Odds And Ends: Lane, Taveras, Cubs, Reyes
Round three from the MLBiverse…
- The Red Sox have signed former Astros outfielder Jason Lane to a minor league deal.
- Troy E. Renck says that Willy Taveras could be moved this winter and speculates that the Nationals might be a good fit if Lastings Milledge is moved from center field.
- Paul Sullivan says the Cubs are not likely to make many changes this winter with only four key free agents. One of those free agents, Ryan Dempster, said that he would prefer to stay with the Cubs.
- Omar Minaya says Al Reyes turned down a major league job with another organization to take the minor league deal with the Mets.
Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com and can be reached here.
Odds and Ends: Lane, K-Rod, Adam LaRoche
Random linkage…
- Jason Lane has agreed to remain a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankee.
- Francisco Rodriguez would like to play nine more seasons. Four or five or those might come with his next contract, which may set a record for a reliever.
- Pirates prospect Steve Pearce is getting some time at first base in Triple A. Despite that development, Dejan Kovacevic says there is no Adam LaRoche trade chatter yet. LaRoche followed up his standard awful April with an .804 OPS in May.
- RotoAuthority looks at the fantasy studs of May.
- SI.com’s Jon Heyman speculates that it’d require at least two of a team’s best young players to get Matt Holliday.
Odds and Ends: Lane, Dodgers, Huntington
A collection of links to browse on this fine Monday.
- Jason Lane can exercise an out clause if he’s not promoted to the bigs today. The 31 year-old outfielder is hitting .248/.340/.485 with 11 home runs in 202 Triple A at-bats.
- The Dodgers hope to acquire a veteran utility infielder as an insurance policy for Rafael Furcal. Any suggestions?
- The Hardball Times’ Mike Lee did an enjoyable interview with Pirates GM Neal Huntington. I have a feeling we’ll get a better grasp on Huntington’s trading abilities within the next few months.
- CBSSports.com added Danny Knobler to their team. He’s always been a good source for inside info on the Tigers.
- RotoAuthority has waiver wire advice at every position.
Yankees Sign Jason Lane
UPDATE, 1-10-08 at 10:34pm: According to Peter Abraham, the Yanks signed Lane to a minor league deal.
FROM 1-10-08 at 8:56am:
The Yankees are looking an affordable option as a possibility at first base. Mike Puma of the New York Times reports that 31 year-old free agent Jason Lane is on the radar.
Puma points out that Lane would have to learn first base, as he hasn’t spent much time there is his career. Lane was a late bloomer, and may have topped out with his 26 home run season in 2005. But this wouldn’t require much of a commitment, so it makes sense to give him a look. The Sports Hernia weighed in on this rumor today, check it out.
Padres Acquire Jason Lane
Ed Wade’s first move as Astros GM was something of a favor to his former boss, Kevin Towers. He dealt 30 year-old outfielder Jason Lane to the Padres for a player to be named later or cash considerations. MLB.com’s Alyson Footer expects the Astros to take the cash.
Lane was featured in our non-tender candidate list written back in August. He has a bit more than three years of service time and makes $1.05MM this year. I believe he’ll reach arbitration for the first time this winter.
The Padres apparently want Lane for more than just this week (he won’t be eligible for the postseason should they make it). Towers says Lane will be in the mix with Scott Hairston and Brian Giles for next year’s outfield. They might use Lane in center field.
So far Lane has a .241/.315/.458 line in about 1200 big league at-bats. The average NL center fielder is hitting .273/.336/.427 this year. If Lane can play to his career averages and not embarrass himself defensively the Padres might have something here. He has some interesting comparables in his list, including Jermaine Dye and Eric Byrnes on the optimistic end. This is a typical Towers stathead-type move. There’s really no downside to it.
Miguel Tejada Trade: Update
Some more quality details on the possible Miguel Tejada trade:
First issue: White Sox payroll. My source is saying that adding Tejada would not be a problem – the team’s board of directors are willing to take the payroll up to $105 million. Should the Orioles accept one of their offers, they’ll still have flexibility for more additions at the July trading deadline as needed.
UPDATE: There was a miscommunication between my source and I about this deal. He was not telling me that the Astros were in on Tejada, but rather Jose Contreras. I’ll go into more detail on this in a separate post. Sorry for the confusion.