Players To Avoid Arbitration: Tuesday
Today is the deadline for players and teams to submit arbitration figures. The sides will then settle on a salary between the team's proposed number and the player's proposed number or go to an arbitration hearing. Arbitration eligible players are under team control, so the clubs don't risk losing them – it's a question of how much the players will earn.
Yesterday, 11 players avoided arbitration. We could see just as many agreements trickle in today and we'll keep you posted on them right here and with our Arb Tracker. The latest updates will be at the top of the post:
- The Angels have agreed to terms with Reggie Willits and Howie Kendrick, tweets Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times. Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register tweets that Kendrick will earn $3.3MM, Willits $775K (on Twitter).
- The Giants agreed to terms with Santiago Casilla on a one-year deal worth $1.3MM with incentives, according to ESPN Deportes' Enrique Rojas (on Twitter). The team also announced that they avoided arb with Jonathan Sanchez and Ramon Ramirez (on Twitter). Sanchez will earn $4.8MM with incentives tweets Hank Schulman of The San Francisco Chronicle while Ramirez will earn $1.65MM according to Janie McCauley of The Canadian Press.
- The Braves agreed to terms with Peter Moylan and Eric O'Flaherty, according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman (on Twitter). Moylan gets $2MM, O'Flaherty gets $895K according to Dave O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (on Twitter).
- The Mariners agreed to terms with Brandon League, David Aardsma and Jason Vargas, the team announced. Aardsma will earn $4.5MM with plenty of incentives, according to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times (plus Twitter link).
- The Rangers agreed to terms with C.J. Wilson and Nelson Cruz, according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan (Twitter links). Cruz gets $3.65MM, and Wilson gets $7.05MM with a chance to earn another $100K according to his agent Bob Garber, via email.
White Sox Claim Phil Humber
The White Sox announced that they claimed right-hander Philip Humber off of waivers from the A's (Twitter link). The A's claimed Humber from the Royals last month, only to designate him for assignment to create roster space for Guillermo Moscoso.
Humber posted a 4.15 ERA in 21 2/3 big league innings this year. As short as that stint was, it was the most the 28-year-old has ever pitched in the big leagues. The former first rounder was once considered a top prospect and the Mets sent him to Minnesota in the Johan Santana deal. In 664 1/3 minor league innings, he has a 4.48 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9.
Quick Hits: Votto, Garcia, Francis, Contracts
Some news items to take us into the weekend….
- John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer hears from some player agents that Joey Votto will submit an arbitration number between $8.5-$9.5MM, while the Reds' counter-offer will be around $7MM. Back in August, MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith suggested that Votto would ask for $7MM, but since then Votto has added a playoff appearance and the NL MVP Award to his resume. Of course, arbitration talk could be moot if Votto and the Reds agree to an extension.
- The White Sox don't have room in the rotation to bring back Freddy Garcia, says MLB.com's Scott Merkin as part of a reader mailbag.
- The Royals' agreement with Jeff Francis is "the best deal of the winter in free agency," according to Dave Cameron of Fangraphs.
- ESPN's Jayson Stark examines at the high number of expensive and/or long-term contracts signed this winter.
- Lance Berkman talks to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about his offseason training regiment and how much pressure he's putting on himself to perform for the Cardinals. "If I have a repeat of last year I'm probably out of the game," Berkman says.
- The top ten most favorable trades in Reds history are counted down by the Cincinnati Enquirer's Nick Hurm. Recent deals for Brandon Phillips and Bronson Arroyo are included, but it's hard to top the Cincinnati/Houston trade that installed Joe Morgan into the Big Red Machine.
White Sox Agree To Sign Will Ohman
The White Sox and Will Ohman have agreed to a two-year contract, the team announced. The deal is worth $4MM total, reports SI.com's Jon Heyman (Twitter links). Ohman is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
The 33-year-old Ohman spent most of the 2010 season with Baltimore before being traded to the Marlins. The lefty reliever held same-side batters to a .229/.323/.313 last year, but .208/.298/.348 over his entire career. He's strictly a lefty specialist, because righties have tagged him for a .264/.360/.400 batting line in his career. Ohman has a 4.09 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in a big league career that began back in 2000.
Ohman, who earned $1.35MM in 2010, joins Pedro Feliciano, Randy Choate, Scott Downs, and Hisanori Takahashi as lefty relievers who received multiyear deals this offseason. Chicago has already added Jesse Crain to their bullpen this offseason, and the addition of Ohman gives Ozzie Guillen a lefty for the middle innings. Matt Thornton will of course handle late game situations.
We heard that the ChiSox were favored to sign him on Friday, after we learned that three AL teams were the finalists for his services.
White Sox Sign Kinney, Lindsay
The White Sox have signed Josh Kinney and Shane Lindsay to minor league deals, according to Doug Padilla of ESPNChicago.com. Both are expected to receive non-roster invitations to Spring Training.
Kinney will be 32 on Opening Day and has seen Major League time with the Cardinals over parts of three seasons, most recently in 2009. He owns a career 4.56 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 7.2 K/9, and 3.8 BB/9 over 47 2/3 innings. His minor league numbers are more impressive: a 2.78 ERA over 514 1/3 innings with a strong 8.6 K/9. His 2010 was particularly impressive, as he posted a 1.80 ERA and 0.93 WHIP through 60 innings of work, striking out 7.6 per nine along the way.
