Orioles Interested In Bartlett, Hardy
The Orioles have discussed potential trades for Jason Bartlett and J.J. Hardy with the Rays and Twins, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun. The Orioles discussed trading David Hernandez to the Rays for Bartlett, but the deal seems unlikely at this point.
Hardy is a non-tender candidate after a 2010 season in which he missed time with a bruised wrist and batted .268/.320/.394 in 375 plate appearances. The 28-year-old continued to play strong defense, according to UZR.
Like Hardy, Bartlett is heading into his final year as an arbitration eligible player. He earned $4MM in 2010, while Hardy made $5.1MM. Bartlett batted .254/.324/.350 in 532 plate appearances. If they trade the 31-year-old, the Rays could pencil Reid Brignac in at short.
O’s president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail wouldn’t comment on specific players, but said he has had some “productive disucssions” at the GM Meetings in Orlando. The team could still bring back free agent shortstop Cesar Izturis.
Justin Upton Rumors: Thursday
Yesterday we learned that rival teams continue to kick the tires on Justin Upton. It will take four or five players to meet Arizona's demands, but GM Kevin Towers seems genuinely open to moving the 23-year-old. The Rockies, Marlins and Red Sox appear to be among the interested teams, but the Braves aren't likely to get involved. Here are today's rumors:
- D'Backs president Derrick Hall isn't concerned about potential fallout if the club does not move Upton, tweets Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. Arizona has talked to Upton and told him that they "owe it to [themselves]" to listen, Crasnick tweets.
- The D’Backs are more inclined to move Upton than they were when the GM Meetings began, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, who confirms that the Blue Jays, Mariners and Marlins “have expressed a high level of interest in Upton.”
- The Blue Jays are showing "strong interest" in Upton, according to Rosenthal (on Twitter). They are the mystery team from FOX Sports' earlier report.
- The Mariners are not ruling out Upton and could construct a deal around pitching prospect Michael Pineda, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter).
- The Orioles are not pursuing Upton now, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter).
- Towers is determined not to trade Upton within the NL West, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter).
- The Red Sox are on the "backburner" in the Upton talks after a mystery team made a strong push yesterday, according to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. About half of MLB teams showed some interest in Upton, but the D'Backs aren't going to trade him unless they "win" the trade. Arizona wants four prospects in return and teams like the Yankees aren't comfortable parting ways with that much talent. The D'Backs and Red Sox have discussed expanded deals that involve at least one other team.
- The Red Sox are showing more interest than the Yankees, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (Twitter link). He says the D'Backs would likely request Daniel Bard and Jacoby Ellsbury from the Red Sox.
Jorge De La Rosa Rumors: Wednesday
5:30pm: The Nationals, Pirates, and Orioles have been the most aggressive De La Rosa suitors, tweets Renck, while the Brewers are no longer in the mix.
4:22pm: The Nationals met today with Jorge de la Rosa's agent Bobby Barad, tweets ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. Barad told SI's Jon Heyman earlier that seven or eight teams are in on his client. From previous reports, it appears that the Rockies, Orioles, Pirates, Rangers, Yankees, and Brewers comprise most of those clubs. The Nationals have also been linked to Carl Pavano and Brandon Webb this offseason as they look to upgrade their rotation.
De La Rosa, a Type A free agent, will net the Rockies a pair of draft picks if he turns down an arbitration offer. His Elias score is 74.422, so the Rockies won't necessarily receive a first-rounder from another club. Also working against them is the fact that the first-round picks of the Pirates, Orioles, Nationals, and Brewers are protected.
Heyman On Weeks, Matsui, Pujols
SI's Jon Heyman is gathering all kinds of information at the GM Meetings; here's the latest…
- Brewers GM Doug Melvin will talk to second baseman Rickie Weeks today about a possible extension, tweets Heyman. The arbitration eligible Weeks is one year away from free agency.
- Heyman tweets that the White Sox are talking to free agent designated hitter Hideki Matsui, who would fit as one of two lefty bats they hope to acquire. The Sox have already had preliminary discussions with Adam Dunn's agent. Heyman says the Cubs have not appeared to be big suitors for Dunn so far.
- Regarding Albert Pujols, Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt does not want to repeat Alex Rodriguez's ten-year, $275MM contract. In fact, he believes the Yankees would retract A-Rod's deal if they could. Heyman floated an eight-year, $240MM deal to DeWitt, who questioned the $30MM salary.
