Crisp Rather Than Rowand For White Sox?
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times says Aaron Rowand has already priced himself out of the White Sox’s range. Apparently the Sox talked to Rowand before they made an offer to Torii Hunter, and found the number of years Rowand requested to be out of the question. Randy Miller said back in mid-October that Rowand was looking for a six-year, $84MM deal. Cowley sees the Rangers and Dodgers as the main suitors for Rowand.
Cowley believes the White Sox, meanwhile, will move on to Coco Crisp. They’ve long had interest in him. I’m not sure how the White Sox and Red Sox would match up though. The Red Sox are asking for quite a bit for Crisp – three prospects. The Rangers balked upon hearing this.
Cowley also suggests that Kenny Williams could attempt to acquire Willy Taveras. This seems more speculation than anything, based on Williams’ pursuit of him a year ago. Trading him would seem to create a hole for the Rockies, and they have no need for Joe Crede.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Nathan, Garza, Bedard
Ken Rosenthal recently dished out a slew of fresh rumors for us to devour.
- Rosenthal still believes that if the Twins trade Johan Santana, they will also trade Joe Nathan in a separate deal. Back on November 11th, Rosenthal first suggested this might happen. About a week ago, Joe Christensen reported that the Twins exchanged contract proposals with Nathan. Nathan is in line to earn at least $15MM per season, if he wants full market value. Rosenthal suggests the Brewers, Indians, Tigers, Cubs, and Red Sox as possible fits for Nathan.
- The Angels may want to keep Gary Matthews Jr., given Vladimir Guerrero‘s declining defensive abilities. Also, Guerrero may soon get a contract extension in the $18MM per season range to put him in line with Torii Hunter. His contract runs through 2009.
- The Twins may be close to getting a center fielder, but it may not be Coco Crisp. Another team is chasing Crisp – perhaps the White Sox?
- Melky Cabrera could be dealt independent and regardless of a Johan Santana deal. The Braves may be interested; the Yanks would then move Johnny Damon back to center.
- Matt Garza or Boof Bonser may be moved for a bat. Probably not Delmon Young, but some young slugger. The Rays also want to find a young shortstop to compete with Reid Brignac.
- The Yanks don’t want to overpay for a free agent reliever – 3/12 seems their limit on the Riskes and Mahays of the world.
- Back at the GM meetings, the Mets inquired on Erik Bedard. The O’s are waiting to see what happens with Miguel Cabrera since they covet many of the prospects being discussed there.
Heyman On Santana
SI.com’s Jon Heyman has the latest on the Johan Santana trade talks.
- The Twins want Melky Cabrera plus one of Chamberlain/Hughes/Kennedy from the Yankees. If the Yanks can surrender Kennedy rather than Hughes or Joba, they’ve done a nice job. Sounds like they would consider giving up Hughes though.
- The Twins want one of Clay Buchholz or Jon Lester plus Jacoby Ellsbury. Lester seems to be the only one of the three the Red Sox would part with, while they’d also be fine with sending Coco Crisp over.
- Heyman names the Mets, Dodgers, Angels, and Mariners as interested parties. First I’ve heard of the Ms or Halos being in the mix. Regarding the Dodgers, check out an interview with Ned Colletti. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t seem anxious to deal 3-5 kids for a guy like Santana or Miguel Cabrera.
Odds and Ends: Riske, Bedard, Wolf
And now for your daily jumble o’ rumors. More to come.
- The Twins cleared several spots on their 40-man roster…will they be active next week?
- The Yankees have "reached out" to free agent reliever David Riske. Troy Percival and Ron Mahay have also been linked to the Yanks this offseason.
- The Dodgers have an interest in Tony Clark, which has to bum out James Loney. Dylan Hernandez also notes that the Dodgers’ talks for Erik Bedard have stalled because the Orioles want to see what happens with Miguel Cabrera first. Ned Colletti expects Jeff Kent back, by the way.
- The Cards won’t be afraid to trade their young pitching (Anthony Reyes, Tyler Johnson, and Brad Thompson) for veteran pitching. They also still like Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse, if the price is right.
- Bob Dutton reports that the Royals’ Yasuhiko Yabuta signing will be finalized at week’s end. Meanwhile nothing is imminent with Jose Guillen.
