Stark On Mauer, Indians, Myers
The latest from ESPN's Jayson Stark…
- Stark tackles the topic of whether Joe Mauer can and should pursue his goal of staying at catcher for the life of his eight-year contract. Manager Ron Gardenhire was realistic about it, admitting that a position change is worth thinking about if Mauer continues to have leg and knee issues.
- Indians GM Chris Antonetti explained that if the team remains a contender at the trade deadline, "we'll be looking to acquire guys," rather than trade players like Grady Sizemore.
- Rooting for the Yankees to acquire Brett Myers this summer? One NL scout told Stark, "If he's in the AL East, he's a fifth starter." For more on the Astros' trade chips, check out my post from this morning.
Blue Jays Acquire Yohan Pino
The Blue Jays acquired righty Yohan Pino from the Indians for cash considerations, according to the Tribe's Twitter page.
Pino, 27, posted a 5.75 ERA, 7.0 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, and 1.5 HR/9 in 26 Triple-A starts last year, but was working out of the bullpen in Double-A this year. He'd joined the organization in August of '09 as the player to be named later in the Carl Pavano deal with the Twins. Pino last cracked a Baseball America handbook four years ago, when his command was said to rank among the best in the Twins' organization.
2012 Contract Issues: Cleveland Indians
The Indians are next in our 2012 Contract Issues series.
Eligible For Free Agency (4)
- The signings of free agents Austin Kearns, Orlando Cabrera, Chad Durbin, Adam Everett to one-year deals pretty much represent Chris Antonetti's first offseason as GM. It's too early to say whether these veterans will have trade value or be worthy of re-signing or an arbitration offer. One thing we can say is that the 2012 Indians aren't faced with any major losses.
Contract Options (2)
- Grady Sizemore: $9MM club option with a $500K buyout. Sizemore's option, devised over five years ago, makes him most valuable to the Indians. He gets a $500K assignment bonus if traded, plus it appears that his 2012 salary might increase to $9.9MM. More importantly, the club option changes to a player one if he's dealt, so a team can't acquire Sizemore with his 2012 season in mind. Yesterday was a promising season debut for Sizemore, and if he has a vintage year and the team stays in contention he could remain with the Tribe for 2012.
- Fausto Carmona: $7MM club option, arbitration eligible if declined. Though it's technically possible, I can't see the Indians declining the option and tendering Carmona a contract, since he'd make more than $7MM that way. If he provides 200 credible innings again this will be an easy decision to pick up, and the team also has options for '13 and '14.
Arbitration Eligible (10)
- First time: Justin Masterson, Travis Buck, Jack Hannahan, Tony Sipp, Justin Germano
- Second time: Shin-Soo Choo, Chris Perez, Asdrubal Cabrera, Joe Smith
- Third time: Rafael Perez
A few players here will fall short of the necessary service time. Sipp projects to be eight days short of the projected Super Two cutoff, but you never know. Masterson, Choo, Perez, and Cabrera are the big ones here, as they'll all be much more expensive next year.
2012 Payroll Obligation
The Indians have a payroll obligation of $13MM for 2012, according to Cot's, with Travis Hafner accounting for all of it. Under a scenario where the Indians aren't selling off pieces in July and both players are reasonably effective, we can add another $16MM for Sizemore and Carmona. I'll estimate another $20MM for the aforementioned four big arbitration eligible names, putting the team at $49MM. That's the exact number Cot's has for the 2011 payroll, but of course there are additional arbitration eligible players, and even those making the league minimum account for millions in total. Though their season is not even 10% done, it'd be exciting to see the Indians contend all year and then make an offseason push for a few significant veteran reinforcements.
Quick Hits: Gonzalez, Padres, Rays, Mariners
Links for Sunday, as Grady Sizemore homers versus the Orioles in his return to the Indians' lineup….
- Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports explains why Adrian Gonzalez's contract extension makes sense for the Red Sox.
- Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker takes a look back at his favorite offseason trades.
- The Padres have hired former Major League outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds as a professional scout, writes MLB.com's Corey Brock. Hammonds was the #4 overall pick in the 1992 draft by the Orioles and represented the Rockies in the 2000 All-Star Game in his best season.
- The Rays may add a bat to replace Manny Ramirez, but it likely won't happen anytime soon, reports Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. Not only will the trade market develop as the season progresses, but the Rays should also have a better idea in a couple months whether they'll be buyers or sellers.
- The Brewers have signed Luis Figueroa to a minor league deal, tweets SI.com's Jon Heyman. The infielder has only seen 16 big league plate appearances, most recently in 2007, but hit .319/.354/.429 in nearly 500 Triple-A PAs last season.
