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AL East Notes: Suzuki, Yankees, Rays, Lawrie

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With Opening Day right around the corner, the Yankees are set to enter the 2012 season with tremendous pitching depth.  Yesterday, we learned that the Bombers offered Freddy Garcia to the Marlins but couldn't get the Fish to bite on a deal.  Here's more on the Yanks' pitching and other items out of the American League East..

  • The Rays say that they haven't talked with the A's about Kurt Suzuki, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com.  Earlier today, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote that the Rays have been pushing hard to land the catcher.
  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes the Yankees' wealth of left-handed pitching this season is a change of pace from what they've had in years past.  Aside from a David Wells here or a Sabathia there, Sherman argues that the club hasn't been successful when it comes to developing and importing lefty arms.
  • Players' union president Michael Weiner is happy about the Rays increased payroll and hopes to see the club's attendance numbers rise along with it, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  Owner Stuart Sternberg has said they made the increase essentially as an investment, hoping that spending beyond their means will lead to more wins, and, in turn, better attendance.
  • Brett Lawrie told Jayson Stark of ESPN.com that he wasn't thrilled with the way that the Brewers were looking to develop him and happy to be dealt to the Blue Jays.

Cafardo On Suzuki, Oswalt, Correia, Zimmermann

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In today's column, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe argues that two best players at catcher and shortstop positions in camp with the Red Sox organization are Ryan Lavarnway and Jose Iglesias and believes that they absolutely should be on the final 25-man roster.  There could be disagreement from different factions of the club about what to do with the two players and it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out.  Here's more from Cafardo..

  • The Rays have been trying hard to get A's catcher Kurt Suzuki but Oakland isn’t crazy about getting Wade Davis or Jeff Niemann in return.  One National League GM points out that those are the type of pitchers that Billy Beane winds up trading and would want a higher grade of pitcher. Right now, the Rays aren’t willing to pay that price.
  • The idea that Roy Oswalt wants to play in the Midwest or South can be overcome with money, according to a major league source.  To get him, Cafardo writes that the Red Sox have to loosen their purse strings.
  • Major league sources say that the Pirates would entertain a deal for right-hander Kevin Correia.
  • The Angels asked the Nationals about Jordan Zimmermann, but there’s no chance unless they part with someone like Mike Trout, and that’s not happening. 
  • Red Sox outfielder Darnell McDonald could get some bites if he gets squeezed out in Boston.  The Indians, Giants, and Braves are all looking for a righthanded-hitting outfielder.
  • The Yankees are being a little careful about trading their pitching depth, but it appears Freddy Garcia would be available at the right price, which may be high.
  • White Sox pitchers Gavin Floyd and John Danks are both available in the right deal, but according to one GM, Kenny Williams will want at least "two A-level prospects and a third that’s a notch below, and that might not get it done."

Quick Hits: Phillies, Garcia, Abreu, Beras, Mets

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Saturday afternoon linkage..

  • The Phillies appear to be comfortable with beginning the season with Freddy Galvis at second base and are searching for a backup utility infielder via trade rather than a starter, sources tell Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com.
  • Word is that the Yankees offered Freddy Garcia to the Marlins but Miami wasn't interested, tweets Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com.  Garcia, who is a trade candidate following the club's signing of Andy Pettitte, is signed to a one-year deal worth $4MM plus incentives.
  • Angels manager Mike Scioscia and General Manager Jerry Dipoto met with Bobby Abreu following the outfielder's comments to Lider en Deportes.  DiGiovanna writes that the team may have no choice but to release the veteran if he continues to struggle and be a distraction.
  • The case of Jairo Beras and his $4.5MM contract with the Rangers is in the hands of Major League Baseball, but the club is confident that he is 17 years old, writes Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telgram.  Beras' biological father also told the paper that Beras is in fact 17.
  • The Mets are facing a serious numbers crunch on the 40-man roster, writes Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com.

