Carlos Zambrano Would Waive No-Trade Clause
Carlos Zambrano does not want to leave the Cubs, but he told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that he would waive his no-trade clause if the team asked him to do so.
"If they come to me and want to trade me, obviously it's because they don't want me here anymore," said Zambrano. "I always say that. I'll be here until the Cubs decide to trade me … I've heard rumors. I've already talked to my family. They said,'It's OK. If you think it's good for you, if you feel you want to be traded, do it.' I don’t want to leave. I've been here 10 years. The town has been special to me, the fans, too."
This morning we learned that the Yankees had several top advisors watch Zambrano recently, though Rosenthal hears that their interest is minimal due to his volatile personality. Since he is due to earn $17.875MM this year and $18MM next, it's likely the Cubs would have to include some cash to facilitate a trade. The Yankees are one of the few teams able to absord that kind of payroll hit, and it's worth noting that their pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, held the same position with the Cubs for the last several years.
Zambrano, 30, owns a 4.59 ERA in 96 innings across 15 starts this season. His strikeout rate (6.3 K/9) is the second lowest of his career and his ground ball rate continues to decline, though his walk rate (3.3 BB/9) is a career best. It's also worth noting that Zambrano's fastball velocity is trending downward as well.
Stark On Dempster, Adams, Reyes, Braves
Jayson Stark leads his latest column for ESPN with a debate with colleague Buster Olney about realignment possibilities. He notes that his sources say there's no chance divisions are dissolved and baseball becomes two 15-team leagues. On to Stark's other rumblings…
- An NL executive who spoke with Cubs GM Jim Hendry says there's no likely scenario where Ryan Dempster is traded. Earlier today, there were indications the Yankees at least have an eye on Dempster, who has full no-trade rights and a $14MM player option for 2012.
- Padres reliever Mike Adams also is likely to stay put, as the Padres are only interested in trading impending free agents Heath Bell and Chad Qualls.
- Jose Reyes might not be Brian Sabean's type of player, says one baseball man who speaks with the Giants' GM regularly. Still, Stark's source wondered if the liberation of winning last year's World Series might compel Sabean to take more chances. Of course, the Mets are looking like potential buyers right now.
- The Braves are "aggressively positioning themselves to deal for an outfield bat as soon as they can find a team ready to open its sell-off shop for business," writes Stark, and they've already checked in on Josh Willingham and Hunter Pence. We outlined potentially available power bats earlier this month.
Cubs Rumors: Zambrano, Dempster, Soriano
A few Cubs rumblings from ESPN's Bruce Levine…
- Yankees scouts watched Carlos Zambrano pitch on the Cubs' recent road trip, writes Levine. Levine notes that these were not advance scouts, but rather top advisers to GM Brian Cashman. Hopefully they saw his start against the Cardinals rather than the Phillies. Levine is of the opinion Zambrano would waive his no-trade clause, as a friend of the pitcher told him earlier this month, "At this point Carlos would probably let the Cubs trade him to Siberia." As a 4.50 ERA guy in the National League with clubhouse concerns and over $28MM remaining on his contract through 2012, Zambrano would be a tough sell for any team.
- Some of the Yankees top evaluators have more interest in Ryan Dempster, reports Levine, as you might expect. They'll get a look at him Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Dempster has $7.7MM remaining on his contract this year, as well as a $14MM player option for 2012. He also has full no-trade rights and strong ties to Chicago.
- Alfonso Soriano told Levine he expects to stay with the Cubs (he's signed through 2014), but if the team wants to trade him he wouldn't stay. Soriano, who is owed about $64MM through '14, has a full no-trade clause.
- I tackled the possibility of the Cubs becoming sellers earlier this month. They're ten games out in the NL Central and the wild card.
Central Notes: Ricketts, McClellan, Draft Signings
Here are some links from the Central divisions….
- Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts gave votes of confidence to GM Jim Hendry and manager Mike Quade during a state-of-the-franchise address on Wednesday, reports Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. "I have 100 percent confidence in Jim," Ricketts said. "He's working very hard to do everything he can to get this season back to where we want it to be. And I think Mike's done a great job. You know Mike has got those guys playing hard. You know they're not giving up. You know there's good spirit in the clubhouse. Yeah, those guys are fine." Hendry's future in Chicago has been a hot topic given the Cubs' struggles, with ESPNChicago.com's Jon Greenberg just one of several pundits who think Hendry will be fired.
- Ricketts also said the Cubs' debt problems wouldn't factor into any baseball-related spending. "The fact is this year we've spent more on Baseball Operations than any year in the past, and we continue to invest in the team," Ricketts said. "[The debt is] no way a limitation on our ability to sign free agents or our flexibility to build a better organization. It's just irrelevant for that."
- Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks back at the Cardinals' decision to pass on Joba Chamberlain in the 2006 draft and wonders if the Cards have "developed their own" version of Chamberlain in Kyle McClellan.
- Jim Leyland feels the Tigers have "too many" left-handers in their bullpen, writes MLB.com's Jason Beck. With a number of teams short on southpaw relievers, the Tigers could look to a fellow contender in a trade for a right-hander.
- The Twins have signed 15 picks from the 2011 amateur draft, according to La Velle Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Fifth-round shortstop Tyler Grimes is the highest-drafted player to sign.
- The Pirates announced the signings of six draft picks. Auburn third baseman Daniel Gamache, a sixth-rounder, is the highest-selected of the signed players.
- The Astros' pending sale, Hunter Pence's big season and strong play from younger players has the club's future looking bright, writes MLB.com's Brian McTaggart.
Minor Moves: Wade, Thomas, Diamond
Minor moves for Wednesday…
- The Yankees have signed right-hander Cory Wade to a Major League contract and called him up to the Major League roster, reports MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. Wade signed a minor league deal with New York on Monday. To make room, Hoch reports that Rafael Soriano was moved to the 60-day DL and Kevin Whelan was optioned to Triple-A.
- The Rangers have released catcher Michael Thomas, tweets Matt Eddy of Baseball America. Thomas was the player to be named later in the Jarrod Saltalamacchia trade last July. Eddy notes the Rangers considered converting Thomas to pitching.
- The Cubs released righty Thomas Diamond from their Triple-A club, tweets Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald. He'd been outrighted in May to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Doug Davis.
- The Diamondbacks purchased the contract of righty reliever Jeff Bennett from the Lancaster Barnstormers. It appears that Bennett will join Arizona's Triple-A club. The 31-year-old last pitched in the Majors with the Rays in '09.
Outrighted: Toregas, Hughes, Pucetas, Nieves
Players who cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A:
- The Cubs announced that Brad Snyder has been outrighted to Triple-A Iowa. The outfielder was designated for assignment on the weekend.
- Catcher Wyatt Toregas was outrighted to Indianapolis by the Pirates, tweets Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He'd been designated for assignment on Sunday to open a spot for Mike McKenry.
- Lefty reliever Dusty Hughes was outrighted to Rochester to open a 40-man spot with the Twins for infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, according to the team's transactions page. They'd claimed Hughes off waivers from the Royals in January. The Twins will need another spot for Joe Mauer soon.
- Righty Kevin Pucetas, designated for assignment by the Royals on Friday to open a 40-man spot for Mike Moustakas, was assigned outright to Omaha today according to the Royals' Twitter page.
- The Brewers outrighted catcher Wil Nieves to Nashville, writes MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. George Kottaras' contract was selected. The Brewers' 40-man roster count remains at 37. The White Sox are the only other team under 38.
Prince Fielder Won’t Rule Out Any Team
First baseman Prince Fielder, who is headed toward a massive free agent payday after the season, told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday he "doesn't have any problems with any team." Fielder was answering a question about whether he'd listen to an offer from the Cubs. The Scott Boras client was quick to emphasize that his focus is on the Brewers, his current employer.
There's not much of a story here, as we rarely see an elite free agent publicly rule out teams, especially midseason. Sure, Fielder probably hates the Cubs from a competitive standpoint, but eliminating them publicly would just be bad business.
Wittenmyer doesn't think the Cubs can afford to make a huge bid for Fielder – his source says the team's debt structure all but precludes a free agent megadeal for the next two or three years. Still, the Cubs appear to have a crazy amount of payroll flexibility after the season. Even if they slash payroll from $134MM to $120MM, they'd still have almost $50MM to play with in 2012 salaries. Of course, I'm not an accountant and it's more complicated than that.
Fielder, just 27, is having a season reminscent of the '07 and '09 campaigns that landed him among the top four in the MVP vote each year. He's at .300/.416/.617 with 19 home runs in 291 plate appearances. Fielder could aim for the biggest contract in baseball history for a player not named Alex Rodriguez.
Quick Hits: Connor, Andrew Miller, Tigers
A second pitching coach change occurred today, as Mark Connor resigned from the Orioles post for personal reasons. Rick Adair will take his place. Today's links…
- A couple of young pitchers were added to 40-man rosters today, as the Blue Jays added Zach Stewart in place of Kyle Drabek and the Cubs promoted Chris Carpenter in place of Casey Coleman according to ESPN's Bruce Levine. Both teams already had one open spot on the 40-man roster.
- Andrew Miller's agent Mark Rodgers implied his client will not opt out of his Red Sox contract tomorrow, in a discussion with Scott Lauber of The Boston Herald. Lauber notes that Miller has a second opt-out date on August 5th.
- Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski suggested he might look for offense at the trade deadline, talking to Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio (Twitter link). The Tigers currently rank sixth in the AL with 4.48 runs scored per game.
- Minor league infielder Matt Lawson retired, tweets MLB.com's Jordan Bastian. The Indians acquired Lawson and cash considerations from the Mariners for Aaron Laffey in March. At least they still have the cash. Laffey currently has a 1.98 ERA in 27 1/3 innings for the Mariners.
- More bad news for the Indians: pitching prospect Jason Knapp, acquired in the Cliff Lee deal, will miss the rest of the season due to shoulder surgery according to the team (Twitter link).
- An unnamed agent guesses contracts for ten prominent free agents in Jeff Passan's latest Yahoo article. The agent guessed eight years and $200MM for Prince Fielder. Meanwhile, Fielder's former Brewers teammate Bill Hall had all kinds of praise for the first baseman in this conversation with Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Cubs Will Be Able To Spend, Hendry Says
Despite recent reports suggesting the Cubs' free agency plans will be hampered by their violation of MLB's debt service rules, Cubs general manager Jim Hendry says his club's spending won't be affected, reports Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.
"We knew the path we went on in '07, '08, when the club was going up for sale, it was high level spending and obviously turned into divisional championship success," Hendry said. "When you don't finish that off, and the length of the time that the sale took, there was… an area there where (spending was) a little stagnant, and moving forward. Nobody's fault. That's the price of doing business.
"There's never been any talk of not pursuing any free agents….There are no financial difficulties here with the Ricketts family. And i think it will be a great franchise, and better than it's ever been, down the road."
The Cubs have a lot of money coming off the books this winter, which has naturally set off speculation that Chicago will pursue a top-flight free agent like Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder. Of course, if the Cubs are indeed able to continue business as usual, the question remains as to whether Hendry will be the one conducting it. Hendry said that given the team's poor performance, he isn't surprised to hear whispers about possibly being fired, saying "that comes with the territory."
"I expected us to win at a higher level than three division championships," Hendry said. "I don't mind that. This is professional baseball in a big market and a great fan base. We should've done better the last year and a half. So that comes with the territory, and that is my responsibility."
Cubs Designate Brad Snyder For Assignment
The Cubs have designated Brad Snyder for assignment reports Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune (on Twitter). The move creates room on the roster for Casey Coleman, who was called up to reinforce the bullpen.
Snyder, 29, started one game in left field for the Cubs this year, striking out three times in four hitless at-bats. He picked up one hit and three more strikeouts in five pinch-hitting appearances. The lefty swinger hit a fine .342/.374/.568 with seven homers in 155 plate appearances with Chicago's Triple-A affiliate before being called up.