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Mets, Dodgers In On Pineiro

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7:37pm: According to Tim Brown's Twitter feed, "In the face of economic limitations, Dodgers working on a way to sign Joel Pineiro."

7:09pm: According to Ed Price's Twitter feed, the Mets and Joel Pineiro are talking, with the money somewhere around two years, $15MM.

At that price, you'd have to think a deal could get done quickly. The Mets have been interested in Pineiro all offseason, though Pineiro has seemed to be looking for a deal that rivals or exceeds the three-year, $29.75MM contract Randy Wolf signed with the Brewers.

Two years, $15MM is exactly what Jason Marquis signed for earlier this offseason with the Nationals. Despite the concerns over whether Pineiro can repeat his successful 2009 without Dave Duncan, his pitching coach with the Cardinals, the Mets would be taking a worthwhile risk at that price and length.

Pineiro was 15-12 in 2009 with a 3.49 ERA and just 27 walks in 214 innings pitched.

Odds & Ends: Royals, Red Sox, Astros

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Here are some Duraflame logs for the Hot Stove…

  • Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reviews the Kansas City offseason, and let's just say he makes "Old Dogs" look like it got raves from the critics by comparison.
  • MLB.com's Ian Browne answers questions about the Red Sox, ranging from where contract talks stand with Josh Beckett (spring training is critical) to whether David Ortiz could be traded (not without his consent).
  • MLB.com's Brian McTaggart reports that despite the apparent signing of Brett Myers, the Astros still prefer to develop pitchers themselves.
  • MLB.com's Mark Bowman addresses whether the Braves have improved their offense, or if position player moves are still to come, in his latest Inbox column.

Nationals Sign Matt Capps

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Reliever Matt Capps officially signed a one-year, $3.5MM deal with the Nationals today.  He can earn another $425K for games finished.  ESPN's Jerry Crasnick first named the Nats a strong contender for Capps on December 21st.  ESPN's Buster Olney had the Nats closing in on the 23rd, and MLB.com's Bill Ladson had an agreement being reached on the 24th.  ESPN's Bruce Levine added the terms later that day. 

The Cubs and Mets were other late contenders for Capps, but his best shot at closing was in Washington. The Nationals have the option of keeping Capps for 2011 as an arbitration-eligible player.  He was surprisingly non-tendered by the Pirates on December 12th, and many teams expressed interest.  Capps, 26, had an off-year for the Bucs in '09, posting a 5.80 ERA with an abundance of hits and home runs in 54.3 innings.

Tim Dierkes contributed to this post.

Red Sox, Mets Discussed Castillo For Lowell

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TUESDAY, 12:52pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports finds Castillo "highly unlikely to be traded, for Lowell or anyone else."  Joel Sherman of the New York Post learned that the Mets and Red Sox have not discussed a Castillo-Lowell swap for weeks.

MONDAY, 9:52pm: WEEI.com's Rob Bradford writes that a Castillo-for-Lowell deal is "not close."  He feels that it's most likely Lowell will have to prove his health in Spring Training before a trade occurs.  Meanwhile, Yahoo's Tim Brown tweets that the Rangers "have not ruled out re-engaging on Lowell."

6:56pm: ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick tweets, "I just heard that Red Sox have talked to the Mets about a Mike Lowell-for-Luis Castillo trade. Not sure how serious it is." He adds that Lowell is expendable with Adrian Beltre in the fold. Also, with Castillo gone, the Mets could go after Orlando Hudson.

The deal certainly clears an unwanted player for both teams. But while it is easy to see Lowell getting some at-bats for the Mets at first, and even spelling David Wright at third base, where Castillo fits in- given his poor defense at second base, and the existence of Dustin Pedroia– with Boston is harder to understand.

The money would be even in such a deal. Lowell is owed $12MM in 2010, while Castillo is owed $6MM in each of the next two years.

Odds & Ends: Orioles, Braves, Indians

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Lots of other bits of information to get to on a busy Monday:

  • The Baltimore Sun's Dan Connolly has several pieces of information about once and perhaps future Orioles. Former Oriole Melvin Mora has three suitors, according to Mora's agent, two National League teams and one American League team.
  • Mark Hendrickson, by contrast, could well return to Baltimore. He lives in nearby York, PA and wants to play in Baltimore. His agent, Joe Urbon, said both sides have talked, but there's been no movement yet.
  • David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution believes that if his price tag drops to well below $10MM, Johnny Damon could be a good fit for the Braves. You'd have to think the Yankees would get back involved at that price, however.
  • Matt Klaassen of Fangraphs.com thinks a disparity in GM talent could be behind the gap between the National and American League.
  • And if Cleveland fans weren't upset enough over recent deals for Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia and Victor Martinez, MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince checks in with when he expects Cleveland to begin looking to trade Grady Sizemore in his latest Inbox.
  • MLB.com's Chris Haft thinks the Giants should take a look at Mike Jacobs.

