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Mets Unlikely To Sign Ivan Rodriguez

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6:47pm: ESPN New York's Adam Rubin hears that it is "very unlikely" the Mets will add Rodriguez because they think Rob Johnson or Mike Nickeas will hit enough as Josh Thole's backup (all Twitter links). A second source said definitively: "We are not bringing Ivan here."

5:48pm: The Mets haven’t ruled out signing free agent catcher Ivan Rodriguez, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. However, they want to be sure Johan Santana is healthy before spending the $2MM or so remaining in their budget. If the left-hander gets injured, the Mets would allocate their remaining funds toward a starting pitcher. 

A Mets official spoke with Rodriguez as recently as ten days ago, telling the veteran backstop to “stay in shape” in case anything happens. The 21-year veteran has fielded a few inquiries this offseason, including one from the Diamondbacks, but he says it’s been a tough market for veteran players such as himself. Rodriguez, 40, posted a .218/.281/.323 line in 137 plate appearances last year, preventing 13 of the 25 stolen base attempts against him.

Mets Notes: Wilpon, Reyes, Wright, Tejada

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The Mets lowered payroll by approximately $50MM this offseason, while division rivals such as the Marlins and Nationals moved aggressively to acquire top talent. However, Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon said his club could surprise some people in 2012. The details…

  • Wilpon said the team's finances are "OK" and that he intends to own the franchise "for a very long time," Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com writes. 
  • Wilpon made it clear that he and GM Sandy Alderson have some misgivings about offering long-term deals. “Are we a little leery of six-year, seven-year, eight-year contracts? Yes. Is Sandy leery of it? You bet. I'm big-time leery of it,” Wilpon said, after suggesting the Mets offered Jose Reyes a deal in the $100MM range.
  • One person familiar with the Mets' financial situation told Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com that a lot of things will have to go right for Wilpon and Saul Katz to remain in place as owners.
  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post explains that David Wright could become a trade candidate this July or after the season if he rebounds in 2012. Sherman draws a comparison between Wright and Ryan Zimmerman, a childhood teammate of Wright's who just signed a long-term deal with the Nationals. 
  • In a separate piece, Sherman wonders if the Mets would exercise Wright's $16MM option for 2013 if he falters this coming season. 
  • Sherman says it's unfair of Mets manager Terry Collins to criticize Ruben Tejada for not showing up to camp early.

NL Central Links: Marshall, McCutchen, Francis

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The Reds finalized a three-year, $16.5MM contract extension with Sean Marshall earlier today, so now let's check in on the latest from the NL Central…

  • Marshall will earn $4.5MM in 2013, $5.5MM in 2014, and $6.5MM in 2015 according to the AP (via John Fay of The Cincinnati Enquirer on Twitter). The southpaw can earn $1MM more per year if he closes for the Reds.
  • “We’re obviously very excited about it,” said Reds GM Walt Jocketty to reporters (including MLB.com's Mark Sheldon) about Marshall's deal. “When we made the trade for him, we made it intending to extend him. We felt confident we would do that. We wanted to approach it sooner than later.”
  • The Pirates are still willing to work out a long-term extension with Andrew McCutchen, reports Rob Biertempfel of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. McCutchen's camp is looking for something close to the $51MM given to Justin Upton while the club is coming in around $10MM below that.
  • Jeff Francis told Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports that his final decision came between the Reds and Mets (Twitter link). The southpaw signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati last month.
  • "We saw this coming years ago," said Pirates team president Frank Coonelly to Biertempfel when asked about the new draft spending restrictions. "We pushed money up to make sure we'd be taking advantage of opportunities we had last year and the year before."

