Rockies Made Informal Offer To Carlos Gonzalez?
The Rockies made an informal seven-to-ten year offer to outfielder Carlos Gonzalez this winter, hears Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post. It'd take a special deal to buy out any of CarGo's free agent years, as he's represented by Scott Boras. Gonzalez isn't even arbitration eligible until after next season, and won't be eligible for free agency until after the 2014 season.
Gonzalez, 25, finished third in the NL MVP voting this season.
Red Sox Acquire Adrian Gonzalez
After being the subject of trade rumors for close to two years, Adrian Gonzalez is finally on his way out of San Diego. The Padres will send their star slugger to the Red Sox in exchange for Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo, Reymond Fuentes, and a player to be named later. The Red Sox and Padres officially announced the deal this morning. While no extension is in place, GM Theo Epstein told reporters he's very confident they'll work something out. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports is hearing a seven-year, $154MM ceiling.
If Boston waits until after Opening Day to officially ink Gonzalez to a new contract, the deal will not impact the 2011 payroll, saving them money on the luxury tax. Several high-priced members of the Red Sox come off of the books after 2011, including David Ortiz, J.D. Drew, Marco Scutaro, and Mike Cameron.
The 28-year-old Gonzalez is one of the game's premier power-hitters, with no fewer than 30 home runs in each of the last four years despite playing half his games in spacious Petco Park. The Red Sox made the best offer, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that both Chicago teams were serious bidders. The trade all but guarantees that Adrian Beltre will not be returning to Boston, reducing his leverage on the open market. The Red Sox are expected to put Gonzalez at first base and slide Kevin Youkilis over to third.
Kelly, 21, is the headliner for San Diego. He was the 30th overall pick in the 2008 draft and owns a 3.69 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 190 career innings split evenly between Single and Double-A. After dabbling at shortstop earlier in his career, Kelly is a full-time pitcher now. Despite the less than stellar statistics, Callis said the Red Sox still "[envisioned] him becoming a frontline starter with three possible plus pitches and above-average command," and he expects Kelly to rank in the 30-50 range of the publication's upcoming Top 100 Prospects list (Twitter link).
Rizzo, also 21, was a sixth round pick in 2007 and has broken out since missing most of the 2008 season to get treatment for Limited Stage Classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He's hit .279/.349/.476 over the last two years, mostly at the Single-A level. Callis writes that he "generates plus power with strength and leverage" and "should hit for a solid average and draw some walks." Rizzo was also voted the best defensive first baseman in the Double-A Eastern League by managers this season.
Fuentes, 20 in February, is a center fielder like his cousin Carlos Beltran, and hit .270/.328/.377 in 2010, his first full season after being the 28th overall pick in the 2009 draft. Although he "may need four or five seasons in the minors," Callis says he has similar tools to Jacoby Ellsbury but projects to be better with both the bat and glove down the road.
ESPNBoston's Gordon Edes and Dan Hayes of the North County Times first reported that the two sides were closing in on a trade, with Jon Heyman of SI.com eventually tweeting that the deal had been finalized. In between, a slew of writers added details to the proceedings. For the full timeline of events, check out our posts leading up to the agreement.
MLBTR's Mike Axisa, Luke Adams, and Zach Links contributed to this post.
Pat Gillick Elected To Hall Of Fame
The 16-member Expansion Era committee announced they've elected Pat Gillick to baseball's Hall of Fame. From their website:
Pat Gillick spent 27 years as the general manager for the Blue Jays, Orioles, Mariners and Phillies, winning at every stop along the way, with his teams earning 11 post-season berths and three World Series championships. In his 27 years as GM, his teams finished with a winning record 20 times.
Eleven other men were on the ballot, including George Steinbrenner, Marvin Miller, and Billy Martin.
Rockies Not Interested In Alfredo Aceves
4:55pm: The Rockies are not interested in Aceves, according to Troy Renck of the Denver Post (on Twitter).
8:34am: The Rockies are among the teams interested in recently non-tendered righty Alfredo Aceves, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. He says the Yankees would like Aceves back, but on a minor league deal.
Aceves, 28 on Wednesday, missed most of the season with back pain and then fractured his left clavicle in November in a bicycle accident. In 2009, he was quite useful with a 3.54 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9, and 35.2% groundball rate in 84 innings. His flyball tendencies don't seem a great match for Coors Field.
Jayson Werth Signing Reactions
Yesterday Jayson Werth signed the third-largest contract ever for an outfielder, as the Nationals locked him up for seven years and $126MM. He and Vernon Wells figure to be bumped soon by Carl Crawford, though. Many thought Werth would get five years, a few thought six, but I didn't see anyone predicting seven. Reactions:
- ESPN's Keith Law calls the contract "irresponsible" and takes on the "losing teams have to overpay" argument.
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs says this is "not the drastic overpay that it appears to be on the surface."
- Yahoo's Jeff Passan says that from Scott Boras' point of view, "This deal wasn’t as much about need as it was capitalizing on eagerness."
- Talking to MLB.com's Anthony DiComo, Mets GM Sandy Alderson remarked, "It makes some of our contracts look pretty good. I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington."
- One GM, upon hearing the length of Werth's contract, told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports it was "absolutely bat—- crazy." CBS Sports' Danny Knobler says one American League GM "nearly fell over when I told him the terms."
