Minor MLB Transactions: 12/28/15
Matt Eddy of Baseball America has all the latest minor league moves, and there are some notable additions that have not yet appeared on the pages of MLBTR. Among them:
- The Marlins have signed righty Dylan Axelrod, lefty Troy Patton, and shortstop Robert Andino. Axelrod has seen MLB action in each of the last five seasons, but has seen his opportunities dwindle and owns only a 5.27 career ERA in 228 2/3 frames. Patton has had success at times in the bigs — he was a solid contributor to the Orioles from 2011-13 — and threw 30 1/3 innings of 2.37 ERA pitching last year at Triple-A. As for Andino, he’ll return to the organization with which he cracked the majors after spending last season in independent ball.
- Outfielder Alex Castellanos is heading to the Rockies, per Eddy. The 29-year-old has seen only minimal MLB time, despite solid numbers at Triple-A. He played briefly last year for Japan’s Yomiuri Giants.
- The Cardinals signed righty Jeremy Hefner, who is working his way back after Tommy John surgery. Hefner threw 224 1/3 frames for the Mets, with a 4.65 ERA, over 2012-13.
- Joining the Diamondbacks are righties Matt Buschmann and Jose Cisnero. Buschmann, 31, spent time with three organizations last year and has yet to crack the majors. Still just 26, Cisnero has made it to the bigs with the Astros but threw at Double-A last year in the Reds organization, continuing to show an ability to miss bats but also a predilection to miss the zone.
- The White Sox inked right-hander Josh Wall. Wall has made 15 major league appearances in past seasons. Heading into his age-29 campaign, the reliever will be looking for a chance to pick up some more MLB frames after throwing sixty innings of 2.70 ERA ball last year at Triple-A, with 10.4 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9.
Rockies Re-Sign Yohan Flande
The Rockies have re-signed lefty Yohan Flande, according to the list of recent official minor league signings from Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. Colorado will also bring back fellow southpaw Jason Gurka.
Both Flande and Gurka were non-tendered by the Rockies earlier in the winter to clear 40-man space, though neither was eligible for arbitration.
Flande, soon to turn 30, has seen quite a bit of time in the majors over the last two years as the organization sought to fill in its staff. Working in a swingman capacity, he’s tallied 127 1/3 innings of 4.95 ERA pitching, with 5.4 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9. Flande carries an impressive 58.9% groundball rate, though he also showed a susceptibility to the long ball last year (1.84 HR/9, 25.5% HR/FB).
Gurka debuted in Denver last year, allowing eight earned runs in just 7 2/3 innings. Soon to turn 28, the longtime Orioles farmhand has turned in some solid seasons in the minors recently. Last year, he worked to a 2.86 ERA over 63 frames at the Double-A and Triple-A levels, with 7.6 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9.
Quick Hits: Strauss, Tigers, Castellanos, Martinez
Joe Strauss, who covered the Braves, Orioles and Cardinals over three decades as a reporter and columnist for several news outlets, passed away today at age 54 due to complications from a battle with leukemia. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal and MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko are just a few of the many peers who paid tribute to Strauss with chronicles of his outstanding career and remembrances of their friend and colleague. Countless news items from Strauss appeared on this website’s pages over the years, and all of us on the MLB Trade Rumors staff send our condolences to Strauss’ friends and family.
Here are some notes from around the game as we head into a new week…
- The Tigers have been getting calls about Nick Castellanos, Tony Paul of the Detroit News reports. Castellanos was a 2010 first-rounder and a former top prospect, though he’s underwhelmed both offensively and defensively in two full Major League seasons, posting negative fWAR totals in both 2014 and 2015. These struggles notwithstanding, it’s probably unlikely that Detroit would move Castellanos since he’s only 23 and under team control through the 2019 season.
- Also from Paul, he guesses that once J.D. Martinez and the Tigers get talking about an extension, the negotiations will be in the neighborhood of a four-year, $60MM deal. This contract could be backloaded, which would allow the team to pursue more upgrades now and pay Martinez his biggest salaries later once other large contracts have come off the books. Martinez is entering his age-28 season now and has two remaining years of arbitration eligibility before hitting free agency, so under Paul’s projected extension, Martinez would reach the open market as a 32-year-old having given up two free agent years. The $60MM number may be a little conservative, in my view, given how first-rate hitting is at a premium.
