Yankees Notes: A-Rod, Nakajima, Chavez, Andruw
Today the Yankees agreed to a minor league deal with lefty Hideki Okajima. He's made 31 appearances against them over the years as a member of the Red Sox. Other Yankees news…
- Third baseman Alex Rodriguez recently traveled to Germany for an experimental therapy called Orthokine on his right knee, reported Mike Puma of the New York Post. Orthokine is similar to Platelet Rich Plasma therapy, which reliever Takashi Saito had done several years ago. The procedure, which was recommended by Kobe Bryant, came with the blessing of the Yankees and the commissioner's office. Puma explains, "Orthokine involves taking blood from the patient’s arm and spinning it in a centrifuge, a machine used in laboratories to spin objects around a fixed axis. The serum is then injected into the affected area." Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters the procedure was done on Rodriguez's left shoulder as well. For more on the topic, check out this article from Teri Thompson and Christian Red of the New York Daily News.
- Cashman appears to be waiting for a resolution on the Hiroyuki Nakajima situation before pursuing Eric Chavez any further, tweets MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. Hoch says the Nakajima situation will be resolved next week. The Yankees won the exclusive right to negotiate with Nakajima with a bid around $2MM earlier this month.
- Hoch notes that the Yankees are still talking about re-signing Andruw Jones but Cashman says he has nothing to report right now.
Latest On Andrew Bailey
Athletics closer Andrew Bailey likely will be traded to the Red Sox or Rangers, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney, who notes that both suitors have interest and the chips needed. Earlier this month the Rangers won the right to negotiate with Yu Darvish and the Red Sox acquired Mark Melancon, but reports indicated both clubs remained interested in Bailey. The Rangers might have an excess of starters if they sign Darvish and keep Alexi Ogando out of the 'pen.
In a report a week ago, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports noted that the Rays are also in on Bailey.
Rizzo On Center Field, First Base
Nationals GM Mike Rizzo joined Mike Ferrin on MLB Network Radio today; here are a few key comments.
On center field:
We see the 2013 free agent class at center field is much stronger than it is for the 2012 season. With that in mind we know Jayson [Werth] can handle the center field position. It's not a perfect world for us. He's a good defender out there and is ready, willing, and able to take on the responsibility to play center field. We recognize that we need a true gliding, defensive, rangy center fielder out there in a perfect world. As far as the 2012 season we're not going to make a kneejerk reaction and lock ourselves into anything long-term if it doesn't make sense for us.
MLBTR's 2013 free agent list can be seen here. Viable candidates for the Nationals could include Michael Bourn, B.J. Upton, and Shane Victorino, or perhaps Angel Pagan or Grady Sizemore if they have strong 2012 seasons.
On whether Rizzo will monitor the Prince Fielder situation:
Adam LaRoche is under contract for us, we're paying him a lot of money to play first base for us next year. We feel that he's going to have a bounceback season. We just want him to have his career norms: .265, 25, 85-100 RBIs and play great defense. We feel that his shoulder is rehabbed, he's 100%, and talking to him just recently he feels great and he's ready to contribute to us in 2012. As far as, are we going to dabble our toe in that water? Those are decisions that we make early on in the process and we've more or less decided that Adam is going to be our first baseman unless something extraordinary, out of the ordinary happened, that's how we're going to go to Spring Training.
Extension Candidate: Madison Bumgarner
The Matt Moore extension showed any young pitcher is a candidate for a multiyear extension, regardless of service time. Once the Giants gain clarity on the situations of Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, why not lock up Madison Bumgarner?
Bumgarner, just 22, quietly became one of the ten best pitchers in the National League this year. He posted a 3.21 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 0.53 HR/9, and 46% groundball rate in 204 2/3 innings. It's possible the best is yet to come, as the lefty posted a 5.8 K/BB ratio over his final 23 starts.