Mets “Very Interested” In Delgado

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Erik Boland and David Lennon over at Newsday have a piece up reporting that the Mets are "very interested" in bringing back Carlos Delgado.

Delgado, who played in the Puerto Rican Winter League Sunday for the first time since surgery on his hip in May, went 1-for-4 as a designated hitter. As befitting a player who managed to play in just 26 games in 2009, the Mets are interested in Delgado on an incentive-laden deal.

Still, it is easy to understand New York's interest. Delgado was hitting .298/.393/.521 in 2009, one year after putting up a 2008 batting line of .271/.353/.518, including a tremendous second half.

Just for fun, let's combine rumors for a Delgado platoon with Mike Lowell, who was rumored to be in discussions to come to New York in exchange for Luis Castillo early this evening in a tweet by ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick.

Delgado, against righties, had a .912 OPS in 2008, .902 in 2009. Lowell had a .961 OPS against lefties in 2008, an .867 OPS against them in 2009.

In other words, it would be an offensive option that would likely leave Daniel Murphy in the dust.

The piece also reports that the Mets are interested in starting pitching, with Joel Pineiro their preferred choice.

Indians Sign Shelley Duncan

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Chad Jennings of The Journal News reports that the Cleveland Indians have signed longtime Yankee farmhand Shelley Duncan.

Duncan has hit just .219/.290/.411 in 163 major league plate appearances over three seasons, but had another strong season in Triple-A this past year, posting a batting line of .277/.370/.546 for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Duncan is 30, and could challenge for playing time in left field with the Indians. Keep in mind that if he shows anything with the bat, he's the type of player managers like to keep around, and would likely get the benefit of the doubt. His Triple-A numbers also indicate he could flourish with some regular major league at-bats. Good pickup for Cleveland.

Discussion: Wang Or Lewis?

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Earlier today, Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com had updates on a pair of Alan Nero clients: pitchers Chien-Ming Wang and Colby Lewis.

Both pitchers represent low-cost rotation alternatives for 2010, and there are differing reasons to value the potential upside of both.

For Wang, the news came that he could throw off of a mound in six-to-eight weeks, news that was "even more positive" than expected from Dr. James Andrews, according to Nero.

Nevertheless, the pitching-needy Mets have yet to contact Nero about Wang, 1050 ESPN Radio's Andrew Marchand reports.

The reason Wang is even in the position of free agency is due to his health issues over the past few years. Considering he posted a 46-15 record from 2006-2008, with an ERA of 3.74, all while pitching in the ultra-competitive American League East, a return to form would present a team with a strong member of the starting rotation.

But could Lewis be an even better alternative than Wang? Lewis struggled mightily in five major league seasons, posting an ugly 6.71 ERA, but his performance in Japan during 2008-2009 was eye-popping. He led the Central League in strikeouts in each campaign, walking just 46 in 354 1/3 innings.

Ultimately, the combination of Lewis' numbers and good health would make him a better buy-low fit, in my opinion.

Yankees, Braves Agree To Vazquez Deal

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9:50am: Buster Olney of ESPN.com hears that the Yankees will send $500K to the Braves as part of the deal. Olney does not mention Vizcaino in the report, but O'Brien tweets that he is in the deal.

9:43am: Sherman tweets that the deal is done. 

9:08am: Not surprisingly, the Yankees will pay Vazquez's entire salary, according to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter).

8:56am: Sherman tweets that the Braves are acquiring righty Arodys Vizcaino, Melky and Dunn for Logan and Vazquez.

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Odds & Ends: Red Sox, Giants, Nationals

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Lots to get to as we round out another Hot Stove Monday…

  • Rob Bradford of WEEI.com has the backstory on Mike Lowell, his thumb injury and the trade that wasn't. Lowell expects to be ready for baseball activities by the first week of spring training, but has no idea if that will be with Boston or another team.
  • MLB.com's Chris Haft answers mail from Giants' fans. He says, among other things, that the Giants are reluctant to trade Jonathan Sanchez straight-up for Dan Uggla-as well they should be.
  • Washington Post Nationals beat reporter Chico Harlan weighs in on the Jason Marquis signing, noting that Marquis has more career victories than the other starters on the Washington 40-man roster combined.
  • AOL Fanhouse's Ed Price says that "All we hear out of the Mets camp is that they don't want to be bidding against themselves. Well, the fact of the matter is, the Mets might just have to bid against themselves." This is hard to understand, considering that Jason Bay and Bengie Molina certainly aren't likely to sit out the season rather than accept offers from the Mets.
  • Lyle Spencer of MLB.com speculates about what it would take for the Angels to acquire Derek Lowe.

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