Olney On Dodgers, Beltran
The latest blog post from ESPN's Buster Olney (Insider required)…
- Many agents feel that most teams are working slowly in the early days of free agency due to a desire to see the new labor agreement and how draft pick compensation is affected.
- One insider guessed that MLB currently has a pretty good idea of who the next owner of the Dodgers will be. That person recalls how Peter Magowan was able to take part in the Barry Bonds signing before being approved as the Giants' new owner, which in theory could happen with the Dodgers and top free agents this winter.
- Olney isn't terribly impressed with the 2012-13 free agent class. He ranks Cole Hamels, Josh Hamilton, Matt Cain, Mike Napoli, Andre Ethier, John Danks, Zack Greinke, Michael Bourn, Howie Kendrick, and B.J. Upton as his early top ten if Matt Kemp is signed to an extension. But let's not forget Shane Victorino, Brandon Phillips, Yadier Molina, Miguel Montero, Erick Aybar, Stephen Drew, Nick Swisher, Carlos Quentin, Anibal Sanchez, and Shaun Marcum. Check out MLBTR's full list here.
- To date there have been no talks between the Red Sox and Carlos Beltran. SI's Jon Heyman reported their interest yesterday.
More Potential Cuban Free Agents
There's been plenty of hype this week on Yoenis Cespedes, a Cuban center fielder who defected this summer and could command Aroldis Chapman money or more. But yesterday, MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez provided more interesting names.
19-year-old outfielder Jorge Soler and 23-year-old right-hander Armando Rivero participated in a showcase at the Yankees' complex in Boca Chica last week. Like Cespedes, both players are in the process of becoming eligible to play in the United States.
One year ago, Baseball America's John Manuel had this to say about Soler: "Soler has a strapping 6-foot-3, 205-pound body and has five-tool potential. Soler has bat speed and what one scout called 'explosive power' to go with above-average arm strength." He's on the Yankees' radar, according to George A. King III of the New York Post. Sanchez writes that Rivero "features a slider, split-finger fastball, sinker and changeup in his repertoire and reached 98 mph with his fastball in the showcase." King says he's viewed as a reliever.
Sanchez notes that outfielders Henry Urrutia and Gerald Sanchez and lefty Omar Luis also participated in the showcase.
Cardinals Rumors: Matheny, Francona, Sandberg
The latest on the Cardinals…
- Francona and Oquendo seem to be favorites for the managerial opening, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (Twitter links). However, Heyman hears Matheny is beloved by Cardinals people and has a "real shot" at the position.
- Ryne Sandberg and Jose Oquendo are on deck for managerial interviews tomorrow, report Joe Strauss and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Terry Francona interviewed today.
- GM John Mozeliak is hopeful the Cardinals will have a manager chosen by next week, though he won't artifically hasten the process, writes Goold. Last week the Cardinals interviewed Chris Maloney, Joe McEwing, and Mike Matheny.
- Rafael Furcal is willing to wait to negotiate a contract with the Cardinals until after their manager search concludes, according to Goold.
- Albert Pujols is interested to hear the Cardinals' choice, writes Goold. "Albert would stay if Oquendo got the job," former teammate David Eckstein told Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports earlier this month.
Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers Interested In Buehrle
6:05pm: It's highly unlikely that the Yankees will make a serious run for Buehrle, according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney (on Twitter).
1:54pm: The Yankees, Red Sox, and Rangers are interested in free agent lefty Mark Buehrle, report Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports, and the Marlins are meeting with him today. Buehrle, 32, posted a 3.59 ERA, 4.8 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 0.92 HR/9, and 44.9% groundball rate in 205 1/3 innings this year. The long time White Sox starter has pitched 200+ innings in every season since 2001.
The Marlins and Blue Jays are the teams most aggressively pursuing trades for starting pitchers, add Rosenthal and Morosi. One GM said of the Jays' Alex Anthopoulos, "You can’t pin him down. He has interest in every one of your players."
James Shields, Wade Davis, Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill, Jair Jurrjens, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Chad Billingsley, and Wandy Rodriguez are the pitchers "known or thought to be available in trades," according to the FOX writers. Cahill and Billingsley are the new names here, but it's unclear whether they fall under "known" or "thought." The availability of Rodriguez will depend on whether Jim Crane is approved as new Astros owner next week, as Crane does not share Drayton McLane's reluctance to move the 32-year-old.
Royals Interested In Carlos Zambrano
5:02pm: Moore clarified his remarks to MLB.com's Dick Kaegel and said he shouldn't have publicly discussed a player under contract with another team (link on Carrie Muskat's blog).
