Draft Roundup: Matusz, Alonso, Hosmer
Let’s round up some links concerning the unsigned ’08 draft picks.
- The Orioles haven’t made much progress with Brian Matusz, but they haven’t gone backward either. His agent seems cautiously optimistic.
- Reds top pick Yonder Alonso told the Miami Herald there’s a 50-50 chance he doesn’t sign and goes back to college. One of Alonso’s "advisors" said the Reds and Alonso were way off on figures.
- Sam Mellinger says some think Royals top pick Eric Hosmer might be willing to try college. Hosmer is advised by Scott Boras. Mellinger considers fourth round pick/first round talent Tim Melville the Royals’ backup plan. Ideally, they’ll sign both high-ceiling talents.
- How much of this is just posturing? We’ll know on August 16th.
Rays Acquire Chad Bradford
According to Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports, the Rays won a waiver claim on reliever Chad Bradford. They’ll send a player to be named later to the Orioles for him. The Rays strengthened an already excellent bullpen.
Bradford, 34 next month, has a 2.45 ERA in 40.1 innings this year. His strikeout rate is dangerously low, but he’s not walking anyone or allowing home runs. He also has a very strong groundball rate.
Bradford has $1.05MM left on his contract this year plus $3.5MM in ’09. Aside from the Angels, all the other American League teams passed on the chance to claim Bradford.
Mark Teixeira Rumors
It’s not fair to lump all Orioles fans into one big group. But as you might expect, some of the team’s fans are pushing for a signing of Maryland native Mark Teixeira. Teixeira, for his part, said all the right things while remaining noncommittal. Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun expects the Orioles to at least make a run at him.
Free agent megadeals are generally frowned upon for non-contenders. The Orioles, especially, face an uphill battle in the AL East. Craig Calcaterra thinks Teixeira would be a mistake for the Orioles, and such a signing would deviate from Andy MacPhail’s plan. I tend to agree. But to play devil’s advocate, we have seen some successful big money free agent deals signed in advance of contention. For example, the Tigers’ signing of Ivan Rodriguez in ’04 and (hopefully) the Royals’ signing of Gil Meche in ’06. The Orioles signing Tex would be in the same mold, only with more risk attached.
Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times says to treat the "ten year contract" talk with skepticism in regard to Teixeira. Tex answered a question from Ken Rosenthal specifically about whether he’d like a ten-year deal – who wouldn’t? There is no sign that Teixeira, even represented by Scott Boras, will actually demand ten years. And even if he does, I doubt he’ll get it.
Draft Update: Crow, Alvarez, Matusz
MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo reminds us of baseball’s next deadline: this year’s draft picks must be signed by end of day August 15th. Mayo provides links updating progress on unsigned top ten picks Pedro Alvarez, Eric Hosmer, Yonder Alonso, and Aaron Crow. No news on Gordon Beckham.
- Roch Kubatko says both the Orioles and Brian Matusz remain confident a deal will be done. No hard feelings on either side regarding the delay.
- Based on this Q&A with Nationals GM Jim Bowden, talks with Crow apparently haven’t gotten too far.
- As for Alvarez, the Pirates have a dollar figure they’d prefer not to exceed.
Odds and Ends: Bay, Clement, Fuentes, Cabrera
We’ve got plenty of links today.
- There is speculation that Andruw Jones could be sent back to the minors.
- Joel Sherman wonders if MLB should’ve gotten involved when Manny Ramirez decided to orchestrate his own exit. Kind of reminds me of Gary Sheffield intentionally botching plays to force a trade out of Milwaukee in ’92.
- Gordon Edes stands by his report that Manny pledged to give full effort if the Red Sox dropped his options. That phone call between Scott Boras and Theo Epstein occurred within an hour of his trade to the Dodgers.
- Jon Heyman takes us inside the Manny trade. He says Ramirez signed an agreement in advance that he’d accept a trade to any team if his options were dropped. Heyman believes Omar Minaya fibbed in saying he had failed trade discussions with Boston.
- The Red Sox are still waiting to hear whether Joe Borowski will accept their offer of a minor league deal.
- Dejan Kovacevic gives as inside look at the Jason Bay trade talks here and here. Did the Rays offer Reid Brignac and Jeff Niemann? Reports are conflicting.
- The Cardinals released Matt Clement on Saturday. Let this serve as another reminder of how hard it is to come back from shoulder surgery.
- The Cardinals weren’t willing to trade catching prospect Bryan Anderson plus a pitching prospect for Brian Fuentes. Also, GM John Mozeliak confirmed failed talks for Bay.
- RotoAuthority takes a look at young pitchers who may face innings caps this year.
- Another failed deal: Orlando Cabrera to the Orioles in a Brian Roberts deal.
- Geoff Baker believes that when inside information related to the Blue Jays leaks out, GM J.P. Ricciardi is likely responsible.
- Please continue to email me if you see a pop-up or full-page ad on MLB Trade Rumors.
Players Not Traded
Assigning contender status is subjective, but I’m going to say that the following teams are not in the playoff mix: the Orioles, Royals, Indians, Mariners, Braves, Nationals, Reds, Astros, Pirates, Giants, and Padres. The Blue Jays and Athletics just missed the cut as fringe wild card contenders. With those 11 non-contenders in mind, let’s take a look at players not traded at the ’08 non-waiver deadline.
- Orioles: Aubrey Huff, Ramon Hernandez, Brian Roberts, Jay Payton, Jamie Walker, Kevin Millar, Chad Bradford, George Sherrill. Millar and Payton are free agents after the season, but there probably wasn’t much of a market for either. The rest are under team control through at least ’09, so Andy MacPhail still has time to find the right deal; read his comments here. Hernandez is an August trade candidate.