- Linked to this earlier in a D’Backs post…the Phils are in "serious talks" with Randy Wolf. As I said there, that shouldn’t stop them from going after a more reliable starter.
- Things are heating up between the Twins and Red Sox for Coco Crisp, but that’s all Gordon Edes has for us on the topic.
- As expected, the market for Mike Cameron has picked up now that Torii Hunter signed.
Odds and Ends: Santana, Hunter
Let’s kick off the morning with some odds and ends, absent any earth-shattering rumors. I’ll keep adding to this post.
- Awesome inside look at the Torii Hunter deal via Bob Nightengale. Hunter’s first choice outside of Minnesota was the Cardinals, but they weren’t interested.
- Hunter – not overpaid? So says J.C. Bradbury.
- Still some confusion about Johan Santana‘s no-trade clause. Buster Olney says it’s full and doesn’t indicate that the rights change on any certain date. Matthew Cerrone says it’s a full NTC only until Opening Day ’08, when it switches to 12 teams. Those are not mutually exclusive comments, so I guess we’ll see.
- Phil Rogers doesn’t think the Cubs will re-sign Kerry Wood. He also sees the Giants in the lead for Miguel Cabrera now.
- My coworker Jonathan makes a good point – thought the Sox wouldn’t give four-year deals to pitchers? They made a huge fuss over Mark Buehrle. Suddenly Scott Linebrink is worthy of breaking the rule again? Some are skeptical.
- Bobby Kielty typically smacks around left-handed pitching (Brian Fuentes for example). He’ll hook on as some team’s fourth outfielder as a free agent. He’d like to return to Boston, but that would require a Coco Crisp trade. Rob Bradford names the Twins, Braves, Rangers, and White Sox as possibilities otherwise.
Santana Counters Twins’ Offer
Sid Hartman was correct – Joe Christensen confirms today that the Twins did offer Johan Santana a five-year, $93MM deal (18.6MM annually). The pact was designed to top Carlos Zambrano‘s by $1.5MM. Problem is that Santana isn’t 1.6% better than Zambrano. He’s a lot better than Z.
Santana countered by asking for $126MM, according to Christensen. His article implies that Santana asked for seven years in the counterproposal, since Santana’s agent cited Barry Zito‘s deal and the dollar amount is the same. The Twins balked at the counteroffer and expect to trade Santana. This doesn’t compute, because the sides seem close. I wonder – maybe Santana actually asked for $126MM over five years? Santana could be a $25MM man on the open market, and maybe he’s not offering a hometown discount. If Christensen’s source told him the number of years, he would’ve put that in the article.
Michael Silverman notes that the Red Sox will certainly be involved if the Twins start entertaining offers. An offer of Coco Crisp, Clay Buchholz or Jon Lester, and a third solid prospect might be their proposal. Seems that the Yanks might offer Melky Cabrera and Phil Hughes, while the Mets would start with Carlos Gomez.
Christensen’s article also adds that the Twins recently swapped contract proposals with closer Joe Nathan. Even at a discount Nathan would have to ask for four years, $40MM.
Stark’s Latest: Santana, Hamilton, Snell
Ah, a new Rumblings and Grumblings from Jayson Stark. Let’s dig in.
- It sounds like the Yankees would discuss Phil Hughes and the Red Sox might part with one of Ellsbury/Lester/Buchholz to acquire Johan Santana. The acquiring team would need an extension window though. The Mets are in on Santana big-time and would have to give up Carlos Gomez and then some. If the Twins do trade Santana, they would probably hang onto Matt Garza. But otherwise Garza could be traded for a young hitter, as we’ve been hearing.
- The Fish want four 0-3 players for Miguel Cabrera, pretty much the names we’ve been tossing around here at MLBTR for a while.
- The Marlins would ask for two 0-3 guys for Dontrelle Willis, but aren’t inclined to trade him unless they’re blown away. Stark names the Mets, Mariners, and D’Backs as suitors. So think Gomez, Adam Jones, or Carlos Gonzalez.
- The Orioles and Cardinals don’t want to eat any money on Miguel Tejada and Scott Rolen, respectively. The Cards were asking for too much from the Yanks for Rolen – one of their top three young pitchers (you know the trio).
