Odds & Ends: Ortiz, Smoltz, Sandoval, Westmoreland
Some links to browse, as teams continue to make spring cuts….
- Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe writes (via Twitter) that the Red Sox will not pick up David Ortiz's $12.5MM option for 2011 regardless of what he does this season.
- Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas reports that the Rangers have kept in contact with Khalil Greene, even after voiding his contract last month, though assistant GM Thad Levine says "there were no overtures about coming back and playing."
- Murray Chass interviewed John Smoltz about his future, and the result is an interesting read. "I don't know if I’m going to pitch, but I haven't ruled it out," Smoltz said. "I have a lot of options, and I don't want the options to rule me." Smoltz adds that he laughs at all the "rumors and speculation that’s out there." We won't take it personally.
- In his ESPN Insider blog, Buster Olney expands on a couple tweets he made yesterday, about the Twins' closer situation and the possible appeal of Smoltz.
- John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the Giants haven't entered into any long-term contract negotiations with Pablo Sandoval yet, since he's still a couple years away from being arbitration-eligible.
- Nationals GM Mike Rizzo says that "money has nothing to do with who's going to play and who's not going to play," according to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. This stance is relevant not only for Stephen Strasburg's ETA in the majors, but also for determining Ian Desmond's role. Rizzo suggested that Desmond "is in the running to be an everyday guy."
- Red Sox prospect Ryan Westmoreland will undergo brain surgery, writes Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. Best of luck to Westmoreland.
No Multi-Year Talks For Sandoval
The Giants are not currently looking to give Pablo Sandoval a multi-year contract, writes Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Team official Bobby Evans told Schulman that the club is negotiating a one-year deal with the 23-year-old, as is their custom for players with less than two years of major league service time. Sandoval has just over one year of service time to his credit.
Finding precedent for a player like Sandoval could prove to be difficult. This past season Kung Fu Panda hit .330/.387/.556 with 25 HRs in 633 plate appearances. Last spring, the Giants and Tim Lincecum agreed to a $650K deal, though Tiny Tim had a bit more service time under his belt than Sandoval.
Schulman suggests Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard as comparisons, as they also had brilliant campaigns in their first full seasons. Fielder was renewed for $415K while Howard was given $900K, a record salary for a one-plus player.
Latin Links: Ruiz, Haitian Players, Ramirez
Links in Spanish, because English is so last season…
- Jose Julio Ruiz's new agent Mike Maulini tells Jorge Ebro at Nuevo Herald that the Cuban first baseman made the switch from Jorge Luis Toca after realizing that his much-rumored signing with a major league team was "long overdue." Ruiz had a $2MM offer in hand from Tampa Bay in February, but since then, the market has stagnated and the lefty feared he was in danger of missing his opportunity to play stateside.
- While Haitian baseball prospects exist, don't expect to see any of them signing with Major League teams, writes Juan Mercado in the Dominican newspaper El Dia. He talks with two coaches who complain that the MLB office on the island won't allow promising Haitian players to attend teams' academies because of the difficulty in verifying the players' backgrounds and paperwork. One source tells Mercado that the teams simply "prefer not to waste time" in fruitless investigations, while the two coaches call the policy discriminatory, saying many Cuban and Venezuelan players don't receive the same level of scrutiny. The only current Major Leaguer of Haitian descent is the Orioles' Felix Pie, though he was born in the Dominican.
- Several veteran players were signed during this offseason under the justification of mentoring developing players. But lost in the circle-of-life storyline is the idea that those veterans are being paid for their blunt critical eye. New White Sox backup shortstop Omar Vizquel brings the point home to Luis Rangel of Nuevo Herald when he says that mentee Alexei Ramirez "needs to move his feet when fielding. He has the tendency to stand still and not move to the ball." Ramirez committed 20 errors in his first full season at short, tying for fourth most among major league shortstops.
