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AL East Notes: Red Sox, Accardo, Blue Jays

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Wade Boggs hit his first MLB home run on this date 29 years ago. Power wasn't an essential part of Boggs' game, but he won five batting titles and collected 3,010 hits in his 18-year career with the Yankees, Red Sox and Devil Rays. Here's the latest on Boggs' former division:

  • Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports knows there's no perfect team in baseball, but he says the Red Sox are as close as it gets. Only Philadelphia has a better record than Boston, which entered today's action with an AL-best 44-29 record.
  • Jeremy Accardo could be a free agent by tomorrow. The Orioles reliever has to choose between an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk with a big league salary or free agency and uncertain job prospects, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun (on Twitter). 
  • Blue Jays manager John Farrell told Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca that the Blue Jays will consider possible changes before opening their series against the Cardinals (Twitter link). “We need a spark, that’s clear,” Farrell said. “How we look to do that we’ll examine in this room first.” The Braves just swept the 36-39 Jays out of Atlanta.

Checking In On The Newest $100MM Players

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Every year a few select players join baseball’s exclusive $100MM club with free agent deals and mega-extensions. Last offseason was no different – we saw six players sign nine figure deals. The contracts were all for five years or more, so it’s far too early to call them successes or failures. But as the season approaches its halfway point, let’s check in on baseball’s newest $100MM players:

  • Troy Tulowitzki, ten-year, $157.75MM extension – Tulo has slowed down after a scorching start, but he's still having an excellent season. His .274/.339/.491 line and 13 homers look especially good when you consider that he's a good defensive shortstop.
  • Adrian Gonzalez, seven-year, $154MM extension – Red Sox fans dreamed of a season like this when Theo Epstein acquired Gonzalez from the Padres in December. The first baseman is a leading MVP candidate with a .350/.403/.603 line and 15 home runs. 
  • Carl Crawford, seven-year, $142MM contract – Crawford was heating up before he hit the disabled list, but his numbers are poor overall. He has a .243/.275/.384 batting line, just 8 stolen bases and his lowest walk rate (3.2%) since 2002, his rookie season.
  • Jayson Werth, seven-year, $126MM contract – Werth is hitting just .233/.334/.409, though he has 10 home runs. Nationals fans may be consoled by the fact that Werth erupted in the second half last year and has traditionally produced better after the All-Star break.
  • Cliff Lee, five-year, $120MM contract – The prize of the offseason free agent market, Lee has a 3.12 ERA with 9.6 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 104 innings. The lefty is in the midst of another fantastic season and this time he doesn't have to worry about being traded.
  • Ryan Braun, five-year, $105MM extension – Braun is having a monster year. He has a .310/.397/.555 line with 15 homers and a career-best 12.1% walk rate for the first-place Brewers.  

It's fair to expect Werth and Crawford to turn their seasons around and produce as they did before signing nine figure free agent contracts. The other four additions to the $100MM club are justifying the deals, at least to the extent that it's possible in less than three months.

Quick Hits: Braves, Mariners, Balfour, Posting System

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Today the Diamondbacks purchased the contract of Wily Mo Pena with the aim of employing him in the middle of their order as a designated hitter during the AL leg of their interleague schedule.  The D'Backs had open spots on the 40-man roster for Pena, who hasn't played in the bigs since '08 but has a .363/.439/.726 line with 21 home runs in 271 Triple-A plate appearances.  Today's links…

  • Braves GM Frank Wren spoke to Dave O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the state of the trade market, saying teams are "starting to reach out and talk to each other." He added that they "talked to a number of clubs about where they think they’re going to be going at the trade deadline, but that’s even somewhat nebulous on a lot of clubs."
  • Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times explored the idea of the Mariners trading either Jason Vargas or Doug Fister for offensive help and tried to figure out what a realistic return would be.
  • In today's Insider-only blog post, ESPN's Buster Olney mentions that Grant Balfour of the Athletics is among the relievers expected to be available this summer. He speculates that the Rangers could be a fit.
  • Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal looked at how the Red Sox were about to snag Anthony Rizzo in the sixth round three years before he was a key piece in the Adrian Gonzalez trade.
  • NPB has decided against pursuing changes to the posting system according to a Japanese report passed along by Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker. Reasons include the difficulty of changing things on MLB's side, as well as the potential for large posting fees offered by the current system.
  • In the wake of Andrew Miller's return to the big leagues, WEEI.com's Alex Speier listed the seven pitchers in the last 15 years that reached the Majors the year they were drafted. It's not a pretty list.

