Padres Sign Shawn Hill
According to Chico Harlan of the Washington Post, the Padres signed pitcher Shawn Hill to a minor league deal. Hill was released by the Nationals on Wednesday and also drew interest from the Blue Jays. San Diego is a great match, as he'll presumably have a rotation spot if healthy. A bonus for the Padres: they'll have the chance to keep Hill under team control through 2012 as an arbitration-eligible player.
Gammons On Matthews, Teahen, Harang, Peavy
12:07pm: John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer asked Reds GM Walt Jocketty about Gammons' Harang note. Jocketty said, "I'm not going to comment on something when he doesn't know what he's talking about."
9:19am: ESPN's Peter Gammons had a new blog post yesterday discussing available players.
- Gammons names Geoff Jenkins ($8MM remaining, limited no-trade), Brian Giles ($9MM remaining, full no-trade), Gary Matthews Jr. ($33.5MM remaining, full no-trade), Marcus Thames ($2.275MM salary), Nick Johnson ($5.5MM salary), Jason Repko, and Jeff Baker as players being dangled. Gammons links Matthews to the Yankees but admits his contract will be an issue.
- Mark Teahen has drawn interest from the Astros, Red Sox, and Yankees.
- Gammons says the Reds "have let teams know that they will wait and see whether they need to move Aaron Harang during the season." It'd be a shame to see the Reds break up that rotation. Harang has about $36MM coming to him over the next three seasons if his 2011 option is exercised.
- Brewers third baseman Bill Hall expects his team to pursue Padres ace Jake Peavy if available this summer. Unlike C.C. Sabathia, Peavy is more than a rental.
Odds & Ends: Gregerson, Hanley, Strasburg
Links for Monday…
- Matt Eddy of Baseball America has the minor league transactions, including the Dodgers' signing of J.D Durbin.
- Marc Lancaster of the Tampa Tribune says Rays Rule 5 pick Derek Rodriguez, a reliever, has been returned to the White Sox.
- Yahoo's David Brown talked to Carlos Pena about many topics, including his agent Scott Boras.
- According to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Padres received pitcher Luke Gregerson as the player to be named later in the Khalil Greene deal. The other player the Padres received, the now-injured Mark Worrell, was also a minor league closer. Given the state of the Padres' pen, Gregerson could reach the Majors this year. UPDATE: Here is Paul DePodesta's take on Gregerson.
- MLB.com's Ken Gurnick noted yesterday that the Dodgers cut pitcher Shawn Estes, and he's yet to decide whether to accept a Triple A assignment. UPDATE: Estes will head to the minors and attempt to reinvent himself as a lefthanded specialist.
- Sean McAdam of the Boston Herald quizzed Hanley Ramirez about Boston's attempt to reacquire him in November.
- MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan wonders about Frank Catalanotto's future. Useful player, but the Rangers would have to eat most of his $6MM to move him.
- Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post talked to Nationals president Stan Kasten about the six-year, $50MM Stephen Strasburg rumor. We all know how Boras works…if he wants $25MM for Strasburg, he starts at $50MM.
- South Side Sox and Sox Machine comment on the Gavin Floyd extension, as well as the offers to John Danks and Carlos Quentin.
- Talking to David Lennon of Newsday, Tom Glavine responded to Pedro Martinez's distaste for signing a "Glavine-like" contract.
- Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun spoke to Aubrey Huff, who "doesn't even understand the concept of a contract push."
- Ivan Rodriguez explained to MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez why he didn't sign with the Marlins.
Rosenthal On Jeter, Jenkins, Keppinger
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports posted a new column last night.
- Rosenthal wonders if the eventual emergence of Yankees shortstop prospects Ramiro Pena and Eduardo Nunez will prompt the team to ask Derek Jeter to change positions in the future. Neither player ranked among the Yankees' top 30 prospects in the Baseball America 2009 Handbook, however. Jeter's current contract runs through 2010.
- Rosenthal says Boston's talks for catchers Miguel Montero and Jarrod Saltalamacchia "remain stalled because of those clubs' respective asking prices."
- Rosenthal believes the Phillies are unlikely to trade Geoff Jenkins or Matt Stairs.
- The Reds are considering trading infielder Jeff Keppinger, and Rosenthal wonders if the Astros would be a fit. He also speculates on Juan Uribe for Houston. John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer talked about the Keppinger possibility on Friday.
Curt Schilling Retires
Pitcher Curt Schilling announced his retirement today via a blog post at 38 Pitches. He finishes with a 3.46 ERA and 216 wins in 3,261 innings for the Orioles, Astros, Phillies, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox. He also won 11 postseason games with a 2.23 ERA in 133.3 innings.
Future Free Agent Push For Orioles
Peter Schmuck and Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun talked to Orioles owner Peter Angelos:
Orioles owner Peter Angelos confirmed the Orioles are planning to make a significant free-agent push when the team gets within range of contending for a playoff berth next winter or in advance of the 2011 season.
The AL East may be even more competitive in the near future. Perhaps in the 2009-10 offseason the Orioles will consider a pitcher like John Lackey or even a slugger like Matt Holliday. The 2009-10 free agent market is flush with outfielders, which is already a strength of the Orioles. The 2010-11 market may boast names such as Carlos Pena, J.J. Hardy, Roy Halladay, and Brandon Webb.
