Will Yanks Turn Attention To Clemens?
As a Randy Johnson trade appears inevitable, talk is starting up again that the Yankees are actually trying to get older. They’d like to replace Johnson with a full season of Roger Clemens, according to Jon Heyman.
Heyman even mentions that Clemens’s dislike of Johnson may have prevented him from signing with the Yankees and could be a factor in the trade.
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe agrees that the Yankees are trading Johnson with the Rocket in mind. Ah, the drama never ends.
Randy Johnson Trade Near Complete
According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the Randy Johnson to Arizona trade is "nearing its completion."
The D’Backs would still work out an extension with Johnson, and the Yanks still covet Brandon Medders and a young starter or two. According to the New York Post, Micah Owings seems to be at the top of the list with Dustin Nippert and Ross Ohlendorf close behind.
Yanks, D’Backs Close On Unit?
According to the New York Daily News, the Diamondbacks and Yankees could finish a Randy Johnson trade this weekend.
Arizona will need to talk to Johnson to extend his contract through 2008, pretty much guaranteeing he gets his 300th win as a Diamondback. The Yankees want one of Dustin Nippert, Micah Owings, and Ross Ohlendorf. Nippert seems to be the prize of the trio.
Meanwhile, the Yankees are getting closer to signing Doug Mientkiewicz to play first base and could also snag Mark Loretta as a utility infielder.
On the other hand, a source told the Newark Star-Ledger that there’s "nothing imminent" on RJ but things could be resolved within a week anyway.
Giants Sign Barry Zito
UPDATE: Peter Gammons is reporting that the Giants have signed Zito for seven years and approximately $126MM. The deal is said to include an $18MM option for 2014. The Yankees did not make a formal offer. San Francisco’s rotation now looks like this:
Matt Cain
Barry Zito
Noah Lowry
Matt Morris
Jonathan Sanchez
UPDATE: T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com reports that the Rangers have been told Zito has rejected their six-year, $80MM offer. A source told Sullivan that the Rangers expect Zito to sign with San Francisco.
According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Giants are the frontrunners for Barry Zito and are willing to give him a $100MM contract. The Yankees, Mets, and Rangers aren’t expected to be in that ballpark and don’t want to give him six years. Seattle, however, could get crazy and make such a bid. That would cap a terrible offseason for Bill Bavasi in grand fashion.
The Yankees talked to the Giants about Randy Johnson, but Brian Sabean was not interested. Word is that Johnson is not old enough for San Francisco.
One more note from the column – Sherman mentions Tomo Ohka as a lesser option for Texas. Whether that’s purely speculation is unclear.
Zito seems unlikely to sign before New Year’s Day.
Yanks Want Three Arms For Unit
Yesterday for the East Valley Tribune, Jack Magruder indicated that the Yankees want a trio of young arms from the Diamondbacks in return for Randy Johnson. They want one reliever in the group.
Brandon Medders, a 27 year-old right-handed reliever, is said to be a target. Medders posted a solid 3.64 ERA in 71 innings in 2006, though his 1.68 K/BB ratio is cause for concern. Magruder indicates that Arizona wants to substitute the pricier Luis Vizcaino instead of Medders.
The other pitchers would come out of this group: Edgar Gonzalez, Enrique Gonzalez, Dustin Nippert, Ross Ohlendorf, and Micah Owings. What, no Juan Cruz? Baseball Prospectus’s Kevin Goldstein lists Nippert as a "good prospect" and Owings as an "average prospect." The others aren’t in the team’s top 10. That might be a testament to all the young talent in the organization though.
Magruder doesn’t expect the D’Backs to meet this Yankee demand, but perhaps the teams can meet in the middle.
Yankees After George Sherrill?
Nice find by RotoWorld – at the bottom of this Bergen Record article, there’s mention of the Yankees’ interest in southpaw reliever George Sherrill.
Presumably, Sherrill would be a backup plan if the Yanks can’t acquire Mike Gonzalez. From what I hear, there are still a handful of teams involved on the Pittsburgh reliever.
