Odds And Ends: Cabrera, Bay, Liriano, Clement, Dotel
Lots to go over this morning, so this might not be the last bullet point list you see.
- The Angels and Marlins are progressing in talks for Miguel Cabrera. It’s believed that the Angels are willing to deal players like Reggie Willits, Howie Kendrick, and Jeff Mathis, but the sticking point here is the inclusion of Nick Adenhart. If the Angels want Cabrera, I would have to think Adenhart would be a part of any deal.
- Pirates GM Neal Huntington says that he is not actively shopping any of his players. However, he acknowledges that if he hears an offer, he’ll have to consider it. Some of his team’s asking prices are "outrageous," he says. This includes players like Jason Bay and Jack Wilson. But the Pirates may choose in the end to dish Bay, since their strength, if any, is the outfield, and Bay is slated to make $13.25 million over the next two years. That might not seem like a lot, but it’s costly when you’re working with a paltry $50 million budget. Surely Huntington would love to deal Wilson, though he denies it. He might have trouble finding a partner on that one.
- Though the Twins deny it, any Johan Santana deal might be dependent on the status of Francisco Liriano. The 24-year-old "hasn’t had a single setback" in his recovery from ligament replacement surgery last October. He’s completed his rehab program, and might pitch in the Dominican this winter. He’s expected to be ready in February fo Spring Training.
- Add the Pirates to the list of teams interested in Matt Clement. It now spans the Rockies, Diamondbacks, Royals, Padres, and Blue Jays in addition to the Bucs. However, with their payroll cap, Clement might not be feasible.
- The Tigers remain interested in closer Octavio Dotel. There is no word on whether the team has offered him a contract.
Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.
Hunter Signing Won’t Stop Rolling Angels
UPDATE: Some added info from yesterday’s Miami Herald. It sounds like the Angels are willing to part with Reggie Willits, Howie Kendrick, and a catcher. Not a bad haul. However the Marlins are apparently insisting on the inclusion of top pitching prospect Nick Adenhart as well.
Just because the Angels dropped $90 million on Torii Hunter doesn’t mean they won’t continue to make deals this off-season. Specifically, the two players most linked to them — Miguel Cabrera and Miguel Tejada — are still hot on the radar, according to GM Tony Reagins.
"All I can say is I’m going to be looking at some other things to make us better," Reagins said. "The winter meetings are coming up, and I’m sure we’ll have more discussions. I’m going to be open-minded."
Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times opines that the acquisition of Hunter could make it easier to incur the loss of Howie Kendrick, a potential major chip in a Cabrera trade. Other players sought by the Marlins are catcher Jeff Mathis, pitcher Nick Adenhart, and one of Joe Saunders, Jered Weaver, or Ervin Santana. That’s quite steep asking price, but in line with the Marlins demands from the Dodgers of Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Andy LaRoche, and one more prospect.
The deal for Tejada would be less costly, but could cost the Angels SS Erick Aybar. Since the Halos want to move Tejada to third, that could mean starting Chone Figgins at short, or, as Tim mentioned the other day, bringing back David Eckstein.
Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.
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.
Torii Hunter Signs With Angels
Who saw this one coming? Now only did he sign on Thanksgiving Day, but Torii Hunter signed with the Angels. The news broke a little after midnight. It’s a five-year contract for $90MM. That’s a surprising $18MM annually for those poor in math. No one even knew the two sides were talking! Hunter just isn’t an $18MM player to me. I can see why he jumped on this.
The Halos now have six players for three outfield spots and one DH spot. Hunter will always be in center, and Vlad will always be at DH or in right. So then only two of Garret Anderson, Juan Rivera, Reggie Willits, and Gary Matthews Jr. will be in the lineup (unless someone goes to first base and knocks Casey Kotchman to the bench).
GM Tony Reagins says this doesn’t affect his other dealings, so perhaps he’s created these outfield and pitching surpluses to acquire Miguel Cabrera or Miguel Tejada. Willits would be appealing to the Marlins, I imagine.
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.
Miguel Cabrera Rumors
I think it’s about time to dissect the Miguel Cabrera situation, don’t you? The Angels, Dodgers, Giants, White Sox, and maybe the Rangers are battling to acquire him.
Five days ago, the Angels were the frontrunners. It was even suggested a trade could be completed by Thanksgiving. But according to Ken Rosenthal, the Dodgers now have the lead. It may require Matt Kemp, Andy LaRoche, and Clayton Kershaw. Now that’s quality.
Rosenthal has a source saying the Halos may counter with Ervin Santana, Howie Kendrick, Chris Bootcheck, and Nick Adenhart. It’s thought that the Angels’ acquisition of Jon Garland frees them up to trade a starter or two. Many other Angels interest the Marlins – Joe Saunders, Brandon Wood, Mike Napoli, Jeff Mathis, or Reggie Willits could enter the picture. Miguel Tejada is said to be the Angels’ fallback option.
The proposed White Sox package of Josh Fields, Ryan Sweeney, and Gio Gonzalez just doesn’t seem comparable to the above.
Should the Dodgers give up Kemp to snag Cabrera, they’ll then sign a free agent center fielder. Aaron Rowand is the flavor of the week.