Quick Hits: Mariners, Rizzo, Gonzalez, Orioles

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On this date in 1997, the Reds called Aaron Boone up and sent his brother, Bret, to the minors. Bret would emerge as a power threat the following year and average 26 homers per season for the next seven years. Aaron put together a solid 12-year career that featured an All-Star Game berth and one of the most memorable home runs in Yankees history. Here's the latest from around MLB…

  • Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner runs through some possible left field targets for the Mariners, including Ryan Ludwick and Luke Scott.
  • Padres GM Jed Hoyer told Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald that he doesn't want 21-year-old first baseman Anthony Rizzo to try to replace Adrian Gonzalez, the man he was traded for last winter. "Adrian Gonzalez at 21 years old was toiling in Triple-A," Hoyer said. "It took Adrian a number of years before he really established himself as a Major League player."
  • Hoyer says he's not surprised that Gonzalez has turned in a "monster" season for the Red Sox so far. Unfortunately for the Padres, they couldn't afford him long-term.
  • The Orioles have agreed to terms with third round right-hander Mike Wright, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun.
  • The MLBPA Alumni Association is working on a program that will transition players to jobs beyond the playing field, according to Evan Drellich of MLB.com. Most Major Leaguers retire without millions of dollars saved up, so the program will be important for players like veteran minor leaguer Andy Tracy, who expects to retire after the season.

Cafardo On Kazmir, Upton, Broxton, Ramirez

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In today's column, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wonders if roster manipulation is rampant in baseball.  Cafardo points to the pulled quad muscle injury of Red Sox outfielder Darnell McDonald as a possible example.  McDonald wasn't showing any signs of injury and when asked about it, he gave a "no comment".  It's possible that Boston simply wanted to get McDonald more playing time with Mike Cameron eating up the lion's share of the reps.  Things such as this, Cafardo writes, are happening all around baseball.  Let's see what else is happening around the majors:

  • As poorly as left-hander Scott Kazmir has pitched in the last two seasons, there are at least five teams looking at him in the Rockies, Marlins, Padres, Rangers, and Diamondbacks.  It also wouldn't be a surprise if the Yankees jump into the mix considering their pitching needs.
  • There always seems to be a should-we-or-shouldn’t-we-trade B.J. Upton dilemma for the Rays. The Nationals could be a fit as they'd like a young center fielder they can grow with.  The question is: is he available?  All signs point to yes.
  • Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton has been on the shelf since May with an elbow injury, but the club could move him if they're lagging in the standings.
  • The Marlins' recent slide has skipper Edwin Rodriguez on the hot seat and it's no secret that the club has been keeping an eye on Ozzie Guillen for quite some time.  Guillen has one year remaining on his deal with the White Sox.
  • The Dodgers owe Manny Ramirez more than $8MM in deferred payments but the charismatic twelve-time All-Star is collecting a lot more than that.  The BoSox owe him quite a bit of money too, roughly $32MM over 16 years.  Boston will pay Ramirez through 2026, when he’ll be 54-years-old.

Draft Pick Signings: Twins, Indians, Red Sox

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Let's round up some notable draft picks signings in one convenient spot…

  • The Twins have signed second round pick Madison Boer, reports MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger and Jordan Schelling. The Oregon righty was taken with the 87th overall pick, which comes with a slot recommendation of $405K from MLB.
  • The Indians announced via press release that they have signed third rounder Jake Sisco, a right-hander from Merced College. MLB's slot recommendation for the 97th overall pick is approximately $357K.
  • The Red Sox announced in a press release that they've signed a dozen more draft picks, including sixth rounder Miguel Pena and ninth rounder Alex Shaw. WEEI.com's Alex Speier reports that they received $85K and $110K, respectively.

Gammons: Yankees, Others Tampered With Miller

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The Red Sox announced today that Andrew Miller will make his season debut against the Padres on Monday after calling him up from Triple-A before his opt-out clause became an issue. However, in an appearance on WEEI's Mut & Merloni Show today, Peter Gammons said that the Yankees and several other teams tried to get Miller to opt-out of his deal. WEEI.com's Jerry Spar has the transcript.

"I know this," said Gammons, "There were a lot of teams that tampered and tried to get him to do the opt-out, including the New York Yankees. A lot of teams wanted him to opt out on Wednesday. Because of his trust for the Red Sox and how much they’ve invested in him — not in terms of money but in terms of effort to just get his delivery back and be patient with him, he stayed. In some ways, their fortunate. Because I think he could have gotten twice as much money if he had left."

MLB's tampering rules say "there shall be no negotiations or dealings respecting employment, either present or prospective, between any player, coach or manager and any club other than the club with which [the player] is under contract or acceptance of terms," which in English means that a team is not allowed to discuss employment with a player while he is under contract with another team. Yankees GM Brian Cashman responded to the report by saying they were simply "not true," reports Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger (on Twitter).

Miller, 26, pitched to a 2.47 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9 in 65 2/3 innings for Boston's Triple-A affiliate this year. In his last four starts before the promotion, he struck out 26 and walked just three in 25 1/3 innings. 

Quick Hits: Orioles, Miller, Maybin, Bedard

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Congratulations to the Boston Bruins on winning their first Stanley Cup since 1972.  This year's major sports champions have now come from Boston, the Dallas/Fort Worth area and Wisconsin.  All three of those regions could be gunning for their second championship parade of the year come November — the Red Sox, Rangers and Brewers are all in first place in their respective divisions.

Some news and items from around the majors….

  • The Orioles have a lot of pieces that can be moved this summer, writes Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun.  He lists Koji Uehara and Jeremy Guthrie as possible trade candidates, but Schmuck predicts Vladimir Guerrero and Derrek Lee will finish the season in Baltimore since "neither…has done enough to create real value for the club."  Schmuck also notes that Andy MacPhail may not pursue a full fire sale since finishing with a .500 record would be a positive step for a team that hasn't had a winning record since 1997.
  • Andrew Miller has indeed opted to remain with the Red Sox and he will start for the team against San Diego on Monday, reports Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston.
  • David Villavicencio of FOX Sports Florida has the story of Marlins first-round pick Jose Fernandez, who escaped to the United States from his native Cuba on his fourth attempt.  Florida took the right-hander with the 14th overall pick and though Fernandez has committed to the University of South Florida, the story makes it sound as if he's eager to sign.
  • Erik Bedard still carries too much risk for the Yankees to make a play for at the trade deadline, argues Mike Axisa of the River Avenue Blues blog.  Also, as Axisa notes, the Mariners aren't likely to deal the Canadian southpaw since they're contending in the AL West.
  • "China, as well as India, Taiwan, and South Korea, represents one of the next great market inefficiencies," writes Bradley Woodrum for Fangraphs.  A team that establishes a foothold in East Asia will have first dibs on a huge, untapped area for finding future baseball talent.

Red Sox Haven’t Approached Ortiz About Extension

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The Red Sox have not broached the topic of a new contract with David Ortiz and no discussions are expected to take place between the two parties before the season ends, Ortiz tells Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes.

"Nobody from the team's front office has talked to me about a contract or about the future," Ortiz said. "And to be honest, I don't expect them to do so."

The Sox aren't quite the Yankees in terms of a strict policy against in-season contract talks, but as MLBTR's Transaction Tracker reveals, Theo Epstein generally leaves extensions for the offseason.  Adrian Gonzalez and Clay Buchholz both finalized extensions within the first two weeks of this season (perhaps to avoid an extra luxury tax penalty), but before those deals you have to go back to 2006 to find the last in-season extension for a Boston player — Josh Beckett's three-year, $30MM pact on July 1, 2006.

While Ortiz reiterated his desire to stay in Boston, he noted that he didn't mind the lack of negotiations since right now he is concentrating on baseball.

"At this point we have a good streak going. We are all focused on bringing back the championship to Boston," Ortiz said.  "We don't need any particular distractions, from me or anybody else….I think it would be somewhat improper to get into this kind of thing now that we are playing so well.  I would like to stay in Boston for the rest of my career, but it's something that is out of my control."

Ortiz can afford to wait, given the 1.009 OPS he carried into tonight's game.  Provided Ortiz stays healthy and keeps hitting even close to his current levels, he'll put the onus on team management to re-sign him or else feel the heat from Red Sox Nation over letting the beloved Big Papi leave.  As MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith pointed out last month, Ortiz will surely be able to find a multiyear deal somewhere in the AL given the lack of options at designated hitter.  But, given Ortiz's stature with the Sox, the likeliest scenario is that he ends up back at Fenway Park in 2012 and probably in 2013 as well.

Quick Hits: Bautista, Brian Gordon, Kuroda

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A year ago today, the Athletics traded reliever Sam Demel to the Diamondbacks for first baseman/outfielder Conor Jackson and cash.  Demel is on the DL with a shoulder injury, though the groundballer should prove useful for Arizona.  Today's links:

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