Three Teams Eyeing Melvin Mora
Yesterday, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun learned from Melvin Mora's agent that the third baseman has two NL clubs and one AL team as suitors, none in the Eastern divisions. MLB.com's Joe Frisaro may have solved this riddle, as he tweets that the Rockies, Mets, and Angels have talked to Mora. The Mets don't fit given the non-eastern criteria, however.
Mora's agent, Eric Goldschmidt, says his client is looking for a team that will contend and "maybe give him 300-something at-bats." Mora, 38 in February, hit .260/.321/.358 in 496 plate appearances this year for the Orioles while playing 1,050 innings at third base.
Odds & Ends: Phillies, Iannetta, Braves
Links for Tuesday…
- Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro said a lefty reliever and another starter are still on his wish list, according to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
- Troy Renck of The Denver Post provides the details of Chris Iannetta's contract extension. The backstop can void the $5MM club option for 2013 if he is traded anytime before then.
- Braves' GM Frank Wren said he's looking for just "one more small piece" to fill out his club's offensive needs, tweets MLB.com's Mark Bowman. Bowman notes that the Braves need a primary pinch hitter.
- Adrian Beltre will take his physical on Thursday, tweeted Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports.
- Joel Sherman of The New York Post provides some thoughts on the Mets' deal with Jason Bay. He notes that the team's scouts "contend Bay is a better defender than (Matt) Holliday," despite what the metrics and people outside the organization say.
- The Giants designated defensively-skilled shortstop Brian Bocock for assignment to make room for Juan Uribe, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
- ESPN's Keith Law sees "very little downside" for the Red Sox with the Adrian Beltre deal. He notes that Boston's defense should be terrific this year. Dave Cameron of FanGraphs says Beltre is "in the conversation of the best defensive third baseman of all time." WEEI's Rob Bradford says the Red Sox considered signing Beltre after the '04 season, and even discussed trying him at shortstop. Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe says Beltre is, at the least, an upgrade over Casey Kotchman.
- Ken Davidoff of Newsday feels the Mets could raise payroll in 2011, so they won't be limited because of Jason Bay's contract. By the way, Bradford has the transcript from Bay's press conference today.
- Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball notes that the ten-day arbitration-filing period begins today. MLB.com's Doug Miller highlights the biggest eligible names.
- ESPN's Buster Olney suggests the Giants and Mets have been the slowest to adapt to advanced stats. He also notes that the proliferation of better defensive metrics could greatly benefit Carl Crawford as a free agent next offseason.
- MLB.com's Brian McTaggart talked to Astros GM Ed Wade, who said the trade market isn't great because of all the remaining free agents. Also, Wade is focused on one-year deals for arbitration-eligible players such as Michael Bourn, Wandy Rodriguez, and Hunter Pence.
- With Matt Holliday inching toward a large contact with the Cardinals, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at other $100MM deals given to outfielders.
- MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone has a summary of Peter Gammons' appearance on WFAN this morning.
- R.J. Anderson of DRays Bay interviewed Dan Feinstein, the Rays' Director of Baseball Operations.
Red Sox, Mets Discussed Castillo For Lowell
TUESDAY, 12:52pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports finds Castillo "highly unlikely to be traded, for Lowell or anyone else." Joel Sherman of the New York Post learned that the Mets and Red Sox have not discussed a Castillo-Lowell swap for weeks.
MONDAY, 9:52pm: WEEI.com's Rob Bradford writes that a Castillo-for-Lowell deal is "not close." He feels that it's most likely Lowell will have to prove his health in Spring Training before a trade occurs. Meanwhile, Yahoo's Tim Brown tweets that the Rangers "have not ruled out re-engaging on Lowell."
6:56pm: ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick tweets, "I just heard that Red Sox have talked to the Mets about a Mike Lowell-for-Luis Castillo trade. Not sure how serious it is." He adds that Lowell is expendable with Adrian Beltre in the fold. Also, with Castillo gone, the Mets could go after Orlando Hudson.
The deal certainly clears an unwanted player for both teams. But while it is easy to see Lowell getting some at-bats for the Mets at first, and even spelling David Wright at third base, where Castillo fits in- given his poor defense at second base, and the existence of Dustin Pedroia– with Boston is harder to understand.
