Kosuke Fukudome Rumors
Kosuke Fukudome is expected to make an official announcement soon on whether he will come to the Major Leagues for the 2008 season. Per Fukudome’s agent, it’s highly unlikely he stays in Japan. He wants only a three-year contract, no more. So who’s after him?
- Cubs: They’re still after him, and Lou Piniella doesn’t see why the failure to sign his acquaintance Kaz Matsui would have any bearing on it. The Cubs have a vacancy in right field plus perhaps a need to spell Felix Pie in center. They also could use a nice dose of OBP. Fukudome is a perfect fit.
- White Sox: The Sox have openings in left and center and a strong need for OBP. Aaron Rowand and Torii Hunter are out of the picture, leaving Fukudome as a prime target. It’s been said that the Cubs are prepared for a crosstown bidding war.
- Padres: The Friars have already contacted Fukudome’s agent. Kevin Towers has publicly expressed his interest. Fukudome could play left or center for the Padres.
- Rangers: With a center field spot up for grabs, the Rangers have "serious interest."
- Giants: In late October, it was said that they were "seriously interested."
- Yankees, Red Sox: They’ve both scouted him, for what it’s worth. Little doubt he could play a better center field than Johnny Damon, but it’s hard to see where he could fit in with Boston since they’ve already got four starting outfielders.
- Mets: They have a right field vacancy, but I haven’t seen too many published reports indicating they’re after him (as of now, I can’t find any). Wouldn’t surprise me to see Omar jump in here though.
Did I miss anyone?
White Sox Looking At Fukudome, Bay
According to Ken Rosenthal, the White Sox have cooled on Aaron Rowand as they do not want to give him a five-year contract. Instead, they’ve set their sights on Kosuke Fukudome and Jason Bay.
This isn’t the first time they’ve been linked to Fukudome; Dan Graziano noted back in August that the Sox had scouted him. The White Sox could entertain using Fukudome in any of the three outfield positions. He could easily handle left field if Joe Crede is traded and Josh Fields plays third. He could probably get by in center. And he’s probably better than Jermaine Dye in right, so maybe it would be Dye switching to left.
New Pirates GM Neal Huntington perhaps hasn’t made an impression on the team’s fans yet. A Bay trade this winter will be big for him in terms of PR. It’d be a sell-low move, however. I do think the White Sox could throw something together to make it work.
Meanwhile Mark Gonzales says the Sox still like Coco Crisp as a center field possibility. The only problem is that Crisp could be headed to Minnesota in a Johan Santana deal. That will have to unfold before Crisp becomes available to other teams – unless the other team makes a ridiculous offer.
Odds and Ends: Livan, Bartlett, Willis, Webb
Random pieces of rumorage…
- The Mets have expressed interest in Livan Hernandez, though he appears to be their Plan C or D.
- Jim Bowden and the Nats will be active in the trade market, perhaps finally pulling the trigger on deals for Chad Cordero and/or Jon Rauch.
- The Rays and Twins have had discussions about shortstop Jason Bartlett. Would a 1 for 1 trade for Rocco Baldelli make sense? Buster Olney believes the Rays should consider trading for the Nats’ Cristian Guzman.
- Update on the Rockies’ reliever situation. They’re probably going to pass on Ron Mahay and Jeremy Affeldt, while they should hear Matt Herges‘ decision today. Ron Villone is also in their sights.
- The D’Backs will no longer look at annual payroll. Instead, they have a three-year budget to spend. This may allow for a higher payroll in 2008 than 2009. Jack Magruder guesses the number is around $230-240MM for 2008-10.
- Speaking of Arizona, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic believes some kind of Carlos Gonzalez for Dontrelle Willis swap could make sense. Another D’Back note – they offered an extension to Brandon Webb for 2011-13, but he turned down their offer.
- The Scott Linebrink signing is done, and he gets some kind of no-trade protection.
Cards Considering Jack Wilson, Izturis, Tejada
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss has an excellent update on the Cardinals’ pursuit of a new starting shortstop.
- Sounds like the end of the David Eckstein Era in St. Louis – Strauss says it’s a widespread belief that Eckstein will not be offered arbitration and probably will not stay around.
- While the Cards are drawn to Miguel Tejada, a deal seems highly unlikely. John Mozeliak wants to move quickly to fill the shortstop position and the Orioles are taking their time with Tejada.
- Sounds like there’s a very good chance the Cards get Jack Wilson from the Bucs. They’re OK with paying all of the $13.75MM owed to him through 2009.
- If Wilson doesn’t work out, Cesar Izturis is the one free agent the Cardinals are considering. They could have some competition from the Rays.
- There isn’t much interest in acquiring Juan Uribe or going with internal option Brendan Ryan.
- A few speculative options not mentioned by Strauss: Cristian Guzman, Alexei Ramirez, Jason Bartlett, Adam Everett, Joaquin Arias, Clint Barmes, and Russ Adams.
Crisp Rather Than Rowand For White Sox?
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times says Aaron Rowand has already priced himself out of the White Sox’s range. Apparently the Sox talked to Rowand before they made an offer to Torii Hunter, and found the number of years Rowand requested to be out of the question. Randy Miller said back in mid-October that Rowand was looking for a six-year, $84MM deal. Cowley sees the Rangers and Dodgers as the main suitors for Rowand.
Cowley believes the White Sox, meanwhile, will move on to Coco Crisp. They’ve long had interest in him. I’m not sure how the White Sox and Red Sox would match up though. The Red Sox are asking for quite a bit for Crisp – three prospects. The Rangers balked upon hearing this.
