A-Rod Deal Looks Close
Yahoo’s Tim Brown has quietly been doing a fine job gathering info about Alex Rodriguez‘s dealings with the Yankees. Here’s a link to yesterday’s column, and here’s today’s. A summary follows.
- The base of the contract is ten years, $275MM. There are also performance incentives that can bring the value higher.
- The third party Rodriguez sent to initiate contact with the Steinbrenners was Mitch Modell, the sporting goods guy.
- The whole idea of the Yankees trying to bar Scott Boras or A-Rod having strife with Boras appears false. Everyone’s on good working terms, and the events of yesterday may even have been orchestrated by Boras. John Harper paints a very different story based on his sources, so you’ll have to decide who to believe.
- Brown suggests a contract announcement could come on Monday at the same time Rodriguez is named AL MVP.
Dodgers To Seek Pitching Via Trade
Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times has some insight into Ned Colletti’s gameplan this offseason.
Colletti still isn’t a fan of the free agent market for starting pitchers. He feels that the Dodgers’ best chance of upgrading the rotation is via trade. Though the Dodgers have been previously linked to Hiroki Kuroda, Colletti seemed unimpressed by the Japanese market. Trade options might include Erik Bedard, A.J. Burnett, Cliff Lee, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, Johan Santana, Dan Haren, Joe Blanton, Chris Capuano, and Dave Bush. Did I miss anyone?
As far as third base, Colletti says the Dodgers haven’t decided whether to go after Alex Rodriguez. He was able to tolerate Scott Boras enough to talk with him briefly last week. The other options for the Dodgers would be Mike Lowell and Miguel Cabrera. Giving Andy LaRoche a try wouldn’t be a terrible idea.
It sounds like the Dodgers really want to sign a center fielder and move Juan Pierre over. It seems that Colletti will investigate the Big Three among free agent center fielders. Him being on OK terms with Boras bodes well for the Andruw Jones possibility.
Second base is still unresolved, and Colletti could go for Luis Castillo if Jeff Kent retires. Kent’s agent shot down the whole Larry King thing. Tony Abreu makes for a fine internal fallback.
Tigers Could Lose Rogers, Move On To Silva
Leave it to Scott Boras to be unsatisfied with Kenny Rogers‘ declarations that he will either play for the Tigers or retire. Boras told Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski yesterday that Rogers wanted to explore the open market.
The Tigers remain Rogers’ first choice, but Boras wants to be make sure the the 43-year old southpaw is paid at a level commensurate with his peers. To Boras that would be the Maddux-Schilling-Glavine range, which is roughly $10MM. Rogers earned $8MM in 2007, and is probably a tad less appealing than that trio. According to Jon Paul Morosi (linked above), the Mariners and Rangers would be in the mix if the Tigers couldn’t get something done.
Dombrowski won’t let the Rogers wrinkle stop him from pursuing other pitchers. Morosi says the Tigers have already expressed interest in Carlos Silva. Wow, that list is growing rapidly.
The team’s other focus is relief pitching, given Joel Zumaya‘s injury. They still want to re-sign Todd Jones, and Matt Mantei is a mildly interesting wild card. Morosi added today that the Tigers have talked to the Rockies about Brian Fuentes. Morosi says relievers from the Cubs and Pirates could also be available – I’m guessing Ryan Dempster, Will Ohman, Damaso Marte, and Salomon Torres. An intriguing trade option: Jose Valverde.
Mets Rumors: A-Rod, Kim, Silva, Kuroda
Plenty of new hot stove talk involving the Mets. Let’s get into it.
- First off, there’s the fact that Omar Minaya met with Scott Boras yesterday. Minaya says he talked to Boras about all the players he represents. Besides Mr. Rodriguez, Eric Gagne, Byung-Hyun Kim, Kenny Rogers, and Kyle Lohse may be considerations for the Mets. Indeed, there is some buzz that the Mets could bring Kim in to compete for a rotation spot.
- So what about A-Rod? He’d cost the Mets a ton of money, plus the #22 overall pick in the 2008 draft. It sounds like the Mets may hear Boras out as a courtesy, and even put in an offer they feel is reasonable. That number might fall far short of what it will take, as did theirs for Daisuke Matsuzaka and Barry Zito a year ago. That said, Mets insiders aren’t afraid of the full retail price of Rodriguez.