- While the Tigers aren’t shy about spending, Paul doesn’t think the team will stray too far (if at all) over the luxury tax limit, so landing a top outfield name like Yoenis Cespedes or Alex Gordon is probably unrealistic. Detroit could move another big contract like Ian Kinsler to make payroll space, though Paul points out that the team would just be creating a new hole at second base to solve a hole in left field. The Tigers could instead save any payroll room for a trade deadline addition.
- At the Winter Meetings, Orioles manager Buck Showalter told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko that the club was willing to surrender its first round draft pick (14th overall) to sign the right qualifying offer free agent but it wouldn’t be without great consideration. “It would have to be something that really fits. But we would if we had to,” Showalter said. “But one of our big days is going to be…in June, we got seven picks in the first 100 in the draft. I don’t know if we’ve ever had that. This is big for us. We can solidify our already strong system.” An interesting wrinkle to Showalter’s statement is that the O’s are actually guaranteed to have only five picks within the first 91 selections. They would only receive those two other picks if QO free agents Wei-Yin Chen and Chris Davis both signed elsewhere. Since Showalter’s statement was made during the Meetings, it would’ve come roughly around the time that Baltimore pulled its $150MM offer to Davis off the table, so the manager’s words could be interpreted as a hint that the O’s could be prepared to move on from the first baseman (though the two sides have since continued to talk).
NL East Notes: Howard, Guyer, Murphy, Walker, Riley
Last night, news broke of an Al Jazeera TV news documentary (that aired tonight) which alleged that Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman, Taylor Teagarden and several NFL stars all received illegal PEDs. Denials have been issued by many of the parties named in the report, including Howard and Zimmerman to Al Jazeera and their mutual attorney to MLBTR. The Nationals released a statement earlier today in support of Zimmerman, and the Phillies released a statement tonight regarding Howard:
“Ryan Howard has vigorously denied the allegations contained in tonight’s airing of Al Jazeera’s report titled ‘The Dark Side.’ Ryan has spent his whole career with the Phillies and, during that entire time, has been an extremely well respected member of our team and an outstanding contributor to our community. We will fully cooperate with any investigation conducted by Major League Baseball and will refer all further questions to them concerning the Al Jazeera report.”
Dr. Dale Guyer, of the Guyer Institute, also denied the allegations made by former intern Charles Sly (that have since been recanted) that NFL legend Peyton Manning received HGH from the clinic under his wife’s name. Guyer made his statement on his website, as passed on by Nat Newell, Zak Keefer and Justin L. Mack of the Indianapolis Star:
“I have no reason to believe these allegations are based in fact or have any truth. In fact, I can say with absolute certainty they are not. I find it extremely disturbing that the source of Al Jazeera’s story, a former unpaid intern named Charles Sly, would violate the privacy of Mrs. Manning’s medical records and be so callous and destructive as to purposely fabricate and spread stories that are simply not true.
“I would emphasize that Mr. Sly was never an employee of the Guyer Institute and his brief three-month internship occurred in 2013 during which time Peyton was not even being treated or present in the office. I am proud to have treated Peyton and helped him through his rehabilitation. Mr. Manning is one of the most honorable and upstanding individuals I have had the pleasure of knowing.”
You can follow more details on the NFL side of the story on Pro Football Rumors, MLBTR’s sister site. Here’s more from around the NL East…
- While Trea Turner has a ton of upside, the Nationals weren’t going to go into the season with an unproven rookie at short and Danny Espinosa as the everyday second baseman, MASNsports.com’s Byron Kerr writes. The signing of Daniel Murphy answers the Nats’ clear need for an experienced veteran at second who has a proven postseason track record, since Washington fully expects to contend. With the pennant race in mind, the Nats had no time to let Turner learn on the job in April or May.
- The Murphy signing, the Nationals‘ scuttled trade for Brandon Phillips and the Mets‘ trade for Neil Walker are all addressed by Fangraphs’ David Laurila, who feels New York ended up in the best shape after all these second base shuffles. The Mets benefited by adding Walker for one contract year rather than the Nats signing Murphy for three, Laurila opines, and he also feels the Nats would’ve been better off with Phillips (who has two years remaining on his contract) than Murphy. I disagree with Laurila on that point, as Murphy is both three years younger than Phillips and has been the better player over the last three seasons.
