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Olney’s Latest: Benson, Lowell, Chavez, Mulder, Eckstein

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Buster Olney’s ESPN Insider blog is always a good source for links from around the league. Let’s see what’s up today.

  • Kris Benson’s agent Gregg Clifton says his client will to throw in Arizona about a week after the Winter Meetings.
  • He says that the Yankees "haven’t put forth any offers that would give them a serious chance to get Mike Lowell." So did the Yankees pull back their offer, or did they even make one in the first place?
  • Eric Chavez just underwent his third surgery in the past two months. With three years and $37 million left guaranteed ($34 million in salary plus a $3 million buyout for 2011).
  • Brewers manager Ned Yost is asking NL Rookie of the Year Ryan Braun to take 1,000 groundballs per day this off-season. Maybe this will help Braun improve from his poor defensive year in 2007.
  • The Cardinals are calling Mark Mulder’s progress "very positive." He’s slated to start throwing in January, and according to the team will be ready to throw off a mound come Spring Training.
  • The Mets are still interested in David Eckstein as their second baseman.

Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues, a Yankees blog.

Odds and Ends: Glavine, Rowand, A-Rod Clark, LoDuca

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Hi. I’m Joe. Tim is busy today, so I’ll be filling in. You can send any tips right to my email. So onto a few morning tidbits.

  • Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution hears that the Braves are "close" to a deal with

    Tom Glavine. His agent, Gregg Clifton, thinks "it’s a good possibility" that a deal gets done today.

  • Aaron Rowand’s agent Craig Landis says that the "interest is definitely mutual" between his client and the Dodgers.
  • Since I run a Yankees site, I suppose I can’t finish an odds and ends post without a mention of Alex Rodriguez. Ed Price of the Star Ledger says that the soon-to-be MVP’s deal is "intricate," and that we shouldn’t expect a deal until "perhaps after Thanksgiving."
  • The Twins are said to be interested in Tony Clark. Not quire sure adding another low-OBP bad in addition to Craig Monroe is very smart here. Plus, this would make Clark the de-facto DH, and we know he’s looking for a starting gig.
  • Mike Puma of the New York Post speculates that recently displaced Paul LoDuca could swap with Yorvit Torrealba and catch on as the Rockies’ starter for 2008.

    •  

Joe Pawlikowski is a co-author of River Ave. Blues, a New York Yankees blog.

Yankees Pull Back Lowell Offer?

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According to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, the Yankees have pulled their offer to Mike Lowell off the table since they’re close to signing Alex Rodriguez.  The last indication was that Lowell had a four-year offer from the Yanks in the neighborhood of $50-55MM.  Reportedly that offer was made with the idea of Lowell moving to first base.  If that was true, why would an A-Rod signing change things?  The offer was made with an A-Rod signing in mind.

None of the other suitors for Lowell are admitting anything right now.  The Phillies seem a logical fit but Pat Gillick is denying it.  The Brewers may also enter the market for a third baseman. 

Yanks, A-Rod Have Contract Outline

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I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to put this thing to bed.  Alex Rodriguez’s record ten year, $275MM deal is almost done according to the AP.  It sounds like they have an agreement but it needs to be put on paper.  A couple of Goldman Sachs managing directors helped make the deal possible while Scott Boras sat on the sidelines.  The contract discussions have been going on for roughly ten days covertly.

Part of the deal is that Alex will share in the revenue if he nears Barry Bonds’ career home run record.  That’ll need to be approved by the commissioner’s office.

Did Mike Lowell Really Receive Four Offers?

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This has all been covered here on MLBTR, but I guess it’s gotten lost in the shuffle because I’m receiving tons of email about it.  Maybe I’ll try to build something into the site to better keep up with the big names besides just reading through everything.  In the meantime, you can always use the search bar on the sidebar.

Anyway, let’s talk about this Mike Lowell rumor from WHDH Channel 7 News out of Boston.  These guys are getting a ton of traffic to this rumor and I just gave them more.  Oh well.

The uncredited rumor says a source close to Lowell indicates that he’s received four-year offers in the $55-60MM range from the Braves, Angels, Cardinals, and Yankees.

GM Frank Wren debunked the Braves portion today.  Esteemed St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Bernie Miklasz killed the Cardinals portion last night.  The Boston Herald’s Rob Bradford shot down the Angels rumor.

So we have an uncredited rumor that is currently 0 for 3. 

