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Stark On Shields, Stanton, Masterson, Fowler

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Jayson Stark leads his latest column for ESPN with a discussion of the ten managers currently in the last year of their contracts, noting that teams these days are more willing to allow skippers' contracts to expire.  Also from Stark's column:

  • One American League executive would rather give a $100MM contract to James Shields than Zack Greinke, because Greinke sometimes "seems a little disinterested" while Shields is regarded as more of a competitor.  Shields is on track for free agency after the 2014 season, assuming the Royals exercise a club option for about $13.5MM after this season.
  • An NL exec wouldn't give up Travis D'Arnaud or Zack Wheeler for Giancarlo Stanton. 
  • A Justin Masterson–Dexter Fowler trade between the Indians and Rockies "was talked about extensively early in the offseason," according to Stark.  Masterson is under the Indians' control through 2014, while the Rockies control Fowler through 2015.
  • In regard to shortstop Jean Segura, Brewers GM Doug Melvin commented, "I see people talk about the [Jurickson] Profars and even the Dee Gordons. But they never talk about him. He's an exciting player."  Melvin acquired Segura, John Hellweg, and Ariel Pena from the Angels for Greinke last summer.

Quick Hits: Rangers, Halladay, Outman

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If you've not yet seen Jean Segura's baserunning misadventures yesterday, do yourself a favor and check out the video and story from MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. As McCalvy and others have noted, Segura's strange travels on the basepaths are reminiscent of a 1911 steal of first by one of baseball's great characters, Germany Schaefer of the Senators. Schaefer was only able to make such a unique play for the hapless Senators that year because they acquired him from the Tigers in 1909. The aging Schaefer was largely a role player in D.C., putting up 5.9 WAR (per Baseball-Reference) over 1909-14, though he did post 3.1 WAR in the season of his famous antic. The man he was traded for, Jim Delahanty, was not only outstanding in the Tigers' 1909 World Series loss, but posted 8 WAR over 1909-12.

  • Echoing what we heard yesterday regarding the Rangers' replacement options for the injured Matt Harrison, Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas.com writes that the Rangers have few, if any, external targets worth pursuing. Durrett says the team lacked depth at the start of the year with Martin Perez and Colby Lewis out, leaving the team without attractive internal options to fill in for Harrison. But the market is not promising either. While Bud Norris and Lucas Harrell of the Astros are presumably available, Houston will surely look for a big return at this stage, especially in a deal with a team with which they share a home state and division.
  • Roy Halladay of the Phillies had a strong start last night against the Cardinals, holding their big bats to just two hits over seven innings and logging six strikeouts. Halladay, who currently sits at tenth in MLBTR's 2014 Free Agent Power Rankings, has followed his disastrous first two starts with two solid outings. The once (and future?) ace could shoot back up the rankings if he can maintain his current momentum.
  • It is worth looking back at the details of the soon-to-be 36-year-old Halladay's contract. The deal includes a $20MM option for 2014 which vests if Halladay meets all the following conditions: 225 innings pitched in 2013; 415 innings pitched in 2012-13; Halladay does not end 2013 on the DL. As ESPN's Jayson Stark reported back when Halladay was acquired by the Phillies, the deal does not include any club or player options. Halladay threw just 156 1/3 innings last year and has tossed 22 1/3 to date in 2013, meaning he would need to log another 236 1/3 innings this year. That seems exceedingly unlikely, albeit not outside the realm of possibility: Halladay accumulated 266 innings as a 26-year-old in 2003, his only full-season pace that would make the innings figure achievable. Even Doc's 2010 season, the most recent year in which he led baseball in innings pitched — Halladay posted a career second-best tally of 250 2/3 — would have left him short. Accordingly, unless Halladay turns back into the workhorse he was at his absolute career peak, he is destined to become a free agent.
  • The Rockies, who stand in first place in the NL West, have called up reliever Josh Outman from Triple-A, reports Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. The club optioned Chris Volstad in a corresponding move. Outman came to Colorado last year, along with Guillermo Moscoso, in the deal that sent Seth Smith to Oakland. The Rockies waived Moscoso last November after he threw 50 innings of 6.12 ERA ball in 2012. Outman was even worse, posting a 8.19 ERA over 40 2/3 innings for the Rockies last season. The 28-year-old has been excellent thus far in Triple-A, however, and the club will hope that he can even out the results of the trade. Smith was a useful contributor for Oakland's division-winning run last season, putting up a .240/.333/.420 line in 441 plate appearances. He has been that much better so far in 2013, slashing .405/.479/.619 in his 48 plate appearances.

