Latest Phillies Rumors: Lowell, Rivera, Schilling
Let’s catch up on the rumors and minor moves involving the Phillies recently.
One offseason objective is, of course, third base. Abraham Nunez was an easy buyout decision; Pat Gillick will import a new third baseman this winter one way or another. Phils fans can stop dreaming up A-Rod scenarios; Gillick won’t pursue him. Mike Lowell is the one free agent 3B on the Phils’ radar. While Lowell wouldn’t mind playing in Philly, he made it clear yesterday that Boston remains his first choice. So there’s a good chance Gillick will have to get his man via trade. Scott Lauber names Garrett Atkins and Joe Crede (free agent after ’08, Boras client) as possible targets. We all know how Gillick loves dealing with Kenny Williams (and the Sox can use Josh Fields at third base).
Rod Barajas won’t be retained; Chris Coste will serve as the backup to Carlos Ruiz. A nice, cheap catching tandem.
How about pitching? Randy Miller has a source saying the Phils are targeting a couple of AL East stalwarts – Curt Schilling and Mariano Rivera. To sign Rivera at $12MM per and use Brett Myers in setup seems like a misallocation of resources to me. As for Schilling, Miller says he’s expressed interest in coming back to Philly to finish his career. I like the fit.
Miller also has some very interesting info on Aaron Rowand – he’s looking for a six-year, $84MM contract! Does that mean he ends up with a five-year, $60MM deal? Pretty hefty for a guy coming off a career year. Miller says the Phils won’t go for big-name replacements like Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter.
Finally, Pat Burrell has surfaced as a solid trading chip. He’s left with a reasonable one-year, $14MM commitment, albeit with a full-no trade clause that would require more compensation. How about Burrell to the White Sox for Crede? Phils kick in a couple mil, the White Sox get much-needed OBP for ’08 plus draft picks when Burrell leaves.
Schilling Would Consider Devil Rays In 2008
Curt Schilling acts as his own agent, and he has a list of less than ten teams he’d like to play for in 2008. He actually prefers a one-year deal over two. His main priority, as you might expect, is joining a team with a strong chance to win the World Series. Almost any team in baseball would benefit from signing Schilling to a one-year deal.
But an intriguing possibility surfaced yesterday. Schilling would be open to playing for an up-and-coming young team like the Devil Rays. He’d love to join their rotation and work with young hurlers like Scott Kazmir, Jamie Shields, Andy Sonnanstine, and Edwin Jackson. That could actually make a formidable rotation. Granted it may have just been a throwaway comment by Schilling, made mainly because the Red Sox are in Tampa Bay right now.
Could you imagine if the Devil Rays raised their payroll from the $25MM range to $75MM? They could add Schilling, maybe a Francisco Cordero, and even make Jorge Posada an offer he couldn’t refuse. And they’d still have plenty of cash left over to build some depth.
Schilling Would Still Take $13MM For ’08 From Red Sox
Steve Silva of the Boston Globe writes about Curt Schilling‘s appearance on WEEI this morning in the Extra Bases blog.
Apparently if the Red Sox were to offer Schilling the same $13MM he wanted in the preseason for 2008, he would still accept. Does it still make sense for Epstein to play it safe, and then maybe give Schilling an additional million or two as a penalty? That would be very agreeable to the Red Sox, but then they’d risk losing him.
The concern is that Schilling may experience the same second half decline he did in 2006. But after a closer examination of his last three months of last year, it wasn’t that bad. He was hittable, but his trademark command was still there and he still managed 6.4 innings per start. If that’s the worst case scenario it’s worth tying him up right now.
Cafardo On Curt Schilling
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wants Curt Schilling signed for 2008 right now, but I still think waiting is wise. As I said yesterday, Schilling started off 2006 the same way but his performance really diminished in the second half.
Troy Renck of the Denver Post doesn’t see the Red Sox expending any effort to acquire Todd Helton, which makes sense given the play of Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell. He does mention that Boston still likes Helton, so maybe talks would be revisited if Lowell leaves via free agency this winter. The Rockies, of course, should leave the door permanently open for Boston.
Will Red Sox Rethink Schilling Extension?
Curt Schilling will arguably be the best free agent starter this winter. Carlos Zambrano and Mark Buehrle may be the big names, but those guys will be looking for deals around five years and may not be better than Schilling in 2008 anyway.