The money would be even in such a deal. Lowell is owed $12MM in 2010, while Castillo is owed $6MM in each of the next two years.
Mets Sign Jason Bay
The Mets signed left fielder Jason Bay to a four-year, $66MM deal with a vesting option for 2014 that could bring the total to $80MM over five years. The backloaded deal contains a $17MM option for '14 that vests if Bay reaches 600 plate appearances in 2013 or 500 in both 2012 and 2013. The deal also has a full no-trade clause. In additional to a supplemental draft pick, the Red Sox will receive the Mets' second-round pick (currently #53 overall). Bay turned down a four-year, $60MM offer from the Red Sox during the summer; SI's Jon Heyman tweets that they eventually lowered their offer to three years.
One week ago, WFAN's Mike Francesa first reported that the Mets would announce a Bay signing pending a physical. MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone pegged the value of the deal, with Joel Sherman of the New York Post first mentioning the vesting option and Ed Price of AOL FanHouse contributing as well. The AP added more contract details today. SNY's Brad Como tweeted yesterday that Bay passed his physical.
The Mets are far from done this offseason, but many of the initial reactions to the Bay signing talked about their stronger need for starting pitching. The other concern is Bay's defense, which rates poorly under advanced metrics.
Mets “Very Interested” In Delgado
Erik Boland and David Lennon over at Newsday have a piece up reporting that the Mets are "very interested" in bringing back Carlos Delgado.
Delgado, who played in the Puerto Rican Winter League Sunday for the first time since surgery on his hip in May, went 1-for-4 as a designated hitter. As befitting a player who managed to play in just 26 games in 2009, the Mets are interested in Delgado on an incentive-laden deal.
Still, it is easy to understand New York's interest. Delgado was hitting .298/.393/.521 in 2009, one year after putting up a 2008 batting line of .271/.353/.518, including a tremendous second half.
Just for fun, let's combine rumors for a Delgado platoon with Mike Lowell, who was rumored to be in discussions to come to New York in exchange for Luis Castillo early this evening in a tweet by ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick.
Delgado, against righties, had a .912 OPS in 2008, .902 in 2009. Lowell had a .961 OPS against lefties in 2008, an .867 OPS against them in 2009.
In other words, it would be an offensive option that would likely leave Daniel Murphy in the dust.
The piece also reports that the Mets are interested in starting pitching, with Joel Pineiro their preferred choice.
Miguel Olivo Reaches Agreement With Rockies
MONDAY, 8:27pm: Harding is up with a story now that includes contract details. The Rockies will pay Olivo $2MM in 2010, and then either exercise a club option for $2.5MM in 2011, or go with a $500K buyout.
MONDAY, 4:56pm: MLB.com's Thomas Harding tweets that an agreement has been reached on a one-year deal with a 2011 option.
WEDNESDAY, 7:35pm: Troy Renck of the Denver Post says Olivo's contract is for one year with a club option. Renck also reports that the Rockies and Torrealba solved the issue of the $400K salary gap, but were instead held up by how a reported two-year, $6MM deal would be paid out over 2010 and 2011. Renck outlines the whole situation in a blog post and notes that the Mets and Giants are both interested in Torrealba.
5:25pm: Free-agent catcher Miguel Olivo and the Rockies "are attempting to work out final details" on a deal that would make Olivo the new backup in Colorado, reports Tracy Ringolsby of FOX Sports.
Olivo hit .249/.292/.490 in 416 plate appearances with Kansas City last season, leading the Royals with 23 home runs. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Olivo earn regular playing time in Colorado given that Iannetta ended up losing the starting job to Yorvit Torrealba down the stretch last season (though, to be fair, Iannetta posted an .804 OPS himself in 2009 and is the clear incumbent given his new contract).
Should Olivo sign with Colorado, it would close the door on any chance of Torrealba re-signing with his former club. Torrealba and the Rockies were in talks earlier this winter, but apparently couldn't close the gap on a $400K difference between Torrealba's demands and what the Rockies wanted to pay him.
Discussion: Wang Or Lewis?
Earlier today, Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com had updates on a pair of Alan Nero clients: pitchers Chien-Ming Wang and Colby Lewis.
Both pitchers represent low-cost rotation alternatives for 2010, and there are differing reasons to value the potential upside of both.
