Rosenthal’s Latest: Nathan, Garza, Bedard
Ken Rosenthal recently dished out a slew of fresh rumors for us to devour.
- Rosenthal still believes that if the Twins trade Johan Santana, they will also trade Joe Nathan in a separate deal. Back on November 11th, Rosenthal first suggested this might happen. About a week ago, Joe Christensen reported that the Twins exchanged contract proposals with Nathan. Nathan is in line to earn at least $15MM per season, if he wants full market value. Rosenthal suggests the Brewers, Indians, Tigers, Cubs, and Red Sox as possible fits for Nathan.
- The Angels may want to keep Gary Matthews Jr., given Vladimir Guerrero‘s declining defensive abilities. Also, Guerrero may soon get a contract extension in the $18MM per season range to put him in line with Torii Hunter. His contract runs through 2009.
- The Twins may be close to getting a center fielder, but it may not be Coco Crisp. Another team is chasing Crisp – perhaps the White Sox?
- Melky Cabrera could be dealt independent and regardless of a Johan Santana deal. The Braves may be interested; the Yanks would then move Johnny Damon back to center.
- Matt Garza or Boof Bonser may be moved for a bat. Probably not Delmon Young, but some young slugger. The Rays also want to find a young shortstop to compete with Reid Brignac.
- The Yanks don’t want to overpay for a free agent reliever – 3/12 seems their limit on the Riskes and Mahays of the world.
- Back at the GM meetings, the Mets inquired on Erik Bedard. The O’s are waiting to see what happens with Miguel Cabrera since they covet many of the prospects being discussed there.
Heyman On Santana
SI.com’s Jon Heyman has the latest on the Johan Santana trade talks.
- The Twins want Melky Cabrera plus one of Chamberlain/Hughes/Kennedy from the Yankees. If the Yanks can surrender Kennedy rather than Hughes or Joba, they’ve done a nice job. Sounds like they would consider giving up Hughes though.
- The Twins want one of Clay Buchholz or Jon Lester plus Jacoby Ellsbury. Lester seems to be the only one of the three the Red Sox would part with, while they’d also be fine with sending Coco Crisp over.
- Heyman names the Mets, Dodgers, Angels, and Mariners as interested parties. First I’ve heard of the Ms or Halos being in the mix. Regarding the Dodgers, check out an interview with Ned Colletti. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t seem anxious to deal 3-5 kids for a guy like Santana or Miguel Cabrera.
Odds and Ends: Riske, Bedard, Wolf
And now for your daily jumble o’ rumors. More to come.
- The Twins cleared several spots on their 40-man roster…will they be active next week?
- The Yankees have "reached out" to free agent reliever David Riske. Troy Percival and Ron Mahay have also been linked to the Yanks this offseason.
- The Dodgers have an interest in Tony Clark, which has to bum out James Loney. Dylan Hernandez also notes that the Dodgers’ talks for Erik Bedard have stalled because the Orioles want to see what happens with Miguel Cabrera first. Ned Colletti expects Jeff Kent back, by the way.
- The Cards won’t be afraid to trade their young pitching (Anthony Reyes, Tyler Johnson, and Brad Thompson) for veteran pitching. They also still like Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse, if the price is right.
- Bob Dutton reports that the Royals’ Yasuhiko Yabuta signing will be finalized at week’s end. Meanwhile nothing is imminent with Jose Guillen.
- Linked to this earlier in a D’Backs post…the Phils are in "serious talks" with Randy Wolf. As I said there, that shouldn’t stop them from going after a more reliable starter.
- Things are heating up between the Twins and Red Sox for Coco Crisp, but that’s all Gordon Edes has for us on the topic.
- As expected, the market for Mike Cameron has picked up now that Torii Hunter signed.
Yanks, Twins Discussing Santana
As a rumor website I feel obligated to link to this. The Yankees and Twins are talking about a Johan Santana trade, Hank Steinbrenner confirmed it.
This is a non-story; I don’t have much to add. We have all known about these discussions for quite a while now. It’s odd that Steinbrenner talked about them publicly; would Brian Cashman find that helpful at all?
My feeling is that if the Yankees can engineer a trade for Santana without surrendering Robinson Cano, Phil Hughes, or Joba Chamberlain, they’ve pulled off a steal.
Graziano On Pettitte
I recently asked Yankees Rumor Royalty winner Dan Graziano about free agent Andy Pettitte. Graziano covers the Yankees for the Newark Star-Ledger.
MLBTR: What’s your best guess on Andy Pettitte‘s decision for 2008?
Dan Graziano: Among the players I’ve ever covered, if there’s one who might leave a guaranteed $16 million on the table in exchange for early retirement and an increase in time at home with his family, it’s Andy Pettitte. However, I don’t believe there is such a player. My gut says Andy will agonize for a while — maybe even long enough to scare the Yankees into adding another year or an option to the deal — and then come back and play for the Yankees for $16 million in 2008. But that’s a guess. Which is all I have, and all you asked for.
Graziano On Yankees’ Center Field
I recently asked Yankees Rumor Royalty winner Dan Graziano for his thoughts on some hot stove queries.
MLBTR: If Melky Cabrera is dealt, do you see the Yanks going after a free agent center fielder? If so, who do you think would be first on their list?
Dan Graziano: If the Yankees were planning to deal Cabrera, I’m sure they would have been involved in the Torii Hunter sweepstakes. Because they weren’t a factor there, I’m thinking right now that they don’t intend to trade Cabrera.
