Varitek, Red Sox Working On Deal?
Daniel Barbarisi of The Providence Journal believes the Boston Red Sox and the team’s veteran catcher, Jason Varitek, who is currently a free agent, are working on a short-term deal, possibly two years.
Barbarisi writes how the Red Sox usually do not sign aging veterans, so re-signing Varitek would be a catch-22, the title of the article.
Varitek, 36, is looking for a four-year deal worth $40MM, though it’s rather unlikely he’ll receive one, Barbarisi notes.
From Barbarisi:
“By the numbers, veteran players producing at (Varitek’s) level were generally paid between $2MM to $5MM by their teams in 2008, with the exception of the Yankees’ (Ivan) Rodriguez. If Varitek’s price were to drop that low, the Red Sox would probably be happy to bring him back for at least two more years. But if Varitek and Boras stick to their initial demands, the Red Sox will probably go another way and end up with the same production for half the cost.”
Derek Lowe Rumors: Sunday
3:41pm: Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports that the Braves are interested in Lowe, but not his price tag. Bowman says the Braves are "keeping tabs on Lowe," but also states that the Braves would be reluctant to even make a larger offer than the three-year, $36MM deal that he rejected from the Mets.
11:44am: Jon Heyman reports the Braves, Phillies, and Red Sox and perhaps the Brewers and Angels are all expressing interest in Derek Lowe. Lowe is still looking for $16MM per year and rejected the Mets offer of 3 years, $36MM, his highest offer to date.
Buster Olney feels Lowe may have missed out on the big money when the Yankees signed A.J. Burnett for 5 years, $82.5MM over him; however, as Heyman points out, Lowe has been far more consistent and durable: "He’s won at least 12 games each of the past seven seasons and thrown at least 199 innings in six of those seven (he threw 182 innings the one year he didn’t reach 199."
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe says the Mets are likely to increase their offer.
Gregg Zaun Interested In Boston
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe says Gregg Zaun would love to play for the Red Sox. In Cafardo’s interview with the catcher, Zaun said,
"I’d love it. My agent has had ongoing talks with Boston and I would love to see that happen. I feel one of the things I have going in my favor is being in Toronto for so long I have a deep knowledge of the AL East. I would also love the challenge of playing in Boston, where every day you go to the ballpark it’s a meaningful game and you’re fighting for something. That atmosphere, I’m telling you, there’s nothing like it, and to be a part of that would be unbelievable. I played for Tito [Terry Francona] back in the Arizona Fall League… Tito has been watching me a long time."
Zaun, 37, finished with six homeruns and a .340 OBP in 2008 while losing his starting job to Rod Barajas. In comparison, Jason Varitek is 36 and finished with a .313 OBP last season. Zaun has received a few offers but nothing from Boston.
Odds & Ends: Rockies, Iguchi, Indians
Some odds and ends for a quiet Sunday morning:
- Troy E. Renck notes that after acquiring Jason Marquis, arbitration is going to result in a slight payroll increase of $5MM for the Rockies.
- From Kyodo News: The Lotte Marines will begin talks with Tadahito Iguchi on Wednesday in Okinawa.
- Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe points out that the Red Sox prefer short, low cost, low risk contracts for established talent (i.e. Wade Miller, Bartolo Colon, and now Brad Penny) rather than large free agent contracts for pitchers.
- Keith Law says the Indians got Mark DeRosa for cheap, adding that a ".285/.365/.440 line is well within reason."
Lowe Rejected Offer, Wants $16MM Per Year
Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog passes on some comments made tonight by Jon Heyman on the MLB Network’s Hot Stove Live.
- According to Heyman, Derek Lowe rejected the Mets’ three year $36MM offer because he hopes to sign a deal worth $16MM per season.
- The Phillies and Braves are the Mets’ biggest competitors for Lowe.
- The Red Sox and a mystery team are also involved.
Later on in the show, Mets GM Omar Minaya confirmed interest in Lowe, Randy Wolf and others. Cerrone notes that Minaya did not mention Oliver Perez.
Odds And Ends: Red Sox, Andruw, Roberts
Links for Saturday…
- At the bottom of an interesting article about baseball’s youth movement, Peter Gammons adds that the Red Sox-Marlins Hanley Ramirez discussions "lasted all of 20 seconds" according to a Marlins official.
- Yahoo’s Tim Brown speculates that the Nationals could have interest in Andruw Jones. I can see the Blue Jays taking him on if they can make it work financially.
- Roch Kubatko cautions fans from reading too much into discussions about a Brian Roberts–Gavin Floyd trade.
- Peter Schmuck hasn’t heard much on the Roberts front, but wouldn’t mind seeing the Orioles trade him for Floyd, even if they don’t acquire anyone else in the deal.