For Wang, the news came that he could throw off of a mound in six-to-eight weeks, news that was "even more positive" than expected from Dr. James Andrews, according to Nero.
Nevertheless, the pitching-needy Mets have yet to contact Nero about Wang, 1050 ESPN Radio's Andrew Marchand reports.
The reason Wang is even in the position of free agency is due to his health issues over the past few years. Considering he posted a 46-15 record from 2006-2008, with an ERA of 3.74, all while pitching in the ultra-competitive American League East, a return to form would present a team with a strong member of the starting rotation.
But could Lewis be an even better alternative than Wang? Lewis struggled mightily in five major league seasons, posting an ugly 6.71 ERA, but his performance in Japan during 2008-2009 was eye-popping. He led the Central League in strikeouts in each campaign, walking just 46 in 354 1/3 innings.
Ultimately, the combination of Lewis' numbers and good health would make him a better buy-low fit, in my opinion.
Odds & Ends: Bay, Adrian Gonzalez, Cardinals
Some links for your viewing pleasure on the first Sunday of 2010:
- WEEI's Rob Bradford and Alex Speier write that Jason Bay "agreed to his deal with the Mets on Christmas Day, four days before it was initially reported." SI's Jon Heyman tweets that Bay's "extensive medical exam" will take place Monday. MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone passes along a WFAN report saying a press conference could happen Tuesday if the physical goes well.
- Padres GM Jed Hoyer talked to Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe about Adrian Gonzalez. Hoyer says "a number of teams have inquired, but he's certainly not a player we're looking to move."
- Viva El Birdos takes a look at some free agent options for the Cardinals, making a case for or against each one.
- Riley Cooper, the Rangers' 26th-round draft pick, says he hasn't been contacted by Texas in months and may want to pursue a career in the NFL. Cooper made a deal with Texas to return to the Gators and play his senior season of football.
- Roch Kubatko talks about the Orioles' hole at first base, as well as the myth that it's easy to convert other position players to first basemen.
- Daniel Moroz at Camden Crazies looks at the loss of power for Garrett Atkins over the past several seasons, compared to the rising power of Adam Jones.
GM Trade Histories: NL East
Brendan Bianowicz is back with a bunch of updates to the GM Trade History series. The Excel spreadsheets linked below cover each GM's trades, free agent signings, and top draft picks via tabs along the bottom. It's interesting to see each GM's most frequent trade partner – for example, Omar Minaya has matched up with Larry Beinfest and Mark Shapiro most often in his career.
Odds & Ends: Byrd, Werth, Tigers, Brewers
Here's your first batch of links for 2010…
- Marlon Byrd signed with the Cubs partly because of hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, according to MLB.com's Carrie Muskat. Jaramillo worked with Byrd in Texas.
- The Marlins are willing to spend on Aroldis Chapman because they don't anticipate handing big bucks over to their first round pick next year, tweets MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. The Marlins have the 23rd overall pick in the draft.
- Jayson Werth is set to become a free agent after the 2010 season, and MLB.com's Todd Zolecki says he isn't sure the Phillies could retain him if he goes looking for a deal similar to what the Mets gave Jason Bay.
- Jason Beck of MLB.com says he'd be surprised if the Tigers didn't trade for a veteran reliever on a short-term contract to fill in at the back of the bullpen.
- Don't discount the idea of Brewers' GM Doug Melvin making another move to bolster his pitching staff, says Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Such a move could come before the season, or ahead of the trade deadline.
- MLB.com's Corey Brock notes that Padres' GM Jed Hoyer has talked about finding players that fit Petco Park, which would be "an athletic one, has doubles-power, someone who can run … if it's an outfielder, someone who can go get a ball, someone who won't clog the bases."
- The Rangers will bring in "at least one and possibly two" veteran catchers, writes T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. He notes that the team has talked about Rod Barajas and Yorvit Torrealba, but both are looking for two-year deals.
- In an interview with Dave O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chipper Jones says that he's told team officials he'll only change positions if the team brings in "the right personnel." Chipper also reiterated that he's going year-to-year at this point of his career, and admits there's parts of being a ballplayer that he's sick of.
- Here's the current 2010 draft order based on the free agent signings that are official. At the moment, the Angels have five of the first 37 picks.