Cowley also suggests that Kenny Williams could attempt to acquire Willy Taveras. This seems more speculation than anything, based on Williams’ pursuit of him a year ago. Trading him would seem to create a hole for the Rockies, and they have no need for Joe Crede.
Heyman’s Latest: Piazza, Matthews, Milledge
SI.com’s Jon Heyman checks in with a new Daily Scoop column full of rumors.
- A lot of the standard trade talk we’ve seen regarding Miguel Cabrera, Johan Santana, Miguel Tejada, and Dan Haren. All these guys require two good young players or more in a trade.
- Mike Piazza is considering DHing in Japan if he doesn’t find anything he likes in the U.S.
- Heyman talked to an AL exec who speculated that the Angels may try to unload Gary Matthews Jr. GMJ makes $9MM in ’08, $10MM in ’09, $11MM in ’10, and $12MM in ’11. He currently has a full no-trade clause.
- Juan Uribe and Vicente Padilla are two salary-dump types whose names have surfaced in recent trade talks (unrelated to each other). Padilla is owed $24.75MM over the next two seasons.
- Heyman believes the Mets are very willing to trade Lastings Milledge and have discussed him often.
- We knew the Mets had discussed Ramon Hernandez and Gerald Laird. Heyman adds the Nats’ Brian Schneider to the mix. He makes $4.9MM in ’08 and another $4.9MM in ’09.
Odds and Ends: Santana, Hunter
Let’s kick off the morning with some odds and ends, absent any earth-shattering rumors. I’ll keep adding to this post.
- Awesome inside look at the Torii Hunter deal via Bob Nightengale. Hunter’s first choice outside of Minnesota was the Cardinals, but they weren’t interested.
- Hunter – not overpaid? So says J.C. Bradbury.
- Still some confusion about Johan Santana‘s no-trade clause. Buster Olney says it’s full and doesn’t indicate that the rights change on any certain date. Matthew Cerrone says it’s a full NTC only until Opening Day ’08, when it switches to 12 teams. Those are not mutually exclusive comments, so I guess we’ll see.
- Phil Rogers doesn’t think the Cubs will re-sign Kerry Wood. He also sees the Giants in the lead for Miguel Cabrera now.
- My coworker Jonathan makes a good point – thought the Sox wouldn’t give four-year deals to pitchers? They made a huge fuss over Mark Buehrle. Suddenly Scott Linebrink is worthy of breaking the rule again? Some are skeptical.
- Bobby Kielty typically smacks around left-handed pitching (Brian Fuentes for example). He’ll hook on as some team’s fourth outfielder as a free agent. He’d like to return to Boston, but that would require a Coco Crisp trade. Rob Bradford names the Twins, Braves, Rangers, and White Sox as possibilities otherwise.
Torii Hunter – Additional Thoughts
Random thoughts in the aftermath of the Torii Hunter shocker…
- We can’t really say whether the Hunter signing was about money or winning, because a winning team made an offer far beyond any other club. It is inconclusive.
- U.S.S. Mariner notes that Hunter received the same contract Ichiro did, but he’s not the same caliber of player.
- David Pinto sees a very old Angels outfield in the future.
- The Rangers were at five years, $75MM with a club option for 2013. Both Texas and the White Sox may now turn their attention to Aaron Rowand. Suddenly his perception that he’s a $14MM player seems more realistic.
- The Twins must be pleasantly surprised – they get the Angels’ 27th overall pick next June. All the other teams thought to be in the mix for Hunter had their first round picks protected. The loss of the pick just accentuates how much the Halos overpaid here.
White Sox Sign Scott Linebrink
First reported by Bruce Levine of ESPN Sports Radio 1000 out of Chicago – the White Sox have signed free agent Scott Linebrink to a four-year, $19MM contract. The Brewers have to be a bit disappointed, as Chicago’s 8th overall pick in next June’s draft is protected. Instead they’ll get a second round pick from the Sox as compensation for the Type A reliever.
Four years is a long time to lock in the 31 year-old Linebrink. He’s never pitched in the American League, and you have to think he’ll struggle. This seems like a poor signing to me.
Odds and Ends: Fukudome, Eckstein, Lowell
Ah yes, the odds and ends post, where I cobble together the day’s random links.
- The Rangers have mild interest Scott Podsednik. Pods had two separate stints in the Rangers organization but never reached the bigs with them.
- The Big Lead has an interesting interview with Yahoo baseball guy Jeff Passan, wherein a run-in with Jose Lima is recounted. Passan also takes on Fire Joe Morgan a bit.
- Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog is hearing that Kosuke Fukudome is looking for three years and $30MM. Sounds fair.
- The Angels are considering signing David Eckstein and/or Darin Erstad, for some reason.
- Bob Dutton reports that the Royals can be patient with their offer to Torii Hunter, while the White Sox want a quick resolution. Bonus: a rather large, but not too pixellated picture of Hunter at the Dutton link. Hunter, by the way, could save $750K per year if he signs with the Rangers because Texas has no state income tax. Hunter is also considering the Las Vegas 51s for that same reason, I heard.
- Per Buster Olney, the Dodgers put in a three-year offer to Mike Lowell. He takes this as a sign they weren’t serious, but Ned Colletti has shown a tendency to offer fewer years and more per year. He did this with Rafael Furcal and Jason Schmidt. So maybe the Dodgers put out a 3/45 offer or something.
- The Phils picked up oft-injured outfielder Chris Snelling from the Rays for cash. He’s yet to accumulate 100 big league at-bats in a season, but maybe that’ll change in 2008.
- Ed Wade + relievers = trouble. Doug Brocail is on the radar.
- McCovey Chronicles lists some realistic position player targets for the Giants, including Jeff Clement, Andy Marte, and Adam Lind.