Joe Crede Workout
SUNDAY: Christensen says that the Twins will check Crede’s progress again this week. He couldn’t get another update on Crede heading into the weekend.
THURSDAY: Christensen heard Crede looked good at the workout and drew new contract offers (none from the Twins). Crede apparently wants a base salary above the $5.1MM he earned last year, plus incentives. Jon Heyman confirms the Giants’ attendance.
WEDNESDAY: According to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Joe Crede worked out for scouts in Arizona today. The Twins were apparently in attendance. We’ll update the post if more attendees are revealed; the Giants were supposed to be there according to Nick Cafardo.
Cafardo’s Latest: Players Out Of Options
Lots of stuff in Nick Cafardo’s column in the Boston Globe to go over.
With around 100 free agents vying for less than 20 remaining roster spots, things become more interesting with 227 players on big-league rosters who are out of options. If a player is out of options and is not rostered, he has to either be traded or designated for assignment. If designated, that player has to clear waivers. This could affect remaining free agent signings. Cafardo makes note of a few who are out of options and may wind up as trade fodder or designated for assignment before the season begins:
Red Sox: George Kottaras
Yankees: Melky Cabrera
Cubs: Chad Gaudin, Rich Hill (possibly heading to Baltimore?)
Brewers: Tony Gwynn Jr.
Indians: Anthony Reyes, Andy Marte
Twins: Boof Bonser, Philip Humber
Rays: Jeff Niemann
Orioles: David Pauley
- With Jason Varitek re-signed, the Red Sox will either have to trade catcher Kottaras or designate him for assignment.
- Cafardo notes Niemann is a former No. 1 pick and the righthander should garner some attention.
- Bonser or Humber could be traded to land a reliever. Cafardo also mentions Delmon Young as a possible trading chip.
A few more bullets from Cafardo’s notebook:
- Scott Boras thinks the World Baseball Classic will showcase Ivan Rodriguez and generate "even more" interest for the 14-time All-Star catcher.
- Cafardo mentioned Manny Ramirez to Omar Minaya and Minaya laughed it off saying, "We’ll look into adding some offense, but only if it makes sense."
- All quiet on the Jake Peavy front.
- Cafardo calls Randy Johnson‘s $8MM deal from the Giants as "a stroke of genius" by his agents.
- In case you missed it, Bobby Kielty signed a minor-league deal with the Mets last week.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Mariners, Young, Shouse
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports compiles a number of rumors from around the majors:
- The Mariners need to free up money, but to do so, they’d likely have to trade one of Adrian Beltre, Jarrod Washburn or Miguel Batista. All three will be free agents after the season, but moving one of them would be "extremely difficult."
- The Mariners and Yankees considered a Hideki Matsui-Washburn swap, but Matsui’s contract ($13MM) pays him more than Washburn’s ($10.35MM) so they didn’t find a match.
- The Twins are looking to move Delmon Young.
- They showed interest in Washburn last year, but only some of Rosenthal’s sources believe he and Delmon Young could be the foundation for a larger deal.
- Rosenthal has a source who says the Yankees are not currently pursuing Juan Cruz. Yesterday, we had a discussion about the rules regarding free agent quotas.
- The Yanks like their bullpen, but they could try to add an arm if they trade Xavier Nady or Nick Swisher.
- The Rays are making a strong run at Brian Shouse.
- The Orioles would not likely have to give up much more than a low-level prospect to deal for Rich Hill.
Twins Hot Stove Update: Ayala, Crede
Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has a few updates on the Twins’ hot stove:
- The club has had discussions with free agent reliever Luis Ayala, who finished with a 5.71 ERA in 81 appearances for the Nationals and Mets last season.
- The Twins had two scouts at Joe Crede‘s workout on Wednesday. Christensen writes that "it sounds like they need to see him more times before they’ll feel safe investing millions of guaranteed money."
Twins Sign Jason Kubel For Two Years
1-29-09: The Kubel signing is official. The contract details, according to Christensen: "The deal is worth $7.2MM. Kubel will make $2.75MM this year, $4.1MM in 2010, and his 2011 salary would be $5.1MM, with a $350K buyout."
1-27-09: Joe Christensen says Kubel’s two-year deal is for about $7MM, with a 2011 option for $5MM.
1-20-09: According to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Twins signed Jason Kubel to a two-year deal with a third-year option, pending a physical. The deal buys out Kubel’s final two arb years and gives the Twins an option on his first free agent season.