West Notes: Helton, Borbon, De La Rosa

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Todd Helton says he won't play for anyone but the Rockies, reports MLB.com's Barry M. Bloom. It sounds like Helton is considering retirement: "I have other interests in my life besides baseball, even though I enjoy everything about it," he says. "… I do have other things in my life — kids, family — and a lot of things that the game has given me the chance to enjoy." Helton is in his 17th season playing for only the Rockies, and Bloom points out that Helton holds records in homers, doubles, hits, RBIs and runs scored for the young franchise. He is set to become a free agent after the season. Here are more notes from the two West divisions.

  • The Rangers are "growing confident" that they'll be able to trade outfielder Julio Borbon, MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan reports. The Rangers designated Borbon for assignment on Tuesday. Sullivan says that the Rangers aren't expecting much in return, which makes sense — Borbon is 27 and has yet to establish himself in the majors. Texas might receive a reliever in return for Borbon, Sullivan suggests.
  • For reliever Dane De La Rosa, pitching for the Angels is "a bit of a childhood dream," writes MLB.com's William Boor. De La Rosa grew up in Southern California, but spent the last three years with the Rays organization, mostly pitching thousands of miles to the east in Triple-A Durham and Double-A Montgomery before making his big-league debut in 2011. The Rays traded De La Rosa to the Angels for Steve Geltz in late March. "It's just cool being able to play on the West Coast, actually showing my family and friends that I do play baseball," says De La Rosa. "I don't think they believed me for the past few years, just because I've been so far away. It's just nice to be around family and I've had a lot of friends come out."

NL West Links: Quentin, Weiss, Upton, Giants

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Everyone knows Jackie Robinson's story but few remember the name of John Wright, the second African-American player to sign with the Dodgers just weeks after Robinson signed his contract.  Baseball America's Ryan Whirty details the brief career of Wright, a right-hander who struggled in the minors in 1946 and was back pitching in the Negro Leagues by 1947.

Here's the latest from the NL West…

  • Major League Baseball has announced the suspensions of Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin for eight games and Dodgers utilityman Jerry Hairston for one game for their parts in Thursday's brawl between the two teams.  Both men are appealing their suspensions, so both could be able to play when the Padres and Dodgers begin a three-game series on Monday, though Yahoo's Jeff Passan (Twitter link) feels MLB and the MLBPA will arrange for Quentin to miss Monday's game.
  • Zack Greinke, meanwhile, will be out of action for around eight weeks following surgery to fix his broken collarbone.  MLBTR's Steve Adams looked at the implications of Greinke's injury earlier today.
  • Rockies owner Dick Monfort talks to Mark Kiszla over the Denver Post about manager Walt Weiss' unusual one-year contract with the club.  Monfort admits the short-term deal was an "oversight" since he values loyalty in employees and usually operates on handshake agreements, and also said that the Rockies management team hired Weiss without first establishing his salary.
  • Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall told Arizona Sports 620 Radio's Doug & Wolf that he felt the Justin Upton trade has worked out for both the D'Backs and Braves.  "I would agree that ‘would he have had the same success here that he's had [in Atlanta] to start off the season, maybe not' sometimes players need a change of scenery for it to happen," Hall said.  "I mean this was just two different teams that had two different needs and it worked out well for both, not to mention we still have four prospects that we're going to be dealing with in the next few years."
  • Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic doesn't agree with Hall's belief that Upton needed a fresh start.  "But even if [Upton] did need a new environment, what happened to the environment here? What does that say about the environment you’re creating if a 25-year-old with his kind of ability can’t succeed in it anymore?" Piecoro asks.
  • While breaking down Tim Lincecum's struggles, Grantland's Jonah Keri noted that the success of the Giants' starting rotation has obscured the team's lack of pitching depth.  The Giants may need to explore a trade for a new starter later this season if Lincecum can't turn things around.  I tabbed 2013 as a Make Or Break Season for Lincecum since he'll need to regain his old form in order to fetch a nice free agent contract this winter.
  • In other NL West news from earlier today, I compiled a set of Padres notes while Steve Adams reviewed the Giants' offseason moves.

Mariners Acquire Aaron Harang; Designate Loe

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The Mariners added rotation depth today, offically acquiring veteran Aaron Harang and cash from the Rockies for minor league reliever Steven Hensley.  The Mariners also announced they've designated Kameron Loe for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for Harang.

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The Rockies acquired Harang and $4.25MM from the Dodgers for catcher Ramon Hernandez last week, and then immediately designated Harang for assignment.  Harang earns $7MM this year and has a $2MM buyout after the season, and the Rockies will send money to the Mariners to cover most of that.  The Rockies will save more than $2MM with the series of trades, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.

