Jon Daniels Discusses Adrian Gonzalez Trade
Rangers GM Jon Daniels was in his first offseason on the job five years ago, though he made what is arguably his second most memorable trade to date. In December 2005, Daniels agreed to trade Adrian Gonzalez to the Padres as part of a three-player package for Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka. Gonzalez was only 23 at the time, but he had just completed his third year in Triple-A, hitting .338/.399/.561. Mark Teixeira, then 25, was coming off an All-Star season that saw him hit .301/.379/.575 with 43 homers. There didn't appear to be room for both.
Daniels spoke to WEEI.com's Alex Speier about the trade, admitting that they made the move to bolster their short-term playoff chances.
"Our error in that was not so much our evaluation of Adrian," Daniels said. "Our biggest miss in that situation was really our evaluation of our club, where we were competitively and in the division. We thought that there was a window there in ’05-’06 to really push. We won 89 games [in 2004], were a .500 club in ’05, hadn’t made too many changes. Our [front office] group came in in ’05. We probably tried to step on the gas before we were ready. Not probably – we did.”
Daniels added that other teams had inquired about Gonzalez before the trade went down, but Texas didn't project him to be the star-caliber player he's become. As funny as it sounds now, Daniels said the question then "was how much power" Adrian would provide. In the five years since the trade, only eight players have hit more homers than Gonzalez, who's been stuck in Petco Park. "Clearly, had we known [how good he'd become], we would have found a way to make it work," said Daniels.
Every GM that's been on the job long enough has horror stories. Brian Cashman traded a young Mike Lowell for three pitching prospects that contributed next to nothing at the big league level. Theo Epstein acquired an awful half-season of Eric Gagne for three young players, including David Murphy, who drove in the game-winning run against Epstein's Red Sox yesterday. Shin-Soo Choo was traded for Ben Broussard. The list goes on and on. Daniels made up for it less than two years later, when he made his best deal to date by acquiring five young players for Teixeira and Ron Mahay. That deal netted closer Neftali Feliz, shortstop Elvis Andrus, starting pitcher Matt Harrison, and catcher turned trade chip Jarrod Saltalamacchia. No one can win them all, but you'd like the losses to not include a player of Gonzalez's caliber.
Matusz Injury Could Change Britton’s Time Frame
8:43pm: Connolly reports that Matusz has been placed on the disabled list and could miss anywhere from three to six weeks (Twitter links). Britton will be called up and start on Sunday.
8:21pm: The Orioles received some bad news before their first game of the season this evening, as young lefty Brian Matusz will miss tomorrow's start with an injury to the intercostal muscle on the left side of his back. Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun caught up with president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail, who indicated that the injury could accelerate the team's timetable for top prospect Zach Britton.
"It could depending on what kind of news we get [about Matsuz] and how long term we’re looking," said MacPhail. "I was hoping [the injury] was an April Fool's joke."
As Tim Dierkes explained a week ago, the Orioles will have to wait until April 21st to call Britton up if they want to delay his free agency by a year. The 23-year-old southpaw was named the 28th best prospect in the game by Baseball America before the season, and they said he owns the "best sinker in the minor leagues" in the 2011 edition of their Prospect Handbook.
Britton split last season between Double and Triple-A, pitching to a 2.70 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9, though he generated 2.8 ground outs for every fly out. He also opened eyes with a stellar showing in Spring Training. Chris Tillman will start in Matusz's place on Saturday.
GM Not Expecting Talks With Lincecum During Season
Giants GM Brian Sabean told Andrew Baggarly of The Mercury News that he doubts there will be talks with Tim Lincecum about a contract extension during the season (Twitter links). He added that "you never say never," but it would require "more of a meeting of the minds."
Lincecum is in the second year of a two-year, $23MM contract he signed before last season, but he'll remain under team control in both 2012 and 2013 as an arbitration-eligible player. He'll earn $13MM this season, so his starting point is high for a player with under five years of service time. Of course Lincecum is no ordinary player. He won the Cy Young Award in each of his first two full seasons, and he's led the league in strikeouts in each of the last three seasons.