Twins End Talks With Gagne
According to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Twins have broken off talks with Eric Gagne. Christensen reports that the Twins are now turning their focus to finding eighth-inning relief help through a trade. Gagne’s talks with the Twins had advanced pretty far – he was ready to accept a one-year deal with a $3MM base and $500K in incentives. Hopefully we’ll find out why the Twins slammed on the brakes.
Odds And Ends: Heilman, Pedro, Twins
A few more links for Wednesday…
- Ryan Howard said a long-term deal with the Phillies would be "beautiful," for what it’s worth.
- The New York Times’ Ben Shpigel comments on the Aaron Heilman deal and its effect on new teammate Jeff Samardzija.
- Marty Noble of MLB.com learned that Mets GM Omar Minaya met with Pedro Martinez in the Dominican Republic today, but did not make an offer (and re-signing him remains a long shot).
- Yahoo’s Tim Brown has the roundup on the Twins’ hot stove happenings.
- Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com takes on the Manny Ramirez-to-Mets conspiracy theorists.
Odds and Ends: Sherrill, Kubel, Teahen
Links for Wednesday…
- T.R. Sullivan examines the Rangers’ interest level in 25 free agents.
- An article about Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus.
- Rany Jazayerli suggests the Jeremy Bonderman contract might have been a model for Zack Greinke‘s deal.
- George Sherrill‘s arbitration hearing is set for February 19th. The Orioles are at $2.2MM while Sherrill requested $3.4MM, putting the midpoint at $2.8MM.
- Jack Marshall discusses the ethics of Scott Boras.
- Barry Bloom looks at the remaining free agent starting pitchers and possible suitors.
- Dave Cameron questions the Twins’ recent Jason Kubel contract.
- Sam Mellinger talks about the Mark Teahen second base experiment.
- Will Clark is set to join the Giants’ front office.
Odds and Ends: Lohse, Reyes, Greinke, Howard
Links for Tuesday…
- Chat today, 2pm CST.
- Rangers president Nolan Ryan called the Winter Meetings "a big waste of money and time."
- Nationals GM Jim Bowden implied that a Tom Glavine signing is unlikely.
- Kyle Lohse feels the pain of all the unsigned free agents; he didn’t sign until March 14th last year. Lohse said he "put a lot of pressure on all parties" to get his four-year, $41MM extension done on September 29th. Given that it wasn’t on the open market, Scott Boras did well for Lohse.
- The Dodgers prefer Dennys Reyes over Luis Ayala, says Ken Gurnick.
- Joe Posnanski loves the Zack Greinke signing. Sam Mellinger says the Royals and fans are no longer allowed to complain about baseball’s financial structure.
- Maury Brown leans slightly toward Ryan Howard winning his arbitration case. I think the Phillies will prevail.
- Brandon Lyon turned down more lucrative offers for a chance to close in Detroit. ESPN’s Keith Law likes the Tigers’ signing, in part due to Jim Leyland’s track record with relievers.
- The Marlins seem to prefer the trade market, if they are to add a catcher.
- Joe Nathan knows his $47MM extension signed in March of ’08 is looking pretty good right now.
Odds and Ends: Yamarin, Eaton, Atkins, Ohman
Links for Monday…
- Yankees and Red Sox fans are dreaming of Joe Mauer, whose contract is up after the 2010 season.
- Updated June draft order, courtesy of Baseball America.
- The Braves signed a Japanese amateur pitcher named Yoshinori Yamarin to a minor league deal.
- Adam Eaton is not a candidate for the Phillies’ fifth starter job, and they’ll probably release him and eat his contract if they can’t trade him.
- MLB.com made a nice addition in Phillies beat writer Todd Zolecki.
- Arbitration hearing dates are set for Paul Maholm and Nate McLouth.
- Jim Salisbury writes about Tal Smith, who prepares arbitration cases for clubs.
- Garrett Atkins comments on his arbitration request and his future with the Rockies.
- The Reds voided the contract of 16 year-old Venezuelan pitcher Ismael Guillon and re-signed him for less due to a problem found during his physical.
- Athletics Nation talked to MLB.com beat writer Mychael Urban.
- David O’Brien chatted with unsigned reliever Will Ohman.
- Orioles infielder Oscar Salazar cleared waivers.