“It’s our job as a baseball operations department to listen and explore every potential opportunity that would improve our team,” Moore said. “We spend countless hours doing so and we invite everybody’s opinion as to how it pertains to how we could improve our team. And if one of our people brought up Carlos Zambrano, I would listen and ask questions about why they believe that. That’s all that was and I responded in that spirit.”
12:05pm: The Royals have interest in Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano, Mark Carman at 610 Sports Radio learned from talking with GM Dayton Moore yesterday (CSNChicago.com's David Kaplan has Moore's quotes). Moore's comments on Zambrano when asked:
"We would have to be interested. We would have to explore it because that's what you should do. You should explore every opportunity. Carlos Zambrano is a heckuva competitor. Carlos Zambrano has had a lot of success in the major leagues. Carlos Zambrano is actually a very pleasant, easy going, classy person off the field. Sometimes, as with all of us the competitiveness takes over and brings out qualities in us that we are not proud of. Obviously the Cubs grew tired of some of his outbursts but I believe in our coaching staff and we'll always take a chance and a risk on certain players. We'll see how that particular situation unfolds."
Zambrano is owed $18MM in 2012, and has a $19.25MM option that vests for 2013 if he finishes in the top four of the 2012 Cy Young vote. The option seems highly unlikely to vest, but if Zambrano is somehow that good in 2012, perhaps his team wouldn't mind another year. Moore's comments on Z's contract:
"He has a no-trade clause for 29 other teams so he is going to have to be comfortable wherever he goes and there is a lot of money attached to his deal. There is a vesting option that is a part of that worth $18 or 19 million going forward. We certainly wouldn't want to put ourselves in a position where we have to honor a contract of that nature."
The Cubs expect to address the Zambrano situation this week, writes ESPN's Buster Olney. As I wrote in August, the 30-year-old righty has major negative trade value. As a pitcher he's worth a few million dollars, so maybe the Cubs could trade Zambrano for a low-level prospect while assuming $15MM. That assumes Zambrano would approve a trade without requiring compensation. Jed Hoyer told Kaplan he has the ability to eat any contract he feels is necessary to improve the club. It'd probably be better for the Cubs to instead take on a similar bad contract and hope for some value out of that player.
Heyman On Posada, Dodgers, Beltran, Morrison
The latest rumors tweeted from SI's Jon Heyman…
- The Yankees haven't been in touch with free agent Jorge Posada so far this offseason, according to Heyman.
- A person with knowledge of the Dodgers sale says bidding will definitely go over $1 billion, and Frank McCourt may well reach his $1.2 billion target.
- The Phillies and Ryan Madson are now engaged in serious discussions, and Heyman expects the two sides to reach an agreement soon. This fits with what was written about Madson and the Phillies yesterday.
- The Red Sox are interested in free agent right fielder Carlos Beltran. I ranked Beltran ninth on my top 50 free agents list, predicting Boston as his destination.
- One executive who spoke to the Marlins tells Heyman 24-year-old left fielder Logan Morrison is off-limits. The executive could see the Fish making an exception for James Shields, however.
- The Brewers believe they have almost no hope to re-sign Prince Fielder and are now targeting free agent shortstop Jose Reyes. The Marlins will meet with Reyes in South Florida tomorrow, tweeted Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Brewers would have to give the Mets the 28th overall pick in next year's draft to sign Reyes, while the Marlins would only have to surrender a second-round pick.
- The Yankees were disappointed Jonathan Sanchez went to the Royals, as they believed they had more to offer to the Giants. The Royals acquired Sanchez and a minor leaguer from the Giants for Melky Cabrera yesterday.
- The Yankees are impressed by what they've seen so far of Cuban center fielder Yoenis Cespedes, though it's mainly limited to video. Cespedes' bizarre showcase video mostly shows off the player's athleticism and style. For a rundown of Cespedes' suitors, click here, and for a scout's view of him, check out the latest from MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo.
- Yankees executive Billy Eppler grew up with free agent lefty C.J. Wilson, for what it's worth. The Yankees will talk to Wilson, who GM Brian Cashman acknowledged is the "best pitcher on the marketplace right now."
Twins Rumors: Ryan, Payroll
Terry Ryan returned to the role of Twins GM yesterday; here's the latest on the club.
- Ryan will be the GM for as long as he wants to be, a member of the Twins organization told Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. "I don't know if it'll be for one year or 10 years," Ryan said yesterday, noting that if he likes the job he expects owner Jim Pohlad to let him stay.