Sabean also mentioned that the extension for Freddy Sanchez came together rather quickly, and that Cody Ross wanted multiple years when the two sides talked about a deal.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Rays, Crow, Peavy, Boyer
Ten years ago today, Major League Baseball played its first ever game in Puerto Rico. The Blue Jays beat the Rangers by the score of 8-1 in front of a crowd of just under 20,000 at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Alex Rodriguez had two hits in his first game with Texas after signing his landmark ten-year, $252MM contract, but he also committed an error on his first defensive chance.
With the regular season underway, let's take a look at what's being written around the blogosphere…
- Through The Fence Baseball looks ahead to some historic milestones that could be reached this season.
- Baseball Analysts identifies some breakout players using Spring Training statistics.
- Wahoo Blues compared two Alberts: Pujols and Einstein.
- Camden Depot explores the Orioles' franchise value over the last 20 seasons.
- Pirates Prospects looks at the typical minor league time line.
- The Process Report explains how the Rays have already started building their future bullpens.
- Royals Review isn't sure what Kansas City is doing with Aaron Crow.
- Disciples of Uecker thinks the Brewers paid too high a price for Sergio Mitre.
- Replacement Level Baseball offers up a scouting report and video of Casey Kelly, the centerpiece of the Adrian Gonzalez trade for the Padres.
- Cubs Billy Goat Blog asks what we learned about the Cubs in Spring Training.
- Rooftop View tackles the Cubs' change of plans at second base.
- U.S.S. Mariner tells us what a successful season for the Mariners would look like.
- South Side Sox lists three White Sox players that can tilt the balance of power in the AL Central.
- Beer Leaguer wonders if we can call the Jake Peavy trade a bust for the ChiSox yet.
- The Todd Van Poppel Rookie Card Retirement Plan previews the 2011 Athletics.
- The Nats Blog says the decision to bat Jayson Werth second will benefit Ryan Zimmerman.
- Blogging Mets calls 2011 the season of "ifs" for the Mets.
- The Shea Faithful looks at the Mets' decision to take Blaine Boyer over Jason Isringhausen.
- We Should Be GMs says it's time to get real with the 2011 Phillies.
- FanSpeak offers up some predictions for the 2011 Nationals.
- BD BK's Blog tells us what to expect from the 2011 Angels.
- Tomahawk Talk explains why the Braves will win the World Series this year.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here. Only one email per week, please.
MLBTR Originals: 3/20/11 – 3/27/11
The 2011 regular season is now less than 90 hours away, so let's kill some time and recap MLBTR's original content from the last seven days…
- Ever wonder what Major League Baseball's Uniform Player's Contract looks like? Well we got our hands on one, so have a look. All of the identifying details have been removed.
- Tim Dierkes explained why prospects Brandon Belt and Zach Britton have different service time cutoff dates. He also looked at the best arbitration-eligible pitchers and position players without contract extensions, and listed the players that will be arb-eligible for the first time after the season plus the average free agent prices by position.
- Ben Nicholson-Smith found an interesting comparison for Scott Kazmir and noted that contract extensions for three young pitchers are going well so far. He also dug up some third base options for the Marlins and some potentially available starters. Ben looked ahead to Clayton Kershaw's first arbitration payday and wrote about the lack of elite shortstops as well.
- The offseason in review series marched along with the Mets.
- This week's poll question asked if Carlos Silva was tradeable.
- The best the blogosphere had to offer can be found in this week's Baseball Blogs Weigh In.
- This week's chat transcript can be found here.
- Don't forget to check out our Agency Database or our spanish-language sister site Rumores de Béisbol. There's also our team and transactions-only feeds.
Royals Release Pedro Feliz
9:32pm: Juan C. Rodriguez of The Sun Sentinel hears from a source that Feliz to the Marlins "probably won't happen" despite his sudden availability (Twitter link).
8:59pm: The Royals have granted Pedro Feliz his release according to Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star (on Twitter). The veteran third baseman could have opted out of his contract tomorrow if he didn't make the club.
