Royals Rumors

Nationals Rumors: Dunn, Votto, Greinke

By Tim Dierkes | December 3, 2008 at 4:20pm CDT

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick talks about the Nationals in today’s column. A few hot stove nuggets:

Crasnick talked to several agents and execs who just can’t see the Nationals ponying up $20MM+ per year for Mark Teixeira.
The Nats crave a lefthanded slugging first baseman, so Adam Dunn could fit the bill. Crasnick talked to a couple of officials who suggested Dunn might have to settle in the three-year, $36MM range. However, the Nationals may have to pay a premium to convince any prominent free agent to sign.
Crasnick says the Nationals have explored many interesting names: Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez, James Loney, Joey Votto, and Zack Greinke. They may not have the young talent to pull off that kind of deal though.
The Nats are "looking forward to the opportunity" to select Scott Boras client Stephen Strasburg in next June’s draft.

Odds and Ends: Griffey, Springer, Hoffman

By Tim Dierkes | December 3, 2008 at 3:14pm CDT

Links for Wednesday…

Common misconception Joe and I keep running into: signing one of the 15 Type A free agents who were offered arbitration will only cost the signing team one draft pick. The player’s old team also gets a second pick, but it doesn’t come from the new team. It’s just squeezed into the supplemental round. Check out a deeper explanation here.
Nuggets from a Frank Coonelly chat: he expects the Pirates to make room on the 40-man roster for a potential Rule 5 addition, and they’d still like to re-sign Doug Mientkiewicz.
Pirates pitcher Jason Davis looks like a non-tender candidate.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire doesn’t have Delmon Young in his preferred starting outfield.
The Cubs signed pitcher Chad Fox to a minor league deal.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s agent Brian Goldberg says he’s fine with DHing but is capable of playing the field. Goldberg thinks Junior can bounce back and have a 30 home run season.
Click here to listen to free agent reliever Russ Springer talk to The ITD Morning After radio show on 1380 AM. He’s gotten calls from teams in both leagues, including "World Series participants." Springer is known to be on the Phillies’ radar.
Recently I talked to Sarah Small of the Daily Illini.
SI.com’s Tom Verducci looks at the supposed shortstop revolution that seems to have petered out.
Dave Cameron respects the Astros’ signing of Mike Hampton.
Tony Jackson says the Dodgers offered a minor league deal to Juan Castro.
Royals GM Dayton Moore did a Q&A with fans at MLB.com. His priority is adding right-handed relief help after trading Leo Nunez and Ramon Ramirez. Also, he says Mark Teahen is "more important to our team today then he was in all of 2008 — and he was very important to our team in ’08."
McCovey Chronicles is skeptical of all the teams blaming the economy.
Drunk Jays Fans predicts Kevin Mench’s Japan experience.
Jesse Spector looks at comparable pitchers for C.C. Sabathia.
Trevor Hoffman may meet with the Mets soon. Also, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon spoke of "addition by subtraction" yesterday.
East Windup Chronicle disputes a Richard Griffin column.
The Phillies are still willing to sign Type A free agents who were offered arbitration, such as Raul Ibanez or Juan Cruz.
Evan Grant’s latest Rangers mailbag, always a good read.
Joe Sheehan discusses various poor arbitration decisions by teams.
Minor league deals for the Mets: Nelson Figueroa, Adam Bostick, and Rene Rivera. Marty Noble adds Andy Green.
Rany Jazayerli figures Mark Grudzielanek agreed in advance to reject the Royals’ offer of arbitration.
As usual, ESPN will be all over the Winter Meetings. I’m told they’ll be doing daily Baseball Tonight specials and will have a team of seven on the scene in Vegas.
ESPN’s Peter Gammons says the free agent and trade markets are flooded with corner/DH type bats. There will be bargains.
Bruce Miles thinks Milton Bradley would be a nice match for the Cubs. The biggest issue would be his ability to play right field every day.

Royals Offer Arb To Grudzielanek

By Tim Dierkes | December 1, 2008 at 8:17pm CDT

8:17pm: Grudzielanek says he’s almost certain to decline the Royals’ offer. Instead of the maximum salary, he wants to play for a contender. He feels he can play for at least two more seasons. Five or six clubs have already expressed interest.

6:36pm: According to a press release, the Royals offered arbitration to second baseman Mark Grudzielanek. This was a somewhat unexpected move, but perhaps the Royals prefer to stick with the middle infield tandem of Grudz and Mike Aviles for ’09. Grudzielanek seems likely to accept the offer, as he could earn north of $4MM.

Rafael Furcal Rumors: Monday

By Tim Dierkes | December 1, 2008 at 3:06pm CDT

ESPN’s Jayson Stark has the latest on free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal. Furcal’s agent Paul Kinzer doesn’t see his client signing before the winter meetings, which kick off next week.

Four teams are in on Furcal: the Giants, A’s, Braves, and a mystery team. Stark talked to execs who guessed the Red Sox or Orioles could be the fourth team. That team apparently has to make a trade to open up their shortstop position. In a recent poll of over 6,000 MLBTR readers, the A’s won the vote as the team most likely to sign Furcal.

The Braves’ interest will pick up if they trade shortstop Yunel Escobar first. We knew about the Padres; Stark says the Cardinals and Royals also expressed interest in Escobar.