Bumgarner is represented by SFX, the agency that ranks fourth in extensions since 2009 with seven. Four of those were for starting pitchers Zack Greinke, Ubaldo Jimenez, Justin Verlander, and Clay Buchholz. The Giants have a GM in Brian Sabean who is open to extensions, so the biggest question may be whether Bumgarner prefers long-term security or maximum year-to-year earnings. Bumgarner received a $2MM signing bonus as the tenth overall pick in 2007, so he already has some measure of financial security.
Bumgarner has one year and 127 days of Major League service. Since January of 2008, four pitchers with at least one year of service but less than Bumgarner's 1.127 have signed multiyear extensions: James Shields, Jimenez, Brett Anderson, and Wade Davis. All signed four-year deals worth $10-12.6MM. The Rays' Davis and Shields each allowed for three club options, while Anderson and Jimenez have two. A third Rays starter, Moore, merits a mention in that he signed for more money than any of them, getting a $14MM guarantee with just 17 days of service. Moore's contract also includes three club options.
It's easy to see that Bumgarner is more accomplished than Shields, Jimenez, Anderson, and Davis were at the time their extensions were signed. Bumgarner has a 3.10 career ERA, while the others were all over 4.00. Anderson and Shields had similar strikeout and walk rates, but Bumgarner hasn't been nearly as homer-prone. Bumgarner has the most wins, at 20. Only Shields tops Bumgarner's innings total, a small 14-inning advantage that swings to Bumgarner when postseason innings are included.
If the Giants don't get at least one of Bumgarner's free agent years, an extension probably isn't worth considering for them. Unless the lefty's extension is to shatter precedents, he'll probably have to accept club options on his third arbitration year and first free agent season. If I were Bumgarner's agent, I'd be aiming for at least $16MM on a four-year deal. A big win would be to get his third arbitration year guaranteed, pushing the value to $23-24MM over five years. That might seem pricey now, but another strong season will push the required guarantee past $30MM.
Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.
Yankees To Sign Hideki Okajima
The Yankees agreed to a minor league deal with reliever Hideki Okajima, tweets David Waldstein of the New York Times. Earlier, Sports Hochi in Japan reported talks between the two parties were in the final stages and a deal could be reached shortly after the new year (as translated by NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman).
Okajima, 36, has a 3.11 ERA across 246 1/3 big league innings, all with the Red Sox from 2007-11. He spent most of 2011 at Triple-A, posting a 2.29 ERA, 8.5 K/9, 1.6 BB/9, and 0.53 HR/9 in 51 innings. As you'd expect, Okajima has been better against lefties in the Majors, with a 8.2 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 0.67 HR/9, and 3.87 xFIP across 107 1/3 innings per FanGraphs.
Athletics Interested In Jorge Soler
The Athletics have strong interest in five-tool Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. She says Yoenis Cespedes' price tag is too high for the A's, and his desire for either a four or ten-year deal doesn't work for them.
Soler, 19, has also been linked to the Yankees, Phillies, Nationals, Cubs, and Rangers this offseason. Nationals Director of International Scouting Johnny DiPuglia has watched Soler for years, and told Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post, "He’s got a Hanley Ramirez-type body. Plus arm. Plus bat speed. He’s a good kid, a good-energy kid." Though Soler would need more minor league seasoning, it's been written he could have more upside than Cespedes. Soler is younger and more talented than the Rangers' Leonys Martin, wrote Baseball America's Jim Callis, so he figures to beat Martin's $15.6MM contract. Callis notes that the $2.9MM international signing cap installed in the new CBA doesn't begin until the 2012-13 signing period, so as long as Soler signs before July 2nd, there are no limitations.
Slusser also adds to the A's-San Jose story in another article. She talked to former Giants general managing partner Peter Magowan, who thinks San Jose is "wishful thinking" for the A's. She also learned from A's owner Lew Wolff and others that the stadium issue is not on the agenda for the owners' meetings in two weeks.