White Sox Trade Jon Garland For Orlando Cabrera
UPDATE: Ken Rosenthal reports that the White Sox received $1.5MM in the deal. It certainly seems that the Sox are clearing payroll for Torii Hunter. Mark Gonzales notes that while the Sox hope to sign Cabrera long-term, they’ll still benefit from this trade if they don’t. Cabrera is likely to be a Type A a year from now while Garland will probably be a B.
According to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, the White Sox acquired shortstop Orlando Cabrera for starter Jon Garland today.
In a vacuum, this seems like a pretty even swap to me. Just comparing the two players involved, it’s fair. Garland is a solid if not spectacular starter, and Cabrera is the same at shortstop. Both players’ contracts run through 2008. Garland is at $12MM and Cabrera $9MM, so the Sox save a few bucks here. Plus, they will get some cash from the Angels.
But trades aren’t made in a vacuum; you have to look at their effects on the teams involved.
The White Sox will seemingly put Juan Uribe at second base, if they don’t trade him. They could potentially have one of the game’s finest defensive double play combinations. And Cabrera’s .345 OBP last year, while nothing amazing, is good for a shortstop and looks great for an OBP-starved team like the Sox. The question is whether the Sox can sustain the loss of Garland in the rotation. They’ll now go with Buehrle, Vazquez, Contreras, Danks, and maybe Gavin Floyd or Gio Gonzalez. That group could work but you could see Contreras and the kids flopping and Buehrle coming back down to Earth.
Kenny Williams has shown some ability to dig up starting pitching, so maybe he’s playing to his strength. How about the return of Bartolo Colon?
The Angels now have an embarrassment of starting pitching. They’ve got Lackey, Escobar, Weaver, Garland, Saunders, and Ervin Santana. Nick Adenhart should be around soon also. The Angels may now be compelled to flip Santana for a bat. Meanwhile they have plenty of solid options at shortstop with Brandon Wood, Erick Aybar, Chone Figgins, and Maicer Izturis.
Brewers, Padres, Angels, Rockies, Astros After Iguchi
In some ways, Tadahito Iguchi might be a better buy at second base than Luis Castillo. He’s getting half the press, but that doesn’t mean he’s getting half the interest. Iguchi’s agent said today that the Astros, Brewers, Padres, Angels, and Rockies have expressed interest. Keep in mind that the Phillies asked Iguchi about playing third base several weeks ago and he said he’d rather sign elsewhere at a second baseman.
I wonder if Iguchi may have relaxed that stance. The Brewers and Angels have third base vacancies. They have Rickie Weeks and Howie Kendrick at second base, respectively. Weeks could be an interesting option in center, and Kendrick has been rumored as part of a Miguel Cabrera package. So Iguchi could theoretically still play second for either club.
The Padres and Rockies just have good old-fashioned vacancies at second base. Both clubs could still fill the spot internally – the Padres with Matt Antonelli and the Rockies with Ian Stewart.
As for the ‘Stros, well, Ed Wade has contacted half the free agent class.
Did Mike Lowell Really Receive Four Offers?
This has all been covered here on MLBTR, but I guess it’s gotten lost in the shuffle because I’m receiving tons of email about it. Maybe I’ll try to build something into the site to better keep up with the big names besides just reading through everything. In the meantime, you can always use the search bar on the sidebar.
Anyway, let’s talk about this Mike Lowell rumor from WHDH Channel 7 News out of Boston. These guys are getting a ton of traffic to this rumor and I just gave them more. Oh well.
The uncredited rumor says a source close to Lowell indicates that he’s received four-year offers in the $55-60MM range from the Braves, Angels, Cardinals, and Yankees.
GM Frank Wren debunked the Braves portion today. Esteemed St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Bernie Miklasz killed the Cardinals portion last night. The Boston Herald’s Rob Bradford shot down the Angels rumor.
So we have an uncredited rumor that is currently 0 for 3.
A different Boston TV station, WBZ, said today that the Yanks did make an offer in the $56-60MM range to Lowell today (courtesy of Dan Roche). That could be accurate but I would like to see some of the regular Yankees beat writers pick it up also.
Orioles To Attempt To Extend Bedard
It looks like Erik Bedard is Andy MacPhail’s top priority right now. He’s already gauged the trade interest for his ace, and is now exploring the idea of a contract extension.
Jeff Zrebiec says the Mets, Yankees, Angels, and Dodgers expressed interest in the southpaw starter. Interesting to see the Halos in the mix. The Dodgers are pushing the hardest for him. Two years of Bedard is expected to cost a team three MLB-ready players. The names mentioned for the Dodgers are Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp, and Clayton Kershaw. While Kershaw’s not MLB-ready, I doubt the Orioles would mind. Zrebiec says the problem with the Dodgers is that Kemp and Kershaw would be part of a Miguel Cabrera package.
What would a contract extension cost? I’m thinking it would require something like four years, $65MM to cover the two team-controlled years and two years of free agency.
Zrebiec also mentions that the Mets inquired on Ramon Hernandez, but found the price of a high-end prospect prohibitive.