Royals Rumors

Odds & Ends: Rangers, Greinke, Ordonez, Rays

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | November 19, 2010 at 3:20pm CDT

Links for Friday, exactly one year after the Cubs signed John Grabow and traded Aaron Heilman to Arizona…

Vladimir Guerrero is talking to the Rangers and three other AL teams, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter).
Heyman reports that Bengie Molina wants to play another year (Twitter link).
Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. suggested that Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth are comparable hitters, according to David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News. That's probably not the first comparison agent Scott Boras would make about Werth.
An AL executive explained to Sherman that he believes the Royals will trade Zack Greinke sooner rather than later for two reasons: the demand for ace-level starters is high and the Royals don’t want to see a personal or physical issue reduce Greinke’s value.
Boras tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports that Magglio Ordonez has finished rehabilitating his fractured right ankle and "returned to full workout routines"
Rays president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman tells Cork Gaines of Rays Index that he's likely to hold onto his starting pitching because it's so hard to come by.

Minor Deals: Royals, Dumatrait, Bailey, Larish

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | November 18, 2010 at 3:28pm CDT

We'll keep you posted on all of today's minor deals right here:

The Royals officially announced that they signed right-hander Steven Shell and outfielder Brett Carroll to minor league deals. The team also re-signed Luis Mendoza, Julio Pimentel, Cody Clark, Irving Falu, Mario Lisson and Jamie Romak to minor league deals.
The Twins signed left-hander Phil Dumatrait to a minor-league deal, according to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The 29-year-old has a 7.06 ERA in 109 2/3 career innings, most of which he logged for the Pirates. Dumatrait has walked 65 and struck out 68 in his big league career. He started 8 games at Triple-A for the Tigers in 2010, walking more batters than he struck out.
The Twins also signed former Red Sox Jeff Bailey to a minor league deal. Bailey batted .289/.387/.462 in 564 plate appearances for Arizona's Triple-A affililate last year. The former second-round pick has 176 minor league home runs to his name.
The Phillies signed Jeff Larish to a minor league deal, according to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki (on Twitter). The 28-year-old batted .179/.267/.313 in 75 plate appearances for the Tigers and A's in 2010. He has played first, third and left field in his three-year MLB career.

Odds & Ends: Gordon, Anderson, Phillies, Park

By Tim Dierkes | November 17, 2010 at 3:00pm CDT

Links for Wednesday, the second day of the GM Meetings, as Ron Gardenhire and Bud Black take home Manager of the Year honors…

Red Sox GM Theo Epstein says he'd like to add starting pitching depth, tweets Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald.
The Rockies, Blue Jays, and Athletics are among the teams that have shown interest in Alex Gordon according to MLB.com's Dick Kaegel. "I surely don't want [a trade] to happen, but it's part of baseball and it could happen," said Gordon.
Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star reports that outfielder turned pitcher Brian Anderson has opted for free agency after being designated for assignment by the Royals.
David Murphy of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Phillies GM Ruben Amaro reiterated that he has not been given a firm payroll by ownership. Their payroll has increased steadily over the last several years, peaking at approximately $138MM last season.
The Pirates and reliever Chan Ho Park have mutual interest in a new contract, writes MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch, but Langosch believes the Bucs would only do a minor league deal. Park posted a 3.49 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, and 0.6 HR/9 for the Pirates this year after coming over from the Yankees. Jeremy Bonderman is also on the Pirates' radar, reports Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf confirmed to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times that the Sox asked the Marlins for a particular player as compensation for talking to manager Ozzie Guillen. Reinsdorf told Wittenmyer the player was not Mike Stanton; the Sun-Times writer speculates it may have been Logan Morrison.
As you might expect, the Rays are not in a big rush to trade B.J. Upton given the loss of Carl Crawford, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal feels the Rays will also be reluctant to trade a starting pitcher right now, but would be willing to part with shortstop Jason Bartlett.

