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Miguel Batista

Rosenthal’s Latest: Mariners, Young, Shouse

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Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports compiles a number of rumors from around the majors:

  • The Mariners need to free up money, but to do so, they’d likely have to trade one of Adrian Beltre, Jarrod Washburn or Miguel Batista. All three will be free agents after the season, but moving one of them would be "extremely difficult."
  • The Mariners and Yankees considered a Hideki Matsui-Washburn swap, but Matsui’s contract ($13MM) pays him more than Washburn’s ($10.35MM) so they didn’t find a match.
  • The Twins are looking to move Delmon Young.
  • They showed interest in Washburn last year, but only some of Rosenthal’s sources believe he and Delmon Young could be the foundation for a larger deal.
  • Rosenthal has a source who says the Yankees are not currently pursuing Juan Cruz. Yesterday, we had a discussion about the rules regarding free agent quotas.
  • The Yanks like their bullpen, but they could try to add an arm if they trade Xavier Nady or Nick Swisher.
  • The Rays are making a strong run at Brian Shouse.
  • The Orioles would not likely have to give up much more than a low-level prospect to deal for Rich Hill.

Stark’s Latest: Braves, Robertson, Igawa

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Jayson Stark has a new Rumblings and Grumblings column up.  Let’s take a look.

  • While Greg Maddux is not out of the question, the Braves are more interested in a younger starter they can control for multiple years.
  • One possibly available starter who hasn’t gotten much buzz: Nate Robertson.  The 30 year-old southpaw hasn’t pitched well since ’06, and he’s signed through 2010.
  • The Mariners will probably talk about Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn, but not Erik Bedard.  No big surprise there.  Both Batista and Washburn are signed through ’09.
  • Stark rattles off a bunch of available relievers.  Mostly names you’d expect, but click through and take a look.
  • Kei Igawa, signed through 2011, asked the Yankees if they could find a way to ship him back to Japan during the winter.  They couldn’t find a way to make it work.

Cardinals Have Work To Do

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Joe Strauss has had several insightful articles lately about the future of the Cardinals.  Let’s discuss.

  • The Cardinals have $83.8MM committed to 12 players for 2008.  Even worse, they don’t know what they’re going to get out of Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, Juan Encarnacion, and Mark Mulder. They are spending $45MM on those five and may get very little production.
  • Next year’s payroll may approach $115MM on the high end, but that doesn’t mean the Cards have $30MM to burn.  Their 0-3 guys will earn roughly $5MM in aggregate, and the arbitration-eligible group may run another $5MM even if a few are cut loose.  So I’m thinking more like $20MM to burn, and Walt Jocketty will have to stretch that money pretty far.
  • The Cardinals need a power hitter, two starters, and a shortstop.  Tony La Russa, if he returns, won’t be "going young."
  • Joel Pineiro could be one of the starters, but if the Cards view him as a cheap #5 they’re going to be disappointed.  He’ll get paid.
  • An earlier Strauss article has a couple of rumors of note.  We learned that the Cards were fairly close to signing Miguel Batista last winter and almost traded Anthony Reyes to the Phillies this summer.

Here’s what I see happening this winter.  The Cards will fill the rotation spots with one mid-level signing and one cheaper wild card type guy.  I could see a Carlos Silva being paired with a Matt Clement.  Randy Wolf could fill the wild card role if the Dodgers won’t have him back.

It might make sense to fill the shortstop hole and need for a power bat in one fell swoop.  On the surface it seems like Miguel Tejada would fit the bill and Edgar Renteria wouldn’t, though Renteria outslugged Tejada this year.  Regardless I expect the Cardinals to make an aggressive push for one of them (Larry Borowsky of Viva El Birdos got me thinking along these lines).

Mariners Sign Miguel Batista

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UPDATE:  The Mariners have signed Batista for three years and $24MM+, pending a physical.

Ken Rosenthal has cranked out another column chock full of good rumors.

He expects Miguel Batista to sign with the Mariners, for a contract exceeding three years and $24MM.

