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Cafardo On Gonzalez, V-Mart, Rangers, Nishioka

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Let's take a look at the latest from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe….

  • Cafardo suggests the money the Red Sox could have spent on Victor Martinez may be used to make a bigger splash. He speculates that splash could involve trading for Adrian Gonzalez and signing him to an extension, but ESPN.com's Buster Olney (Insider-only link) still expects the Padres to begin the 2011 season with Gonzalez on their roster.
  • One National League GM on Boston deciding not to match the Tigers' offer for Martinez: "He really rakes lefthanded pitching. That was the strange thing about the Red Sox for me — that in a division where there are so many good lefthanded pitchers, Martinez hit them at a .400 clip [in 2010]. Big, big loss for the Red Sox."
  • One option the Rangers are discussing internally, in the event they can't sign Cliff Lee, is moving Neftali Feliz to the rotation and signing a closer such as Rafael Soriano.
  • Olney reported earlier this week that rival executives view the Rangers as the team with the best shot at acquiring Zack Greinke. Cafardo hears the same thing, noting that Engel Beltre is "often mentioned as trade bait."
  • As we heard when the Twins won the bidding for Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the Red Sox were also involved. According to Cafardo, Boston's bid was about $2.3MM, and their interest in the Japanese shortstop was "marginal." With Jed Lowrie and Jose Iglesias already in the organization, Nishioka didn't make a ton of sense for the club.
  • Cafardo expects the Padres, Red Sox, or Indians to hire Josh Byrnes in the near future.

Cubs Looking At Several Veteran Starters

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The Cubs have five starters tentatively pencilled into their 2011 rotation, but given the number of question marks on that staff, it's understandable that the team is looking to add a veteran innings-eater to the fold.  ESPN.com's Jason A. Churchill reports that Chicago has "shown interest" in Jeremy Bonderman, Aaron Harang, Kevin Millwood and Javier Vazquez, and also cites a Chicago Sun-Times item connecting the team to Vicente Padilla.  Churchill says the Cubs "kicked the tires on" Jon Garland before the right-hander signed with the Dodgers.

All five starters would make sense as low-cost additions; Vazquez has reportedly turned down a two-year, $20MM offer but it seems like he's more likely to end up in Florida or Washington than in Chicago.  The Cubs are probably looking for a short-term deal, and Garland's $5MM pact with L.A. would likely be a good comparison point.  That $5M salary (plus incentives and a 2012 vesting option) would likely be enough to land Millwood or Harang, and Bonderman would leap at that offer given his injury-riddled recent history. 

Padilla is coming off the most solid season of the group and could command a bit more money or a second year, though he made only 16 starts in 2010 due to various nagging injuries.  Churchill cites the Mets, Padres and Pirates as other teams that could use a starter that fits Padilla's profile.

Bonderman, Millwood and Vazquez all landed on Luke Adams' list of free agent pitchers that could benefit from a move to the NL, though pitching in a hitter-friendly park like Wrigley Field might not be what they had in mind.  As we saw with the Garland signing, teams that play in pitcher's parks will have an advantage in finding extra arms for their rotation, especially when it comes to a pitchers like Bonderman or Harang who are trying to rebuild value.

Speaking of rebuilding value, there's also a chance that the Cubs could look at a higher-ceiling starter such as Brandon Webb.  Fanhouse's Ed Price hears from a source that Chicago is "seriously considering" Webb.  The former Cy Young Award winner has also drawn interest from several other teams, but the Cubs could be helped by the fact that Chicago is relatively close to Webb's home in Kentucky.

Matching The Team To The Stadium

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Fenway Park has the Green Monster, Coors Field has the humidor, and Minute Maid Park has the Crawford Boxes. Lots of stadiums have quirks or tendencies that favor certain kinds of players and big league executives are well aware of it. MLB GMs say they prefer to have players whose skill sets match their parks, but that's just one consideration when constructing a roster.

The Tigers, for example, play 81 games per season in spacious Comerica Park, so GM Dave Dombrowski says he looks for outfielders who can cover lots of ground whenever possible.

"Fortunately we have an outstanding defensive center fielder now in Austin Jackson," Dombrowski told MLBTR last week in Orlando. "But you know you have to have an outstanding center fielder in Comerica Park who can really go get the ball or it’ll hurt you a great deal."

Jackson, Brennan Boesch and Ryan Raburn will be in the Tigers organization in 2011, but longtime right fielder Magglio Ordonez is a free agent, so the Tigers may look to acquire a corner outfielder via trade or free agency. If they do, Comerica Park will be a factor.

"Even your corner outfielders, it’s hard to get just a guy who is a stationary type guy because our outfield’s big, so we take it into consideration quite a bit,” Dombrowski said.

Like Comerica Park, San Diego's Petco Park has a larger than average outfield. And Padres GM Jed Hoyer acquired former Tigers prospect Cameron Maybin partly because his athleticism should make the club better defensively.

"Having a big station to station team that plays poor defense doesn’t seem like a recipe for success given the ballparks we play in,” Hoyer said.

No team adds or subtracts players purely because of their ballpark and the Padres are no exception. But because of the unbalanced schedule, Hoyer is intent on fielding a team that can cover lots of ground at Petco.

"We play 81 games there, we play nine in AT&T Park, we play nine in Dodger Stadium, the outfield in Coors Field is huge so you start adding it up and the number of games we play in big fields is a lot and we need to be fast," Hoyer said.

Similarly, some teams in homer-friendly ballparks are inclined to acquire pitchers who keep the ball on the ground. Camden Yards has been one of baseball's five friendliest home run environments for four years running, according to ESPN's park factors, and the Orioles front office knows how their home stadium plays. As president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail points out, you can't hit a ground ball out of the park.