Minor Deals: German, Carroll, Moore, Tracy

By Tim Dierkes | November 16, 2010 at 10:57pm CDT

A look at the minor deals struck today…

Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets that Esteban German is returning to the Rangers on a minor league deal. German, 33 in January, hit .280/.371/.388 in 567 Triple-A plate appearances this year, playing all around the diamond. He was outrighted on November 5th and chose to become a free agent.
The Royals signed outfielder Brett Carroll to a minor league contract, reports Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link). The 28-year-old is a .205/.284/.325 career hitter in 319 plate appearances with the Marlins.
Infielder Scott Moore signed a minor league deal with the Cubs, reports Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun. He originally broke in with the Cubs back in 2006, but was later traded to the Orioles for Steve Trachsel.
Infielder Chad Tracy signed with the Hiroshima Carp for about $1.3MM according to a report passed along by NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman (Twitter link).

Mike Axisa contributed to this post.

Odds & Ends: Shell, Kuroda, V-Mart, Okajima, Davies

By Mike Axisa | November 15, 2010 at 9:54pm CDT

Links for Monday evening…

Jon Paul Morosi of FoxSports.com tweets that the Royals have signed reliever Steven Shell to a minor league deal. Shell, 27, had a 3.59 ERA in 72.2 innings with the Mariners' Triple-A affiliate last season.
Troy Renck of The Denver Post lists the Cardinals, Phillies, and Rockies as some of the teams that were interested in Hiroki Kuroda before he re-signed with the Dodgers (Twitter link). Kuroda, however, re-signed without fielding offers from other teams according to Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times.
Add the Rangers to the list of teams showing interest in Victor Martinez says SI.com's Jon Heyman (via Twitter).
WEEI.com's Rob Bradford tweets that Hideki Okajima is subject to a normal arbitration calendar this offseason. In the past the Red Sox had to offer him a contract by November 20th.
Non-tender candidate Kyle Davies hopes to remain with the Royals, says MLB.com's Dick Kaegel. Davies hasn't heard anything from the team regarding his future.
Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com reports that Cliff Lee's agent Darek Braunecker is still unsure if he will attend this week's GM Meetings.
MLB.com's Jane Lee provides a list of power bat the Athletics could potentially pursue as free agents this offseason.
The Yankees don't believe that Derek Jeter will ultimately leave New York, but they're prepared for a long negotiation according to Heyman (Twitter link).
Meanwhile, Jon Paul Morosi of FoxSports.com tweets that there is still no word whether or not Andy Pettitte will return to pitch in 2011.
Cardinals GM John Mozeliak doesn't expect any roster moves at this week's meetings according to MLB.com's Matthew Leach. Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com says the team is growing more optimistic about re-signing Jake Westbrook, however (Twitter link).
Indians GM Chris Antonetti told Paul Hoynes of The Cleveland Plain Dealer that it's too early in the offseason to tell whether his team's needs will be filled through trades or free agency.
MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith is on location at this week's GM Meetings in Orlando, and you can follow him on Twitter at @mlbtrorlando for the latest breaking news and analysis.
There is mutual interest between the Marlins and free agent catcher A.J. Pierzynski, reports Joe Capozzi of The Palm Beach Post. Capozzi says the team might not be able to afford him, though they could free up payroll space by dealing Dan Uggla.
FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal says that the Dodgers are looking to add power to their lineup, and James Loney is the player they're most most willing to trade. They would then turn around and sign one of the many power-hitting first baseman available on the free agent market.
Mets GM Sandy Alderson said that the first round of manager interviews includes one or two more candidates while the second round will consist of three or four candidates according to Andy Martino of The New York Daily News (all Twitter links). The second set of interviews could begin in Orlando this week, and Alderson said his father's death on Sunday will not slow things down.
ESPN's Jerry Crasnick profiles Giants GM Brian Sabean and the work that lies ahead following his team's World Series victory.
Joe Pawlikowski of River Ave. Blues looks at how signing Lee would impact the Yankees' future payroll. Meanwhile, Brian Cashman told MLB.com's Bryan Hoch that he doesn't expect to get any deals done this week.
Best of luck to MLB.com's Jordan Bastian. He's trading in the Blue Jays' beat for the Indians' beat.