- The top priority remains pitching. Carlos Silva, Tom Glavine, Hiroki Kuroda, and A.J. Burnett are on the radar. On the relief side, Chad Cordero and Jon Rauch could again be in the mix. The Nats’ are said to have their eye on Carlos Gomez and Mike Pelfrey. Gomez is a hot topic these days – the Twins want him too, and could offer up Matt Garza, Kevin Slowey, or Scott Baker.
Scott Boras Clients
CHECK OUT OUR UPDATED 2008 LIST OF SCOTT BORAS CLIENTS.
I was recently asked to list which free agents have Scott Boras as their agent. Without further ado, here it is (thanks to MLB4U). Let me know if I missed any free agents or non-tenders!
Ben Broussard*
Bruce Chen
Eric Gagne
Jose Hernandez
Andruw Jones
Byung-Hyun Kim
Travis Lee
Kyle Lohse
Rodrigo Lopez
Greg Maddux
Corey Patterson
Mark Prior*
Alex Rodriguez
Kenny Rogers
Julian Tavarez
Ron Villone
Jeff Weaver
Brad Wilkerson
*Free agent if non-tendered
Cashman Takes Firm Stance On A-Rod
When we last heard from him eight days ago, Brian Cashman left himself some wiggle room to negotiate with Alex Rodriguez even if he opts out in November and the Yankees lose the Texas money. The implication then was that higher-ranking club officials could overrule Cashman’s recommendation.
Yesterday, after the Yankees’ meeting of the minds in Tampa, Cashman took a firmer stance:
If Alex Rodriguez opts out of his contract then we will not participate in free agency. That is accurate and that is definitive.
Why this is being aired out in public I’m not sure, but at this point the Yankees will seem kind of stupid if they do negotiate with Rodriguez after he opts out. It really seems that they’re not kidding about not wanting to lose the Texas money or enter a bidding war. Meanwhile Scott Boras just spent three full days convincing A-Rod to opt out. However, Ken Davidoff believes that rather than opt out, A-Rod will sign an extension amounting to $297MM over nine seasons.
George King also revealed that Bobby Abreu‘s $16MM option is at the bottom of the queue. The Yanks will make decisions on Joe Torre, A-Rod, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada first.
Odds and Ends: Wakefield, Guillen, Lowell
Some random rumorage not quite worthy of individual posts…
- Jeff Goldberg of the Hartford Courant speculates that Tim Wakefield could be making his final start for Boston tonight. With Wakefield, the Red Sox possess one of the most lopsided contracts in baseball history. They have a perpetual $4MM club option with him, one that never goes away until they decline it. But $4MM is nothing to the Sox, and Wakefield was certainly worth that much in ’07. They’ll exercise it.
- The Mariners were once close to an extension for Jose Guillen, but currently it’s on the backburner. Even if the team exercises his $9MM option, Guillen can and probably will void it. He’s going to want at least three years, $30MM. The Mariners could get by without him.
- Mike Lowell has more Philly connections than I realized. The Phils definitely seem like his second choice if the Red Sox let him go. I think the Phillies should just sign Mike Lamb and spend the excess money on pitching.
- Neal Huntington’s first move: a waiver claim of Kevin Thompson. It’s over now.
- Joel Pineiro gets a $500K signing bonus, $5MM in ’08, and $7.5MM in ’09. Originally he wanted to test the market, but he appreciated the Cardinals giving him a chance.
- John Schuerholz found Scott Boras’ suggestions obnoxious and idiotic. Also, Steve Phillips comments on the A-Rod/Mets situation back in 2000.
Odds and Ends: A-Rod, Boras, Pettitte
Early Monday morning reading material…
- Interesting article in the New York Daily News regarding Scott Boras and Alex Rodriguez. Boras insists that many of his clients have not taken the largest deal offered to them, giving examples. The article also touches upon recent Boras clients connected to performance-enhancing drugs (Rick Ankiel and Scott Schoeneweis). Boras’ agency is known for its obsessive attention to detail for all of its clients, and seeing a few of them busted raises some questions.
- Last winter, we discussed the possibility of Hiroki Kuroda coming over from Japan. Well, he’s a free agent again, and Nick Cafardo is wondering if 2008 will be the year. Cafardo also noted that Daisuke Matsuzaka did not earn the Red Sox nearly as much marketing revenue as Scott Boras suggested.
