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Odds and Ends: Crisp, Stewart, Meyer

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Let’s round ’em up!

Odds and Ends: Papelbon, Bonds

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Your collection of links and rumors…

  • Interestingly, Pirates GM Neal Huntington put out a statement for Pirates’ fans.  He explains why the Pirates have been inactive this winter, and I agree with the logic.  This team doesn’t need to be wasting money on mediocre free agents.
  • Justin Huber is out of options, so he’ll either make the Royals or end up elsewhere.
  • Athletics Nation paints a picture in which the A’s are buyers at this year’s trade deadline.  A parallel universe with a healthy Rich Harden, if you will.
  • The Red Sox are exploring a multiyear deal for Jonathan Papelbon, according to Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe.
  • With 20/20 hindsight, Viva El Birdos rewrites how they might have conducted the Cardinals’ offseason moves.
  • No one wants Barry Bonds.  He’s in game shape, but one exec Andrew Baggarly talked to has heard no rumors at all.  Baggarly has talked to some baseball officials who believe Bonds might play in Japan in 2008.  Now that would be something.

Odalis Perez Signs With Nationals

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12:45pm: It’s official; the Nats have signed Perez to a minor league deal.  He certainly picked the right team to attempt to bounce back to relevancy.  He gets $850K if he makes the team. 

12:23pm:Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe says it appears likely Perez will sign with the Nats.  I imagine both offers were of the minor league variety.

TUESDAY, 9:02am:The Nats have an offer on the table for Perez, as do the Red Sox.  You’d think he’d prefer the opportunity in Washington.

MONDAY, 7:49pm: In January, the Mets met with Odalis Perez.  They scouted him in the Dominican Republic.  The Mets later signed Tony Armas Jr.  In February, Perez worked out for the Phillies, whose interest was characterized as "lukewarm."  The Phils later signed Kris Benson.  A third NL East team has entered the picture – MLB.com’s Bill Ladson says the Nationals have serious interest in the southpaw.

Perez might have to settle for a minor league deal, maybe with incentives to reach $2-3MM.  The 30 year-old pitched 137 innings of 5.57 ball for the Royals last year.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Joe Blanton

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After letting Barry Zito walk last year and trading Danny Haren in December, the A’s appear to be entertaining offers for Joe Blanton. While the Reds and the Dodgers appear to be the most aggressive suitors, Ken Rosenthal speculated that Blanton would be a good fit for the Twins or the Rays and Buster Olney named several other clubs that could be interested in acquiring the right-hander. Blanton, 27, is still three years from free agency, and will make $3.7MM this season. With pitchers and catchers due to report this week, let’s take a look at reactions to the Blanton rumors from the blogosphere.

  • Athletics Nation is surprised that Blanton has not been moved yet. They expect that a deal is more likely now that Johan Santana has been traded, and the free agent market is drying up.
  • Redleg Nation thinks the Reds should be willing to part with Homer Bailey or Johnny Cueto in addition to Joey Votto for a proven pitcher.
  • On the other hand, Red Reporter believes the Reds should only take Blanton if they do not have to surrender one of their top prospects.
  • Pinstripe Alley wouldn’t mind the Yankees acquiring Blanton as long as the trade does not require Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes. The would be willing to part with Alan Horne or Austin Jackson from the lower levels.
  • Rays Anatomy believes that Blanton is an asset that the Rays could use (an innings eater), but ultimately does not think the trade makes sense for the Rays.  They are hesitant With so many pitching prospects knocking on the Rays’ door and do not want to part with prospects such as Wade Davis, Jake McGee or Desmond Jennings.
  • Over the Monster does not see the Red Sox giving up Coco Crisp for Blanton as that would be a deviation from their plan to develop pitchers in their system. Rather, they think it is more likely that the Sox sign a free agent or move Julian Tavarez to the rotation.

By Cork Gaines

Do The Red Sox Care About Blanton?

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With Joe Blanton seemingly the best available starter, the logical question is whether the Red Sox will now go after him.  Curt Schilling’s doctor believes he may never pitch again if he doesn’t have surgery.

The Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair believes:

Theo Epstein has already laid some groundwork with the Oakland Athletics Billy Beane for a deal involving Joe Blanton, remnants of discussions the clubs had about Dan Haren before Haren was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

However, The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo wrote today that the Sox "merely kicked the tires on Erik Bedard and Dan Haren."

Ken Rosenthal suggested that Epstein might acquire more pitching depth, but didn’t mention Blanton.  Personally I do not see Epstein going the Blanton route.  Blanton doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would thrive in the AL East, though his price will be significant.  If anything, I’d expect Epstein to target a guy with good stuff, like Gil Meche, Ben Sheets, or Ian Snell (rather than the suggestions I have seen of Kyle Lohse or Jason Marquis).

Red Sox To Let Beckett Walk After 2010?

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In Peter Gammons latest piece, he explores the trickle-down effect that the extension signed by Johan Santana will have on other pitchers. While the article focuses on pitchers closer to free agency (ie. C.C. Sabathia), there was one surprising quote from an unnamed Red Sox official:

We’d better enjoy Josh Beckett the next three years.  Because we won’t be able to sign him after his deal is up after 2010.

Beckett, who finished second in the Cy Young voting this past season, will be 28 on Opening Day and is scheduled to make $9.5MM this season, $10.5MM next season, and has a $12MM team option for 2010.  While Beckett will certainly command top-dollar on the open market, it is hard to imagine he would seek a deal in the same range as Santana or Barry Zito, even with inflation factored in. Both Santana ($137.5MM) and Zito ($126MM) are lefties and signed their deals prior to their age 29 season. Beckett, a righty will be 31 when he begins his next deal. Still it is interesting to note that the Red Sox may have already resigned to the idea of not retaining the services of their ace past 2010.

by Cork Gaines

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Johan Santana

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Unless Omar Minaya fumbles the most important contract negotiation of his career (we can’t see that happening), the biggest story of the 2007-08 off-season now has an ending and the enduring national nightmare is over. Johan Santana is a Met…now we can get back to talking about more important issues like Kyle Lohse and Livan Hernandez. But before we do let’s take a look at reactions to the Santana trade from the blogosphere.

