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2012 Vesting Options Update

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Bobby Abreu's $9MM option for next season vested last weekend, so let's look around the league to see where some other players with vesting options stand…

  • Rafael Furcal, Cardinals: $12MM option vests with 600 plate appearances. Injuries have limited Furcal to just 179 plate appearances this year, so this one won't be vesting.
  • Jon Garland, Dodgers: $8MM option vests with 190 innings pitched. Garland is unlikely to pitch the rest of the season due to a shoulder issue, and he's only thrown 54 innings. The Dodgers won't have to worry about this one.
  • Koji Uehara, Rangers: $4MM option vests with either 55 appearances or 25 games finished. Uehara has appeared in 46 games and finished 20, putting him on pace for 67 and 29, respectively.
  • Arthur Rhodes, Rangers: $4MM option vests with 62 appearances and if he's not on the disabled list at the end of the season. Rhodes made 32 appearances with the Rangers before being designated for assignment earlier this week. Even if another team picks him up in short order, he's still unlikely to appear in enough games for the option to kick in. 
  • Joakim Soria, Royals: $6MM option vests with 55 appearances. With 47 appearances already to his credit, Soria is on pace to pitch in 68 games this year.
  • Dan Wheeler, Red Sox: $3MM option vests with 65 games; increases to $3.25MM with 70 games. Wheeler has appeared in 34 games this year with a disabled list stint mixed in. He'd have to appear in 31 of the team's final 51 games for the option to vest, which seems unlikely.

Francisco Rodriguez agreed to waive his vesting option in exchange for additional compensation following the trade that sent him to the Brewers. He would have been guaranteed a $17.5MM salary for next season had he finished 55 games this year and been declared healthy by doctors. 

Adam Wainwright's 2012 ($9MM) and 2013 ($12MM) options will not vest because he will finish the season on the disabled list after having Tommy John surgery. Aramis Ramirez's option depends on MVP Award finishes and whether or not he's traded, not plate appearances or another counting milestone.

Heyman On Hendry, Yankees, Astros

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Jon Heyman of SI.com looks back at the Cubs' quiet weekend and reports that rival teams were surprised when the Cubs said they wouldn't move Carlos Pena, Marlon Byrd and Jeff Baker. Here are the rest of Heyman's notes from around MLB… 

  • GM Jim Hendry has a strong rapport with Cubs ownership, according to people connected to the Cubs.
  • Yankees people don’t think Erik Bedard would last 20 minutes in New York. Red Sox GM Theo Epstein said Sunday that he’s happy to let Bedard’s arm respond to his critics.
  • The Astros hired an independent scout to watch their minor league affiliates and the scout found fewer than five players who should play in the Major Leagues.
  • MLB officials “seem determined” to convince the players’ association to agree to a slotting system for the amateur draft. The union doesn’t want capped bonuses, which would limit amateur players' earning power.

NL Central Notes: Garza, Astros, Brewers

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The Cardinals beat the Brewers in extra innings last night, and Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun got hit by pitches in the process. Here are some NL Central links for Wednesday, before the division rivals take the field again…

  • Cubs GM Jim Hendry told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times that he's glad to have Matt Garza under team control for 2012.
  • Matt Eddy of Baseball America looks back at the Astros' forays into free agency and their subsequent trades for prospects in a subscriber-only piece. It's clear, Eddy writes, that the Astros are well-positioned to land the top pick in next year's draft. Houston has an MLB-worst 36-74 record. 
  • The Brewers announced that they've already sold more tickets for 2011 than they did in 2010, when they drew 2,776,531 fans. More fans mean more revenue for the Brewers, who have already committed $59MM to next year's payroll.

Central Notes: Bourn, Guillen, Soto, Rhodes

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The latest from the Central divisions….

  • The Astros wanted Ross Detwiler as part of any package the Nationals offered for Michael Bourn, reports MLB.com's Bill Ladson.  Washington didn't want to part with its young southpaw, so the Nats' chance to acquire Bourn the day before the trade deadline evaporated.  Bourn instead went to one of Washington's NL East rivals.
  • In a video interview with Graham Bensinger of Yahoo Sports, Ozzie Guillen says that he recently told White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf that "If you want me to stay, a lot of things [have] got to be better."  Guillen also said, however, that he wants to remain in Chicago and is fully committed to his current team, despite some rumors connecting him to the Marlins job in 2012.  "It'd be an honor for me to manage the Marlins," Guillen said.  "Do I want to manage the Marlins?  No, because I'm managing the White Sox now."
  • Guillen's future is also a topic in Doug Padilla and Bruce Levine's Cubs-and-White Sox chat for ESPN Chicago.  Padilla and Levine discuss why both teams kept players like Carlos Quentin and Marlon Byrd at the trade deadline, Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn's potential as a future GM and why Mike Quade is playing so many veterans.
  • Also of note from the chat is Levine's news that the Pirates were interested in Geovany Soto, but were told by the Cubs that Soto wasn't available.
  • The Cardinals may have interest in Arthur Rhodes, who was designated for assignment today by the Rangers.  MLB.com's Matthew Leach reports that the Cards have "held significant interest [in Rhodes] in recent years" and notes that Tony La Russa made some vague quotes both praising Rhodes and saying his team needed another southpaw reliever.
  • The Royals may have to do some roster juggling in August and September to find playing time for all of their young prospects, writes Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.