- Royals: Jose Guillen, Mark Grudzielanek, Ron Mahay, David DeJesus, Miguel Olivo. Moving the Guillen contract would’ve made sense, but we don’t know whether that was on the table. Kind of surprised to see Grudz still around. Mahay could be an offseason move, but the Royals might just want him for ’09. DeJesus’ name will probably come up at the Winter Meetings.
- Indians: Paul Byrd, David Dellucci, Jamey Carroll. Only Byrd was thought to generate a bit of interest. He could go in August.
- Mariners: Adrian Beltre, Jarrod Washburn, Raul Ibanez. The Ms still have time to move Beltre and Washburn if they feel so inclined. Ibanez is a possible Type A free agent, so the Mariners asked for a lot. Jayson Stark spoke to teams who characterized the Ms demands as "outrageous" in general. Geoff Baker gives his take on the Mariners’ deadline day.
- Braves: Mark Kotsay, Will Ohman. Wouldn’t be surprising to see Kotsay moved this month. Ohman we discussed here.
- Nationals: Austin Kearns, Dmitri Young, Cristian Guzman, Luis Ayala, Ron Belliard, Tim Redding, Odalis Perez. Some of these players have little trade value, while the Nationals prefer to keep others for ’09.
- Reds: Adam Dunn, Bronson Arroyo, Jeremy Affeldt, David Weathers, David Ross, Josh Fogg, Paul Bako. It seems that the offers just weren’t there for Dunn, who should net a pair of draft picks unless the Reds are gunshy about offering arbitration. I’m surprised Weathers and Fogg weren’t moved.
- Astros: Miguel Tejada, Randy Wolf, Jose Valverde, Ty Wigginton, Mark Loretta, Doug Brocail, Geoff Geary. The ‘Stros are acting like contenders. The worst outcome for fans would be if Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins add a few wins and worsen the team’s ’09 draft position.
- Pirates: Jack Wilson, John Grabow, Doug Mientkiewicz. The Pirates were quite active, and could still trade Wilson and Grabow this winter.
- Giants: Randy Winn, Dave Roberts, Bengie Molina, Rich Aurilia, Tyler Walker, Jack Taschner. Winn and Roberts are August trade candidates. The others might’ve made sense to trade.
- Padres: Greg Maddux, Brian Giles, Khalil Greene, Josh Bard. Maddux, with just one possible suitor, couldn’t be moved. Keeping Giles and Bard around makes sense for ’09, while trading Greene now would be selling low. The Padres did talk to seven different teams in the last few days.
Odds And Ends: Braves, Orioles, Redding, Dunn, Ryan
A few more post-deadline notes from the MLBiverse…
- Apparently the Braves tried to get involved in the Jason Bay sweepstakes in the last hour before the deadline.
- Andy MacPhail feels that the Orioles will actually be more active in August than in July. Jeff Zrebiec and Dan Connolly suggest that several players, including Kevin Millar, Jay Payton and Ramon Hernandez could be had in August. MacPhail also noted that while there "was a pretty high bar set" for teams asking about Brian Roberts, MacPhail made it clear that Roberts was not off-limits and suggested that a deal this winter is not out of the question.
- Jim Bowden does not appear eager to trade Tim Redding, who according to Bill Ladson, is the Nat’s only player of value that could be traded in August.
- Walt Jocketty would not commit to an attempt to sign Adam Dunn to an extension.
- Terry Ryan, the Twins former GM, penned a piece for SI.com in which he details what a GM goes through in the weeks and days leading up to the trade deadline. Very interesting read.
Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com and can be reached here.
Twins Rumors: Bonser, Beltre, Roberts, Monroe
La Velle E. Neal III and Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune have the latest Twins buzz.
- The Twins would like to trade Boof Bonser to make room for Francisco Liriano. The Giants and Rangers might be interested.
- Targets for the Twins: relief help, third base, and second base.
- Talks for Adrian Beltre are not dead. The Mariners are eyeing Nick Blackburn, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, and Denard Span. The Twins aren’t biting. Sounds like the Mariners want a premium arm for Beltre from the Twins or Giants, but those teams see it as more of a salary dump.
- The Twins asked about Brian Roberts but couldn’t get anywhere.
- The Rays might be looking at Craig Monroe as a bench option.
Mets In Holding Pattern
8:39am: SI.com’s Jon Heyman says the Mets have "kicked around" the idea of acquiring Ian Snell from the Pirates and using him in relief for the rest of the year. Snell is signed through 2010 with club options for ’11 and ’12. It’s tough to see the Bucs moving him, even in an off year.
8:13am: According to David Lennon of Newsday, the Mets are not finding a deal to their liking for a reliever or outfielder. They’ve put pretty much all of their good prospects off-limits – Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese, Eddie Kunz or Bobby Parnell.
Players such as Raul Ibanez, Brian Fuentes, George Sherrill, and J.J. Putz have all been on the radar. But the Mets just don’t like the prices. Lennon says they still might move Scott Schoeneweis though.
Twins Looking For A Second Baseman?
According to Bob Dutton of the KC Star, the Twins are in the market for a second baseman. Alexi Casilla has a serious thumb injury. Dutton mentions Mark Grudzielanek, Rich Aurilia, and Brian Roberts as possibilities. Roberts, however, may be off the market. Dutton says the Twins could use Boof Bonser and Craig Monroe as bait.
Here’s a look at the trade market for second basemen.