Glavine Interested In Cards?
Sounds like Tom Glavine is considering more options than just the Mets, Braves, and retirement.
According to Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Glavine has interest in finishing his career as a Cardinal. While he might not be the "ace" the team is looking for, he might be the next best thing.
We also noted earlier this month that the Washington Nationals might be in the mix.
All that said, the Braves are probably still the favorite for Glavine. David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently expressed near certainty that the Braves would sign him.
Hunter Interested In Nationals, Braves
MLB.com’s Bill Ladson had an exclusive conversation with Torii Hunter tonight. Nicely done Bill!
Ladson learned that Hunter is interested in playing for the Nationals or Braves because of the large African American populations in D.C. and Atlanta. Hunter would like to be a leader in the community. This is an interesting factor to consider when trying to guess Hunter’s next destination. Detroit, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Cleveland have large African American populations as well. However, the Tigers and Indians don’t need a center fielder.
Another reason Hunter likes the Nats is the presence of his buddy Dmitri Young. Dmitri is the gift that just keeps on giving.
Also consider that Hunter said he’s thought about playing for his hometown Rangers "a lot a bit." And the Twins might still make a reasonable four-year offer. But remember that Hunter has expressed a "burning curiosity" to explore the open market. He’s certainly keeping his options open – it’s definitely too early to call this one. A wrinkle for the Braves besides the money would be losing the 18th overall pick next June to the Twins.
Odds and Ends: Wakefield, Guillen, Lowell
Some random rumorage not quite worthy of individual posts…
- Jeff Goldberg of the Hartford Courant speculates that Tim Wakefield could be making his final start for Boston tonight. With Wakefield, the Red Sox possess one of the most lopsided contracts in baseball history. They have a perpetual $4MM club option with him, one that never goes away until they decline it. But $4MM is nothing to the Sox, and Wakefield was certainly worth that much in ’07. They’ll exercise it.
- The Mariners were once close to an extension for Jose Guillen, but currently it’s on the backburner. Even if the team exercises his $9MM option, Guillen can and probably will void it. He’s going to want at least three years, $30MM. The Mariners could get by without him.
- Mike Lowell has more Philly connections than I realized. The Phils definitely seem like his second choice if the Red Sox let him go. I think the Phillies should just sign Mike Lamb and spend the excess money on pitching.
- Neal Huntington’s first move: a waiver claim of Kevin Thompson. It’s over now.
- Joel Pineiro gets a $500K signing bonus, $5MM in ’08, and $7.5MM in ’09. Originally he wanted to test the market, but he appreciated the Cardinals giving him a chance.
- John Schuerholz found Scott Boras’ suggestions obnoxious and idiotic. Also, Steve Phillips comments on the A-Rod/Mets situation back in 2000.
Schuerholz To Step Down
Wow, they just keep on coming. According to Ken Rosenthal, Braves GM John Schuerholz will step down (to be announced at a press conference this afternoon). Schuerholz will serve as team president, so at least he can be consulted on moves. Assistant GM Frank Wren will take his place. Wren spent about a year as Orioles’ GM in ’99.
Sometimes I can be overly critical of GMs…but Schuerholz is awesome. This is a huge loss for the Braves. On the bright side, I’m sure Wren has learned a lot working under him.
Here’s a solid look at Wren’s brief time as Orioles GM. Not sure who the author is. Even with the concession that Peter Angelos did much meddling, Wren seemingly did a lousy job. Wren did not part on good terms with the O’s – he was fired and criticized in a public statement.
Braves Notes: Hampton, Lowry, Andruw
Mike Hampton makes $15MM next year, and the Braves aren’t getting any relief from the Rockies or Marlins. However, it turns out the Braves actually spread around those payments so that they’d pay out about $8MM to Hampton in each year of the deal.
This is confirmed by Bill Shanks of Scout.com, for starters. Shanks notes that the Braves owe $8.25MM to Hampton next year because of amortization. I’ve heard that David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said something similar in the comments of one of his blog posts, but it’s been buried somewhere. Bottom line, the Braves have $7MM more than we thought they did. A $95MM payroll would give Atlanta some wiggle room to add a starter.
It’s not a stretch to add Tom Glavine, with this new information. However, O’Brien thinks the Braves need more. While Dan Haren or Joe Blanton may be out of reach, Noah Lowry seems a more realistic target. The point is to find a decent young controllable arm.
O’Brien’s also got some early interested parties in Andruw Jones: the Dodgers, Rangers, Giants, White Sox, Nationals, Phillies, and Mets. Seems like the idea of moving Beltran to right field has been discussed within the Mets organization. The Dodgers, I imagine, would shift Juan Pierre to left field.