Harang, 35 next month, posted a 3.61 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, 0.70 HR/9, and 38.6% groundball rate in 179 2/3 innings for the Dodgers last year.  His peripheral stats from 2012 suggest an ERA close to 5.00.  This isn't the Harang of his Reds glory days, when he pitched 230 innings a year with around four strikeouts for every walk.  Harang will likely replace Blake Beavan in Seattle's rotation.  Hensley, 26, posted a 6.27 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 4.8 BB/9, and 1.21 HR/9 in 37 1/3 Triple-A innings last year.

Loe, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mariners in February but allowed six home runs in 6 2/3 innings to start his season.

The Mariners and Rockies last matched up on a trade in December 2010, when Colorado acquired Jose Lopez for Chaz Roe.  More recently, a pitcher jumped from the Mariners to the Rockies when Jon Garland exercised his opt-out clause to leave the Mariners in March and signed with Colorado.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the trade was close.  Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mets Monitoring Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Gonzalez

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The Mets "retain an unfilled craving for a marquee outfielder," writes Andy Martino of the New York Daily News, and are monitoring superstars such as Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins and Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies.  One Mets person told Martino "there is heat there," in regard to the team having a preliminary discussion with the Marlins about Stanton.  Still, Martino is unsure whether GMs Sandy Alderson and Larry Beinfest have discussed the powerful right fielder.

To acquire four years of Stanton, the Mets would likely have to part with their two best prospects, pitcher Zack Wheeler and catcher Travis D'Arnaud.  An associate of Alderson's told Martino the GM "did not have any extra attachment to those players, simply because he traded for them."

According to Martino, the Mets debated using Wheeler to get Justin Upton or Wil Myers, during the Winter Meetings.  They also considered asking for the Dodgers' Andre Ethier in an R.A. Dickey deal, and this spring checked in on the Cubs' Alfonso Soriano.  So, it appears the Mets' long-term interest in improving the outfield runs the gamut, from the game's best young stars to overpaid veterans.  The Mets were willing to increase payroll to the $125MM range last winter for the right players, writes Martino.

Keep in mind that no deals are close, and the idea that Stanton or CarGo could become available this year is speculation.

Mariners Close To Acquiring Aaron Harang

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The Mariners are close to acquiring righty Aaron Harang from the Rockies, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  He says the teams are working through the final details, including approval from the commissioner's office, since the Rockies will be sending cash in the deal.  Rosenthal adds that the Rockies will receive a minor league right-handed reliever from the Mariners in the trade.    

The Rockies acquired Harang and $4.25MM from the Dodgers for catcher Ramon Hernandez last week, and then immediately designated Harang for assignment.  Harang earns $7MM this year and has a $2MM buyout after the season, and the Rockies will send money to the Mariners to cover some of that. The Rockies will have saved close to $2.5MM in the series of trades, tweets Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio, implying they're sending around $5MM to the Mariners in this trade.  That would leave Seattle paying about $4MM to Harang.

Harang, 35 next month, posted a 3.61 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, 0.70 HR/9, and 38.6% groundball rate in 179 2/3 innings for the Dodgers last year.  His peripheral stats from 2012 suggest an ERA close to 5.00.  This isn't the Harang of his Reds glory days, when he pitched 230 innings a year with around four strikeouts for every walk.  Harang will likely replace Blake Beavan in Seattle's rotation.

The Mariners and Rockies last matched up on a trade in December 2010, when Colorado acquired Jose Lopez for Chaz Roe.  More recently, a pitcher jumped from the Mariners to the Rockies when Jon Garland exercised his opt-out clause to leave the Mariners in March and signed with Colorado.

Originally published April 11th, 2013 at 12:38pm.

NL West Notes: Kershaw, Padres, Rockies

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Earlier today, Tim Dierkes took a look at the Rockies' offseason as one of the final entries in MLBTR's Offseason In Review series. Here's a look around the rest of the division…

Offseason In Review: Colorado Rockies

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The Rockies added a late-inning reliever and a pair of back of the rotation starters, electing to have a quiet offseason after hiring new manager Walt Weiss.

Major League Signings

  • Jeff Francis, SP: one year, $1.5MM.
  • Jon Garland, P: one year, $500K.
  • Jorge de la Rosa, SP: one year, $11MM. Player option exercised.
  • Total Spend: $13MM.