Zimmerman Extension Notes And Reactions

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Ryan Zimmerman became the second $100MM player on the Nationals' payroll earlier today when he inked a six-year, $100MM extension with a full no-trade clause and a $24MM option for a seventh year. Here's some notes and reactions from around the baseball universe:

  • Dave Cameron of FanGraphs examines some comparables and calls the extension a "fair price" for a "valuable skill set." The Nationals won't save a ton of money on this deal, according to Cameron, but Zimmerman will earn the value of the deal barring lingering injury issues.
  • Jon Heyman of CBS Sports writes that the Nationals spent a lot of money for a player with Zimmerman's injury history, especially with Anthony Rendon waiting in the wings. One competing executive told Heyman, "Seems like they have two $100-million contracts but no $100-million players.''
  • The no-trade clause doesn't come into effect until 2014, but Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com tweets a quote from GM Mike Rizzo explicitly stating Zimmerman "will not be traded the next two years."
  • Getting that no-trade clause in place was the final hurdle in the deal, tweets MLB.com's Bill Ladson.
  • Amanda Comak of the Washington Times observes that Zimmerman joins Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Prince Fielder, and Albert Pujols as the only players under contract through 2019 (Twitter link).
  • Zimmerman's deal won't impact any contract negotiations between David Wright and the Mets, according to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News (Twitter link).
  • Wright recognizes that his situation is different from Zimmerman's, according to ESPN's Adam Rubin. Wright also expressed that he's happy for Zimmerman, who is a close friend.

Extension Notes: Wright, Ellsbury, Swisher

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Ryan Zimmerman's six-year, $100MM extension earlier today isn't the only contract extension (or lack thereof) being talked about in the baseball world…

  • Mets GM Sandy Alderson said he'd love to keep David Wright in the fold and called him a "special player," writes Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. Martino's sources said the Amazin's would like to see Wright produce in 2012 to make an extension "palatable." An executive told Martino it'd take "four Zack Wheelers" for the Mets to move Wright, which makes an extension sound preferable to a trade (in my opinion). Both sides agree that Zimmerman's extension won't be a factor in contract discussions.
  • Jacoby Ellsbury is open to discussing a long-term deal to keep him in a Red Sox uniform beyond 2013, writes WEEI.com's Alex Speier. Ellsbury said he leaves negotiations up to his agent, Scott Boras, but that he loves the city of Boston and its fans.
  • Nick Swisher recognizes that the Yankees rarely negotiate additional years on top of existing contracts, and anticipates filing for free agency, according to Wallace Matthews of ESPN. Swisher said it's "not his style" to ask agent Dan Lozano to approach New York about a long-term deal. He also said New York is where he ultimately wants to be.
  • In case you missed it, the Reds are nearing an extension with setup man Sean Marshall and Josh Hamilton expects to reach free agency.

Quick Hits: Greinke, Indians, Aybar, Kazmir, Matsui

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Angels GM Jerry Dipoto recently said that it's unlikely the club will work out an extension with Erick Aybar before Opening Day. However, Dipoto acknowledged that it's very much a possibility that the club will work out a new deal with the shortstop. Here's more on Aybar and other notes from around the baseball…

  • Zack Greinke helped the Brewers evaluate pitchers prior to the draft according to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, asking to see video of prospects before the team chose hurlers Taylor Jungmann and Jed Bradley in the first round. Tom Haudricourt of The Journal Sentinel says (on Twitter) that Greinke is at Arizona State scouting right-hander Brady Rodgers with Craig Counsell tonight.
  • Within this article comparing the Phillies to the late-90s Indians, Sam Donnellon of The Philadelphia Daily News says the Tribe had a deal in place to acquire Curt Schilling in 2000. "I banged hard on that one," said then-Indians GM John Hart when asked how he felt after the deal fell through.
  • Aybar told reporters that he hopes to remain with the Angels beyond this season, writes Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. The 28-year-old declined to go into details about the kind of deal he’s looking for, but the Halos might not be willing to shell out major money for him with prospect Jean Segura in the fold.
  • The Mets were the only club to watch Scott Kazmir throw yesterday and Sandy Alderson didn't exactly offer a ringing endorsement of the pitcher, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. A reunion between the club and left-hander is unlikely, according to Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter).
  • Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News (via Twitter) spoke with someone that said Hideki Matsui isn't close to signing anywhere. The veteran will likely wait and see which teams have needs as spring training goes on.

NL East Links: Hamels, Ross, Marlins, Bay

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Four years ago today, the Nationals signed Odalis Perez to a minor league contract. He pitched to a 4.34 ERA in 159 2/3 innings for them that season, then didn't show up to Spring Training the next year. Three years ago today, the two sides came full circle and Washington released him. Here's the latest from Perez's old division, the NL East…

  • Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels ruled out the possibility of signing in his hometown of San Diego, asking Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com "why would I want to go where fans only support you from the third inning through the sixth?'' (Twitter link). Hamels will hit free agency after the season if the Phillies don’t sign him to an extension.
  • Cody Ross told Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports that the Marlins’ decision not to give him a raise as a pre-arbitration eligible player bothered him and increased his willingness to go to an arbitration hearing against his former club.
  • Brian Costa of The Wall Street Journal took a look at Jason Bay's contract and what the future could hold for the outfielder and the Mets. Bay is owed $16MM in 2012 and 2013, then a $17MM vesting option for 2014 comes into play.
  • Here's the latest news regarding a contract extension for Ryan Zimmerman. The Nationals have approximately 36 hours to get their franchise player signed long-term before his self-imposed deadline. Zimmerman can't become a free agent until after 2013.

NL East Links: Marlins, Bourn, Rizzo, Kazmir, Mets

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Ten years ago today, the Expos claimed Endy Chavez off waivers from the Mets after the Mets claimed him off waivers from the Tigers and the Tigers claimed him off waivers from the Royals. All of that happened in less than eight weeks, and later in his career Chavez suited up for three different NL East teams in the span of 10 months. Here's the latest from his old division…

  • The Marlins intend to "renew" the contracts of their pre-arbitration-eligible players at the league minimum ($480K) according to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. That may prompt the union to file a grievance, contending that the team did not operate in good faith.
  • Michael Bourn told MLB.com's Mark Bowman that he hasn't had any contract extension talks with the Braves. The speedy center fielder is a prime extension candidate, and can become a free agent after this season.
  • Nationals GM Mike Rizzo spoke to MLB.com's Bill Ladson about a number of topics, including the Gio Gonzalez trade and the team's ongoing pursuit of a center fielder.
  • "We'll see [Scott] Kazmir for the first time [on Friday]," said Mets GM Sandy Alderson (on Twitter). "We have an open mind but a spot on the ML staff right away is not realistic." Kazmir threw for scouts last week and is said to be considering the team that originally drafted him.
  • Brian Costa of The Wall Street Journal reports that the Mets have firm commitments from seven potential investors, but want to line up three more and close all ten deals (worth a total of $200MM) at once (Twitter links).
  • Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com says the smart money is on the Phillies and Cole Hamels working out a new contract to keep the left-hander in Philadelphia beyond this season.
  • The Phillies announced that Marti Wolever has been promoted from director of scouting to Assistant General Manager, Amateur Scouting.

Scott Kazmir Considering Mets, Five Other Clubs

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Free agent left-hander Scott Kazmir is considering six teams and could decide on his next club within a few days, ESPN.com's Buster Olney tweets. The Mets, who selected Kazmir in the first round of the 2002 draft, are among the interested teams.

Kazmir worked out in front of about ten scouts last week, throwing in the 86-89 mph range. The 28-year-old appeared in one game for the Angels last year, but got released after struggling at Triple-A. The Yankees are not interested, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.

East Notes: Hill, Hanley, Collins

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The Red Sox finally received compensation earlier today for Theo Epstein's defection to the Cubs, adding reliever Chris Carpenter and a player to be named. Here's more on Boston and a couple other stray items of note out of MLB's East divisions:

  • The Red Sox added left-hander Rich Hill to their 40-man roster and placed starter John Lackey on the 60-day DL in a corresponding move, tweets Tim Britton of the Providence Journal. The move is a show of faith in Hill's recovery from 2011 Tommy John surgery, according to Britton, and Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe tweets that Hill had an opt-out clause that he could have exercised early in Spring Training were he not on the 40-man. So, it appears the Sox didn't want to lose the lefty.
  • Marlins slugger Hanley Ramirez said he has no problem moving to third base to accomodate the arrival of newly signed shortstop Jose Reyes, according to Tom D'Angelo of the Palm Beach Post. “I never said I’m not going to do it,” he said.
  • Mets manager Terry Collins is under contract through 2013, though Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal wonders whether the skipper will be retained beyond then if the Mets are ready to move past their current transitional phase.
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