Pirates Looking For Pitching
Pirates GM Neal Huntington isn't content with his bullpen, based on comments made to Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The locks are Matt Capps, John Grabow, and Tyler Yates. Craig Hansen and Donnie Veal could be lost if they're not kept in the bigs.
Huntington would like to add pitching to the mix, mentioning free agency but qualifying that route as "very unlikely." The Bucs may prefer to acquire an out of options player as they did with Yates last year. Here's my partial list – maybe Angel Guzman or one of the Orioles' pitchers would work (my own speculation). Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette adds that the Pirates are also looking for starting pitching.
Josh Byrnes Q&A
Recently MLB Trade Rumors had the privilege of asking a few questions of Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes. Byrnes has been at the helm since October of '05, making it to the NLCS in '07.
MLB Trade Rumors: Many players signed for less money or fewer years than expected this winter. Do you anticipate an even more drastic decline in free agent spending around the game for the non-superstar players in the 2009-10 offseason?
Josh Byrnes: In spite of the economic conditions, the industry spent over $1 billion on free agents this off-season and 17 of 30 clubs increased their payrolls. Given the abnormally small rate of inflation (and a good class of free agents), it felt like a very tight squeeze. Certain players probably signed for a lot less than what they have been offered in the months/years preceding their final decision. In a tight economic setting, the stars seem to do better than the good (but not irreplaceable) players.
MLBTR: You were criticized by some for not offering arbitration to Adam Dunn in December, but it turned out to be the right move. How were you able to predict where the market was headed?
Byrnes: Obviously, we considered that particular decision very carefully. It was difficult – especially because the premise of the August trade was based upon draft pick compensation. As we moved toward December 1st, we weighed the risk and reward of offering Dunn arbitration, and we decided that the risk was too great.
MLBTR: Do you have the payroll flexibility to make another Dunn-like acquisition this summer, if the need arises?
Byrnes: We’ll see. Ownership has been very supportive of any responsible expenditure that can help us compete. These are challenging economic times, and we will have to monitor our competitive state and our revenues.
MLBTR: You've talked about the danger of having players with their meters running regarding playing time incentives, and expressed a preference for health-based incentives if any. Do you think health-based incentives carry a similar risk, with a player perhaps unwilling to disclose an injury or go on the DL because it would affect his paycheck?
Byrnes: The non-disclosure of an injury could happen (I suppose), but that is pretty self-defeating for the player. Our fundamental rejection of bonuses centers on two main points: (1) we want to know what our team costs, and (2) we do not want provisions in contracts to be a daily source of angst in our clubhouse.
MLBTR: What is your stance on player opt-outs in free agent contracts? Would you ever allow that?
Byrnes: As a rule of thumb, I would be hesitant to put an opt-out into a contract. We do have a Mutual Option in our Jon Garland contract. To the extent we are able to negotiate Club Options (the reverse of the opt-out concept), we usually provide extra guaranteed money in the form of a buyout to potentially compensate the player for our right to make a choice.
MLBTR: Is there any concern about the team's strikeout total last year, or do you view strikeouts as pretty much the same as other outs?
Byrnes: To some extent, strikeouts are like other outs. But on a young team with many RHH, it can be indicative of our needed growth. Ideally, we want hitters who are tough outs and who are dangerous. If enough walks and homers accompany the strikeouts, the tradeoff can work. Our young hitters have faced some elite pitching in our division over the last two seasons. Now, we need to start applying those lessons.
MLBTR: How do you decide how many innings you'll allow a guy like Max Scherzer to throw, since he's never topped 109 in a season? If he's healthy and the team is in a pennant race would you be comfortable taking him to 200 innings?
Byrnes: Including the Arizona Fall League and instructional league, Scherzer threw around 140 innings last year. We will try to moderate his innings throughout the season and shoot for a range closer to 170 innings.
MLBTR: Have the D'Backs built something similar to the Diamondview database you worked with in Cleveland?
Byrnes: We have not. The Indians actually developed their product after my departure (we had just started to integrate IT into Baseball Ops as I was leaving). With the volume of information at our disposal and the necessary speed of business, we are constantly trying to ramp up our technical tools. The progression from concept to implementation is not an easy one.
Blue Jays To Sign Shawn Hill
SUNDAY 10:03am: Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star says the Jays are expecting to sign Shawn Hill as soon as he clears waivers. Griffin has a quote from J.P. Ricciardi:
"'We wouldn't be signing him to come in here and make the major-league staff," Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi said. 'We'd have to get him up to speed, kind of like (former major-leaguer) Wade Miller (currently in minor-league camp). We're just trying to get as many arms as we can in here. We know the young kids are going to struggle. … We're trying to put them in spots they might not be ready for. We get some veteran guys here and they can hold the fort down. … It gives us enough experience where we can just ease them in as opposed to throwing them in.'"
FRIDAY 4:49pm: According to Jeff Blair of The Globe and Mail, the Blue Jays are negotiating with just-released starter Shawn Hill. Hill is a great fit for the Jays so hopefully they'll get it done. His elbow has never been in good shape, but there's still upside.
Rangers Sign Jimmy Gobble
According to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan, the Rangers signed lefty Jimmy Gobble to a minor league deal. Sullivan notes that the Rangers hoped to acquire Gobble back in '03 in a failed Juan Gonzalez trade.
Gobble, 27, was released by the Royals a few days ago. He held lefties to a .200/.246/.323 line last year. Gobble won't have six years service time after the season, so the Rangers can keep him for 2010 if they want.