Melvin: “We’re Not Shopping Prince”

By Mike Axisa | November 15, 2010 at 8:36pm CDT

Prince Fielder has just one more year to go before becoming eligible for free agency, and as a result many around the game expect the Brewers to shop their hulking first baseman. GM Doug Melvin told USA Today's Bob Nightengale that isn't the case however, saying explicitly "We're not shopping Prince." Here's the full quote…

"We're not shopping Prince,'' said the Brewers GM. "I'd like to keep him. He's a homegrown player who wants to play every inning of every game. But we'd like to get something done by the end of the off-season. I don't want to negotiate during the year.''

Melvin indicated that the end of Spring Training is the team's deadline for working out an extension with their two-time All Star. Fielder, 26 and a Scott Boras client, is a .279/.385/.535 career hitter, averaging 38 home runs in his five full seasons as a big leaguer.

Nightengale also lists a number of players that are already "under discussion," including Zack Greinke, Dan Uggla, Adrian Gonzalez, Bobby Jenks, Jonathan Papelbon, Nick Swisher, Jason Bartlett, Mark Reynolds, and both Justin and B.J. Upton.

Sherman On Crawford, Angels, Tigers, Greinke

By Luke Adams 2 | November 14, 2010 at 10:11am CDT

In his latest Hardball piece for the New York Post, Joel Sherman previews the upcoming GM meetings and look specifically at what to expect for a few top free agents and trade targets. Here are some of the highlights:

"Three teams with money will definitely be bidding" on Carl Crawford, according to an American League insider. Those three teams? The Red Sox, Tigers, and Angels.
People around baseball expect the Angels to spend big this winter, with one of Sherman's sources indicating that it wouldn't surprise him to see the Halos end up with Crawford, Rafael Soriano, and Adrian Beltre.
Several executives believe the Tigers will make a play for two bats from the top tier of free agents, which includes Crawford, Jayson Werth, Adam Dunn, and Victor Martinez.
Sherman predicts that Werth will sign a contract that lands somewhere in between the deals signed by Jason Bay and Matt Holliday a year ago. Five years and $90MM is the estimate from Sherman.
According to an NL exec, a Zack Greinke trade may be unlikely because the Royals "are starting from a position of not wanting to trade [Greinke], and when you start there, it is hard to get anywhere." Still, Sherman names the Rangers as a team to watch in the Greinke sweepstakes, particularly if Cliff Lee signs elsewhere.

Odds & Ends: Royals, Pena, Alderson, De La Rosa

By Mark Polishuk | November 12, 2010 at 9:55pm CDT

Happy 133rd birthday to Archie "Moonlight" Graham. Arguably baseball's most famous one-game player (Eddie Gaedel also has a great case for this distinction), Moonlight Graham's only taste of the majors was one half-inning as a defensive replacement for the 1905 New York Giants. That half-inning grew into immortality thanks to his characterization in W.P. Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe and its film adaptation Field Of Dreams. Graham, who passed away in 1965, went on to become a doctor in Chisholm, Minnesota following his brief playing career.