Of course, if the right opportunity (such as the one detailed previously) presented itself, they could deal him. If that happened, I’m sure they’d express interest in Andruw Jones and Aaron Rowand. There are people in the Yankees’ organization who think Rowand’s hard-nosed, blue-collar style would be a nice addition to a team full of superstars. As of now, though, they don’t have any place to play him. If that changed, they’d be involved. And of course, if they couldn’t get Jones or Rowand, they could always move Johnny Damon back to center until they found a better solution.
Morning Yankees Rumors
Just a few things I found scouring the Internets this morning.
- The team has finalized their marketing deal with Alex Rodriguez regarding his breaking of home run milestones. He’ll receive $6 million for reaching the home run totals of Willy Mays, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds. And then he’ll get another $6 million for homer No. 763. Yes, that’s $12 million for two homers. The deal has been approved by MLBPA and the Commissioner’s office.
- Peter Gammons, via Buster Olney, reports that the Twins will be seeking three players in any trade to the Yankees of Johan Santana: Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, and Austin Jackson. Olney thinks that when combined with the $150 million financial commitment that will come along with the deal, the Yankees will not do it. I’d personally not like to give up Jackson, a highly regarded prospect when drafted who just had a breakout season in 2007.
- Steve Serby of the New York Post has a Q & A with Hank Steinbrenner. If you liked Hank before, you’ll like this. If you think he’s a braying ass, you’ll continue thinking the same.
- Ian O’Connor thinks that Omar Minaya needs to steal the Yankees thunder and beat them to the punch for Johan Santana. Personally, I think that’s the worst reason to do anything.
Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.
Graziano On A Yankees/Santana Trade
Recently I asked the Newark Star-Ledger’s Dan Graziano about a realistic scenario under which the Yankees could acquire Johan Santana. His take was a bit different than the standard packages we’ve been hearing. The Yankees have already had talks with the Twins and are expected to make a strong offer.
MLBTR: Give us your take on a reasonable trade package for Johan Santana that the Yankees would consider offering and the Twins would consider accepting.
Dan Graziano: The Twins will need at least one good, proven, major-league player and a couple of prospects in exchange if they decide to deal Santana. Many people have suggested that the Yankees would need to include Robinson Cano in a deal, and that’s certainly possible. But the Twins have a
young player (Alexi Casilla) they believe can play second base, and their greater need may be in the outfield, especially with Torii Hunter now gone off to Anaheim.
To that end, Melky Cabrera might be more appealing to the Twins than Cano. Let’s assume the Yankees don’t want to include Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes in the deal (though Santana might be the only player for whom they’d consider dealing one of those guys), and that Brian Cashman also wants to hold onto Ian Kennedy. The next best pitcher in the Yankees’ system is probably Alan Horne. I’m thinking the Yankees could offer a package of Cabrera, Horne and outfield prospect Jose Tabata for Santana. That could be appealing to the Twins, though they might ask for a better pitcher than Horne (or another, such as Marquez, in addition to him), though it would depend on the packages being offered by other interested teams such as the Mets and Red Sox.
The thing to remember in dealing with the Twins, however, is that they might not always be after the prospects everybody knows about. The Twins pride themselves on being able to identify and acquire big-time prospects at the Class A level. Players who have come to the Twins’ system at the A-ball level over the years include Jason Bartlett, Lew Ford and Joe Mays, as well as Johan Santana himself and a skinny little hitter whose name at the time was David Arias but later changed his last name to Ortiz and went on to achieve some measure of fame with the Boston Red Sox.
Earlier this year, when the Mets and Twins were talking trade for Luis Castillo, we were trying to figure out who the Mets might have to give up. We were thinking of usual suspects like Kevin Mulvey and Phil Humber, but the Twins ended up dealing Castillo for AA catcher Drew Butera and Class A outfielder Dustin Martin. These were guys I didn’t know much about, but I’m not going to be surprised if Dustin Martin ends up being a good big-leaguer someday. The Twins’ scouts can spot talent when it’s very young. So there may be some players in the Yankees’ system (and in those of other interested teams) that the Twins would like and we don’t even know about yet.
Rumor Royalty: Dan Graziano (Yankees)
Competition for the top Rumor Royalty honor among Yankees writers was fierce. Such a popular team demands top rumormongering talent and beat writers with connections.
When I first started writing MLB Trade Rumors, I hadn’t heard much of the Newark Star-Ledger’s Dan Graziano. That soon changed as I realized Dan was a proficient provider of Yankees and MLB hot stove buzz. In fact, he’s Rumor Royalty for the Yankees. His archive for the Star-Ledger can be found here.
Dan was kind enough to answer three questions for MLBTR, and he took the time to answer them thoroughly. I’ll break the answers into separate posts.
Morning Tidbits
Hmm. Not much really going on this A.M. Hopefully we’ll see some rumors crop up as the day progresses. Until then, here are just a few teasers on this Black Friday.
- Remember when the Blue Jays claimed Cory Haerther off waivers from the Cardinals? Well, now the Cardinals have claimed Haerther off waivers from the Blue Jays and have added him to the 40-man roster, thus protecting him from the Rule 5 draft.
- "Indications are" that the Twins are talking with closer Joe Nathan about a contract extension. Nathan has one year left on his deal, and could price himself out of the Twins range. No word on the number offered.
- C.J. Henry was a 2005 first-round draft choice of the Yankees. After a rough introduction to the pros, Henry was sent to the Phillies in 2006 as part of the Bobby Abreu deal. Well, the Phils have released him, and despite stories that he was going to play college basketball, he has re-signed with the Yanks.
- Infielder Ramon Vazquez has re-upped with the Rangers for one year and $810,000. He hit .230/.300/.373 in 300 at bats in 2007.
Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.