- The Phillies' offer, which GM Ruben Amaro Jr. deemed "significant," was for three years and about $48MM according to CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury. MLB.com's Todd Zolecki notes that a fourth-year vesting option would have increased the value to $60MM.
Orioles, D’Backs Agree On Mark Reynolds Trade
10:32am: The O's and D'Backs are closing in on a deal that would send Reynolds to Baltimore for Hernandez and Mickolio, reports MLB.com's Steve Gilbert. The trade is pending physicals, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney.
10:08am: The Orioles and Diamondbacks are "making progress" on a Mark Reynolds trade, O's president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail told reporters including MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli (Twitter link). The deal is getting close, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. Ghiroli hears the same (Twitter link).
Chris Tillman is not in the deal as it's presently constructed, tweets Heyman. David Hernandez is expected to be part of the trade, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Righty Kam Mickolio is a strong possibility, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.
Angels Sign Hisanori Takahashi
FRIDAY, 4:40pm: Takahashi received a two-year deal worth $8MM, according to David Lennon of Newsday (via Twitter).
THURSDAY: The Angels got started with what will likely be a busy offseason, signing versatile left-hander Hisanori Takahashi to a two-year deal. The terms of the deal are unknown.
Takahashi, 36 in April, posted a 3.61 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 1.0 HR/9, and 38.4% groundball rate in 122 innings this year for the Mets. Takahashi was especially strong as a reliever in his MLB debut season, posting a 2.04 ERA, 9.4 K/9, and 3.5 BB/9 in 57 1/3 innings out of the pen. He even picked up eight saves in as many tries. Takahashi is tough on lefties and should take on a late-inning role for the Halos.
The Mets had until October 31st to re-sign Takahashi per the terms of his contract, which was later extended until November 5th. The Mets were unwilling to offer multiple years.
Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times reported that the Angels announced the deal after David Waldstein of the New York Times reported that the sides were close to a multiyear contract.
Free Agent Tracker
We at MLBTR are excited to announce our newest feature, a free agent tracker. Filter and sort by team, position, contract years, contract amount, and signing status.
We'll still be maintaining our free agent list in case you'd like to just see the unsigned players listed by position.
White Sox Sign Adam Dunn
The White Sox added one of the game's most consistent sluggers today, locking Adam Dunn up to a four-year $56MM deal. The team has officially announced the deal.
Dunn settled for a two-year, $20MM deal when he last hit free agency, but his representation at Legacy Sports was aggressive this time, setting their client up with the biggest contract so far this offseason and nearly tripling the value of Dunn's previous deal.
Dunn has hit 38 or more homers in each of the past seven seasons. He boasts a career .250/.381/.521 line with 354 home runs in ten seasons. Few players are as durable as the 31-year-old, who has appeared in 150 or more games in eight of nine seasons since becoming a regular.
It's not clear how often Dunn will play in the field, but that likely depends on Chicago's pursuit of free agent first baseman Paul Konerko. Dunn appeared reluctant to be a full-time DH despite criticisms of his defensive play.
The Nationals, who discussed extensions with the slugger all season long, will obtain a supplementary first rounder plus Chicago's 23rd overall pick in next year's draft. Adam LaRoche and Carlos Pena are Washington's most likely first base targets, according to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (on Twitter).
Crasnick reported that the White Sox had serious interest in Dunn, Jon Heyman of SI.com reported that the sides were closing in on a deal and Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times reported the terms of the contract. Peter Gammons of MLB Network and Bob Nightengale of USA Today also reported elements of the story on Twitter.
Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.
Interesting Non-Tenders
By our unofficial count, 50 players were non-tendered yesterday. You can sort the decisions by team in our non-tender tracker. Those that reached our playing time requirements have been added to the 2011 free agents list, which is robust at the moment. Let's take a look at some of the more interesting non-tenders.
- Bobby Jenks, RP. There are plenty of good right-handed relievers available, but if you take Mariano Rivera and Rafael Soriano off the board, Jenks might be the best closer. Jenks throws hard and posted huge strikeout and groundball rates this year, so he should find multiple years and at least $5MM per.
- Russell Martin, C. Martin was once one of the game's best catchers, but his performance waned and he's recovering from a hip fracture. There aren't a ton of starting catching gigs available, however. The Yankees nearly acquired Martin on Thursday for Francisco Cervelli, tweets Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times.
- Jack Cust, LF/RF/DH. Cust doesn't impress defensively, but not too many free agents can match a .395 OBP.
- Edwin Encarnacion, 3B. Another defensively-challenged player, Encarnacion hit 21 home runs in 367 plate appearances this year. Someone will give him a shot in a weak market for third basemen.
- Andrew Miller, SP. The former first-round pick is a project at this point, with his velocity down and walks up.
- Joel Peralta, RP. He's not a hard-thrower but it's difficult to argue with a 2.02 ERA, 9.0 K/9, and 1.7 BB/9. He is an extreme flyball pitcher though.
- Jose Veras, RP. Veras has control issues, but he did rack up strikeouts this year and averaged 94.4 mph on his fastball.
- Fourth outfielder types: Matt Diaz, Ryan Church, Tony Gwynn, Lastings Milledge, and Scott Hairston.
- Former setup types: Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima, and George Sherrill.
- Interesting pitchers coming back from shoulder surgery: J.P. Howell, John Maine, Chien-Ming Wang.