Notable Minor League Signings

Trades and Claims

Extensions

Notable Losses

Needs Addressed

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With a move back toward the more traditional five-man rotation, the Rockies certainly won't be giving 46% of their innings to the bullpen again in 2013.  Still, you can never have too many late-inning relievers, so the Rockies acquired Wilton Lopez from the Astros in what turned out to be the biggest move of their offseason.  The club acquired three years of Lopez's services, with Alex White the main piece going to Houston.  Certainly neither Rockies senior vice president of Major League operations Bill Geivett nor Astros GM Jeff Luhnow expected it at the time, but White will soon undergo Tommy John surgery.  The Phillies had nearly acquired Lopez (pictured) from the Astros in November, killing the deal after his physical, but the Rockies were more comfortable with his health.  The Rockies' bullpen seems in better shape this year, even with the losses of Reynolds and Roenicke.

The piggyback experiment aside, the Rockies simply had a terrible rotation in 2012.  Geivett addressed the rotation, in a sense, by re-signing Francis and adding Garland.  It's a low-risk, low-reward pair of signings, totaling just $2MM in guaranteed money.  Francis has become one of the game's softest tossers.  He led the team with just 113 innings last year, given their experiment.  An ERA around 5.00 seems like the best-case scenario for him.  The Rockies added another hittable hurler in Garland, who is bidding to make ten big league starts for the first time since 2010, due to shoulder injuries.  When they're right, these veterans can at least keep the ball on the ground, a Rockies mantra.

Geivett added additional depth on the cheap, picking up backup catcher Torrealba, reserve infielders Brignac and Wheeler, and starter-turned reliever Volstad.  The Torrealba signing allowed the Rockies to trade catcher Ramon Hernandez to the Dodgers, which nets the club about a million bucks plus whatever minor piece they can get for the already-designated Aaron Harang.

Perhaps Colorado's biggest move was not the Lopez trade but rather their managerial hire, Walt Weiss.  After Jim Tracy resigned, the team got in on the trend of hiring someone with no managerial experience.  Weiss, at least, should be on board should the front office decide to do something outside the box again.   

Questions Remaining

The Rockies' rotation consists of Jhoulys Chacin, Jorge de la Rosa, Juan Nicasio, Francis, and Garland.  Though the group is off to a nice start for the first four percent of the season, it's hard not to view them as a massive question mark.  Even if the Rockies didn't like the free agent prices, there were three front-rotation types traded this winter in R.A. Dickey, James Shields, and Josh Johnson, plus some mid-rotation arms.  The Rockies' rotation doesn't have much in the way of name value, but perhaps they can sneakily land in the middle of the NL pack, as FanGraphs' rotation rankings suggested last month.

The Rockies also have uncertainty in the infield, with Chris Nelson and Josh Rutledge taking on full-time roles and Todd Helton not a great bet to top 100 games.

Deals of Note

The Rockies did a pair of two-year extensions in the name of cost certainty, snagging arbitration years from Fowler and Chacin.  In the case of Chacin, I found it unnecessary.  Though he's the team's de facto ace, Chacin has shown a declining strikeout rate but a stable, high walk rate over his career.  He must continue to prevent hits to survive, a dicey proposition that did not hold up last year.  Why lock him in for $4.85MM in 2014?  The Rockies saved a little bit of money in the best case, but they've lost the ability to pay Chacin less if he has a lousy 2013.

Overview

The Rockies march to the beat of their own drum, and you have to respect that.  But even after a nice opening week, they look like a .500 club moving forward, and their quiet offseason is a factor there.  Still, with star power from Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki plus quality bats in Dexter Fowler, Michael Cuddyer, and Wilin Rosario, the Rockies can put some runs on the board if everyone stays healthy.  I'll enjoy watching to see if Walt Weiss' team can continue to defy expectations.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Red Sox, Twins, Astros Interested In Harang

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The Red Sox, Twins and Astros are all interested in trading for Aaron Harang, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports (on Twitter). The Rockies hold Harang's trade rights after recently acquiring him from the Dodgers for catcher Ramon Hernandez, although the Rockies designated Harang for assignment immediately after the deal.

Harang pitched 179 2/3 innings for the Dodgers in 2012, posting a 3.61 ERA, 6.6 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9. The Dodgers had an abundance of starting pitching and didn't have much use for him in 2013, and given his age (34) and declining peripherals (not to mention the fact that the Rockies have already designated him for assignment), it's unlikely even a team in need of pitching would be willing to give up much for him. The fact that the Dodgers are paying $4.25MM of the $7MM he's owed in 2013 (he also has a $2MM buyout and a mutual option for 2014) should make him a somewhat more attractive trade target, however.

The Red Sox could be looking for a replacement for John Lackey, who left his start Saturday with an injury. Alfredo Aceves currently appears likely to take Lackey's place. The Twins and Astros both have weak rotations and could use a veteran to eat innings, although Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN in Minneapolis wrote Saturday (on Twitter) that a Twins official said the team was not interested in Harang.

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