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Outrighted To Triple-A: Coleman, Royals, Blue Jays

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We'll keep track of the day's outright assignments here…

  • Casey Coleman has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A by the Cubs, reports MLB.com's Carrie Muskat (on Twitter).
  • The Royals announced that they outrighted Ryan Verdugo and Adam Moore to Triple-A (Twitter link).
  • The Blue Jays outrighted Joel Carreno and Mike McCoy to Triple-A,  Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports (on Twitter).
  • The Twins outrighted right-hander Deolis Guerra to Triple-A, Dustin Morse of the team announced (on Twitter). Guerra, 23, will receive an invitation to MLB Spring Training in 2013. He spent this past season in the upper minors, posting a 4.11 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 70 innings of relief.

Quick Hits: Greinke, Twins, Martin, Napoli, Royals

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Several player agents tell Larry Stone of the Seattle Times that the Mariners' chances of attracting free agent hitters have improved now that Safeco Field's fences are being moved in.  That said, while the shorter fences will help, "players look at all of those factors, but in the end, it still comes down to where they can get the best contract. And it always will," one agent says.

Here are some items from a very busy day in baseball….

Royals Avoid Arbitration With Felipe Paulino

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The Royals have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with Felipe Paulino for 2013, according to a team press release.  The deal allows the club to avoid arbitration with the right-hander, who was arb-eligible for the third time. 

Paulino will earn $1.75MM in guaranteed money with another $250K in incentives, reports Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star (Twitter link).  That's a significant drop from the $2.7MM that MLBTR's Matt Swartz projected that Paulino would earn through arbitration and actually less than the $1.9MM salary Paulino earned in 2012.  The pay cut is no doubt due to Paulino's Tommy John surgery last July, and he isn't expected to pitch for the Royals until at least midseason.

Since being acquired from the Rockies in July 2011, Paulino has a 3.55 ERA and 8.8 K/9 rate in 28 games (27 of them starts) for Kansas City, including a 1.67 ERA over his seven starts in 2012 before his injury.

Luke Hochevar and Chris Getz are the Royals' two remaining arb-eligible players.  You can follow the status of every arbitration-eligible player on MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker.

Royals, Mets Discussed R.A. Dickey

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The Royals have talked to the Mets about R.A. Dickey as they continue to search for a top-of-the-rotation starter, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star reported this week that the Royals have had discussions about trading Wil Myers for Jon Lester or James Shields.

The Royals aren’t looking to trade Myers and have no interest in moving Salvador Perez, Heyman writes. Alex Gordon and Billy Butler are close to untouchable and the Royals aren’t inclined to trading Alcides Escobar, either. Instead, the Royals would prefer to send the Mets younger prospects in a deal for Dickey. 

If the Royals were to acquire Dickey, the 2012 NL Cy Young winner, he’d join Jeremy Guthrie, Ervin Santana and others in Kansas City.

"Our rotation is going to better, but we're still looking for the opportunity to improve on what we've done,'' Royals GM Dayton Moore told Heyman.

The Royals seem interested in trading Luke Hochevar and Bruce Chen. Doing so might free up salary for Moore, who now has up to $6MM to spend, according to Heyman.

The Mets have explored the possibility of a contract extension with Dickey, who will earn $5MM in 2013 before hitting free agency. If they trade the knuckleballer, they’d prefer a catcher and outfield help.

Minor Moves: Volstad, Pena, Balester, Solarte, Buck

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Here are Wednesday's minor moves…

  • Right-hander Chris Volstad and catcher Brayan Pena have rejected their outright assignments and elected free agency, the Royals announced (on Twitter). Both players were designated for assignment last week.
  • The Rangers have signed Collin Balester to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training, reports Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter). The 26-year-old right-hander allowed 14 runs in 18 innings for the Tigers this year while pitching to a 3.64 ERA in 47 Triple-A innings.
  • The Rangers have also signed Yangervis Solarte to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training according to Morosi. The 25-year-old infielder hit .288/.340/.405 with 11 homers in 568 plate appearances for Texas' Triple-A affiliate this season.
  • The Padres have signed Travis Buck to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training, report Baseball America's Matt Eddy (on Twitter). Buck, 29, hit .216/.284/.311 in 81 plate appearances for the Astros this year.
  • The Padres also re-signed catcher Eddy Rodriguez and right-hander Daniel Stange to minor league deals with invites to camp, according to Eddy. The 26-year-old Rodriguez went 1-for-5 with a homer for San Diego this year, his big league debut.

Royals “Calling Everyone” To Trade Hochevar & Chen

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The Royals are "calling everyone" in an attempt to trade both Luke Hochevar and Bruce Chen, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). The team is accelerating its timetable to acquire rotation help and wants to free up money.

Hochevar, 29, pitched to a 5.73 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 185 1/3 innings this season. The first overall pick in the 2006 draft owns a 5.39 ERA in 771 career innings. Hochevar is arbitration-eligible for the third time this winter and is projected to earn $4.4MM by Matt Swartz. He's a candidate to be non-tendered by Friday's deadline.

Chen, 35, posted a 5.07 ERA with 6.6 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 191 2/3 innings this year. He's revived his career in Kansas City, pitching to a 4.55 ERA in 549 1/3 innings since 2009. Chen will earn $4.5MM next season as part of the two-year, $9MM contract he signed last winter. The soft-tossing southpaw will become a free agent next offseason.