Onto some news items…

Dayton Moore tells Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star that the David DeJesus trade won't deepen the Royals' interest in the free agent market. “It’s not cost effective at this time for us to be real aggressive with major-league free agents,” Moore said.
Even if Aubrey Huff re-signs with the Giants, CSNBayArea.com's Mychael Urban thinks the team should look into signing Carlos Pena.
Fanhouse's Tom Krasovic looks at the pros and cons of Sandy Alderson's tenure as CEO of the Padres and what Mets fans might expect from their new general manager.
Add the Brewers, Pirates and Rangers to the list of teams believed to be interested in Jorge de la Rosa, tweets Troy Renck of the Denver Post. We know that list already includes the Nationals, Rockies and Yankees.
If San Francisco really has soured on Pablo Sandoval due to the Panda's conditioning issues, Fangraphs' Matt Klassen thinks other teams should be contacting the Giants about a buy-low trade.
During the season, an American League executive told Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com that Adam Dunn will stay in the NL since he genuinely wants to keep playing in the field. However, this executive predicted "Dunn will consider AL teams at least long enough to try to use them as leverage."
The Mets will interview Jose Oquendo about the manager's job on Monday, tweets ESPNNewYork.com's Adam Rubin.
Chad Durbin is receiving interest from teams as both a bullpen and rotation option, tweets ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. Durbin has made 75 starts in his career, but none since 2007.
Most of the free agent catching crop will wait until "the lead domino" (Victor Martinez) signs before they look at joining new teams, says Newsday's Ken Davidoff. (Twitter link)
Chris Coghlan will move to third base next year, reports MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. You can tentatively cross the Marlins off the list of teams exploring the free agent market for help at the hot corner, though it's possible Coghlan could be needed to play second if Florida trades Dan Uggla.

Moore Explains Greinke Trade Rumors

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | November 12, 2010 at 4:55pm CDT

Royals GM Dayton Moore repeated today that he is willing to listen to offers for his ace. Moore told Jim Duquette and Kevin Kennedy on MLB Network Radio what will happen if they can’t sign Zack Greinke to another multi-year contract.

“Then we are going to have to make a decision to move him at some point in time,” Moore said. “Is that this winter? I don't know. Is it prior to the deadline in 2011? Possibly. Is it off-season 2011? But we will have to make that determination no different than other clubs have had to make. Minnesota had to make a similar decision with [Johan] Santana and, of course, Cleveland had to make a decision similar with [Cliff] Lee and [C.C.] Sabathia. So we will have to maximize his value certainly at some point in time.”

Moore says the Royals have received calls on Greinke at multiple points, including at last year’s trade deadline. The Blue Jays and Red Sox are among the teams that have inquired on Greinke, who has a partial no-trade clause and two years and $27MMM remaining on his current deal.

Moore added that the Royals are approaching the free agent market cautiously. The club will look to add one or two right-handed hitting outfielders this offseason and, as we heard yesterday, Jeff Francoeur is one option for Kansas City.

Odds & Ends: Pudge, Indians, Orioles, Jeter

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | November 12, 2010 at 4:17pm CDT

Links for Friday, four years to the day after the Cubs signed Aramis Ramirez to a five-year $75MM contract. He has 93 homers and a .287/.356/.510 line since signing the deal…

MLB executives predicted the destinations for some top free agents along with Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com.
Ivan Rodriguez told Raul Alzaga of Primera Hora that he works out for three or four hours per day and feels physically fit enough to play three more years (link in Spanish).
Yankees manager Joe Girardi told Vincent M. Mallozzi of the New York Times that he's happy to help recruit free agents.
The Royals announced that they promoted Lonnie Goldberg to scouting director.
Cleveland GM Chris Antonetti has spoken to the agents for former Indian Jake Westbrook, according to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. When he was traded to the Cardinals, Westbrook said he was open to re-signing in Cleveland after the season.
The Indians are looking for a third baseman, and they don't have much money to spend, but they have discussed potential trades.
Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail told Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun that the O's have talked to "a wide variety" of free agents already.
Derek Jeter and GM Brian Cashman told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News that they're hopeful they can work out a contract.
For what it's worth, Joe Torre, Jeter's longtime manager, told Peter Botte of the New York Daily News that he can't envision the shortstop playing elsewhere.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post argues that no team can "allow the heart to rule the brain in on-field decisions."

« Previous Page

Load More Posts

Show all

Headlines

Royals Rumors

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect