Cubs Focused On Lefthanded Bat
Gordon Wittenmyer talked to his sources and agrees with Lou Piniella’s indication that the Cubs are not serious about Jake Peavy. Wittenmyer believes San Diego sources were putting the Cubs rumors out there to drive up the price. He says the Cubs are focused on acquiring an athletic lefthanded hitter this winter.
Wittenmyer says Raul Ibanez, Jeremy Hermida, and Brian Roberts remain on the radar. The latest word on Hermida is that the Marlins will need to be "wowed" to move him.
Braves Near Peavy Deal?
According to Scott Miller of CBSSports.com, the Padres are expected to request Jake Peavy waive his no-trade clause to go to the Braves. The deal being discussed: Yunel Escobar, Gorkys Hernandez, Charlie Morton or Jo-Jo Reyes, and Blaine Boyer or one of two minor league southpaws. Miller says the Padres are leaning toward Morton and Boyer.
The Braves want an answer by Friday, so they can figure out their free agent needs. Peavy is said to prefer the Cubs, but we’ll see what happens if the Padres approach him to waive the no-trade for Atlanta. It hasn’t happened yet.
Nothing Imminent On Peavy Deal
5:46pm: Manager Lou Piniella thinks the Peavy-Cubs rumors are "only talk." At least, he hasn’t talked to Cubs GM Jim Hendry much about it. Piniella remains fixated on a lefthanded hitter.
4:31pm: Yahoo’s Tim Brown has an update on the Jake Peavy trade talks, though it’s not very exciting. A Padres exec says the team has options, but nothing is close. The Padres have not yet asked Peavy to approve a trade.
Interesting note from Brown – the Yankees pushed hard, while the Red Sox and Mets "inserted themselves" into the mix.
Brown notes that Peavy would probably want the fifth year of his contract guaranteed upon a trade. At that point it’d be a five-year, $81MM deal. How much worse off would a team be signing a solid free agent starter at a lower price, while preserving the farm system?
Odds and Ends: Holliday, Takahashi, Lincecum
Links for Wednesday…
- Richard Justice says the Astros should offer Andy Pettitte $7-8MM to come back.
- Joe Christensen doesn’t see Huston Street landing in Minnesota.
- Larry Beinfest dismissed a "cyberspace rumor" that the Marlins are planning a run at Manny Ramirez.
- Gordon Wittenmyer says the Cubs could fit both Jake Peavy and Ryan Dempster into the payroll, and that the Peavy situation will be resolved first.
- Today is the deadline for MLB.com’s Free Agent Frenzy. You have until 4pm CST to submit your picks for 15 free agents. Here are my predictions from November 3rd…I would change the Furcal and Sheets ones for starters.
- Who had the Matt Holliday scoop? SI.com’s Jon Heyman broke the story, while Yahoo’s Tim Brown was the first to name the players involved.
- Holliday figures to be a three to six month rental for the A’s. Over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron takes a closer look at Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith. ESPN’s Keith Law says the Rockies received a "fair return" for Holliday.
- Athletics Nation suggests the A’s sign Derek Lowe.
- Ken Davidoff looks at the Yankees’ seesawing philosophy.
- Japanese southpaw Ken Takahashi intends to sign with an MLB club, and the Mets may be interested. Nikkan Sports says the Cubs, Padres, and Giants are also in on him.
- River Ave. Blues looks ahead to Derek Jeter‘s next contract.
- Andrew Baggarly reminds us that Tim Lincecum intends to go year to year.
- ESPN’s Buster Olney talked to one GM who expects "a whole lot of bargains" in late January, given the nation’s economy.
- Rany Jazayerli didn’t like the Royals’ acquisition of Mike Jacobs, but doesn’t think it’s the end of the world.
- Braves GM Frank Wren on Jeff Francoeur: "We haven’t talked about him at all. It’s not to say that we wouldn’t."
Odds and Ends: Pettitte, Zaun, Blanco
Links for Tuesday…
- Scott Bordow feels the D’Backs and Randy Johnson should meet at $5MM, which still seems light.
- David Murphy explains why the Phillies make more sense than the Mariners for Jamie Moyer, geographically.
- David Ortiz would like the Red Sox to add a 30 home run bat.
- Richard Justice wants the Astros to sign both Randy Wolf and Andy Pettitte. He says the Cubs and Cardinals will be talking to Pettitte even though his heart is with the Yankees.
- El Lefty Malo recommends the Giants sign Derek Lowe. The Giants are at least considering the big-ticket free agents.
- Jeff Blair runs through a few options for the Blue Jays if A.J. Burnett leaves.
- Free agent catcher Gregg Zaun is not pleased with Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi.
- The D’Backs want Miguel Montero showcased as a catcher.
- Ken Davidoff has a list of nine intriguing (and older) free agents.
- Joel Sherman joins Buster Olney in saying Brian Giles vetoed a trade to the A’s in August, after the Red Sox won the claim and failed to make a deal. How is this possible?
- Geovany Soto expects Henry Blanco to re-sign with the Cubs.
- Tony Massarotti looks at possible trade partners for the Red Sox.
Jake Peavy Rumors: Tuesday
12:14pm: Dave O’Brien agrees that the Braves are growing frustrated waiting on Kevin Towers, with the free agent open season creeping up.
10:21am: ESPN’s Buster Olney has the latest on the Jake Peavy trade talks.
Olney says the Braves and Padres are making progress, despite Ken Rosenthal’s report of Atlanta’s frustration. Olney says the Braves would send Yunel Escobar and Gorkys Hernandez to the Padres, plus Charlie Morton or Jo-Jo Reyes. They’re haggling over one last player, with the Padres eyeing southpaw Jeff Locke.