- ESPN.com's Buster Olney (Insider link) wonders if Jack Zduriencik and Felix Hernandez will be a part of the Mariners' next winning team.
- Adrian Gonzalez's extension with the Red Sox is another example of baseball's stars gravitating to a handful of high-payroll teams, writes Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
- Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer fields questions about Sizemore, Nick Johnson, and potential contract extensions in an Indians mailbag.
- The Rangers' rotation is holding its own without Cliff Lee so far, says Tyler Kepner of the New York Times.
Quick Hits: Mariners, Indians, Orioles
Links on a rainy Saturday afternoon in New York..
- Buster Olney of ESPN (via Twitter) believes that Jack Zduriencik's challenge with the Mariners is a lot like Neal Huntington's when he took over with the Pirates. Both GMs, he says, had to work from almost nothing in the farm system.
- The Indians will have to make a move to create a roster spot for the returning Grady Sizemore, writes Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer. The Tribe could theoretically shed spare outfielders Austin Kearns or Shelley Duncan but will most likely demote Travis Buck as he has an option remaining.
- Steve Melewski of MASNSports writes that Orioles newcomers Vlad Guerrero and Derrek Lee usually get off to solid starts. Early on in 2011, both veterans have struggled at the plate.
Quick Hits: Guillen, Royals, Harden, Tribe
The Nationals have announced the passing of shortstop prospect Yewri Guillen due to bacterial meningitis. Guillen, 18, was signed by Washington in February and was playing at the club's Dominican Republic academy. He was honored with a moment of silence before tonight's Brewers/Nationals game. MLBTR sends our condolences to Guillen's friends and family.
Some news from around the majors…
- Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star discussed potential call-ups and other roster moves for the Royals in a chat with fans this afternoon.
- Rich Harden has suffered an injury to his teres major muscle that will likely elongate his stay on the disabled list, reports MLB.com's Eric Gilmore. Harden, who signed a one-year, $1.5MM deal with the Athletics in December, has been on the DL with an injury to his throwing shoulder.
- Are the surprising Indians for real? Probably not, says Fangraphs' Steve Slowinski, but the Tribe has so many young players on the roster that it's hard to calculate if these players will drastically fall off or if some are just developing. Slowinski also notes that Cleveland is winning despite slow starts from expected stars like Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana.
- The White Sox closer will be "whoever is there in the ninth inning," Ozzie Guillen tells Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune. We didn't get a chance to see a save situation tonight as Chicago lost to the Angels, but keep following @CloserNews (MLBTR's sister Twitter feed) for the latest on who will be finishing games for the Pale Hose.
Quick Hits: Votto, Davis, Matsuzaka, Indians
Links for Tuesday, as the Rangers announce that Josh Hamilton will miss six to eight weeks with a non-displaced fracture of his right shoulder…
- The other MVP from last year, Joey Votto, continues to adjust and improve his game, as Dave Cameron points out at FanGraphs. Votto appears to be chasing fewer pitches outside of the strike zone.
- Trackman, a Danish technology company, is using 3D Doppler radar ball flight measurement to scout pitchers and pitches with hard data, as Tom Verducci reports at SI.com.
- Doug Davis can opt out of his minor league deal with the Cubs on May 30th, according to Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (on Twitter).
- The Red Sox are, of course, unlikely to trade Daisuke Matsuzaka, despite his awful start yesterday. However, they are considering skipping his next start, according to the Boston Herald.
- Yahoo's Tim Brown examines the Indians' hot start and says it provides us with the "opportunity to discover what is right in an organization that has been forced into hard decisions" since they took a 3-1 lead over the Red Sox in the 2007 ALCS.
Quick Hits: Buchholz, Ishikawa, Tabata, Rivera
Rounding up Sunday's links, as Andre Ethier celebrates his 29th birthday….
- Jon Lester told WEEI.com's Rob Bradford that he didn't talk to Clay Buchholz about the pros and cons of signing a long-term extension before the right-hander inked a four-year pact today.
- Travis Ishikawa admitted he hoped another team would claim him when he was placed on waivers earlier this season, according to MLB.com's Chris Haft. However, now he says he's glad he's still with the Giants organization and is excited to stay on the West Coast, playing for Triple-A Fresno.
- Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks back at the trade that sent Xavier Nady to the Yankees. Kovacevic argues that even if three of the four players the Pirates received for Nady don't work out, Jose Tabata alone makes it a steal for Pittsburgh.