- In another post, Schmuck argues that there’s nothing wrong with the Mark Hendrickson signing.
- Ryan Dempster has heard good things about Milton Bradley and hopes he joins the Cubs.
- The Yankees have no need for Manny Ramirez, Erik Bedard or over-the-top position swaps, in Peter Abraham’s opinion.
- Jeff Moorad- who’s leading the group poised to buy the Padres- was a record-setting agent in his day. Tom Krasovic looks back at Moorad’s earlier career.
- NPB Tracker compares Japanese teams before and after losing their stars to MLB.
Odds and Ends: Bard, Cubs, Guardado
Links for Friday (feels like a Monday)…
- Boston’s deal for catcher Josh Bard is official. Bard had offers from the Cubs and Nationals as well.
- SI.com’s Jon Heyman ranks the top 20 remaining free agents.
- RotoAuthority asks readers to name their #1 sleeper for 2009.
- The Marlins reportedly have interest in reliever Jesus Colome.
- MLB.com’s Barry Bloom explains that the arbitration filing period begins Monday. He gives a nice primer on the arbitration system for those that need to brush up. Ryan Howard is due for another big raise.
- Buster Olney does not like the Cubs’ recent moves, particularly the Mark DeRosa trade.
- Jeff Wilson says the Rangers remain in contact with free agent reliever Eddie Guardado.
Paul Byrd Considering Retirement?
Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports had an e-mail exchange Friday with free agent Paul Byrd.
Byrd wrote that he is "still thinking possible retirement or maybe a mid-season joining of a team with a need." Brown seems to think that Byrd might be joking about retirement, but points out that he declined an arbitration offer from the Red Sox three weeks ago, so he may be serious. The 38-year-old right-hander was 11-12 last season with a 4.60 ERA, playing for both Boston and Cleveland.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Jays, Mets, Red Sox, Nats, Yankees
On this date 32 years ago, commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended Braves owner Ted Turner for one year for tampering. Turner had announced publicly that the Braves would sign free agent-to-be Gary Matthews. Unfortunately, 30 years later, nobody was disciplined when the Angels signed free agent Gary Matthews Jr. to a $50MM contract. In the first two years of the deal, Matthews has been paid $15MM and his play has been worth -$600K (yes, that is negative) according to Fangraphs. With several big free agents still looking for new teams, will any of them be the next Matthews Jr? Only time will tell. In the meantime, let’s see what is being written in the Blogosphere…
- The Eddie Kranepool Society is not worried about Derek Lowe, feeling the deal will get done once the Mets add a fourth option year and sweeten the pot just a tad. They are also putting the Mets front office on notice about the possibility of letting Manny Ramirez slip through their fingers.
- Mets Geek feels the Mets still need to add one more piece to their revamped bullpen and suggest Wil Ohman or Joe Beimel are better options as a lefty specialist than what is already in-house.
- The Southpaw takes a look at some young players the Jays should try to target in the trade market, with Chin-Lung Hu at the top of the list.
- My Baseball Bias is not satisfied with just Mark Teixeira and wants to see the Yankees sign Manny Ramirez.
- Fire Brand of the American League makes a case for three players to be the Red Sox fourth outfielder, including Rocco Baldelli, Brad Wilkerson and Eric Byrnes.
- MLB Notebook takes a look at how the Nationals could spend the $20MM that would have gone to Mark Teixeira.
- River Ave. Blues says this offseason is proving to be a test of just how good Scott Boras can be.
- Sully Baseball is running a series of posts breaking down each team’s all-time home grown versus all-time acquired teams. Here he looks at the Astros.
Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com and can be reached here.
Sherman’s Latest: Red Sox, Lowe, Manny
Joel Sherman of the New York Post has a new blog post up.
- The Red Sox would like to trade for a young star player; they’ve already attempted to acquire Mark Teixeira and Hanley Ramirez this offseason. The Sox seem willing to discuss some very talented young players of their own (Clay Buchholz seems a bit more available). Sherman speculates on all kinds of names that could make sense for Boston.
- Derek Lowe is not keen on taking less money and the same salary as Carlos Silva. He and Scott Boras will take some time to see if someone can beat the Mets’ three-year, $36MM offer. Ken Rosenthal wrote in November that most executives consider the Silva contract an aberration.
- Sherman finds many reasons Manny Ramirez could make sense for the Giants. He notes that Giants special assistant J.T. Snow can give the team the inside scoop on what it was like to be teammates with Manny.
- The Cubs would’ve liked to send Jason Marquis home to New York (the Mets), but the Mets are addressing their needs one at a time and aren’t looking at the fifth starter role yet. Sherman says the Rockies have long been fans of Marquis and like his bat. He could accumulate 80 plate appearances, I suppose.