Quick Hits: Nationals, Blue Jays, Soria, Carpenter

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Two weeks from now, the regular season will be underway. In the meantime, here are some links, including injury updates on a trio of pitchers…

  • "We are pretty comfortable with the team that we have right now," said Nationals GM Mike Rizzo to reporters (including MLB.com's Bill Ladson). "If something comes up to improve ourselves, we'll certainly investigate it. We are not selling anybody or shopping anybody or making a lot of phone calls, because we are comfortable where we are at."
  • The Blue Jays have five roster spots up for grabs – left field, fifth starter, utility infielder, two bullpen spots – but there are clear frontrunners for each job according to MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm. The team doesn't want to delay any official moves, but they also want to make sure everyone gets enough playing time to audition for jobs.
  • Royals closer Joakim Soria will undergo Tommy John surgery on April 3rd, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star reports (Twitter links).
  • Chris Carpenter is out indefinitely with a nerve issue, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told reporters, including MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch (Twitter link). Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests Carpenter will likely miss two months or more (Twitterlink).
  • Joba Chamberlain dislocated his right ankle and lost a life-threatening amount of blood yesterday, Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News reports. The injury will end Chamberlain's season and could threaten his career.
  • One scout says Mark Reynolds isn't appealing, especially given his $7.5MM salary, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com tweets. The Orioles are shopping Reynolds and teammate Kevin Gregg.
  • Padres owner John Moores could earn a substantial profit when he sells his team, partly because bidders who fail to purchase the Dodgers may view Padres as consolation prize, Jon Paul Morosi writes at FOX Sports.
  • Former All-Star reliever Chad Cordero tells Jonathan Hacohen of MLB Reports that he's getting the itch to play again and will attempt to come back to the Major Leagues in 2013. The 30-year-old reliever took time off to deal with the death of his infant daughter, but he's not ready to give up on baseball yet.

Mike Axisa contributed to this post.

AL East Notes: Cook, Red Sox, Pettitte, Orioles

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Earlier today, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine told reporters that Daisuke Matsuzaka could be back in the rotation as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.  In the meantime, another BoSox pitcher is making a strong case for breaking camp with the club.  More on that and other links out of the AL East..

  • Right-hander Aaron Cook can opt-out of his deal with the Red Sox on May 1st if he isn't on the big league squad, but the veteran might punch his ticket well before that, writes Alex Speier of WEEI.com.  Cook's deal with Boston is worth $1.5MM if he is put on the major league roster.
  • Yankees GM Brian Cashman is keeping tight-lipped when it comes to the makeup of the club's rotation, but he is preaching patience when it comes to Andy Pettitte, writes Jeff Bradley of the Star-Ledger.  For his part, the 39-year-old says that he plans on keeping to his schedule and joining the team around May 1st.
  • MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli likes Ryan Flaherty's chances of making the Orioles.  The Rule 5 pick must be returned to the Cubs if he is not on the O's Opening Day roster.

DePaula Obtains Visa; Yankees Deal Still In Place

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Rafael DePaula is finally on the verge of beginning his professional baseball career. The pitching prospect agreed to sign with the Yankees for $500K in November, 2010, but hasn’t had a visa until now, so the deal hasn’t been completed. Agent Charisse Espinosa-Dash told MLBTR today that DePaula has his visa and that the original deal is expected to go through once the Dominican right-hander passes a physical.

MLB suspended DePaula in 2009 and he later confessed to using a false identity. The 6'2" right-hander had a sharp breaking ball and a plus fastball that touched the mid-90s at the time that he signed, according to Baseball America. DePaula, who turns 21 this month, had been working out at the Yankees' Dominican academy.

Quick Hits: Forbes, Padres, Felix, Athletics

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Forbes Magazine calculates the Yankees (unsurprisingly) as the most valuable franchise in baseball, worth an estimated $1.85 billion.  The second-place team on the list are (somewhat surprisingly) the Dodgers at $1.4 billion, up nearly 75% in value from last year as Forbes predicts the team's forthcoming sale and new TV contract will return it to top-tier status.  The Forbes list also reveals which teams lost value from last year and which didn't turn a profit in 2011, as well as looking at how cable TV deals are changing the economics of the game.