Also, a couple of former teams of Jeff Suppan’s want him back.  The Pirates and Royals are both showing interest, with a four-year contract expected.  Of course, we expected Gil Meche to get four years.  Rosenthal also names the Giants, Astros, and Mets as teams on the fringes for the righty.

The Rangers could ship out Akinori Otsuka, an idea made more possible if they sign Eric Gagne.  Young pitching is the target. 

The Astros could acquire Jason Jennings or Rodrigo Lopez; Luke Scott appears available.

Paul Sullivan On Cubs Hot Stove

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Could the hiring of Gerald Perry as hitting coach signal an era of change in Chicago?  Thus far Jim Hendry has made a point of ignoring the free pass, but Perry is said to encourage a little patience.  Of course, Oakland’s walk mandate was organization-wide so we can’t give Perry all the credit.

Anyway, Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune has the word on the Cubs’ latest hot stove dealings.

– Final offer for Aramis Ramirez will probably come in Saturday night.

– The Cubs wouldn’t mind adding Dave Roberts as the new leadoff man.  He walks at about 10% of the time, which is nice. 

– They may also consider bringing Miguel Batista back to serve as the fifth starter.  Batista was last seen in Chicago as a 26 year-old starter with control issues.  The Cubs traded him in ’97 for Henry Rodriguez.  Now Batista is a 36 year-old starter with a tad better control.  You could do worse for a #5; he keeps the ball on the ground.

– Sullivan’s sources close to Carlos Lee say that the North Side is the slugger’s preferred destination – not Houston.  We had been hearing this talk in Chicago papers for a while but the Houston hype has drowned it out lately.

– The Cubs have interest in Jason Schmidt at four years or less.  I would hope that’d be the breaking point – five years would be truly absurd.

Buzz Around The Game

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Believe it or not, there’s a ton of stuff going on today that doesn’t involve the words "Prior" or "Tejada."

A tentative Troy Glaus trade has been reached.  The Diamondbacks dumped Glaus and his contract on the Blue Jays for Orlando Hudson and Miguel Batista.  Brandon Webb, far and away the most extreme groundball pitcher in baseball, benefits greatly from the addition of Hudson.  Another effect is the breakup of a highly rated defensive infield, at least in the eyes of Dayn Perry.  The Blue Jays now have a logjam of 1B/3B/DH guys, and Rosenthal speculates that Shea Hillenbrand is the most likely to go.  Should Shea stay true to his word, he’ll be a nice pickup.  It’s a homecoming for Miguel Batista; let’s hope the team correctly employs him as a starter.  Even with Glaus gone, the Diamondbacks still haven’t cleared up a corner outfield spot for #1 prospect Carlos Quentin.  The kid’s more than ready; let’s hope GM Josh Byrnes can unload Luis Gonzalez or Shawn Green as his next trick.   

Jason Johnson makes a sweet pickup for the Indians’ rotation.  Like Millwood last year, the Indians found a starting pitcher and only had to commit to one year.  In Paul Byrd, Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia, Jake Westbrook, and Johnson, the Tribe has built a deep rotation.  Combined, the five of them threw 1023 innings in 2005.  Seems Mark Shapiro has taken a page from Kenny Williams’s book, especially considering that he also has an excellent bullpen in place.

The Cards snagged Juan Encarnacion and Junior Spivey.  The reaction at Viva El Birdos to the revamped 2006 lineup:

"To be honest and blunt, i don’t see a single position where the Cardinals have meaningfully improved." 

That sentiment includes the bullpen and starting rotation as well.  Which reminds me – how can the Cardinals possibly justify blocking Anthony Reyes with Sidney Ponson?  The Ponson signing means one of three things:

1.  There are concerns about Reyes’s health that have not been revealed to the public.
2.  Jason Marquis will be traded this winter.
3.  Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan are so loathe put a rookie starter out there every fifth day that they’d prefer yet another fixer-upper.  Even if said fixer-upper had a 5.64 ERA over his last 346 innings.

Cardinals fans have got to be hoping for option #2.

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