Today’s Non-tenders: Towers, Prior, Everett, Durbin
Tim’s out for the night, so we’ve got a fresh post started for the non-tenders. MLB.com has a running list as well.
These guys are the officials as of now:
- As expected, the Marlins non-tendered catcher Miguel Olivo. Johnny Estrada was another casualty; these two make up the market for starting catchers.
- The Blue Jays non-tendered Josh Towers, a surprising move. Some NL team could offer him two years and get league average work out of him.
- Mark Prior has been non-tendered. Honestly if I were the Cubs, I would’ve tossed the $3.5MM his way just to see.
- Aaron Miles is now a free agent.
- The A’s cut Kiko Calero loose.
- The Padres have non-tendered four: Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane, and pitchers Jack Cassell and Ryan Ketchner. RotoWorld speculates that the latter two, not arbitration eligible, could be offered minor league deals.
- The Royals cut the cord on Emil Brown. He turns 33 soon; he hit an ugly .257/.300/.347 in 2007. Brown earned $3.45MM in ’07.
- The Tigers non-tendered Chad Durbin, toss him into the free agent pool. Guess those trade talks with the Bucs didn’t work out.
- The Twins have let go Jason Tyner.
- The Nats have cut bait with Nook Logan and LHP Michael O’Connor.
- The Dodgers wave goodbye to Mark Hendrickson.
- The White Sox have non-tendered Andy Gonzalez and LHP Heath Phillips. Joe Crede sticks with the Pale Hose for now.
- Adam Everett has lost his job with the Astros. It’d be kind of funny if the Orioles signed him.
- Per RotoWorld, the Angels have non-tendered Dallas McPherson. He’s full of potential, but he’s never come through. He’s only 27, though, so he could still catch on somewhere. Unless, RotoWorld notes, he has an agreement in place with the Angels.
- The Braves have non-tendered Willie Harris, though he had already been DFA’d.
–Joe and Tim
Kosuke Fukudome Projections
For all you fantasy geeks out there, I compiled projections from three sources to try to get a read on Kosuke Fukudome will do in his first season with the Cubs. The Cubs care most about his OBP, and the consensus is that it’ll be at least .370. His stolen base total will be of interest to fantasy owners, and that’s anyone’s guess.
Would Mets Consider Marquis?
On November 29th, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick mentioned that the Cubs are "listening on Jason Marquis." This would clearly be a salary dump, as Marquis will earn $16.25MM over 2008-09.
Since then we haven’t heard of any teams interested in the 29 year-old righty. However, Mets manager Willie Randolph brought up Marquis yesterday as a consideration for the team’s rotation. The article’s author, Adam Rubin, added that the Cubs are fans of Endy Chavez. It wouldn’t be fair to equate the two players, however.
Hat tip to MetsBlog on this one.
Levine On Fukudome
Interesting stuff from ESPN 1000’s Bruce Levine this morning regarding Kosuke Fukudome.
- The Rangers offered the most money.
- The White Sox were not outbid – they offered about the same as the Cubs. However, Fukudome did not want to displace Jermaine Dye from right field.
- Fukudome was just intrigued by the Cubs, and liked the idea of being their first Japanese player.
Prior To Be Non-tendered?
According to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, Mark Prior "seems headed for the non-tender list" unless the Cubs pull off a trade or Prior concedes to an option year for 2009.
The 27 year-old hasn’t started a big league game since August 10th, 2006. If he becomes a free agent, I imagine many teams would view him as a low-risk, high-reward option. The Padres have cooled on him, though.
Kosuke Fukudome Signs With Cubs
UPDATE, 12-11-07 at 10:43pm: MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat says the deal is for four years and $48MM.
FROM 12-11-07 at 9:40pm:
Dave Kaplan of WGN Radio reports that the Cubs have signed Kosuke Fukudome to a four-year deal. Kaplan says it’s for about $50MM, maybe a hair more. Fukudome will be a free agent after the fourth year; there will be no arbitration.
The Cubs got their man for right field; he’ll provide a strong dose of OBP. The quality of available right fielders drops off drastically after Fukudome. The deal isn’t without risk, obviously, since Fukudome is untested in the Majors. Peter Gammons talked to a GM who described Fukudome as "a cross between Ichiro and a young, healthy Mark Kotsay."