Some other news from around the majors…

  • Yasmani Grandal is happy that Padres teammate and fellow catcher Nick Hundley received a contract extension but isn't worried that Hundley's deal impacts his own future with the club, reports Dan Hayes of the North County Times.  "It doesn't matter if somebody got a deal or not. You never know what could happen," Grandal said.  "They could get traded or you could get traded. I'm not only playing for one organization. I'm playing for the 29 others that are out there. That's one way I see it, and if it's not meant to be it's not meant to be. If I don't make it to the big leagues with this club I can make it with any other team."
  • Hundley's reasonable contract could make him a strong trade candidate, opines Dave Cameron of Fangraphs, who the Padres could deal this summer if Grandal has a strong first half at Triple-A.
  • Felix Hernandez says he is asked about his future with the Mariners in almost every interview, reports Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, and joked he might hang a banner reading "I'm not going anywhere" over his locker.
  • The Athletics are thus far very pleased with the four prospects (Tom Milone, Brad Peacock, A.J. Cole and Derek Norris) they received from the Nationals in the Gio Gonzalez trade, reports Jeff Fletcher for the Washington Times.
  • Matthew Eddy of Baseball America recaps the week's minor league transactions.
  • Vernon Wells thinks the Blue Jays could make "exceptions" to their policy of not offering contracts longer than five years, reports Danny Knobler of CBS Sports.  Ironically, Wells' seven-year, $126MM deal with Toronto in 2006 is no doubt a major reason why the current Jays management team has adopted this policy.
  • Some newly-hired bench bosses make FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal's annual list of managers on the hot seat, including Ozzie Guillen and Bobby Valentine.

Spanish Links: Vazquez, Wandy, Jorge Vazquez

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Links in Spanish about three jugadores who don't know where they'll be a year from now…

  • Javier Vazquez received calls from two general managers this offseason, and his agent received calls from others, the pitcher told Esteban Pagán Rivera at the Puerto Rican paper Primera Hora. Vazquez says he was frank with his suitors, saying, "I haven't felt the slightest itch to play. But I haven't announced my retirement because who knows if, three months or a year from now, I get the urge to play again."
  • Wandy Rodriguez is approaching this offseason's trade rumors as if he were a soldier and the Astros were his army, the 33-year-old lefty told Juan Mercado from the Dominican daily El Día. "Wherever they send me, that's where I'll go, since I don't have any city in particular (in mind)," Rodriguez said. The Astros originally signed Rodriguez as an international free agent in 1999, and he says he appreciates the team that "opened the doors" for him to make it to the majors. "Now, if they decide to trade me, the only thing to do is accept it and leave."
  • Slugging Yankee prospect Jorge Vazquez is growing impatient with the minor leagues and would like to try Japan or Korea if there's not a place for him in the major leagues, according to the president of the Mexican League's Tigres de Quintana Roo, where Vazquez played in 2007 and 2008. "If they don't give him an opportunity this year, he wants them to trade him, or to go to [play] baseball in the east," Cuauhtémoc "Chito" Rodríguez told Fernando Ballesteros at Puro Béisbol. "He doesn't want to continue on in Triple A anymore, not just with the Yankees, but with any other organization as well." Vazquez made a case for being MLB-ready in 2011, putting up a .262/.314/.516 line with 32 homers at Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Yankees Notes: Pettitte, Hughes, Nova, Damon

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The latest on the Yankees…

  • Before Andy Pettitte signed with the Yankees, Lance Berkman tried to recruit the left-hander for the Cardinals, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Berkman said he was in regular contact with Pettitte and would have approached the front office if he had obtained the go-ahead from his friend and former teammate.
  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post wonders if the Yankees will look to extend Phil Hughes or Ivan Nova to a Derek Holland-like extension in order to cap costs and avoid MLB's luxury tax. 
  • There was a split between upper management and the field staff over whether to sign Johnny Damon or Raul Ibanez, Tom Verducci of SI.com writes. Damon told the Yankees he would play for whatever they were offering Ibanez, but it wasn't enough.
  • Agent Scott Boras says Damon has received nibbles, but no offers. “We have heard from teams who say 'We have interest in the guy but we want to see what our players are going to do,'" Boras said.

AL East Notes: Garcia, Shoppach, Red Sox, Hughes

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Items out of the American League East..

  • Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com writes that Freddy Garcia could wind up as trade bait for the Yankees but there are a number of complications, including his $4MM salary.
  • The Marlins are a possible fit for the Yankees if they look to trade Garcia, as Miami has the payroll flexibility to take him on and the pitcher has a good relationship with manager Ozzie Guillen, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com.  However, Olney notes (via Twitter) that all five Marlins starters are looking good at the moment.
  • The Red Sox have no plans to deal back-up catcher Kelly Shoppach, a source told Rob Bradford of WEEI.com.  As a free agent signing, Boston would have to get approval from Shoppach in any trade made prior to June 15th.
  • In an interview on WEEI, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington said that the club has been working diligently to find ways to make the new Collective Bargaining Agreement work for them, writes Alex Speier of WEEI.com.  
  • In addition to Garcia, Phil Hughes could quickly emerge as a trade candidate for the Yankees as well, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
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