- Ryan alluded to a $100MM payroll for 2012 yesterday, down from the $113-118MM range the Twins had in 2011. However, Twins president David St. Peter told Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Terry and I, frankly, have not had one discussion about our payroll for next year. He’s been privy to it because nothing has changed from what we had been telling Bill [Smith]…I think it can be a fluid number. I’m hoping we can find a way to inch it forward." Christensen guesses the Twins will ultimately have a payroll in the $110MM range.
- If Kevin Slowey and Jose Mijares are not retained, I'd estimate the Twins' commitments in the $74MM range for 2012 before accounting for minimum salary players. That could mean as much as $30MM to spend on 2012 salaries.
- Ryan's said his first priority is to reach out to the agents for the team's own free agents: Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, Joe Nathan, and Matt Capps.
Rockies Interested In Millwood, Harden, Chen
The Rockies have expressed interest in free agent starters Kevin Millwood, Rich Harden, and Bruce Chen, according to Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post. They'll also be exploring the trade market.
Millwood, 37 in December, finished the season with Colorado, making nine starts with a 3.98 ERA. The Scott Boras client seeks a Major League deal, which Renck says makes this a "slow-developing situation." Renck notes that the Rockies were among the finalists to sign Harden last year, though they viewed him as a reliever.
As for their second base opening, the Rockies have had internal conversations about free agent Aaron Hill, according to ESPN's Buster Olney. Hill is also of interest to the Tigers, writes Lynn Henning of the Detroit News. The Rockies also have interest in Jamey Carroll, Mark Ellis, and others, reported Renck previously.
For more on the Rockies' needs and finances, check out my offseason outlook.
Owners, Players Union Discussing Possible Type A Solutions
It might stink to be Kelly Johnson this offseason. Sure, he'll be signing for millions of dollars, but it's possible that if he wants to explore the open market as a Type A free agent, he'll be saddled with the cost of a draft pick. For example, having to give their #23 overall pick to the Blue Jays next year might deter the Cardinals from making a serious offer to Johnson. Like so many non-star free agents who are offered arbitration, Johnson could be in a bad place because of his Type A status.
As part of the ongoing collective bargaining agreement discussions, the owners and players union "seem focused on two possible solutions for the Type A quandary," writes ESPN's Buster Olney.
The first idea: instead of the new team giving a potential first-round draft pick to the old one, the old team would simply receive a supplemental pick sandwiched between the first and second rounds. In a way, this would be like making all players Type Bs. For example, instead of the Red Sox receiving the Tigers' #19 pick in the 2011 draft for Detroit signing Victor Martinez, maybe they would have received a pick in the 30s, not from the Tigers. This solution seems reasonable.
A second idea would deter teams from offering arbitration to non-star free agents in the first place. Olney equates this to the NFL's system, where a star free agent must be paid 120% of his previous salary or the average salary of the top five highest-paid players at his position, whichever is higher, or else be granted unrestricted free agency. That could mean $8.5MM or more for someone like Kelly Johnson, which could deter the Jays from offering arbitration. The current free agent arbitration system works this way to a lesser extent. Johnson will get a raise if he accepts, despite a down year. This is the reason a Type A free agent like Francisco Rodriguez has no chance of getting an arbitration offer.
Olney says one unresolved question is whether Type A adjustments would be made for the 2012 season or for '13. I think some teams would cry foul if the changes were made for '12. At any rate, Olney is optimistic for a labor agreement within the next two weeks.
Blue Jays Considering Top Closers
The Blue Jays are aggressively seeking an experienced closer through free agency or trade, reports ESPN's Buster Olney. Olney says the Jays have discussed free agents Heath Bell, Jonathan Papelbon, and Joe Nathan, as well as trade target Andrew Bailey of the Athletics.
Padres GM Josh Byrnes said last month he's likely to offer arbitration to Bell, a Type A free agent. Bell prefers to stay in San Diego, and he said in August he'll accept arbitration if offered. Should he change his mind and decline, he'd be an unlikely fit for Toronto for at least two reasons: the closer prefers the West Coast, and the Jays would have to give the Padres their 17th overall pick in next year's draft. The cost to sign Bell would be reduced to the Jays' second-rounder if they are to commit the #17 pick to another team by signing a higher-ranked Type A. Only Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, C.J. Wilson, David Ortiz, and Ryan Madson are ranked higher than Bell. For a closer look at Bell's performance this year, check out Alex Steers McCrum's article at CloserNews.
Signing Papelbon would hurt the division rival Red Sox in the short-term, though the Sox would get that #17 pick as a valuable consolation prize. Nathan is a more reasonable free agent target for Toronto, as they can offer a chance to close and contend and he won't cost a draft pick to sign. Bailey would require a bigger commitment — multiple well-regarded prospects — as the A's control him through 2015.