Lindsay, 25, has never reached the Majors, likely due to his big-time control issues (career 6.6 BB/9). The Australia native makes up for that to some extent with his career 12.4 K/9. Lindsay began 2010 with the Rockies but was claimed off waivers by the Yankees and then the Indians early in the season. He struggled to the tune of a 5.80 ERA last year, but Baseball America has praised his mid-90s fastball and knuckle curve. He'll turn 26 in a couple of weeks, so he still has time to put it together.
Quick Hits: Darvish, Balfour, Torre, Sale
Links for Sunday….
- Yu Darvish officially renewed his contract with the Nippon Ham Fighters this week, as NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman writes. Darvish, who may play in MLB in 2012, will earn the equivalent of about $6MM this season in Japan.
- One AL scout tells Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe that Grant Balfour remains unsigned in part due to a dip in velocity over the last year, but adds: "He’s developed good command of his secondary pitches. He can pitch in the AL East, he’s a competitor, and if you use him as a complementary piece, he’s worth pursuing for your bullpen." I looked at some possible fits for Balfour last weekend.
- We heard yesterday that Joe Torre was talking to Bud Selig about potentially becoming MLB's next executive vice president of operations. However, Ken Davidoff of Newsday doesn't expect Torre to take such a position, and says "other people in the loop" don't either.
- Jim Margalus of South Side Sox examines how Chris Sale's role with the White Sox will be affected by Will Ohman's arrival.
Danks, Quentin Declined Extensions Last Winter
John Danks and Carlos Quentin both turned down four-year contract offers from the White Sox last offseason, reports Doug Padilla of ESPNChicago.com. Both players were entering their first arbitration year and rather than take the long-term contracts, each agreed to a one-year pact (Danks for $3.45MM, Quentin for $3.2MM).
As it turned out, Danks and Quentin illustrated both sides of what can happen when a young player takes a risk and passes up a long-term guarantee. Danks turned down a four-year, $15MM offer, and thus essentially made a $11.55MM bet on himself heading into the 2010 season. The risk paid off — after a strong performance (3.72 ERA, 2.31 K/BB ratio, 213 IP), Danks has put himself in line for a much larger contract. We heard in November that the Sox were again looking to extend Danks, and such an extension will pay the southpaw a lot more than $11.55MM over the next three seasons.
For Quentin, however, 2010 was a struggle. We don't know how much his four-year offer was worth, and it's possible he was justified in rejecting it if Chicago made a lowball offer to try and capitalize on Quentin's down numbers in 2009. Still, Quentin's .821 OPS last season was far removed from his MVP-caliber season in 2008, he struggled badly in the field and his name has come up in trade rumors since the summer.
"The White Sox still don’t seem convinced that Quentin can stay injury- or stress-free over a full season," Padilla writes. He wonders if the Sox might again try to make a long-term offer to Quentin (at an even lower price) to keep him under control if he breaks out for another big season that would drive up his arbitration price next winter and his eventual free agent price after the 2012 season.
White Sox Favored To Sign Will Ohman, Are “Close”
The White Sox are the favorites to sign left-hander Will Ohman, tweets Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. Ohman hasn't yet made a decision, but is "close." Ohman had drawn some interest from the Orioles (among other clubs) this winter, but Connolly reports that the O's are not one of the three AL finalists for Ohman's services.
White Sox Not Likely To Pursue Rafael Soriano
The White Sox aren't likely to sign Rafael Soriano unless his price drops "way, way down," according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter). The White Sox were reportedly eyeing the reliever early in the month, but like other teams, they moved on.
Soriano, the top reliever and arguably the top free agent on the open market, will cost more than money. Since the Type A free agent turned down the Rays' offer of arbitration, the team that signs Soriano will lose a top pick.
That possibility scared the Yankees away, even though Soriano would have considered a setup role behind Mariano Rivera. The AL Champion Rangers signed Adrian Beltre, but they are not pursuing Soriano, another Scott Boras client. The Cardinals don't appear to have much interest in the closer either.
As MLBTR's Mark Polishuk explains, the Angels are a possibility for Soriano. In a separate piece, Morosi argues that finding a substantial contract for the right-hander could be Boras' biggest coup of the 2010-11 offseason.
White Sox Eyeing Soriano, Done Spending?
While "there seems to be interest" in bringing Rafael Soriano to Chicago, the White Sox may not have enough cash left to seriously pursue the right-hander, reports SI.com's Jon Heyman (via Twitter).
The White Sox have made well over $100MM in contract commitments so far this offseason, re-signing Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski, as well as bringing in Adam Dunn and Jesse Crain. As a result, they have "little if any" spending money at the moment, according to Heyman.
Soriano appears poised to land a multiyear deal that exceeds, if not Mariano Rivera's $30MM agreement with the Yankees, at least Joaquin Benoit's $16.5MM pact with the Tigers. As Heyman points out (on Twitter), signing Soriano would be a great way for Chicago to replace the non-tendered Bobby Jenks, but the Sox will have to find some money before they can be considered a legit suitor for the market's top closer.
MLBTR's Dan Mennella examined Soriano's market on Thursday, while earlier in December, we asked MLBTR's readers where you thought Soriano would sign. Nearly 13% of over 13,000 respondents picked the White Sox.