- Braves prospect Austin Riley is profiled by David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the wake of the 18-year-old’s first pro season. Riley was taken 41st overall in the 2015 draft, a selection that surprised some pundits who had Riley much lower on their board. He was still drawing a lot of attention from teams, including some who saw him as a pitcher, though the Braves instead shifted him from short to third and focused on his power potential. Riley hit .304/.389/.544 with 12 homers over 252 combined plate appearances for two Rookie League teams.
Kasten On Pitching, Greinke, Payroll, Roberts
Dodgers president/CEO Stan Kasten recently took part in a Q&A with ESPN Los Angeles’ Mark Saxon to discuss a wide range of topics about the team. Here are some of the highlights concerning the Dodgers’ offseason thus far…
- The Dodgers felt comfortable in making a financial “stretch” to re-sign Zack Greinke since they knew the pitcher so well, though offering a sixth year as the Diamondbacks did to ultimately land the star righty went above even the Dodgers’ expanded comfort zone. “All things factored in, we could not get to a point we felt hamstrung down the road. Having said that, we went beyond what we felt was strictly prudent because it was Zack, who we valued so highly,” Kasten said. Los Angeles’ offer to Greinke was reportedly in the area of five years and $155MM. Kasten didn’t confirm the total, though he used his team’s pursuit of Greinke as an example of how the Dodgers are still very willing to spend, and that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is under no mandate to cut payroll.
- Though the Dodgers have seemingly been linked to virtually every big-name pitcher on the open market this offseason, Kasten said that Greinke was the only serious target and other talks were mostly a case of due diligence. “Once [re-signing Greinke] didn’t occur, I know our name was thrown out there on everybody,” Kasten said. “Part of that is because we do touch base with everyone and once that happens, agents can characterize that touching base however it suits their purposes. We haven’t wanted any of the other big-ticket items for various reasons, from physical reasons to age to the way it was going to fit together for us.”
- Some fans and pundits have been critical of how relatively quiet the Dodgers’ offseason has been, as the club has fallen short on attempts to acquire the likes of Greinke, Hisashi Iwakuma and Aroldis Chapman. While Kasten admits the team hasn’t connected on some big moves, he notes that the roster will still contend and will be “maybe better than last year by the time Opening Day gets here.”
- Kasten also points to the bigger picture steps Los Angeles has taken to improving from within, noting its gains in international signings and minor league depth. “Even more important, we’re much closer today than we were three years ago to being the long-term, self-sustaining organization, and that doesn’t get enough attention….We all know the next wave of players is very close to getting to the majors this coming year. Behind them, we think two to three years from now we have a very, very deep roster of other prospects highlighted by the investments we’ve made internationally. There are two movements on the way and that’s what we said we were trying to do from the day we arrived,” Kasten said.
- While the team is always looking to make improvements, Kasten feels the current rotation is already solid and will be further augmented by that aforementioned depth. “The system is just starting to catch up in terms of depth,” the president said. “I can tell you right now we have more depth than the organization has ever had….I don’t think the team we field today is the team we will open the postseason with next October.”
- As an executive, Kasten has “no hard and fast rules other than not having any hard and fast rules.” He denies having such policies as signing players beyond age 36 or signing pitchers to contracts longer than five years; while the latter may be “a really good rule if it were one,” Kasten also notes that the club also has Clayton Kershaw signed to a seven-year, $215MM deal.
- There were rumors earlier this winter that the front office was set on hiring director of player development Gabe Kapler as the new Dodgers manager before ownership insisted on a wider-ranging search that eventually led to the hiring of Dave Roberts. Kasten denied the rumor, calling it “really bizarre” and stating that ownership didn’t get involved in the process at all until Roberts and Kapler were the final two candidates. “There were no other jobs open and we had all the time in the world to interview every possible candidate, which is what we did. It came down to the last two guys and our owners met those guys and we all collectively made the same decision,” Kasten said.
West Notes: Henderson, M’s, Black, Dodgers
The baseball world is mourning the loss of former All-Star outfielder Dave Henderson, who passed away this morning at age 57. “Hendu” played for five teams over his 14-year career, including six years each with the Mariners and Athletics. He was the first draft pick in Mariners franchise history and spent a decade as an M’s color commentator on TV and radio after his retirement. The slugger was a member of the Oakland teams that won three straight AL pennants from 1988-90 and captured the 1989 World Series, and Henderson played a big role in that championship with a 1.129 OPS over 39 postseason plate appearances. Of course, Henderson’s most famous playoff moment came in Game Five of the 1986 ALCS as a member of the Red Sox, when he hit a dramatic two-run homer (with two outs and two strikes on him) in the ninth inning to temporarily put Boston ahead, and Henderson then drove in the game’s winning run in the 11th on a sac fly. That victory saved the Red Sox from elimination and sparked an unlikely comeback, as they then beat the Angels in Games Six and Seven to win the pennant.
