Barry Bonds Hopes To Play
Bob Nightengale of USA Today talked to Barry Bonds‘ agent Jeff Borris, who plans to contact all 30 teams in hopes of landing a 2009 job for his client. Bonds’ trial has been indefinitely delayed. Borris is not optimistic about finding a team for Bonds, given that teams declined to sign the outfielder at the league minimum for ’08.
Mets Interested In Ivan Rodriguez?
According to David Lennon of Newsday, the Mets "remain very interested" in free agent catcher Ivan Rodriguez. The Mets are unsure about Ramon Castro as a complement to Brian Schneider. MetsBlog’s Matthew Cerrone notes Bart Hubbuch’s report from February 16th, indicating the Mets are not interested in Pudge.
Lennon says a strong showing by Rodriguez in the WBC could cause their pursuit to "heat up quickly." Many believe the Marlins are still a strong possibility for him.
Nationals GM Candidates
We’ve heard names like Mike Rizzo, Tony LaCava, and Deric Ladnier as candidates for the GM job in Washington. In talking with rival scouts and executives, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal adds several more possibilities. Rosenthal’s speculation includes Bob Boone, John Hart, Chuck LaMar, and John Schuerholz. He also notes previous GM interviewees such as Kim Ng, Tony Bernazard, Al Avila, and Peter Woodfork. Ben Goessling of the Washington Times says Schuerholz called Nationals president Stan Kasten to recommend Hart as well as Gerry Hunsicker.
For now, Kasten is the interim GM. Rosenthal describes this as "a decision perceived by some in the industry as a blow to Nationals assistant GM Mike Rizzo, who appeared the most logical choice to take over on an interim basis." Kasten said not to read into that decision.
45 Worst Contracts In Baseball
In a post for the Spring Training ’09 site, I went team by team and assembled a list of the 45 worst contracts in baseball. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Offseason In Review: Seattle Mariners
Next up in our Offseason In Review series, the Mariners. Take a look at what I had to say about them on September 2nd. By the way for subtractions I’ll put anyone who had decent playing time for the team in ’08.
Additions: Ken Griffey Jr., Russell Branyan, Tyler Johnson, Ronny Cedeno, Franklin Gutierrez, Endy Chavez, Garrett Olson, David Aardsma, Tyler Walker, Randy Messenger, Mike Sweeney, Jamie Burke, Reegie Corona, Jason Vargas, Chris Shelton, Jason Phillips, Luis Pena
Subtractions: Raul Ibanez, Jose Vidro, Jeremy Reed, Richie Sexson, Miguel Cairo, Willie Bloomquist, R.A. Dickey, Sean Green, J.J. Putz, Ryan Feierabend (out for season), Cha Seung Baek
I like the direction Jack Zduriencik has taken with the Mariners. He added a couple of cheap potential 20 HR bats in Griffey and Branyan. He declined to spend big money on the bullpen. He quietly added Olson to the starting mix. He brought in Cedeno to push Yuniesky Betancourt. And he improved the outfield defense with Gutierrez and Chavez.
2009 is a weird year for the Mariners – Adrian Beltre, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, and Erik Bedard are in their contract years. So we’ll see a lot of turnover in the 2009-10 offseason as well. The ’09 club doesn’t look like a winning team on the surface. It’s light on offense and certain players will be tested as full-timers. But you have to wonder if a pitching and defense-oriented team could sneak into contention if Erik Bedard and Brandon Morrow have big years.
Bottom line: Jack Z. is well on his way toward remaking the Mariners, with a slew of savvy low-cost moves in his first winter as GM.
Minor League Transactions
Baseball America’s Matt Eddy has the latest installment of minor league transactions. Notable: the Rockies signed Mark Bellhorn, the Twins signed Justin Huber, and the Nationals signed Dave Williams.
A’s Sign Orlando Cabrera
According to Yahoo’s Tim Brown, the A’s signed shortstop Orlando Cabrera to a one-year, $4MM deal. Since Cabrera was a Type A free agent offered arbitration, the White Sox will receive Oakland’s second-round pick this June as well as a supplemental pick. The move leaves Bobby Crosby ($5.5MM) as a pricey backup infielder. ESPN’s Buster Olney adds that the A’s "have had substantial talks with Nomar Garciaparra in the last 48 hours." They also remain in talks for Dennys Reyes.
The A’s have been flirting with Cabrera for a while now, and I didn’t think they’d go as high as $4MM (which is still a bargain in general). Perhaps recent reported interest by the Blue Jays forced them to make a move.
Now seems like a good time to bust out some quotes from John Dewan’s awesome new Fielding Bible Volume II. Here’s his opinion on Cabrera’s defense:
"Cabrera is a fundamentally sound shortstop who plays with a lot of energy and does everything well. He has above-average range and makes a lot of sliding plays, but he also led all shortstops in 2008 in defensive misplays (56)."
Manny Ramirez Rumors: Monday
SI.com’s Jon Heyman has a new column up, primarily focusing on Manny Ramirez. To review – though the Dodgers and Manny/Scott Boras were just $1.5MM or so apart, owner Frank McCourt ignored Boras’ most recent proposals and talked about starting from scratch. Heyman’s source believes McCourt may choose to "stop negotiating for now, or more drastically, begin negotiating backward." Another source of Heyman’s, one close to Manny, believes lowering their offer would be a dangerous move for the Dodgers.
Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times talked to McCourt, who "said the latest phase of negotiations ended the moment agent Boras made him a counterproposal instead of simply accepting or declining an offer the Dodgers made Wednesday of a two-year, $45MM contract with much of the money deferred without any added interest."
Stan Kasten Performing GM Duties For Now
11:43am: Harlan says Nationals president Stan Kasten is performing the GM duties for the moment, at least as far as trades. Kasten didn’t offer much else regarding the search for Bowden’s replacement.
8:55am: The Washington Post has all kinds of reading material in the wake of Jim Bowden’s resignation.
- Thomas Boswell says Bowden shouldn’t blame the media. Bowden’s #1 job was to build a farm system, but the Nationals are in the bottom third of baseball in that regard.
- Barry Svrluga looks at Bowden’s significant moves as Nationals GM. Svrluga and Chico Harlan gathered quotes from many who worked with Bowden.
- Joshua Robinson and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times note that baseball investigators have examined 6-8 teams’ dealings in the Dominican Republic – not just the Nationals.
- Harlan figures Mike Rizzo and Tony LaCava are candidates to replace Bowden.
Odds & Ends: Contraction, Pudge, German, Jays
Links for Monday…
- Squawking Baseball talked to Braves exec John Coppolella about the salary arbitration process as well as various topics about the team.
- The Marlins renewed their remaining players, including Cameron Maybin and Matt Lindstrom. The Braves signed 10, including Yunel Escobar.
- Bill Madden of the New York Daily News wonders if contraction will be considered during negotiations for the next Basic Agreement.
- Justin Murphy of Seamheads.com talked to Brian Bannister, as did Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star.
- MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro talked to various sources who expect Ivan Rodriguez to wind up a Marlin, though that’s based on opinion rather than insider knowledge.
- We forgot to mention that the Royals designated Esteban German for assignment to make room for Juan Cruz. Rany Jazayerli liked the Cruz signing. My opinion: Cruz has great stuff and upside, but he has a ways to go before being considered a top setup man.
- Blue Jays president Paul Beeston says the team will go over slot in the draft for the first time, according to Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail (hat tip Drunk Jays Fans).
- Tracy Ringolsby and Jack Etkin, formerly of the Rocky Mountain News, can now be found at Inside The Rockies.