Red Sox Sign Pedroia To Extension
5:57pm: MLB.com’s Ian Browne wonders if the Pedroia signing is the first of several. Will the Sox be able to hammer out extensions with Jon Lester, Kevin Youkilis, and Jonathan Papelbon this winter?
11:33am: Tony Massarotti has the contract breakdown.
11:18am: According to Ken Rosenthal, the Red Sox signed second baseman Dustin Pedroia to a six-year deal worth about $40.5MM. ESPN’s Peter Gammons was right on this scoop as well. The deal buys out two years of free agency and also has a club option for 2015.
Rosenthal cites the deals signed by Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, and Ryan Braun as comparables. Pedroia’s deal covers one pre-arbitration season, all three arb seasons, and two years of free agency. Ramirez received $54.4MM for the same slice of his career, Wright got $55MM, and Braun received $43.8MM. Also, Brian McCann gets $37.8MM, Grady Sizemore gets $30.95MM, Evan Longoria is at $31.95MM, Robinson Cano gets $42.49MM, and Chase Utley gets $55.5MM. That assumes options are exercised, where applicable.
Braves Preparing Five-Year Offer For Burnett
2:07pm: Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution believes the Braves will probably guarantee a fifth year to Burnett, at a salary of $15-16MM per.
9:56am: Will the Braves be the team to commit five years to A.J. Burnett? According to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News, they’re preparing such an offer. Feinsand wonders if Burnett will jump at this offer without waiting to see what C.C. Sabathia does.
SI.com’s Jon Heyman seems to agree with Feinsand’s report. He learned from Braves GM Frank Wren that the Braves are in on Burnett but not Jake Peavy, and heard talk that the Braves might consider a fifth year. Wren described talks for Peavy as "pretty much" over.
Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the Braves are one of six teams in negotiations with Burnett. Heyman believes the other teams to be the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Nationals.
Arbitration Offer Feedback
24 free agents were offered arbitration yesterday; several notable names were not. The deadline for those 24 to accept or decline is Sunday at 11pm CST. If a player accepts, he’s under contract on a one-year deal for ’09 and his salary cannot be reduced by more than 20% (most players get raises).
Anyway, let’s round up feedback on yesterday’s decisions.
- Plenty of good insight from Yahoo’s Jeff Passan. How about the idea that the D’Backs didn’t offer arbitration to Dunn because they didn’t want to shell out too much money on draft picks next year?
- River Ave. Blues says yesterday’s arb decisions were the first clear indicator of the U.S. economy affecting MLB. I agree. The decisions not to offer arb to Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, Kerry Wood, and others serves as proof that teams are exercising extra caution.
- Buster Olney agrees, suggesting that teams are scared of overpaying free agents. He says some execs believe Abreu will be fortunate to make $8MM a year on his next deal.
- Joel Sherman finds the Abreu decision fascinating. He suggests Abreu would’ve gotten a $17.5MM arbitration award. While the right fielder would’ve forfeited no-trade rights by accepting, the Yankees would’ve had to eat a significant amount to move him.
- Ken Rosenthal says even the Yankees are cutting back, and their ’09 payroll will "almost certainly be below their $209 million figure at the start of ’08."
- Tony Massarotti gives five possible reasons for the slow market.
- Ken Davidoff feels Jason Varitek is a good candidate to accept Boston’s offer of arbitration.
Japanese Links: Kawakami, Tazawa
A few links today involving Japanese players…
- Michael Silverman and Sean McAdam of the Boston Herald wrote yesterday that the Red Sox have scouted Kenshin Kawakami multiple times and he has interest in pitching for them. Kawakami figures to receive multiple bids, assuming he commits to MLB first.
- ESPN’s Keith Law says signing Junichi Tazawa was a "no-brainer" for the Red Sox. Law figures Tazawa will start in Double A and could reach the Majors in ’09.
- Aaron Shinsano of East Windup Chronicle respectfully disagrees; he doesn’t believe Tazawa is ready for Double A. Shinsano suggests marketing played a part in the signing, as Tazawa is not a first-round talent.
- Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star says Tazawa’s contract "does not seem right" and the Blue Jays are wise to stay out of the Japanese market.
- Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker translates a Yahoo Japan article that indicates the Padres, White Sox, Indians, and Brewers will stay out of the Japanese free agent market.
Red Sox Offer Arb To Varitek, Byrd
According to WEEI’s Alex Speier, the Red Sox offered arbitration to Jason Varitek (Type A) and Paul Byrd (Type B). They were both borderline cases, and it seems that either player could go either way on deciding whether to accept. Amalie Benjamin, though, finds both unlikely to accept. What do you think – can Varitek and Byrd find multiyear deals elsewhere?
Rafael Furcal Rumors: Monday
ESPN’s Jayson Stark has the latest on free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal. Furcal’s agent Paul Kinzer doesn’t see his client signing before the winter meetings, which kick off next week.
Four teams are in on Furcal: the Giants, A’s, Braves, and a mystery team. Stark talked to execs who guessed the Red Sox or Orioles could be the fourth team. That team apparently has to make a trade to open up their shortstop position. In a recent poll of over 6,000 MLBTR readers, the A’s won the vote as the team most likely to sign Furcal.