When we last checked in on this situation in March, Schilling had no hard feelings towards the Sox but didn’t want to discuss anything until after the season. At that time the Red Sox were his first choice, and I doubt anything has changed. Right now, Schilling for $13MM in 2008 seems like a no-brainer. However, we would’ve said the same thing last year at the All-Star break when he was 10-3 with a 3.60 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. Schilling did wear down a bit in the dog days of summer. If the Red Sox are able to wait but remain the favorite for Schilling, that’s clearly the best choice.
Rosenthal’s Latest
The always-interesting Ken Rosenthal has another column up, chock full of rumory goodness. The man knows how to work the phones like no other. Some highlights:
- Rosenthal considers the possibility that Curt Schilling could be the easy choice for the best available free agent starter after this season, with John Smoltz off the board. Even if Carlos Zambrano is out there, Schill would be a better option for teams looking to go short-term. Rosenthal says the Red Sox could revisit extension talks, even though it seemed just a month ago that Schilling was certain to hit the open market. One year and $13MM still looks pretty solid for the Sox.
- The Orioles may make an offer to Alex Rodriguez, should he opt out of his contract at year’s end. It’s admittedly a longshot, though the O’s did win the bidding for Miguel Tejada back in December of ’03. If not A-Rod, then the Orioles will chase a "premium center fielder." Translation: Ichiro, Andruw, or Torii. Seems unlikely that Corey Patterson, a Scott Boras client, returns to Baltimore in 2008.
- Rosenthal feels that the Tigers are "almost certain" to exercise Ivan Rodriguez‘s $13MM option for 2008. I agree with that one, especially given the $3MM buyout price. If the best available catchers are indeed Michael Barrett and Paul Lo Duca, Barrett has the clear advantage. The Cubs don’t have any catchers in the pipeline (most teams don’t) so I can’t see why they wouldn’t just give him what he wants. Most likely the Cubs would get a discount.
Sockgate
This is another one of those "I know it’s not a trade rumor, but…" type things. Orioles play-by-play guy Gary Thorne asserted last night on the air that Curt Schilling’s sock wasn’t actually bloody, but was painted red for PR effect. It sounds far-fetched, but Thorne insists he heard it from Doug Mirabelli. Mirabelli angrily denied this.
Schilling has yet to respond to the allegation on his blog. As an unbiased, mildly interested third party, I say it was blood. I suppose if we really wanted to be sure they could run some tests on the sock fairly easily. But then someone would be spending time and money to run tests on Curt Schilling‘s sock. There has to be a better use of that scientist’s time.
Mets News and Notes
- The Mets haven’t played baseball since Saturday and the process have not only reshuffled the rotation going forward, but it’s also allowed Rick Peterson four additional bullpen sessions with missing link Oliver Perez. His grasp of the strike zone is in direct correlation with the Mets grasp on the division. The move will mean the Mets go with Perez and rookie Mike Pelfrey against the Braves at Shea over the weekend.
- One of David Wright‘s brothers, Stephen Wright, is a student at Virginia Tech University and had a class in the ill fated building that afternoon. There was a brief scare for the Mets’ third baseman as it was hard to track his brother down amidst the panic.
- Curt Schilling thinks Felix Hernandez has better tools then Dwight Gooden circa 1984.
- Sports Illustrated’s baseball blog "Fungoes", takes a pessimistic look around the NL East.
By Nik Kolidas
Schilling Clears The Air
Curt Schilling has a lengthy post on his blog explaining his situation this spring regarding the Red Sox and his 2008 contract.
It sounds like there were no hard feelings. Schilling surprised the Red Sox by indicating his intention to play in ’08, and the Sox are unwilling to commit $13MM of their free cash to the 40 year-old before seeing him pitch this year. If it was for less money, the deal might’ve been done.
Schilling will hit the market after this season and take the best offer, Yankees not included. The Sox could still bring him back and are his first choice.
I am curious what price would compel the Red Sox to commit now. In a world where 32 starts of crap are worth $7-8MM, it doesn’t seem a stretch for a rich team to overpay a little on a one-year commitment.
Schilling Starts Blogging
Kind of cool to see Curt Schilling blogging.
Click here to see an up-to-date list of baseball players with blogs. Additionally, On the DL tracked down a host of ballplayers with MySpace pages last summer. A few of those might be bogus or private now of course.