Glavine Would Take Less Money For Braves
The AJC’s David O’Brien has a source close to Tom Glavine saying the free agent lefty would take less money to pitch for the Braves. Glavine made $10.5MM this year and already has the Mets’ $3MM buyout for ’08 in his pocket (figuratively).
O’Brien says the Braves are likely to bump up their $84MM payroll, but they’d have to go past $100MM to fit in a discounted Glavine. Or, they can clear payroll by trading Edgar Renteria for someone cheaper.
As for the talk of the Braves chasing a young Joe Blanton type, sure, I can see it. It’s just that the cupboard is a little bare.
Glavine Declines $13MM Option
As had been talked about, 41 year-old lefty Tom Glavine declined his $13MM player option for 2008. He snags a $3MM buyout in the process. This decision doesn’t seem to be about money; he just wants more time to decide between the Mets, Braves, and retirement. Actually, we might be able to count the previous Nationals speculation as a little more than that – Glavine’s agent revealed today that they won’t be ruled out.
MLB.com’s Marty Noble suggests that the Mets would be pleased to have Glavine return, but will move on and acquire another starter if he doesn’t. I’ve said this before but I wonder if the Mets will eventually be connected to Curt Schilling.
More On Tom Glavine
Let’s catch up on what’s been going on with Tom Glavine.
- SI.com’s Jack Wilkinson quotes Glavine as saying he’ll "most likely" decline his $9MM player option for 2008. This is confusing, because as far as I can tell Glavine’s player option reached $13MM when he hit 200 innings. While I can see Glavine passing on $9MM, $13MM would be hard to top on the open market.
- Also, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick suggests (Insider required) that Glavine’s close relationship with Nationals president Stan Kasten could compel Washington to sign him to a one-year deal to anchor the young staff. This seems like informed speculation to me, if that makes sense.
- My own thought: it would be nice to see Glavine take around $5MM to pitch for the Braves one last time. Seems that discounts these days ain’t what they used to be. Besides Tim Wakefield, I can’t think of a guy who basically flipped off the Player’s Union to stay where he wanted to.
Cardinals Have Work To Do
Joe Strauss has had several insightful articles lately about the future of the Cardinals. Let’s discuss.
- The Cardinals have $83.8MM committed to 12 players for 2008. Even worse, they don’t know what they’re going to get out of Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, Juan Encarnacion, and Mark Mulder. They are spending $45MM on those five and may get very little production.
- Next year’s payroll may approach $115MM on the high end, but that doesn’t mean the Cards have $30MM to burn. Their 0-3 guys will earn roughly $5MM in aggregate, and the arbitration-eligible group may run another $5MM even if a few are cut loose. So I’m thinking more like $20MM to burn, and Walt Jocketty will have to stretch that money pretty far.
- The Cardinals need a power hitter, two starters, and a shortstop. Tony La Russa, if he returns, won’t be "going young."
- Joel Pineiro could be one of the starters, but if the Cards view him as a cheap #5 they’re going to be disappointed. He’ll get paid.
- An earlier Strauss article has a couple of rumors of note. We learned that the Cards were fairly close to signing Miguel Batista last winter and almost traded Anthony Reyes to the Phillies this summer.
Here’s what I see happening this winter. The Cards will fill the rotation spots with one mid-level signing and one cheaper wild card type guy. I could see a Carlos Silva being paired with a Matt Clement. Randy Wolf could fill the wild card role if the Dodgers won’t have him back.
It might make sense to fill the shortstop hole and need for a power bat in one fell swoop. On the surface it seems like Miguel Tejada would fit the bill and Edgar Renteria wouldn’t, though Renteria outslugged Tejada this year. Regardless I expect the Cardinals to make an aggressive push for one of them (Larry Borowsky of Viva El Birdos got me thinking along these lines).
Andruw Jones’ Braves Career Over
According to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Andruw Jones has priced himself out of the Braves’ range and will not be returning next year. O’Brien says Scott Boras’ starting point was seven years and nearly $20MM annually. So basically no discount at all despite Jones’ terrible season. Boras would be a true magician to pull that off.
All of this just goes to confirm the sentiment from a few days ago. But don’t think this frees up a ton of money for the Braves to spend on Torii Hunter. As I noted earlier, a $95MM payroll (a $7MM increase from last year) would probably just buy the Braves their current roster without Andruw or Octavio Dotel. The raises are that significant.
When it’s all said and done, I still think Boras and Jones will accept a significantly discounted contract in both years and average annual value.