’t give four-year deals to pitchers? They made a huge fuss over Mark Buehrle. Suddenly Scott Linebrink is worthy of breaking the rule again? Some are skeptical.
- Bobby Kielty typically smacks around left-handed pitching (Brian Fuentes for example). He’ll hook on as some team’s fourth outfielder as a free agent. He’d like to return to Boston, but that would require a Coco Crisp trade. Rob Bradford names the Twins, Braves, Rangers, and White Sox as possibilities otherwise.