The Cubs are still in the mix, and a third team would be included to flip pitching to San Diego. One way or another, the Cubs would give up Josh Vitters and others.
Peavy Pursuit Affects Dempster, Wood
Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune writes today about how the Cubs’ pursuit of Jake Peavy affects their efforts to re-sign pitchers Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood.
Sullivan believes Dempster would be less likely to give the Cubs a discount if they acquire Peavy, who is set to earn an average of $15.75MM per year. Jeff Blair, on the other hand, heard Dempster would be willing to give the Cubs a discount due to his desire to be part of a Cubs super-rotation. It seems that Dempster wants five years and $70MM. Sullivan says the Cubs offered $50MM over four years, while Ken Rosenthal pegged it as closer to Kyle Lohse‘s $41MM.
Would acquiring Peavy and retaining Dempster leave any money for Wood? Wood anchors the Cubs’ pen, and his Chicago/Jim Hendry loyalty runs deep. Still, the Cubs would probably have to offer a multiyear deal. Unloading even half of Jason Marquis‘ $9.875MM could go a long way.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Johnson, Peavy, Dempster
Here’s a look at the latest from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
- It doesn’t seem likely that Randy Johnson re-signs with the Diamondbacks, though Johnson is holding out filing for free agency until the possibility is exhausted. The D’Backs hope he will take a significant hometown discount; they have roughly $10MM to spend for Johnson and a second baseman. If a Mark Loretta type takes $2MM, will Johnson take $8MM after earning $15.1MM for a fine ’08 season?
- The Braves are frustrated with the progress on the Jake Peavy talks, and will explore other options (especially once the free agent market opens Friday). Rosenthal says the Padres sent revised proposals to the Cubs and Braves yesterday, but those teams intend to stick with their offers. Will the Padres crack and make a deal before Friday?
- Rosenthal criticizes the Padres for the classless farewell to Trevor Hoffman. They pulled their reduced offer, and didn’t agree to the meeting with ownership he requested.
- Suddenly there may be more solid free agent closers than teams seeking one. The Mets have their pick. To me this is a sign that K-Rod will fall short of five years, $75MM.
- Rosenthal believes Kevin Gregg is next up on the trading block for the Marlins, with Jeremy Hermida another possibility.
- Casey Blake doesn’t have any geographic leanings regarding his next destination. His agent feels a three-year deal is reasonable. The Twins and Indians are among seven teams eyeing Blake.
- The Cubs offered Ryan Dempster something in the range of Kyle Lohse‘s four years, $41MM. Teams don’t like to use the Carlos Silva deal as a benchmark, because it was such a clear mistake.
Peavy Rumors: Saturday
I’m giving up and setting up a post to house Jake Peavy rumors, because I keep coming across different variations. I’ll update the post if I come across more as the afternoon goes on. To recap:
- Buster Olney expects a deal before Thanksgiving.
- Ken Rosenthal has heard that the Braves are getting tired of waiting, at that yesterday, the Padres discussed just keeping Peavy for themselves. He mentioned the Braves, Cubs, Dodgers and Yankees as still in the running.
- Brian McTaggart at the Houston Chronicle has reported that the Astros see themselves as out of the running, because the Padres’ price was so high.
Now for the new stuff:
- Chris de Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times expects a Peavy deal "within the next week" with the pitcher being sent to the Braves, Cubs, or Dodgers: "Those teams are the finalists and, sources say, no other teams will be considered at this point." Not very surprisingly, the three remaining teams are all in the National League.
- David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a long, detailed post on the prospect package the Braves are putting together to try and acquire Peavy. In the long, detailed post he also quotes verbatim a long, detailed email from Peavy’s agent, Barry Axelrod, clarifying his comments about Yunel Escobar.
There will be more to come, no doubt.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Nationals, Manny, Peavy, Vazquez
We’ve already touched on Ken Rosenthal’s Matt Holliday update, but there are other good tidbits in the article as well:
- "Club officials believe" that the Nationals are "reasonably close to a breakthrough." They blame 2008’s sorry performance on the raft of injuries Washington suffered, which is why they’re willing to spend now for a big bat — the key names floating around have been the aforementioned Holliday, Adam Dunn, and Mark Teixeira, though Rosenthal seems skeptical they could snag any of them. But what about Manny Ramirez? "Jim Bowden, the Nats’ unconventional GM, probably would love the idea, but D.C. might not be big enough for Manny and Barack Obama." Looking at the impact that Manny has had on the LA’s attendance, and looking at the empty seats at Nationals Park, it could make sense.
- Obligatory Jake Peavy update: Padres discuss keeping the ace, Braves grow impatient. Cubs are still in the mix, while the Dodgers and Yankees are "on the backburner." (Buster Olney had a subtly different take posted a few hours later — that Peavy would be dealt before the turkey hits the sideboard.) Rosenthal also quotes Pads GM Kevin Towers as wanting to move the fences in at Petco (which is hard enough just to write without typing in "cavernous" as an automatic prefix).
- The Mets, among other ballclubs, are interested in Rays’ righties Andy Sonnanstine and Edwin Jackson, but the Rays are in no hurry to make a deal.
- "The White Sox are in an ideal position with" Javier Vazquez if they wait until Peavy, CC Sabathia, et al are placed and then shop him, Rosenthal argues. The 32-year old righty will make $23 MM through 2010, which he calls "a bargain for a pitcher who has produced four straight 200-inning seasons, albeit with a 49-51 record and 4.41 ERA." On the other hand, Vazquez has also hit the 200-strikeout mark in each of the last two seasons.
Sarah Green can be reached here.