Earlier today team owner David Glass told Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star that the team needs to maintain a $70MM payroll to break even, but they will "react based on what (their) opportunities are." The Royals have already acquired Ervin Santana and re-signed Jeremy Guthrie this offseason, but they continue to look for ways to upgrade a starting staff that posted to a 5.01 ERA this year.

Pirates Acquire Vin Mazzaro, Clint Robinson

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The Pirates announced that they acquired right-hander Vin Mazzaro and first baseman Clint Robinson from the Royals for minor league pitchers Luis Rico and Luis Santos. The Pirates designated Yamaico Navarro and Matt Hague for assignment in a related move.

Mazzaro and Robinson had been designated for assignment on November 20th. Mazzaro, 26, posted a 5.73 ERA with 5.3 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 in 44 innings with the Royals this past season. Robinson made his MLB debut in 2012, but spent most of the year at Triple-A, where he posted a .292/.393/.452 batting line in 570 plate appearances.

Rico, a 19-year-old left-hander, has a 5.29 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 5.8 BB/9 in 20 appearances as a professional. Santos, a 21-year-old right-hander, has a 2.51 ERA with 10.2 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 24 minor league appearances.

Navarro, 25, appeared in 29 games for the Pirates this past season, posting a .160/.232/.220 batting line as a utility player. Hague, 27, appeared in 30 games for the Pirates, posting a .229/.270/.257 batting line in 74 plate appearances and playing first base.

Quick Hits: Liriano, Napoli, Wright, Royals

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The Twins have had conversations with Francisco Liriano's representatives, a source with knowledge of the talks tells LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune.  The two sides are expected to meet next week during the winter meetings but General Manager Terry Ryan is keeping mum on potential targets for the club.  Here's more Tuesday night linkage..

  • The Rangers did not meet with Mike Napoli today, despite previous reports to the contrary, according to Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram.  However, the club is set to meet with the catcher tomorrow.  Earlier today it was reported that Napoli appears to be the Red Sox's top free agent target.
  • Ken Davidoff of the New York Post (Twitter links) reached out to David Wright after his comments earlier tonight to MLBTradeRumors.  The third baseman indicated that he was displeased with the public nature of his contract negotiations.  "I wish I could elaborate but it was important to me from the very beginning that these negotiations remain confidential and private. I plan on sticking to that. Sorry I can't comment any further," said Wright.
  • The Royals have discussed Wil Myers in trades for Rays right-hander James Shields and Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester, but Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports points out that the two hurlers aren't exactly equal.  The two are owed similar money through 2014 ($24.625MM for Lester and $21MM for Shields) but Shields has been much stronger in recent years.

Royals Interested In Shields, Lester

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8:51pm: A Major League source confirmed to WEEI's Rob Bradford that the two teams have indeed discusseda trade that would center around Lester and Myers. According to Bradford, the talks also included the possibility of Boston sending outfield help to Kansas City with some pitching heading back to the Red Sox. He echoes that nothing is close.

6:55pm: The Royals have already added Ervin Santana to their rotation and brought back Jeremy Guthrie this offseason, but Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star writes that general manager Dayton Moore would like to add one more impact arm to his rotation. According to Dutton, Moore's preference is to acquire that arm by dealing prospects rather than Major League talent, and there have been discussions about using top prospect Wil Myers to acquire James Shields or Jon Lester.

Dutton writes that the Royals are currently weighing whether or not six years of Myers is worth two years of either Lester or Shields. One Royals source told Dutton that it's easy to project Myers as a 30-homer bat at the Major League level within the next two-to-three seasons. At the moment, the Royals, Red Sox and Rays are all said to be hesitant, and no deal is close.

Beyond the debate of which commodity is worth more, the Royals also need to consider their 2013 payroll. Barring a significant increase, the team would have to clear money in order to acquire either contract for next season. That, writes Dutton, could mean moving Bruce Chen's contract and/or taking a "hard look" at Luke Hochevar and Felipe Paulino. Both are due significant raises in arbitration, as Matt Swartz recently projected for MLBTR.

Myers ranks as the Royals' top prospect according to Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com. The 22-year-old batted .314/.387/.600 with 37 homers between Double-A and Triple-A last season, cementing himself as one of the game's most coveted minor leaguers.

Jeff Francoeur currently projects as Kansas City's right fielder but is coming off a dreadful season in which he hit just .235/.287/.378. The Royals would need to be confident that Francoeur could return to his 2011 numbers if they were to trade Myers, and even still would have a hole in right field beyond 2013.

Zack Greinke Rumors: Monday

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MLB executives see Zack Greinke obtaining a deal of at least six years for as much as $25MM per season, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. It’s possible the free agent right-hander will obtain a deal worth $150MM and establish a new record for right-handed pitchers. Matt Cain’s deal, worth a total of $127.5MM for six years, now represents the largest contract obtained by a right-hander, and C.C. Sabathia’s seven-year, $161MM contract represents the largest deal ever obtained by a pitcher. Here’s the latest on Greinke…

  • Dodgers people have started asking about Greinke, and their Los Angeles area rivals remain interested, too. Angels executives want to re-sign Greinke and have seen the Dodgers as their biggest threat, Heyman writes. The Angels would consider paying pitchers more per season than Jered Weaver on a “case-by-case” basis. Weaver earns $17MM per season on the deal he signed last summer.
  • While the Rangers and Nationals could also bid on Greinke, the Red Sox appear to be shying away from him. The Royals and Brewers, Greinke’s former teams, would love to have him back, according to Heyman.
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