- Newsday’s Ken Davidoff says Andy Pettitte intends to exercise his $16MM player option for 2008. Davidoff points out that Pettitte has the same deadline for this decision as A-Rod has for his opt-out. Davidoff also mentions that Roger Clemens‘ most likely destination for 2008 appears to be back in Houston, if he plays.
- You’ve probably heard by now that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner will have final say on baseball decisions (especially Hank). Hank will insist Joba Chamberlain be used as a starter in ’08, heightening the need to re-sign Mariano Rivera.
- The Hardball Times tries to place dollar values on some top free agents, plus Adam Dunn.
Andruw Likely Gone
Update: Keith Law just predicted Torii Hunter will make 16MM/year in Texas. That gels with what Andruw’s seeking.
Tim discussed The Andruw Jones Situation recently and whether he’d accept a 1-year deal or a 5-year hometown discount. Now, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution discusses the inevitable departure of Andruw Jones here and here.
Despite Andruw coming off career-worst season of hitting .222 with 26 homeruns and 94 RBIs, Scott Boras has said there’s "no way" he’ll accept a 1-year deal. Instead, he’s seeking a contract at the "fair-market value" of $17-20 million per year. That’s Vernon Wells-esque. And why not? Wells has yet to approach Andruw’s career production. And it’s always easy to forget after 12 years in the bigs that Andruw Jones is only 30.
Jones has three games left on his contract that paid him $75MM over the last 6 years, a real hometown discount. Boras has made it known they have no interest in taking another one.
With the Braves’ desire to re-sign their new-darling Mark Teixeira after next season, who in the interim will command around $12MM in arbitration, along with salary increases for John Smoltz, Tim Hudson and other arbitration eligible players, Boras’ demands seem to indicate the unthinkable: An Atlanta without Andruw.
Posted By: Nat Boyle
Andruw Jones and the Nationals
When we last considered the idea of the Nats signing Andruw Jones, it was April and he seemed in line for a six or seven year contract. The idea of bringing in Andruw was to create some goodwill with the fans through some rebuilding years, a la the Gil Meche signing in Kansas City. The consensus of the commenters at MLBTR was that this was a bad idea.
Mark Zuckerman of the Washington Times re-started this conversation yesterday. He notes that center field is still the Nats’ most obvious need. Sorry, Nook. Of course there’s the Stan Kasten connection and the new ballpark.
However there is now one difference from our April discussion: Jones had an awful 2007 season. His .314 OBP and .419 SLG are both his second-worst career marks. Overall in his career he’s at .263/.342/.498. I’d expect something more like that next year.
Andruw will be 31 when the ’07 season starts. Given the decent-sized class of free agent center fielders, Scott Boras may apply an old tactic and get Jones a make-good one-year, $15MM deal to rebuild his value. But many clubs could entertain a low-risk type offer, and maybe someone would cough up $20MM.
We’ve seen one-year deals in the past when clients didn’t get the offers their agents wanted. Examples:
- Ivan Rodriguez isn’t the perfect example I’d originally thought. Back in the winter of 2002-03, Rodriguez was 31 and coming off a strong season – .314/.353/.542 in 408 ABs. His agent was Jeff Moorad at the time. The Cubs and Orioles had interest, with the O’s offering three years at $6MM per. Pudge wanted $11MM annually, and even bluffed about playing in Japan. Eventually he went to the Marlins for one-year, $10MM, and led them to glory. The Fish thought about offering 3/21 after that but Rodriguez switched to Boras and got 4/40 from Detroit.
- Jeff Weaver had a strong 2005 season for the Dodgers, racking up his second consecutive 220 inning season and winning 14 games. Interest was strangely tepid, so Weaver went to the Angels for $8.4MM and one year. At that time it seemed like a nice move for L.A. World Series heroics couldn’t snag Weaver a big contract last offseason, so he signed the same one-year deal with Seattle. He should really try to rebuild his value in the NL.
- The strategy worked perfectly for Kevin Millwood. Elbow issues cut his 2004 season short so he jumped to the Tribe for one year and $7MM in ’05. All he did for the Indians was win the AL ERA title. That earned him a big ol’ 5/60 deal from Texas.
- Bengie Molina was coming off his best year, a .295/.336/.446 performance for the Angels in 2005. The Mets apparently offered him 3/18, but then traded for Paul Lo Duca. Other suitors dropped out and Molina had to sign with Toronto for one year, $5MM in February. He had another good year and the Giants liked him for 3/16 the following offseason.