A different Boston TV station, WBZ, said today that the Yanks did make an offer in the $56-60MM range to Lowell today (courtesy of Dan Roche).  That could be accurate but I would like to see some of the regular Yankees beat writers pick it up also.

Yanks Want Lowell For First Base

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UPDATE, 11-15-07: A reporter from WBZ TV out of Boston is saying Lowell has a four-year offer from the Yankees in the $56-60MM range.

UPDATE, 11-14-07: Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch kills the Lowell-Cardinals rumor.

FROM 11-13-07:

A new twist!  Dan Graziano reports that an Alex Rodriguez signing wouldn’t stop the Yankees from pursuing Mike Lowell.  They’d like Lowell to play first base for them.  A big part of it would be to take Lowell away from the Red Sox, it appears.  Of course the Red Sox would get the Yankees’ 28th overall pick next June as a consolation prize. 

Graziano admits signing Lowell to switch positions would be tough, as teams like the Angels and Dodgers will be after him.  According to a Boston television station, Lowell has already received offers from the Braves, Angels, Cardinals, and Yankees.  Each is supposedly a four-year offer between $55-60MM.  Color me skeptical of that particular rumor, but you never know.

Anyway, the Yankees dropping $50MM+ on Lowell just to thwart the Red Sox seems kind of irresponsible to me.  Here’s what they’d have:

C – Jorge Posada – $13.1MM
1B – Mike Lowell – $14MM
2B – Robinson Cano – $0.5MM
SS – Derek Jeter – $20MM
3B – Alex Rodriguez – $28MM
LF – Hideki Matsui – $13MM/Johnny Damon – $13MM
CF – Melky Cabrera – $0.5MM
RF – Bobby Abreu – $16MM
DH – Jason Giambi – $21MM

That’s a $139MM starting lineup, and one of those guys would be on the bench.  I imagine a Lowell signing would compel Brian Cashman to shop someone.

A-Rod Deal Looks Close

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Yahoo’s Tim Brown has quietly been doing a fine job gathering info about Alex Rodriguez’s dealings with the Yankees.  Here’s a link to yesterday’s column, and here’s today’s.  A summary follows.

  • The base of the contract is ten years, $275MM.  There are also performance incentives that can bring the value higher.
  • The third party Rodriguez sent to initiate contact with the Steinbrenners was Mitch Modell, the sporting goods guy.
  • The whole idea of the Yankees trying to bar Scott Boras or A-Rod having strife with Boras appears false.  Everyone’s on good working terms, and the events of yesterday may even have been orchestrated by Boras.  John Harper paints a very different story based on his sources, so you’ll have to decide who to believe.
  • Brown suggests a contract announcement could come on Monday at the same time Rodriguez is named AL MVP. 

Rivera Wants Four Years

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Why is that three-year, $45MM offer to Mariano Rivera from the Yankees still on the table?  According to Ken Rosenthal, it’s because Rivera wants four guaranteed years.  He’s looking at the contracts of Jorge Posada, Billy Wagner, and even Alex Rodriguez in demanding to be paid through his age 41 season.  As I said before, I think it’s time for the Yankees to go to Plan B.

Rosenthal says the Yanks are still the favorite for Rivera, despite his quote about playing for the Dodgers.  Rivera has apparently told his agents to shop him around, as he’s annoyed by Hank Steinbrenner’s public comments about his age.  Hank seems to make a lot of public comments that don’t seem professional or well thought-out. 

Orioles To Attempt To Extend Bedard

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It looks like Erik Bedard is Andy MacPhail’s top priority right now.  He’s already gauged the trade interest for his ace, and is now exploring the idea of a contract extension.

Jeff Zrebiec says the Mets, Yankees, Angels, and Dodgers expressed interest in the southpaw starter.  Interesting to see the Halos in the mix.  The Dodgers are pushing the hardest for him.  Two years of Bedard is expected to cost a team three MLB-ready players.  The names mentioned for the Dodgers are Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp, and Clayton Kershaw.  While Kershaw’s not MLB-ready, I doubt the Orioles would mind.  Zrebiec says the problem with the Dodgers is that Kemp and Kershaw would be part of a Miguel Cabrera package.

What would a contract extension cost?  I’m thinking it would require something like four years, $65MM to cover the two team-controlled years and two years of free agency.

Zrebiec also mentions that the Mets inquired on Ramon Hernandez, but found the price of a high-end prospect prohibitive.

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