“Hendu played just two seasons in Boston, but we always regarded him as one of us, and are grateful for the time we were able to enjoy his talent and infectious personality,” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said in an official statement from the club. “Everywhere he went, Henderson made friends. He was a great ambassador for our game, and we have lost him far too soon.”
We at MLBTR send our condolences to Henderson’s family and countless friends around the game. Here are some news items from around the West divisions…
- It’s a lot easier to win when your team has a high payroll (and/or a wealth of controllable young talent), and as Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times writes, the Mariners are in something of a difficult spot since they’re a consistent mid-range payroll team that has a big chunk of their spending tied up in a handful of star contracts. If the M’s aren’t willing to spend more, Baker notes, then GM Jerry Dipoto will be doubly challenged to find affordable young pieces to fit around those core stars. Given Dipoto’s very busy offseason, it’s hard to say he hasn’t been trying to fulfill that exact goal.
- Giants right-handed pitching prospect Ray Black turned a lot of heads in the Arizona Fall League, Andy Baggarly writes in a subscription-only piece for Baseball America. Black’s fastball topped out at a whopping 104mph in AFL play and he also possesses (perhaps anecdotally) a 98mph changeup. Black, 25, was a seventh-rounder for the Giants in the 2011 draft who has battled a variety of injuries and didn’t being his pro career until 2014. Black has a 3.28 ERA over 60 1/3 minor league innings, exhibiting both some shaky control (6.1 BB/9) and overwhelming strikeout power (18.2 K/9).
- The Dodgers have been linked to both Wei-Yin Chen and Kenta Maeda in free agency rumors, and Steve Dilbeck of the L.A. Times looks at the pros and cons for the club of signing either pitcher. Whatever choice the team makes (if it goes with either starter), Dilbeck thinks the Dodgers need to address their rotation after falling short on a number of offseason pitching targets.
Poll: Who Will Be The Last Of These Top-10 Free Agents To Sign?
As we approach the New Year, five of MLBTR’s top ten free agents remain on the board. Alex Gordon, Justin Upton, Chris Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, and Ian Desmond all have widespread interest, of course, but they each seem intent on waiting for the right offer to materialize. Beyond that, other notables such as Wei-Yin Chen, Kenta Maeda, Dexter Fowler, Scott Kazmir, and Ian Kennedy are still without a ball club.
Last week, MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk asked readers to predict who will be the first to come off of the board in each group. In the “A” squad, nearly 39% of you predicted that Gordon would be the first to sign. However, this poll was conducted before Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported that the incumbent Royals have been told by the outfielder’s camp that they have “no chance” to re-sign their franchise cornerstone as things currently stand. Gordon’s camp is seeking a contract that will pay him upwards of $20MM per season, and Kansas City has reportedly only offered $12-$13MM per year over four years.
In the next group of free agents, MLBTR readers ID’d Kazmir as the player most likely to sign first. Kazmir, unlike other players in that tier, does not have a qualifying offer attached. Of the players in that poll, less than 4% said that Kennedy would be the next to sign with a team. Things have been oddly quiet for Kennedy who decided to reject the qualifying offer from the Padres back in November. The Marlins are known to have interest in him, but he is likely too expensive for them, and we haven’t heard much in the way of specific teams talking with his camp. Maeda took nearly 24% of the vote – an indication that roughly one-quarter of MLBTR readers expect the free agent market to progress pretty slowly since the deadline for him to sign is on January 8th at 5pm ET/4pm CT.
When looking at the ten best free agents left, who do you think will be the last to land with a team? (MLBTR app users can weigh in here)
Who Will Be The Last Free Agent To Sign?