- Expensive closers Jonathan Papelbon and Francisco Cordero are on the trade market, with the Red Sox and Reds willing to kick in money. Still, Heyman sees the Red Sox retaining Papelbon, whose trade market is weak.
- Heyman could see something around three years and $57MM for Derek Jeter.
- Heyman believes the Orioles are looking at Paul Konerko and/or Adrian Beltre for their corner infield openings.
Rockies Draw Line At Three Years For De La Rosa
The Rockies have drawn the line at a three-year deal for free agent lefty Jorge de la Rosa, reports Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post. Competition for De La Rosa appears heavy; Renck adds the Orioles to a list of suitors that already included the Pirates, Nationals, Rangers, Yankees, and Brewers. Since three of those clubs are eyeing higher profile lefty Cliff Lee, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports feels that De La Rosa may wait until he signs, though Renck does not agree.
With Jake Westbrook and Hiroki Kuroda off the board, Renck believes that Carl Pavano is now a stronger possibility for Colorado. Renck also names Javier Vazquez, and I imagine they might take a look at Jon Garland.
Renck also notes that Melvin Mora is looking to sign a contract soon. The Rockies aren't ready to commit, so he may sign elsewhere.
Meetings Rumors: A’s, Tigers, M’s, Red Sox, O’s
Baseball's general managers met in Orlando today and discussed potential changes to the collective bargaining agreement. MLB Executive Vice President Rob Manfred told reporters that he's optimistic about reaching a new CBA with the MLB Players Association and eager to hear the opinions of baseball's GMs. Manfred declined to go into detail on the talks, but the GMs addressed a number of hot stove topics with MLBTR soon afterwards. Here are the details (and be sure to follow @mlbtrorlando for more updates):
- The A's are off to a busy offseason start, but it's not intentional. "I don't think any particular reason other than opportunities presented themselves when they did," A's GM Billy Beane said. "It wasn't by design or anything like that. [David] DeJesus was somebody we inquired on back in August when he was hurt and we didn't control the pace of that negotiation, because they didn't move him until they were ready to move him."
- Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski says the Tigers could add left-handers, right-handers or both to their bullpen this winter.
- The Tigers expect Andy Oliver to be a quality big league pitcher, but they aren't counting on him for their 2011 rotation, according to Dombrowski.
- Asked who will close for his team in 2011, Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik praised David Aardsma's recent body of work. Zduriencik also said he doesn't expect Milton Bradley's history with manager Eric Wedge to be an issue.
- The Mariners opened the 2010 season with a heavily right-handed bullpen and Zduriencik says "it'd be nice to have a left-hander or two out there" in 2011.
- Red Sox GM Theo Epstein says the Red Sox need to get to know Andrew Miller and Taylor Buchholz before he knows specifically what to expect from the team's new acquisitions. He does like "the possibility of real upside" for both pitchers, and was impressed by Buchholz's 2008 season with the Rockies.
- Epstein says the Red Sox bullpen is far from a finished product despite the acquisitions. "We probably have to acquire one or two relievers through trade or free agency and we will. I really believe in the guys we have in the back: [Jonathan] Pabelbon, [Daniel] Bard and possibly [Felix] Doubront. If he's not in the rotation, he could be a very valuable bullpen piece."
- Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail says there haven't been major developments with free agents Cesar Izturis or Ty Wigginton since the O's expressed interest in both when the offseason ended.
- For more GM Meetings coverage, see what Jed Hoyer of the Padres, Neal Huntington of the Pirates and Andrew Friedman of the Rays had to say.
Orioles, 11 Others Eyeing Adrian Beltre
The market for free agent third baseman Adrian Beltre is hot, tweets SI's Jon Heyman, and the Orioles "seem very interested." Heyman tweets that a dozen teams are interested in the Scott Boras client. Last week Boras told MLB Network Radio hosts Casey Stern and Jim Bowden regarding Beltre, "I would have to say in my years of doing this I’ve never had so much interest in one player." Heyman believes Beltre could be the first star to go off the board, but I'd still be surprised to see him sign before December.
In addition to the contract, the Orioles would have to surrender their second-round pick to sign Beltre. There is recent precedent for that; they gave their second-round pick (#53 overall) to the Braves a year ago to sign Mike Gonzalez.