- The Reds are willing to trade Ryan Freel or Josh Hamilton to clear space for Jay Bruce.
- Ian Snell could be available. It’s not the first time his name has appeared in the rumor mill. Hell, Snell for Hamilton kind of makes sense.
Cubs Rumors: Wood, Matsui, Crawford
The Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan has the latest on the Cubs this morning.
- It’s been known for a few days now that the Red Sox like the idea of adding Kerry Wood as their setup man. Sullivan confirms the interest, and quotes Cubs GM Jim Hendry saying Wood is "getting a lot of action around the industry." In a pitching-starved market, teams will convince themselves Wood can stay healthy and dominant. Sullivan speculates that it could take multiple years at $5MM per. To see a team go 3/15 would not shock me.
- Kaz Matsui is still on the Cubs’ radar for a three-year deal. They could consider using him at shortstop or second base. Two days ago Tracy Ringolsby had said Matsui "appeared headed to the Astros," but Ken Rosenthal chimed in noting the Cubs and Rockies are ahead of Houston in the Matsui derby. Hendry met with Matsui yesterday, but no deal is imminent.
- A left-handed hitting outfielder remains on Hendry’s wish list. Carl Crawford hasn’t yet been made available according to Sullivan, but the Cubs will surely look into it if he is. Kosuke Fukudome remains a possibility as well. Bruce Miles adds Ryan Church to the mix.
- The Cubs expect to increase payroll beyond last year’s $110MM.
Lowell Signs With Red Sox
UPDATE: ESPN reports that the deal is for $37.5MM, so $12.5MM per year. Lowell took more than $10MM less to stay with Boston.
UPDATE: Rob Bradford says the Red Sox and Lowell have agreed to the parameters of a three-year deal worth between $12-13MM annually. The Sox had set a deadline today for Lowell to decide on their offer, and he took them up on it.
Buster Olney is reporting in his blog this morning that Mike Lowell is close to a three-year deal with the Red Sox. That has to mean he’s leaving a significant amount of money on the table to re-sign. Can’t see the Sox going past 3/45 on him. There is a conflicting report on this – Rob Bradford doesn’t think a deal is close, noting a "healthy divide" between the sides.
Olney adds that aside from the near-obligatory Coco Crisp trade, the Red Sox will look into Johan Santana if he becomes available. Santana would obviously be a luxury. Since the Red Sox are officially a superpower, they’d have to check in on him. Also keep in mind that Crisp and Santana trades could be related, as the Twins would likely demand Jacoby Ellsbury in any deal. So if Crisp is dealt, Santana becomes a bit less likely. Of course Theo could always surprise us and convince Andruw Jones to sign a one-year deal.
Odds and Ends: Kendall, Crisp, Gagne
I’m back in the swing of things, kind of. We’re still living out of boxes, but I’ve got a laptop and I’m digging into all the rumors I missed. Joe did a great job the last couple of days. Be sure to visit his Yankees blog, River Ave. Blues. On to today’s random rumors…
- I’m hearing that Jason Kendall could be a fallback for the Mets if they can’t pry Ramon Hernandez loose from the Orioles.
- The Blue Jays have about $4MM to spend, and J.P. Ricciardi likes the idea of Michael Barrett splitting time behind the plate with Gregg Zaun. It seems unlikely, though, because the Padres would have to not offer arbitration to Barrett. And Barrett would have to take a one-year, $4MM deal.
- Jamey Newberg discusses the idea of a Coco Crisp for Gerald Laird swap. He notes that the market for Laird should be picking up, but the Red Sox might prefer to wait to trade Crisp.
- Haven’t heard this one much yet…how about Eric Gagne for the Houston closer vacancy? Would Scott Boras present a problem?
- David Wells could be an option for the Mets, if he doesn’t retire or end up on the West Coast.
- One free agent from Japan who hasn’t gotten much press is Marc Kroon. He didn’t catch on in MLB but has been doing well for Yokohama the past few years. Kroon holds the record for the fastest pitch ever thrown in a Japanese game (161 km/h, which is about 100 mph). You can see that in this video (the second pitch he throws, the crowd loves it). Kroon is considering trying the Majors again; he says so on his website (note that his site plays music when you visit).