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Chris Davis 26% (4,499)
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Ian Desmond 16% (2,855)
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Ian Kennedy 15% (2,621)
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Yoenis Cespedes 14% (2,466)
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Justin Upton 7% (1,262)
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Dexter Fowler 7% (1,191)
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Kenta Maeda 4% (762)
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Wei-Yin Chen 4% (663)
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Alex Gordon 4% (639)
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Scott Kazmir 3% (453)
Total votes: 17,411
This Date In Transactions History: Mo Vaughn
On this date in 2001, the Mets acquired first baseman Mo Vaughn from the Angels in exchange for right-hander Kevin Appier. Vaughn had missed the entire 2001 season with the Angels due to a ruptured tendon in his left arm, but General Manager Steve Phillips & Co. opted to roll the dice on the slugger anyway. The trade was meant to bring some power to the Mets’ lineup, but Vaughn’s injuries wound up making the deal one of the worst moves of Phillips’ tenure in New York.
The media got wind of the trade almost a week prior to its completion when sources told Tyler Kepner of the New York Times that Phillips, manager Bobby Valentine, and Assistant General Manager Omar Minaya traveled up to Massachusetts to watch Vaughn work out, which was unusual given that Vaughn was under contract with Anaheim. ”I understand it was very positive. I heard that they really liked what they saw,” said one source. That would presumably include Vaughn’s physical shape, despite the slugger’s reported increase from 245 pounds to 275 pounds in his first two seasons with the Halos.
Less than a week later, the Mets agreed to take on Vaughn and the roughly $50MM owed to him over the next three seasons. As part of the deal, the Mets got to defer some of the money paid to the first baseman while the Angels covered the $8MM he was still owed as part of his signing bonus. Meanwhile, they would also part with Appier, who was coming off of an impressive season in his first (and only) campaign in blue and orange. The right-hander posted a 3.57 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9, his best numbers since his time in Kansas City.
Vaughn wasn’t able to mash the ball as well as he had in years past by the time he got to Shea, but the veteran still managed to hit .259/.349/.456 with 26 homers in 139 games in 2002. The 2003 season was an entirely different story, however, as a knee injury in early May would bring his career to a close. Meanwhile, Appier pitched to a 3.92 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 32 starts for the Halos in 2002, helping to propel the Halos to their first World Series title. The Angels wound up releasing Appier the following year as he struggled with a flexor tendon injury, but one has to imagine that they were pretty happy to get out from under the money owed to Vaughn.
This post was originally published in 2012.
Documentary Links Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman, Taylor Teagarden To PED Claims
3:00pm: The Nationals issued a statement with regards to Zimmerman’s involvement in the documentary:
“Ryan Zimmerman has been an integral member of the Washington Nationals family for the past 11 years. During that time, he has been the model for all that we ask our players to be – contributing to his team, to his community, and to the game of baseball.
We do not find Al Jazeera’s report – which has already been recanted by their source – to be credible.
Ryan has unequivocally stated that these allegations are false. The Lerner family and our organization fully support him. We are confident Major League’s Baseball’s investigation will show that the allegations levied in the report are unfounded.
We fully cooperate with MLB, and refer all questions to them at this time.”
Major League Baseball also issued a statement (via Twitter links from Jon Morosi of FOX Sports)
“[MLB] was not made aware of the allegations until yesterday and was provided no information other than what has been reported,” the statement read, adding that the league intends to “conduct a thorough investigation.”
10:30am: Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman and Taylor Teagarden are among the athletes named as allegedly having received banned PEDs in an undercover news documentary from Al Jazeera television (YouTube link).
Al Jazeera conducted a month long investigative report on PEDs in global sports, sending British hurdler Liam Collins undercover. The PED claims come from Collins’ undercover conversations with a former pharmacy intern named Charlie Sly, who says that he previously worked at an Indiana-based anti-aging clinic called the Guyer Institute. Sly told Collins that he sold Howard and Zimmerman a hormone supplement known as Delta-2, which is both specifically designated to evade drug tests and included on Major League Baseball’s list of banned substances. Teagarden, meanwhile, is shown in an undercover video discussing how he took PEDs in the previous season.
MLBTR has a statement from William Burck of Quinn Emanuel, the attorney for both Howard and Zimmerman:
“It’s inexcusable and irresponsible that Al Jazeera would provide a platform and broadcast outright lies about Mr. Howard and Mr. Zimmerman. The extraordinarily reckless claims made against our clients in this report are completely false and rely on a source who has already recanted his claims. We will go to court to hold Al Jazeera and other responsible parties accountable for smearing our clients’ good names.”