- Juan Rivera isn't off to a good start with his new team, as Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun writes. The Blue Jays are reportedly interested in trading Rivera, but his performance so far likely isn't helping draw any interest.
- The Indians will have some roster shuffling to do when injured players return, writes Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who also addresses trade possibilites in a Tribe mailbag.
- Nationals infielder Alex Cora should make a good manager someday, says MLB.com's Marty Noble.
Minor League Transactions
There was a slew of minor league transactions from March 30 to April 5, and Matt Eddy of Baseball America has written them up and included info on some noteworthy names. Here's more on those …
- The Cubs released righty Chris Huseby, an 11th-round draft pick in 2006 who signed for a hefty $1.3MM. Huseby wasn't panning out as a pitcher and saw action in the outfield in recent seasons.
- The Indians released third baseman Matt Cusick, one of the two players they received from the Yankees in last season's swap for Kerry Wood. The other player – Andrew Shive – had been previously released.
- The Rockies released reliever Craig Baker, who led the Minors in saves in 2009 with 33. A fourth-round pick 2006, Baker's 2010 was derailed by the injuries that haunted him earlier in his career.
- The Astros released reliever Bubbie Buzachero, who is among the active career leaders in minor league saves.
- The Royals released speedy outfielder Hilton Richardson, a seventh-round pick in 2007 who has 77 steals in the minors in 100 attempts. The Braves then signed Richardson.
- The Dodgers released lefty reliever James Adkins, a sandwich-round pick in 2007 out of Tennessee. The southpaw is the Volunteers' career leader in strikeouts but has struggled with control and against righties in the minors.
- The Brewers released hard-throwing lefty Evan Frederickson, the 35th overall pick in 2008. Frederickson has been excessively wild in his minors career, never walking fewer than 7.6 batters per nine, according to Eddy.
- Twins righty Chris Province, acquired from the Red Sox in the Boof Bonser trade in 2009, voluntarily retired. Province surrendered a lot of hits in 2010, but seeing as he posted solid groundball rates for two poor teams, Eddy wonders whether he might have fared better with a better defense behind him.
- The Padres released catcher Mitch Canham, the 57th overall pick in 2007. The Friars hoped Canham would develop into an offense-first backstop, but he was abused by basestealers, and his production with the bat didn't hold up at other positions.
- The Giants released righty Craig Whitaker, a supplemental-round pick in 2003. Whitaker, as Eddy notes, is something of a rarity as an unsuccessful power arm drafted by San Francisco. Outfielder Ben Copeland, the Giants' first pick (fourth round) in 2005, was also released.
- The Rangers released righty Danny Gutierrez, formerly one of their top-10 prospects. Gutierrez had been acquired from the Royals, but his stuff has diminished and was suspended 50 games for amphetamines prior to the 2010 season.
- The Blue Jays released speedy outfielder Eric Eiland, a second-round pick in 2007. Eiland has been an efficient basestealer but has struggled overall offensively.
The Brandon Phillips Trade Five Years Later
Today, Brandon Phillips may be the Reds’ most recognizable player. Five years ago? He was anything but. When then-GM Wayne Krivsky acquired Phillips from the Indians on this date in 2006, he was a 24-year-old unknown who had yet to convert his intriguing potential into Major League production.
He’d had his chances. In a season’s worth of plate appearances over the the course of four years in Cleveland, Phillips had just a .556 OPS. The minor league numbers which had once helped solidify his place among the game’s best prospects had fallen off; in his third season at Triple-A, Phillips’ average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage all dropped.
But Krivsky decided to give Phillips a chance and the Indians, unable to find room on their roster for the out-of-options infielder, had had enough. Three and a half seasons after acquiring him in the Bartolo Colon trade, then-GM Mark Shapiro sent Phillips to Ohio’s other team for a player to be named later.
The Indians ultimately acquired reliever Jeff Stevens in the deal and would eventually send the right-hander to the Cubs in a trade for Mark DeRosa. The Indians later acquired current closer Chris Perez in exchange for DeRosa, so, in a roundabout way, they have something to show for Phillips.
It doesn’t compare to what the Reds got. In the five seasons since the trade, Phillips has hit .275/.326/.447, averaging 21 homers, 24 steals and 151 games per season, enough for 16.8 wins above replacement (42nd among MLB position players for that period). He has won two Gold Gloves (deservingly, according to UZR) and has a 30-30 season and two other 20-20 seasons to his name.
Phillips, the longest-tenured position player on the Reds, outlasted Krivsky, who was fired in 2008. But the former GM deserves recognition for a deal that helped the Reds return to the top of the NL Central standings.
Photo courtesy Icon SMI.