The Braves’ interest will pick up if they trade shortstop Yunel Escobar first. We knew about the Padres; Stark says the Cardinals and Royals also expressed interest in Escobar.
Odds and Ends: Gammons, Kawakami, Buck
Links for Monday…
- Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik admitted to have a conversation with Ken Griffey Jr.‘s agent, but wouldn’t reveal anything else.
- One of Matthew Cerrone’s readers dug up a Primera Hora article saying the Mets have been scouting free agent reliever Fernando Cabrera.
- Bob Klapisch looks at Pedro Martinez‘s four-year, $53MM deal and asks: was it worth it?
- Rays Index notes that Grant Balfour will use WBC participation as a bargaining chip in contract negotiations (he’s eligible for arbitration).
- Marc Hulet of Baseball Analysts looks at top hitters for the Rule 5 draft.
- Fire Brand of the American League did a Q&A with ESPN’s Peter Gammons. Some good stuff in there.
- A few notes from Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker. The Hanshin Tigers are reportedly considering offering $20MM over four years to Kenshin Kawakami, while Yu Darvish had his contract renewed at $2.7MM for next year.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post says the Mets want to add one starter and push Jonathan Niese to the #5 spot.
- Rany Jazayerli notes that a John Buck trade would make sense for the Royals.
- I mentioned the Royals’ signing of J.R. House earlier, but should add that they also signed Franquelis Osoria and Matt Tupman to minor league deals.
Boston Set To Sign Junichi Tazawa
SUNDAY: Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe talked to a baseball source who says the Red Sox have an agreement in place with Tazawa. Look for an official announcement later in the week, after he takes his physical. It appears to be a Major League deal for $3MM over three years. He’ll be arbitration-eligible after three years of big league service time.
FRIDAY: Japanese amateur pitcher Junichi Tazawa appears close to signing with the Boston Red Sox, reports Chad Finn at the Boston Globe. The offer for the 22-year old is reportedly a three-year, major league deal nearing $6MM, putting Tazawa on the 40-man roster.
Tazawa has officially declined offers from the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers according to the Kyodo Wire, says the article.
Signing Tazawa would complicate current opinions on the "gentleman’s agreement" previously observed by MLB teams, which prevented American teams from signing Japanese amateurs. Might Japanese teams start making offers to American amateurs if Tazawa is signed?
Alex Walsh can be reached at alexander.walsh@gmail.com.
Cafardo’s Latest: Lowe, Lowell, Dye, Saltalamacchia
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe says when Derek Lowe sat down with his agent, he inquired first about the Boston Red Sox. Says Cafardo,
"This Lowe doesn’t bear much resemblance to the guy who left the Sox after 2004. Back then, his out-of-control personal life seemed to consume him. The Red Sox didn’t want to deal with it and let him become a free agent. Lowe feels leaving was the best thing. ‘I think I’m a lot better pitcher now, teammate now, than I was four years ago,’ he said. ‘Sometimes you have to learn, and I think getting out of Boston was the best thing for me.’"
Lowe notes the Red Sox fit the mold of what he’s looking for in his next team.
And around the bigs:
- Roy Oswalt is pushing Ben Sheets to consider the Astros.
- Split opinions on interest in Mike Lowell, but either way this shouldn’t affect the Red Sox pursuit of Mark Teixeira. Cafardo lists Dodgers, Angels, Indians, and Twins as possible destinations for Lowell.
- Jermaine Dye is a good fit for Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, and the Mets. The White Sox would want more than Andy Sonnanstine or Edwin Jackson in exchange for Dye.
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia looks good in the Dominican League, hitting .435 with 4 homeruns and 2 doubles in 23 ABs.
- Willie Bloomquist could be Alex Cora’s replacement at utility in Boston.
Odds And Ends: Tazawa, Hoffman, Halladay
Links for Saturday…
- Junichi Tazawa is expected to announce early next week that he will sign with the Red Sox. He turned down offers from the Rangers, Mariners and Braves.
- The Padres recently offered to talk with Trevor Hoffman, but he hasn’t responded. Tom Krasovic also has a Sandy Alderson quote that the Padres are "highly unlikely" to offer Hoffman arbitration.
- Robert MacLeod talked to Blue Jays insiders who believe trading ace Roy Halladay would send "the wrong signal" to fans since the Jays want to compete in 2009.
- Rob Neyer wonders how C.C. Sabathia‘s weight will affect his performance going forward.
- Joba Chamberlain tops Peter Abraham’s list of the 20 most important people to the Yankees organization.
- Peter Gammons asks five post-Thanksgiving questions about free agents and trades. Also within that blog post, Gammons mentions that Kevin Towers went to Sunday’s Chargers game with Brad Ausmus and hopes to sign him.
- Larry LaRue writes that the Mariners could use a couple good outfielders to go along with Ichiro.
- Bob Verdi expects a quiet retirement accouncement from Greg Maddux.