- Who says winter leagues help keep players in shape for the regular season? Yankees reliever Jonathan Albaladejo tells Esteban Pagan Rivera at Primera Hora that he shed 30 pounds this offseason after the team forbade him from playing in his home country of Puerto Rico. At the other end of the scale sits Pablo Sandoval, whose much-ballyhooed "Camp Panda" proved for naught when he came back from the Venezuelan Winter League in January heavier than when he arrived.
- The Twins signed one of Sandoval's fellow Navegantes of Magallanes in Venezuela, righty reliever Yoslan Herrera, to a minor league deal, confirms Joe Christensen at the Star Tribune. Herrera, who defected from Cuba in 2005, was a highly touted prospect in the Pirates system but disappointed in his only brief showing with the team in 2008. He showed more promise at the Bucs' Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2009 and will start out at Triple-A Rochester for the Twins. The Cuban blog Terreno de Pelota first reported the signing on Tuesday.
Discussion: Pat Burrell
Pat Burrell's move to the American League did not go as smoothly as he or the Rays hoped. Burrell left the World Series-winning Phillies to sign a two-year, $16MM free agent contract with Tampa Bay last January, and then suffered through a season's worth of injuries and inconsistency to finish with a career-worst .682 OPS (.221/.315/.367) in 476 plate appearances.
With $9MM due to Burrell in 2010, the Rays have been openly shopping the slugger this winter. Rumors of a deal of Burrell-for-Milton Bradley swirled for months before the Cubs dealt Bradley to Seattle last week. With seemingly their best trade option gone, it appears as if Tampa Bay will go into next season with Burrell back in the DH spot — which, if 2009 was just an aberration, might not be a bad option given Burrell's 251 homers and .852 OPS over his first nine years in Philadelphia.
If the Rays still want to move Burrell and save some cash, however, here are a few of the clubs that are in need of a DH/LF type and might have the payroll flexibility to absorb some or all of Burrell's contract.
- The Mets. Should they give up on signing Jason Bay (or lose him to the Red Sox), New York would still have a hole to fill in left field. The downside of Burrell going to a National League team, however, is his glove. He played just two games in the outfield last season, and according to Fangraphs, his defense ranged from mediocre to terrible (a -25.2 UZR/150 in 2007) over his last four years in Philadelphia.
- The Cardinals. Just as Burrell is a backup plan for the Mets if they don't sign Bay, he can also be a backup plan for St. Louis if they don't sign Matt Holliday.
- The Braves. Atlanta's biggest offseason need was a right-handed power hitter. While they are close to a deal with Troy Glaus, Glaus made just 32 plate appearances in 2009 after undergoing shoulder surgery last January. Burrell is perhaps a more reliable option, and may regain his batting stroke back in the NL East.
- The White Sox. Ozzie Guillen likes the idea of a rotating designated hitter, but GM Kenny Williams didn't close the door on the possibility of picking up an everyday DH if the right opportunity presented itself.
- The Giants. Mark DeRosa may be coming in as San Francisco's new left fielder, but Burrell could be an interesting alternative should DeRosa not accept the Giants' offer. Or, the power-starved Giants could acquire Burrell to play in left, and then sign DeRosa to play third base, thus moving Pablo Sandoval over to first. (Or, Sandoval plays 1B, DeRosa plays 2B and Freddy Sanchez moves over to 3B.) If the Rays pay some of Burrell's contract, then he is a much cheaper option for San Francisco than Johnny Damon.
Sabean On Lincecum, Sandoval, Bonds, Posey
Giants GM Brian Sabean tells Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that the Giants were determined to draft Tim Lincecum in 2006. Sabean avoided watching him pitch in person because he was worried someone else would take him and he didn't want other teams to know how serious the Giants were. Here are some highlights from the interview:
- Sabean says the Dodgers are the best team in the NL.
- He says the Giants could have used a high-profile player to distract from Barry Bonds once Jeff Kent left.
- Sabean is confident the Giants want to keep him on as GM.
- The Giants aren't sure what position Pablo Sandoval will play long-term.
- Sabean is non-commital on the future of the catcher position. Bengie Molina's a free agent after the season and top prospect Buster Posey has reached Triple A.