Beltre, ranked third on our Top 50 Free Agents list, is far and away the best available third baseman this winter. In addition to the Orioles, the Red Sox, Angels, Blue Jays, Indians, Athletics, and Giants could be looking for help at the hot corner. Even the Pirates were said a week ago by Heyman to have interest in Beltre, but not all the clubs named here will be willing to go four or five years at $15MM or more per season.
Odds & Ends: Sandberg, D’Backs, Lee, Huff
Here are today's links as we await the Rookie of the Year announcements…
- I'll be in Orlando covering the GM Meetings this week. Follow @mlbtrorlando on Twitter for the latest news, quotes and observations from Florida.
- The Phillies have hired Ryne Sandberg to manage their Triple-A affiliate nearly 29 years after they traded the future Hall of Famer to the Cubs. Sandberg played 15 seasons in Chicago and nearly won the Cubs managerial job this winter.
- MLB.com's Todd Zolecki takes us back to 1982, when the Phillies sent Sandberg to the Cubs.
- The Orioles signed former Cubs pitcher Mitch Atkins to a minor league deal, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun. The 25-year-old has solid minor league numbers and a 5.25 ERA in 12 big league innings.
- The D'Backs announced that Rico Brogna, who was appointed director of player development last month, resigned and will be replaced by Mike Bell.
- Arizona also announced the hiring of Billy Ryan as assistant GM. He will work on arbitration cases and draft bonus recommendations.
- Cliff Lee’s agent is one person who can skip the GM meetings altogether. “We're not going to have to go there to drum up interest," Darek Braunecker told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News.
- Tyler Kepner of the New York times explains that every team is looking for the next Aubrey Huff.
Rosenthal On Brewers, Doubront, Marlins, Barmes
In case there was any doubt, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that the Brewers aren't going to trade Ryan Braun. However, the Brewers are open to trading any of their other top hitters for rotation help. That means Rickie Weeks, Casey McGehee and, of course, Prince Fielder would be available in the right deal. Here are the details and the rest of Rosenthal's rumors:
- The Brewers don't want to trade top players for back-of-the-rotation starters, but teams are reluctant to include top young pitchers in potential deals.
- The Padres have spoken repeatedly to the Brewers about minor league infielder Brett Lawrie, who could be obtained for young pitching.
- Adrian Gonzalez is still drawing trade interest, even though he won't be ready to swing a bat until the end of Spring Training.
- Two GMs tell Rosenthal that the Red Sox are open to trading Felix Doubront. One says Boston would part with the left-hander "in a heartbeat" and the other guaranteed the Red Sox will trade him by mid-summer. Red Sox GM Theo Epstein told Rosenthal that the Red Sox "value Felix tremendously" and that the report "couldn't be further from the truth."
- Every young Orioles pitcher "could be in play for the right bat," Rosenthal reports.
- If the Marlins trade Dan Uggla, they would use the savings to sign at least one free agent. John Buck is a target for the Marlins regardless of whether they trade or extend Uggla.
- The A's don't have interest in Mark Reynolds.
- The Rockies are drawing lots of interest in Clint Barmes. They could trade or non-tender the infielder if they aren't able to sign him to a multi-year contract.
- Cody Ross and Javier Lopez are strong candidates to receive extensions from the Giants.
Odds & Ends: Pudge, Indians, Orioles, Jeter
Links for Friday, four years to the day after the Cubs signed Aramis Ramirez to a five-year $75MM contract. He has 93 homers and a .287/.356/.510 line since signing the deal…
- MLB executives predicted the destinations for some top free agents along with Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com.
- Ivan Rodriguez told Raul Alzaga of Primera Hora that he works out for three or four hours per day and feels physically fit enough to play three more years (link in Spanish).
- Yankees manager Joe Girardi told Vincent M. Mallozzi of the New York Times that he's happy to help recruit free agents.
- The Royals announced that they promoted Lonnie Goldberg to scouting director.
- Cleveland GM Chris Antonetti has spoken to the agents for former Indian Jake Westbrook, according to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. When he was traded to the Cardinals, Westbrook said he was open to re-signing in Cleveland after the season.
- The Indians are looking for a third baseman, and they don't have much money to spend, but they have discussed potential trades.
- Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail told Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun that the O's have talked to "a wide variety" of free agents already.
- Derek Jeter and GM Brian Cashman told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News that they're hopeful they can work out a contract.
- For what it's worth, Joe Torre, Jeter's longtime manager, told Peter Botte of the New York Daily News that he can't envision the shortstop playing elsewhere.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post argues that no team can "allow the heart to rule the brain in on-field decisions."