In one of his conversations with Al Jazeera’s undercover athlete, Sly went into some detail about the drug regimen that he has laid out for Howard. Sly specifically claims that Howard has taken Delta-2 (“D2”) and says that Howard felt that he had “more explosiveness” as a result.
“He is somebody that you cannot overwhelm with stuff,” Sly told Collins. “You just make sure you have like everything in bags. He knows to take stuff twice a day. Usually I just have him like teach it back to me.”
Sly also opened up about his working relationship with Zimmerman, a player whom Sly claims to have known for “probably six years.” “I worked with him in the offseason. That’s how I get him to change some stuff,” Sly said. Sly went on to answer in the affirmative when asked if Zimmerman has used D2 and also indicated that he has noticed an increase in power as a result.
Teagarden, meanwhile, actually crosses paths with Collins while the two are waiting in the lobby of Sly’s apartment building. When the three men are in Sly’s apartment, Teagarden gets rather specific about his use of Delta-2.
“I used it last year, I was very..I was scared to be honest with you,” Teagarden said. “I took it for like two weeks and I had a test four weeks after my last administration of it. Nothing happened…And I was also taking peptides too but they were all urine tests, no blood tests…Once a year, maybe twice at most.”
Howard and Zimmerman denied using the drug when asked to comment by Al-Jazeera, and several NFL players named in the report (including such notables as Peyton Manning, James Harrison and Mike Neal) also denied using PEDs, as highlighted by our sister NFL site, Pro Football Rumors. Sly himself told Al-Jazeera that his prior statements (or, at least, the characterization of them) were “absolutely false and incorrect.” Sly added that the recordings were made “without [his] knowledge or consent.” In comments made to ESPN, Sly says he was a student intern at the Guyer Institute in 2013, rather than 2011 as alleged by Al Jazeera. Sly told ESPN he was “trying to pull one over on Collins to see if he had any idea of what he was talking about,” dropping names of athletes who were not actually clients.
None of the three baseball players have ever been suspended for PED use or failed any known drug tests. It is yet unknown how MLB or the NFL may respond to this documentary, if at all, though if the allegations are proven, Howard, Zimmerman and Teagarden would presumably be subject to the 80-game suspension given to the first-time offenders of MLB’s drug policy.
Tim Dierkes and Zach Links contributed to this post. Travis Waldron and Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post first detailed some of the documentary’s major news points after watching an advance copy. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
MLBTR Originals
A look back at the original reporting and analysis found on MLBTR the last seven days:
- Mark Polishuk asked readers to predict which one of MLBTR’s top five free agents – Alex Gordon, Justin Upton, Chris Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, and Ian Desmond – will be the next to sign. Nearly 39% of you predicted that Gordon will be the next to put pen-to-paper, followed by Cespedes and Davis. However, recent news has made it seem as though Gordon could be on the shelf for a little while longer. The Royals have reportedly been told that there’s “no chance” they’ll re-sign Gordon if they don’t increase their offer, and recent comments from Arte Moreno seem to suggest that the Angels aren’t a likely destination either.
- Later on, Mark surveyed readers on the next tier of available free agents: Wei-Yin Chen, Kenta Maeda, Dexter Fowler, Scott Kazmir, and Ian Kennedy. Nearly half of readers who participated said that Kazmir would be the first one to sign of those listed. On the other hand, it seems that readers are expecting Ian Kennedy to be waiting for a while. Only 3.67% of readers predicted that the right-hander would be the next man to sign. Kazmir has apparently received offers of three years, but might be holding out hope for four. That could be a sticking point for some teams — the Orioles, for example, might not be willing to sign Kazmir to a four-year deal.
- Charlie Wilmoth ran down the top ten remaining free agents on MLBTR’s list. Charlie provided detailed updates on each of the free agents listed above and his article is highly recommended for anyone looking to get caught up on the current state of the free agent market.
- On Saturday, Mark looked at managers and GMs from around the league who are on expiring contracts. Several teams, including the White Sox, Tigers, Rockies, and Reds, could have vacancies coming up sooner rather than later.
- MLBTR learned that the Hiroshima Toyo Carp have set the release fee for Kenta Maeda at $20MM, the maximum allowed by the agreement between MLB and NPB. Maeda, 28 in April, is widely considered to be one of the best pitchers in Japan.
- If you missed out on the most recent MLBTR chat hosted by Steve Adams, you can check out the transcript here.