Feliz, 36 next month, hit .167/.286/.375 in 24 at-bats this spring after hitting just .218/.240/.293 in 429 plate appearances for the Astros and Cardinals last season. It's been speculated that he could be a fit for the Marlins now that top prospect Matt Dominguez will begin the season in the minors, but we've heard that they're not sure Feliz represents an upgrade over their internal options.
Twins Trying To Work Out Deal To Keep Diamond
The Twins announced their 25-man Opening Day roster today, and one player who didn't make the cut was left-hander Scott Diamond. Manager Ron Gardenhire told MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger that they're now trying to work out a deal with the Braves to keep the Rule 5 Draft pick in the organization (Twitter link).
Diamond, 24, allowed one run in six innings this spring, but he walked six and struck out just two. Baseball America ranked him as the 29th-best prospect in the Twins' system in the 2011 edition of their Prospect Handbook, saying Diamond throws four pitches but has the ceiling of a fourth or fifth starter. They predicted that he'd fill a long relief or lefty specialist role had he made the club.
Atlanta originally signed Diamond as an undrafted free agent back in 2007. If the Twins are unable to work out a trade to keep him, he would have to first clear waivers and be offered back to the Braves before he could go to the minors.
Royals Return Rule 5 Pick Robert Fish To Angels
The Royals have returned Rule 5 Draft pick Robert Fish to the Angels according to Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star (on Twitter). The Yankees originally selected the left-hander in the Rule 5, but the Royals claimed him off waivers earlier this month.
Fish, 23, allowed nine runs in 7 2/3 innings between both Kansas City and New York this spring. He's struck out 9.1 batters per nine innings in his minor league career (365 2/3 innings), but he's also walked 4.2 per nine. Fish shifted to relief full-time last season, though he has only one career appearance above Double-A.
Opt-Out Notes: Batista, Isringhausen, Bush, Chavez
A few notes on veterans with opt-out clauses from around the league…
- Non-roster invitee Miguel Batista has earned a spot on the Cardinals roster, writes B.J. Rains of FOXSportsMidwest.com. The 40-year-old Batista could have opted out of his contract on Monday had the Cards not informed him that he would make the club.
- The Mets have not asked Jason Isringhausen if he would accept a minor league assignment, because he has already said in the past that he won't, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
- Dave Bush will use his opt-out tomorrow if he doesn't make the Rangers, writes Richard Durrett of ESPN.com. Bush says that he's not sure which way the club is leaning but wants to stay in Texas.
- Russell Branyan could have opted out of his contract with the Diamondbacks yesterday, but he was instead informed that he has made the club according to Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Brandon Allen is likely to go to Triple-A while the out-of-options Juan Miranda stays with the team.
- George A. King III of The New York Post reports that Eric Chavez can ask the Yankees for his release today if he doesn't make the team. "They haven't let me know anything," said Chavez, but his strong showing in camp (.421/.450/.605 in 40 PA) likely won him a bench job.
- Isringhausen told Mike Puma of The New York Post that he will not accept a minor league assignment if he does not make the Mets out of Spring Training. There's a possibility Izzy would go to Extended Spring Training if his swollen elbow isn't fully healed though.
Cubs Will Try To Trade Carlos Silva
1:28pm: Silva says that there is "no chance" of him reporting to Iowa, tweets Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. The soon-to-be 32-year-old added that he felt pitching coach Mark Riggins wasn't up front with him about how they planned to use him, Sullivan tweets.
12:20pm: After annointing Andrew Cashner as the fifth starter, the Cubs have told Carlos Silva that they will try to trade him according to MLB.com's Carrie Muskat (on Twitter). The team would like Silva to consider a stint in the minors for depth purposes should they be unable to move him.
Silva, 32 next month, is owed $11.5MM in 2011, but the Mariners are paying $5.5MM of that according to Cot's. He's been simply awful in camp, allowing 32 hits and 27 runs in just 17 1/3 innings. He posted a 4.22 ERA in 21 starts (113 innings) last season, though he missed time after having surgery to correct an irregular heart rate.
Both the Yankees and Nationals were scouting Silva earlier this month, but the former has since finalized their rotation plans.