Draft Signings: Red Sox, Rays, Royals

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Now that the trade deadline is behind us, the next big event is the draft signing deadline on August 15th. We'll keep track of any draft signings here…

  • The Cubs have signed ninth rounder Garrett Schecht for an above-slot $235K, reports Callis on Twitter. The high school outfielder from Illinois received the largest bonus in the ninth round so far.
  • The Red Sox have signed third rounder Jordan Weems according to Baseball America's Jim Callis (on Twitter). Weems, a catcher from a Georgia high school, received a $500K bonus. MLB.com's slot recommendation was $275K.
  • Callis tweets that the Rays have signed fourth rounder Riccio Torrez for $180K, just above MLB's slot recommendation of $169K. Torrez is a third baseman from Arizona State.
  • The Royals have signed their second-round pick, catcher Cameron Gallagher, according to a team press release. Callis says (on Twitter) he received a $750K signing bonus, well above MLB's slot recommendation of $563K.  The club has now signed 26 of their 50 selections in this year's draft.

Why Carlos Pena Wasn’t Traded

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The non-waiver trade deadline came and went yesterday with nary a Carlos Pena rumor.  At first glance you'd think an impending free agent with 20 home runs would be on the move, but Pena remained with the 43-65 Cubs.  Why?

For one thing, Pena is moveable in August.  Cubs GM Jim Hendry explained to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times, "The guys that we kept, for the most part, are guys that still have a chance to be involved next year, and if we do make a trade or two in August, that’s still no more or less significant than if we made them [Sunday]."  There's a decent chance Pena would clear waivers, especially since $5MM of his $10MM contract is due in January.  If not, the Cubs could just hand over the contract.

Another reason Pena stayed is that Hendry doesn't have anyone to replace him.  The GM explained that the Cubs had Tyler Colvin to step in for Kosuke Fukudome, but have no such replacement for Pena.  Bryan LaHair has 29 home runs at Triple-A Iowa, but he's 28 and this is his sixth stint at the level.  Personally this explanation doesn't do much for me, as the Cubs are going to remain terrible this year whether Pena or LaHair starts at first over the final two months.

I imagine Hendry was also limited by the scant number of contenders in need of first base or DH help.  Pena is best marketed as a first baseman, and with the Pirates adding Derrek Lee it's tough to find a contender in need of help at the position.

Wittenmyer mentions draft pick compensation, but Pena is actually below Type B status at present.  Plus, the Cubs have often been reluctant to offer arbitration to free agents.

One last possibility is that Pena was not traded because the Cubs want to re-sign him and that's generally easier when you retain a player.  Pena, a Scott Boras client, said he'd love to stay in Chicago and is excited about the team's future, but hasn't really looked ahead to next year.  The Cubs will have options, with a large amount of payroll flexibility and Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols potentially on the market.

NL Central Trades

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The month of July proved to be a busy one for the NL Central..

Astros

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Pirates

Reds

The Pirates and Orioles announced tonight that the Pirates acquired Derrek Lee from Baltimore for minor league first baseman Aaron Baker.

Pirates Rumors: Willingham, Pena, Lee

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It's been awfully quiet on the Pirates rumor front lately, but maybe that's just because the team's front office is keeping a lid on it.  The latest:

  • Talks between the Pirates and A's about Josh Willingham are finished, according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney (on Twitter). The talks never intensified.
  • The Pirates and A's are talking, tweets Jon Paul Morosi, as Oakland can fill the Pirates' need for a bat and a reliever.
  • The Pirates inquired on Carlos Pena but sensed the Cubs weren't motivated to trade him, tweets SI's Jon Heyman.  The Bucs are not sure that Pena's predecessor, Derrek Lee of the Orioles, is an upgrade for them.  I think he would be.
  • The Pirates had interest in lefty Charlie Furbush before the Tigers sent him to Seattle today, tweets Troy Renck of the Denver Post.

Latest On Braves’ Outfield Targets

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The Braves offered a four-player package to the Astros for Hunter Pence, tweets ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.  However, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says the Astros sought two of the Braves' top four pitching prospects and another good young pitcher, so a deal was not reached.  With Pence and Carlos Beltran off the board, here's the latest on the Braves' hunt for a hitter…

  • Byrd is not going to be traded, writes ESPN's Jayson Stark, though the Braves took a run at him.  Stark says the Twins are set on receiving big league-ready players for Denard Span.  Bourn, Upton, Crisp, and Quentin are on the radar, while there are no signs the Braves have pursued Ludwick or Willingham of late.
  • The Braves are strongly in on Quentin, tweets Bob Nightengale, but the White Sox are still unlikely to move him.  Chicago's asking price is very high, tweets Jon Paul Morosi, and the Braves are interested but not optimistic.
  • Cubs center fielder Marlon Byrd appears to be among the names on Atlanta's radar, reports David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  • The Braves' talks for Oakland center fielder Coco Crisp slowed Friday, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney, but he wonders if they'll be rekindled now that the Phillies got Pence.
  • The Braves are almost certain to land an outfielder before the deadline, reports Rosenthal.  He cites the names you have been hearing for a while: B.J. Upton, Michael Bourn, Ryan Ludwick, Carlos Quentin, and Josh Willingham.
  • Bourn is on the Braves' radar, tweets Crasnick.  Padres right fielder Ludwick is "more down the list of options."  Would Astros GM Ed Wade deal another outfielder?  He told reporters earlier tonight, "We’re going to be open-minded on all fronts. We’re going to be good listeners."
  • The Braves are targeting a center fielder, tweets Yahoo's Jeff Passan, though it doesn't rule them out on corner guys.
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