2011 Payrolls By Division
Five days ago the Associated Press published 2011 payrolls for the 30 teams based on information sent by the clubs to the commissioner's office. They explain:
Figures are for 40-man rosters and include salaries and pro-rated shares of signing bonuses, earned incentive bonuses, non-cash compensation, buyouts of unexercised options and cash transactions. In some cases, parts of salaries that are deferred are discounted to reflect present-day values.
$2,999,557,280 was spent in total, so the $100MM or so spent by the Rangers or Mariners is about average. The Yankees, of course, led with a $216MM figure. That's 4.85 times the Royals' payroll, which was the lowest at about $45MM. Maury Brown has quality analysis of over at The Biz of Baseball. Below I thought it'd be interesting to break down the spending by league and division.
American League: $104.7MM per team
- AL East: $119.6MM per team
- AL Central: $90.5MM per team
- AL West: $103.9MM per team
National League: $95.8MM per team
- NL East: $105.9MM per team
- NL Central: $90.8MM per team
- NL West: $88.5MM per team
Quick Hits: Beltran, Corpas, Dickey, Ross
Six years ago today, the Diamondbacks officially traded third baseman Troy Glaus and shortstop prospect Sergio Santos to the Blue Jays for righty Miguel Batista and second baseman Orlando Hudson. Josh Byrnes and J.P. Ricciardi were the respective GMs. Glaus' retirement came with little fanfare despite 320 career home runs and four All-Star Game appearances. Santos eventually found his way to the White Sox, who helped him become a successful reliever and recently traded him back to Toronto. Batista is a 40-year-old free agent with 101 career wins to his name. Hudson, a four-time Gold Glove winner, is a trade candidate for the Padres, the team Byrnes now heads up. Ricciardi now serves as a special assistant to Mets GM Sandy Alderson, who appears to have interest in re-signing Batista.
MLBTR was less than two months old at the time of the Glaus trade; you can read my paragraph on it here. Back then the site was a one-man show with gray text against a black background, and Twitter did not exist. We've come a long way! On to today's links…
- Carlos Beltran offered to sign with the Yankees for the same two-year, $26MM deal he ultimately signed with St. Louis, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Adds Heyman, "Like seven years ago, they declined."
- Reliever Manny Corpas, who agreed to a non-guaranteed split contract with the Cubs, has a $1MM base salary while in the bigs with another potential $1MM in incentives, tweets Heyman.
- The Mets sent R.A. Dickey's agent a letter to warn that they can void his contract if he's injured climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in January, writes Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal. As GM Sandy Alderson noted, that hasn't dissuaded the 37-year-old knuckleballer.
- The Rockies' interest in Cody Ross is based on whether they trade Seth Smith, writes ESPN's Buster Olney.
- Yahoo's Jeff Passan looks at the 2012-13 free agent class, writing, "What the class lacks in breadth up top it makes up for in depth." We've got the full list here. The potentially available young starting pitching looks deep in theory, but we'll see which of Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, Zack Greinke, Anibal Sanchez, and Brandon McCarthy are extended.
Destinations For The Ten Best Remaining Free Agents
Baseball executives A.J. Hinch and Kenny Williams each batted around .219 in their big league careers. That may help you visualize how I'm doing in MLBTR's free agent prediction contest this offseason. With 7 of 32 correct, I currently rank 922nd out of over 5,000 entries. In contrast, MLBTR readers Kay Jay, David Silverberg, Alex Gregor, and Shaun O'Toole lead the pack, pulling .375 averages that even Ty Cobb couldn't manage in his career.
A look at my October 31st predictions also shows that top 25 free agents Prince Fielder, Edwin Jackson, Ryan Madson, Hiroki Kuroda, Carlos Pena, Roy Oswalt, Javier Vazquez, Coco Crisp, Hisashi Iwakuma, and Paul Maholm remain unsigned. It's no coincidence that half of them are represented by the Boras Corporation. Here are some possibilities for the 10 best free agents still on the market.