Sherrill has an interesting stat line that doesn’t seem repeatable – fewer than seven hits per nine, zero home runs in 40 innings, a 4.28 ERA despite six walks per nine. If used as a strict LOOGY, though, he should be pretty good.
Rangers To Boras: Call Us Back
The Rangers won’t put up with Scott Boras playing hard to get much longer – they want a response on Barry Zito by this weekend or else they’ll move on. Boras’s leverage with Texas has decreased with their acquisition of Brandon McCarthy.
The implication of the weekend deadline is that Texas’s offer still stands. There had been reports that they were all but out of the Zito sweepstakes. Meanwhile, Boras hopes to pit the Yanks and Mets against each other for Zito. At the least, neither New York team is acting desperate right now.
Back to McCarthy for a second – is there more to this story?
Mariners In On Randy Johnson?
I scoured what seemed like a dozen Randy Johnson articles, most of which had the same themes we were hearing yesterday: the Yanks don’t have to trade Johnson, the vacancy could go to Zito or Clemens, the Diamondbacks are in the thick of things, the Padres are the frontrunners, the Dodgers are just driving up the price, and the Giants and Angels are the dark horses.
Joseph A. Reaves of the Arizona Republic has a slightly different take, though: he says the Mariners have surfaced as a potential trade partner. It’s just a one-line mention, but I haven’t seen it confirmed elsewhere yet. I will try. Additionally, Reaves writes that the Dodgers are not interested.
Newday’s Ken Davidoff weighs in on the side of reason: he doesn’t want to trade a decent 200 inning starter. I also agree with him in that Kei Igawa can easily be pushed to the pen for two-thirds of a season if Roger Clemens is brought aboard. The Yanks aren’t so stacked with good starting pitching as to make Johnson expendable.
L.A. Teams In Mix For Big Unit?
According to the New York Daily News, you can add the Angels and Dodgers to the list of teams interested in the suddenly-available Randy Johnson. Furthermore, Roger Rubin and Bill Madden name the Padres as Johnson’s most likely suitor right now. This thing has expanded beyond his hometown Diamondbacks.
The paper writes that the Yanks already have some offers on the table. From the Dodgers’ point of view, their interest in Johnson may only be in keeping him away from division rivals. Perhaps a starter would go back to New York in such a deal.
Johnson’s agent hasn’t been looped in yet, but Brian Cashman will need the pitcher’s consent in any deal.
Randy Johnson Trade Rumors
Merry Christmas! I’m sporting a new fleece and decided to duck in with a quick Christmas trade rumor.
While it was denied a week ago, it sounds like discussions are indeed taking place that would bring Randy Johnson back to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Johnson’s agent and D’Backs general partner Ken Kendrick are mum on the subject.
Ed Price reports that the Yankees don’t want to pay any of the $16MM owed to the Big Unit in 2007. Arizona’s rotation currently consists of Brandon Webb, Livan Hernandez, Doug Davis, and a competition between Juan Cruz, Dana Eveland, Edgar Gonzalez, and Enrique Gonzalez. The Diamondbacks are packed with promising youngsters like Conor Jackson and Dustin Nippert.
Johnson had back surgery after the season ended; he turned 43 this year. He may not be ready for spring training. ZiPS, which projected pitchers better than anyone last year, predicts a 3.71 ERA for Johnson in 2007 – even as a Yankee. PECOTA chimes in with a 3.52 projection; it’s easy to be deceived by the 5.00 ERA. More attention should be paid to his 1.24 WHIP in 2006 – that’s more than respectable.
UPDATE: Amy Nelson of ESPN reports that Arizona has offered a package of at least three players for Johnson. Word is that Chad Tracy could be among them. They’d want a window to negotiate a contract extension. Nelson also mentions that the Padres have interest and could offer Scott Linebrink.
Additionally, Jon Heyman writes that Johnson initiated the trade idea and that the Giants could be in the mix. The Yankees seem to be looking for young pitching in return. Heyman speculates that they could become a possibility for Barry Zito if Johnson is dealt.