Cubs Willing To Offer $50MM For Fukudome?
UPDATE, 12-11-07 at 10:48am: Just talked to a good source on this stuff. He told me Fukudome wants five years, despite what we’ve read. The Cubs don’t expect he’ll sign for $50MM for five years, and are offering that amount over four. They’re having an internal debate about stretching it to a five-year, $65MM offer. Jim Hendry wants to stop at four years though.
FROM 12-11-07 at 10:03am:
Interesting piece of information from Tom Krasovic today – he says the Cubs are willing to offer close to $50MM for Kosuke Fukudome. They really want this guy and have built their offseason plan around him.
It’s hard to believe the Cubs would offer that amount for three years; that would be $16.6MM annually to someone who’s never played in the Majors. I could definitely see the Cubs putting out a four-year, $50MM offer though. Who knows how much validity there is to the idea that Fukudome wants three years and only three years.
The Padres have gone at least three years and at least $10MM annually, but it could be more on both accounts. Kevin Towers says the team’s offer was final. He sees Fukudome landing in Chicago or San Diego. That might mean he considers the White Sox to be in the mix as well.
Kosuke Fukudome Coming To MLB
UPDATE, 12-11-07 at 8:27am: Official word comes from the man himself – he’ll try his hand in the Majors in 2008.
UPDATE, 12-10-07 at 10:04pm: Here’s the latest from the Sun-Times. Urbon won’t hear from Fukudome until sometime later tonight. He’ll contact MLB teams on Tuesday at the earliest with the news. From that point, a deal might only take a day or two.
UPDATE, 12-10-07 at 2:30pm: This is getting annoying…Fukudome will decide whether to come to MLB tonight. We all expect him to come, so it’s been a lot of back and forth for nothing.
UPDATE, 12-9-07 at 12:14am: He’s coming this time, for real.
UPDATE, 12-7-07 at 8:08pm: Just listened to Dave Kaplan talking to Fukudome’s agent, Joe Urbon, on Sports Central/WGN 720. Urbon says Fukudome may decide whether to play in the U.S. on Monday. The process would move "very quickly" soon after that for Fukudome to decide on a team.
UPDATE, 12-7-07 at 8:03pm: Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times spoke to Fukudome’s agent. He hasn’t decided yet. He will make a choice Monday or Tuesday, and would let the interested Japanese teams know first.
FROM 12-7-07 at 2:40pm:
In case there was any question, Ken Rosenthal reports that Kosuke Fukudome will announce that he’s leaving Japan for an MLB team.
Rosenthal says it’s down to the Cubs, Padres, and what I like to call a Mystery Team. The Rangers, Giants, and White Sox are candidates. And although Rosenthal doesn’t mention them, the Royals could be in the mix. Ken Davidoff reported on Wednesday that Fukudome had narrowed his choices to the Cubs and Royals (though it’s known that the Padres made a substantial offer). Note that Davidoff’s article came out after news of the Royals’ Jose Guillen signing broke.
Padres May Learn Today About Fukudome Offer
Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune has a new column up, chock full of Padres rumors. Let’s discuss.
- The Padres have a three-year offer out to Kosuke Fukudome that may make him the highest paid Padre ever, aside from Jake Peavy. Kevin Towers expects to get an answer today from Fukudome’s agent, Joe Urbon. Urbon basically said that geography would only come into play if offers from competing teams were similar. Towers admitted he sees the Cubs as the lead horse in this race.
- San Diego has a strong need for an outfielder or two, especially now that Milton Bradley went to the Rangers for an extra million bucks. There was some sentiment from Bradley that the Padres were glad they were outbid, maybe even planned it that way. It would seem more clever if they’d offered Bradley arbitration, though.
- Mike Cameron, Geoff Jenkins, and Jason Bay remain on Towers’ radar as alternatives to Fukudome. Krasovic recently suggested the Reds could jump in on Cameron if they trade Josh Hamilton.
Bedard Not On Cubs’ Radar
We thought we had 12 teams in on Erik Bedard when the Red Sox were connected to him today.
However, Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald says Bedard is not on the Cubs’ radar screen. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman had thrown them into the mix on Tuesday. So it looks like we’re down to 11 teams for Bedard.
Two years ago, the Cubs seemingly offered Mark Prior for Bedard and Miguel Tejada. My, how times have changed.