2. Prince Fielder – $153MM over six years might allow Boras to save face, claiming the second-highest average annual value in baseball history even if it'd mean falling well short of the $200MM landmark. Obviously, $180MM over seven years would be better and isn't crazy, while an opt-out could sweeten the deal for Fielder and let him hit free agency again as a 30-year-old. As MLB.com's Richard Justice notes, the market for Fielder is plain mysterious at this point. If there's an obvious candidate to vastly overpay for Fielder, they've yet to be revealed. The Orioles, Mariners, and Cubs are in the mix to some extent. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports has recently mentioned the Nationals and Rangers, though those teams are viewed as unlikely by other reporters. The Cubs and Mariners remain the current favorites.
6. Edwin Jackson – Though his pitching record won't change, Jackson will look more and more appealing over the next few weeks to teams looking for a rotation upgrade. In a December 25th MLBTR poll of almost 17,000 MLBTR readers, the Yankees were the top pick with 19% of a well-divided vote. Four days ago, Heyman named the Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles, Rockies, Marlins, and Tigers as teams looking for pitching. The Pirates could be a dark horse, and if the Jackson market dips to around three years and $33MM more teams may jump in. For EJax, things are just getting started.
14. Ryan Madson – The Red Sox and Angels have been linked to Madson, who may or may not have been offered four years and $44MM by the Phillies before they signed Jonathan Papelbon. If Madson is to find three years and $30MM, the Red Sox and Angels will have to start a bidding war.
15. Hiroki Kuroda – If the Yankees take a pass, Kuroda could fall to the Red Sox, Cubs, or Hiroshima Carp. One would think a half-dozen other teams would be in the mix for Kuroda on a one-year deal.
16. Carlos Pena – It's been quiet on the Pena front, but he could work for the Rays, Indians, Cubs, or Brewers if the price falls. I think another one-year deal is in order.
18. Roy Oswalt – Six days ago, Heyman named the Red Sox, Marlins, Blue Jays, and Yankees as Oswalt suitors, excluding other teams that acquired starters since then. On a one-year deal, any would-be contender could conceivably jump in.
19. Javier Vazquez – Four days ago, MLB.com's Joe Frisaro said Vazquez maintains he is retiring.
21. Coco Crisp – Crisp seeks a multiyear deal from a contender, and the Cubs and Dodgers could be possibilities. The Marlins or Nationals could offer him the chance to stay in center field.
22. Hisashi Iwakuma – My ranking for Iwakuma was probably too high; he might be looking at a one-year deal. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported two teams have viable interest in the righty, but the A's are lukewarm on him.
25. Paul Maholm – I think Maholm will be able to find a two-year contract. The Cubs were in the mix prior to adding Travis Wood and Andy Sonnanstine. The Rockies have options, but they could still be a fit.
Pirates Prioritize Adding Another Starter
The latest on the Pirates…
- The Pirates still have money to spend and their top priority is a starting pitcher, writes Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. About three weeks ago, the Pirates signed Erik Bedard and released Ross Ohlendorf. Paul Maholm, who made 26 starts for the Bucs this year, is expected to sign elsewhere. The list of unsigned free agent starters remains robust as December draws to a close.
- The Pirates are looking to compete in 2012, president Frank Coonelly told Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Coonelly says the team's focus has shifted to improving the Major League club. Payroll is expected to be up from last year's $42MM mark; I have them pegged for about that amount already before accounting for minimum salary players or future additions. Coonelly indicated that once the Pirates reach the point of having one glaring need, they're more likely to pursue an expensive impact free agent. Click here to read Coonelly's full comments.
- The Pirates' portfolio approach has resulted in $20.75MM worth of commitments to four players so far: Clint Barmes ($10.5MM), Bedard ($4.5MM), Rod Barajas ($4MM), and Nate McLouth ($1.75MM). Jake Fox, Ryota Igarashi, Jose Morales, Shairon Martis, Tim Wood, Jeff Clement, Nick Evans, Anderson Hernandez, and Brandon Boggs have signed minor league deals.