Chronicle Rumors: Haren, Blanton, Lincecum
Susan Slusser and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle have an extensive collection of A’s and Giants rumors from Monday’s Winter Meetings mayhem.
- The asking price for Dan Haren is said to be massive, is in 3-4 blue chippers. The Tigers might even be willing to part with both Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin for him – wow. The D’Backs are a bit more gunshy about their top prospects, though most believe Carlos Gonzalez to be available. I imagine Justin Upton is off limits.
- The Dodgers are going the hardest after Joe Blanton, with the Mets trailing.
- Huston Street is likely to stay put and may even talk extension with the A’s.
- The authors don’t expect Brian Sabean to get the Tim Lincecum offer he needs to pull the trigger. But they suggest Sabean’s "interesting" offer could involve Jay Bruce, Edwin Encarnacion, or Alex Rios.
Reds Interested In Tim Lincecum
UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 9:10pm: MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon debunks this rumor, even though three different industry guys were pimping it. The MLB.com team is doing a lot of debunking this evening. Hmm, that sounded dirty for some reason.
FROM 12-3-07 at 3:51pm:
According to MLB.com’s Jim Molony, the Reds are interested in the Giants’ Tim Lincecum (who isn’t). Molony says the Reds won’t include Jay Bruce in any deal, however. Why inquire then? Why would the Giants give up their best player for anything less than the Reds’ top prospect? I guess it didn’t hurt to ask.
At any rate, it’s cool to see teams actually talking about even swaps of young players to fill their needs. So many trades these days are really just poor teams dumping off expensive stars to the rich ones.
Crasnick’s Latest: Encarnacion, Hamilton, Jenkins
ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick has been working hard all day to get us some good rumors. Here’s the latest.
- The Reds want to acquire a starter, but they spent all their money on Francisco Cordero. The plan is to trade a young player for a cheap starter. Joey Votto and especially Jay Bruce would be near impossible to acquire. However the Reds will listen on Josh Hamilton and Edwin Encarnacion. They never seemed to like Encarnacion. Crasnick thinks the Cubs could work for Hamilton but they’d need to pony up more than Sean Marshall. Would Rich Hill be too much? It’s been said in the past that the Rangers inquired on Hamilton. The Giants, meanwhile, would love to pry Encarnacion loose – Noah Lowry anyone?
- The Phillies and Rays spoke to Geoff Jenkins‘ agent today, and the Padres and Rangers have their eye on him as well. A poor free agent market for corner outfielders may result in a two or even a three-year deal for Jenkins.