Odds and Ends: Gammons, Kawakami, Buck

By Tim Dierkes | December 1, 2008 at 2:45pm CDT

Links for Monday…

Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik admitted to have a conversation with Ken Griffey Jr.’s agent, but wouldn’t reveal anything else.
One of Matthew Cerrone’s readers dug up a Primera Hora article saying the Mets have been scouting free agent reliever Fernando Cabrera.
Bob Klapisch looks at Pedro Martinez’s four-year, $53MM deal and asks: was it worth it?
Rays Index notes that Grant Balfour will use WBC participation as a bargaining chip in contract negotiations (he’s eligible for arbitration).
Marc Hulet of Baseball Analysts looks at top hitters for the Rule 5 draft.
Fire Brand of the American League did a Q&A with ESPN’s Peter Gammons. Some good stuff in there.
A few notes from Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker. The Hanshin Tigers are reportedly considering offering $20MM over four years to Kenshin Kawakami, while Yu Darvish had his contract renewed at $2.7MM for next year.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post says the Mets want to add one starter and push Jonathan Niese to the #5 spot.
Rany Jazayerli notes that a John Buck trade would make sense for the Royals.
I mentioned the Royals’ signing of J.R. House earlier, but should add that they also signed Franquelis Osoria and Matt Tupman to minor league deals.

Royals Sign J.R. House

By Tim Dierkes | November 29, 2008 at 10:04pm CDT

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the Royals signed catcher J.R. House to a split contract. House, 29, hit .306/.378/.480 in 454 Triple A at-bats this year. Back in the day, House was considered the Pirates’ top prospect before he was derailed by injuries. There was a time when Jason Kendall was expected to move to the outfield to accomodate him.

Odds and Ends: Sabathia, Schilling, Castaneda

By Tim Dierkes | November 28, 2008 at 3:30pm CDT

Links for Friday…

Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News says $100MM contracts for pitchers are risky, given the deals signed by Kevin Brown, Barry Zito, and Mike Hampton. Those pitchers don’t seem similar to C.C. Sabathia, however.
The second part of Curt Schilling’s article about his trade to the Red Sox.
The Royals signed several minor league free agents, including righty Federico Castaneda from the Mexican League.
SI.com’s Jon Heyman explains why the free agent market is slow. It doesn’t seem abnormal to me; it makes sense to wait until after December 1st to see if arbitration is offered.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Varitek, Burnett, Teixeira

By Cork Gaines | November 28, 2008 at 12:05pm CDT

Let’s take a look at what is being written around the Blogosphere…

River Ave. Blues debates Ben Sheets versus A.J. Burnett and wonders if Sheets will be the better bargain in the end.
Detroit Tiger Thoughts shows that Jason Varitek is not a good fit with the Tigers, even in a platoon situation.
Fire Brand of the American League lays down several reasons why the Red Sox should avoid signing Teixeira.
Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke? sees no downside to the Pirates’ signing of Indian imports Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh.
The ’Burgh Blues feels Eric Hinske is an economical fit for the Bucs.
Amazin’ Avenue does not see Raul Ibanez as an upgrade for the Mets, suggesting he may not be any better than Fernando Tatis.
The Baseball Opinion breaks down what the acquisition of Tyler Lumsden means for the Royals and Astros.
Batter’s Box takes a look a recent J.P. Ricciardi quote and the current state of the economy and wonders if the Jays are going to reduce their payroll.
Royals Review lists the ten best free agent signings in Royals history, topped by David Cone. Amazingly, four of the signings occurred in the last five seasons.

Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com. If you have a suggestion for this feature, Cork can be reached here.

Odds and Ends: Maddux, Krivsky, Maroth

By Tim Dierkes | November 26, 2008 at 4:00pm CDT

Links for Wednesday…

Greg Maddux says he hasn’t officially decided about retirement yet, but he’ll "try to figure it out in the next couple of days."
David Newhan is now a free agent.
Marc Hulet looks at interesting names for the Rule 5 draft over at Baseball Analysts.
Roch Kubatko reports that the Orioles hired former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky as a special assistant to Andy MacPhail.
Lefty Mike Maroth is feeling good following May shoulder surgery and intends to pitch in 2009.
South Side Sox believes the White Sox are trimming payroll.
Minor league free agent shortstop Luis Hernandez signed with the Royals.
SoxProspects.com says the Red Sox inked Billy Traber, Marcus McBeth, and Gil Velazquez to minor league deals.
The Dodgers re-signed Luis Maza to a minor league contract. Also at that link, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt hinted that the team may be unwilling to increase its two-year, $45MM offer to Manny Ramirez.

Looking Beyond Varitek

By Tim Dierkes | November 26, 2008 at 9:20am CDT

According to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, a slew of catchers are being shopped to the Red Sox. Among them: Jeff Mathis, Mike Napoli, Brian Schneider, Miguel Montero, John Buck, Ramon Hernandez, Bengie Molina, Carlos Santana, Kelly Shoppach, Victor Martinez, Jesus Flores, Kenji Johjima, Jeff Clement, Yorvit Torrealba, and the Rangers’ guys. Silverman says the Braves, Cardinals, and Rays also have catchers available. It seems that teams are asking for players like Justin Masterson, Clay Buchholz, or Lars Anderson in some cases.

On the Jason Varitek front, Scott Boras told the AP yesterday that he’s had no financial discussions with the Red Sox. He expects the matter to be discussed after Thanksgiving. Curt Schilling commented last week about Varitek possibly playing fewer games in 2009, but Boras shot down the idea of a reduced role.

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