  • Aaron Gleeman is sentimental as his blog has grown up along side Santana’s career. Now he is disappointed in the package the Twins received but hopeful it could still work out in the long run.
  • Twinkie Town believes trading Santana is status-quo for the Twins as the franchise seems to be in a perpetual state of rebuilding. This seems like overreaction considering the Twins have been in the playoffs four of the past six years.
  • Twins Territory is not disappointed in the trade outcome. They believe Bill Smith had his hands tied and four top prospects is a nice haul.
  • Amazin’ Avenue was still smiling hours after the news broke and feels Twins fans must be disappointed in the package they received.
  • Metsgeek doesn’t care what the price was for Santana. He is worth it and they are giddy.
  • The ’Ropolitans are begging the Mets to pay Santana whatever it takes to get him signed. We have to agree. The Mets can’t mess this one up.
  • Fire Brand of the American League (Red Sox) speculates that the Red Sox may have backed off of Santana when they learned the Yankees were no longer interested.
  • My Baseball Bias believes the Yankees won the Santana Sweepstakes by not mortgaging the future for one $150 million player. Normally we would agree, but Santana is not 35 and winning is about pitching and Santana is the best pitcher alive.
  • Was Watching shows that the Mets (and the Red Sox) have done a better job of acquiring pitchers than the Yankees, and Santana is the latest example.

by Cork Gaines

Odds and Ends: Helms, Bako, Crisp

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I am going to toss today’s non-Santana odds and ends into this post.

  • Paul Hagen runs through some possibilities for the likely-to-be-traded Wes Helms: Marlins, Rays, Twins, Giants, and A’s.  Any teams you’d like to add to his speculation?
  • The Pirates have moved on from Johnny Estrada to Paul Bako.  He’d battle to back up Ronny Paulino.
  • OK this is Santana-related.  Gordon Edes says the Red Sox will listen to offers for Coco Crisp, but are fine with keeping him around as perhaps the game’s best fourth outfielder.  See any good fits for Crisp?

Santana Aftermath

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Now that the players have been agreed upon for the Johan Santana trade, some depictions of the 11th-hour negotiations have leaked out.

  • LEN3 says Santana is expected to get a six-year deal worth around $130MM ($21.66MM annually).  He also notes that Santana had given the Twins an end-of-day Tuesday deadline or else he would’ve used his no-trade clause.
  • Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record chronicles Bill Smith’s last-ditch attempts to get the Yankees and Red Sox involved.  He apparently asked the Yankees for Ian Kennedy, Melky Cabrera, and a top prospect and was denied.  The Red Sox wouldn’t part with Jon Lester or Jacoby Ellsbury.  To me this makes the Yankees and Red Sox look really fickle.  They were willing to offer up these huge packages a few months ago but now both have done a 180? I know the free agent market has shrunk but it’s still crazy that their stances changed so dramatically.
  • Newsday says the Mets added Deolis Guerra as the final offer yesterday. 
  • Joe Posnanski has heard many varying opinions on the deal.

Johan Santana Traded To Mets

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UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 4:22: Ken Rosenthal says the 72-hour window to sign Santana is now open.

UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 3:15pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today says an agreement to trade Santana to the Mets has been reached.  They’ll send Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Deolis Guerra, and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins.  The Mets still have to work out a six or seven year extension for Santana, according to Nightengale.  If this baby reaches its true conclusion we’ll sit down and analyze.

UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 2:55pm: More from Olney.  His sources say the Mets have the best offer, the Red Sox also made offers, and the Yanks are out.  Santana apparently asked the Twins to make a decision, wrap this thing up.  Wrap it up!  Olney is not sure whether F-Mart is part of the Mets’ offer.

UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 2:06pm: SI.com’s Jon Heyman weighs in.  He sees the Mets as the frontrunner, the Red Sox on the fringes, and the Yankees as nearly out of the running.  The Mets are offering Gomez/Humber/Mulvey/Guerra but not Fernando Martinez.  If they get Santana, the Mets will commit to only five years but with a high average annual value of $22-25MM.

UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 1:11pm: WFAN’s Mike Francesa believes the Twins upped their offer to five years, $100MM for Santana, but he rejected it.

UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 9:42am: ESPN’s Buster Olney says the Twins asked for each team’s "last and best offers" on Monday.  They could decide Santana’s fate as early as today.  Olney adds that the Yankees "appear to be not presently engaged whatsoever in the Santana talks."  Olney used to be a Yankees beat writer, so he’s bound to have a good line on this.

As for the Red Sox – Olney is hearing conflicting things about Jon Lester’s availability.  It’s possible that Lester could only be had in a more limited package – he, Coco Crisp, and not much else.

FROM 1-29-08 at 8:02am:

Over at MetsBlog today, Matthew Cerrone does a nice job summing up the Johan Santana situation. 

The New York Daily News indicates that the Mets are the one team pushing for Santana, but the Twins might use the Erik Bedard haul as a measuring stick.  Joel Sherman sees it as a Mets-Red Sox battle.  He notes that Carlos Gomez will skip the Caribbean Series not because of an impending trade but just to limit his games. 

We could finally get some kind of resolution with Santana this week.  Just to keep things interesting, check out Mark Healey’s note about the Dodgers "creeping into the picture."

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