"We do pay attention to [ground ball rate], we definitely factor it in," MacPhail said. "All things being equal it’s a positive, but it’s not a sole driver in terms of what we do."

If the O's really did make decisions completely based on ground ball rate, they would not have signed Koji Uehara, who was effective in 2010 despite allowing 2.5 times as many fly balls as ground balls. Instead, park factors are one element of the team's decision-making process.

"If we think we can find the right guy even if he doesn’t have that [ground ball] number that would be ideal, we’ll [consider him],” MacPhail said.

Odds & Ends: Rasmus, Gilbert, Nishioka, Hoffman

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MLBTR wishes all of its American readers a very happy Thanksgiving.  For those readers not from the USA…uh, happy Thursday!  Onto some news items:

  • "Three contending clubs" have a "persisting interest" in Colby Rasmus, tweets Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Strauss noted in a follow-up tweet that these are teams with a "new interest," so presumably that eliminates past suitors like the Braves, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and White Sox.  The Rasmus rumor mill seemed to have petered out, with the most recent report stating that there was a 99% chance that Rasmus would still be in St. Louis next season.
  • Dennis Gilbert will not try to buy the Houston Astros, reports Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com.  Gilbert led a group bidding for the Rangers earlier this year and has been rumored to be a potential future ownership candidate for the Dodgers.
  • The Twins are "very much in on" Tsuyoshi Nishioka, tweets Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman.  We heard last week that Minnesota had an interest in the Japanese infielder.
  • When Kevin Towers was general manager of the Padres, he planned to eventually bring Trevor Hoffman back to San Diego so the future Hall-of-Fame closer could retire as a Padre, tweets Fanhouse.com's Tom Krasovic.  Though Towers has moved on to Arizona, Krasovic says there's a chance Hoffman could still return to San Diego now that Sandy Alderson and Paul DePodesta are no longer with the organization.
  • Bill James talks to CBSSports.com's Evan Brunell about a variety of topics, including the new Mets front office, the Justin Upton trade rumors and what the Royals should do with Zack Greinke.
  • Joe Pawlikowski of the River Ave Blues blog wishes the Derek Jeter negotiations moved as smoothly as Mike Mussina's contract talks with the Yankees after the 2006 season.

Odds & Ends: Bigbie, Jeter, Hoffman, Tigers

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Five years ago today, the Red Sox acquired Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett in the blockbuster trade that sent Hanley Ramirez to Florida. As I explained a year ago, that deal worked out pretty well for both clubs. Here are today's links…

  • Seven American League teams watched Larry Bigbie work out recently, MLBTR has learned. The teams have interest in the 33-year-old as a corner outfielder/DH.
  • Jon Heyman of SI.com weighs in on the Derek Jeter contract talks and says the Yankees can't take the chance that Jeter walks out on them, even if it costs them an extra year or a few more million.
  • ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick compares the GM-manager relationships for Chicago's two teams.
  • Some baseball people people are convinced that Trevor Hoffman will return to San Diego, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney. The expectation among GMs is that the Padres will trade Heath Bell by next year’s trade deadline.
  • The Tigers are still seen as serious bidders for outfielders, according to Olney.

Cardinals, Giants, Padres Interested In Tejada

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The Cardinals, Giants and Padres are expressing varying degrees of interest in Miguel Tejada, according to Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes (link in Spanish). Some teams see Tejada as a shortstop and others see him as a third baseman, according to Rojas' source.

The 36-year-old played 58 games at short for the Padres after they acquired him from Baltimore, where he was playing third base. The Giants are focused on finding a shortstop and the Cardinals could use middle infield help.

Tejada could have earned a raise from his 2010 salary of $6MM had the Padres offered arbitration. The Padres did not offer arbitration, so teams will not have to surrender a pick to sign Tejada, a Type A free agent.

The six-time All-Star batted .269/.312/.381 with 15 homers between Baltimore and San Diego last year. He appeared in over 150 games for the 11th time in 12 seasons.

National League Free Agent Arbitration Offers

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11 National League teams have free agent arbitration offer decisions to make, and we'll group them in this post.  For a fantastic customizable chart with all 65 Type A/B free agents and their decisions in real-time, click here.

Rosenthal On Greinke, Reynolds, Rhodes

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The latest from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports…

  • Rosenthal wonders if Zack Greinke will change his opinion of the Royals in Spring Training when he sees how close many of their prospects are.  Rosenthal says the Royals have no urgency to deal Greinke, though ESPN's Buster Olney writes that "some rival general managers are convinced the Royals are intent on moving Greinke this winter."
  • Mark Reynolds is a "trade possibility under discussion" for the Orioles, depending on how their offseason unfolds.  We heard from Yahoo's Tim Brown on November 10th that the Diamondbacks are shopping Reynolds and "looking for contact hitters and bullpen help."  You'd have to think the D'Backs would want David Hernandez from the Orioles.
  • Rosenthal feels that a Heath Bell trade would not happen until after free agents like Rafael Soriano and J.J. Putz sign, if at all.
  • The Reds do not want to offer arbitration to Type A free agent Arthur Rhodes, but they could re-sign him this week.  Check out Rhodes' free agent stock watch piece here.     
  • One GM Rosenthal spoke to thought Joaquin Benoit's lucrative contract could discourage teams from offering arbitration to relievers such as Jason Frasor and Grant Balfour, because if they accept they could use Benoit as a comparable for their 2011 salaries.  On the other hand, I think teams could be more inclined to offer arbitration knowing relievers might turn it down in hopes of finding a multiyear deal on the open market.
  • The Rays' payroll is very limited, so they won't be spending much on a free agent closer type.
  • Rosenthal writes, "Suggestions that the Pirates are pursuing major free agents such as outfielder Jayson Werth appear greatly off-base."  I've yet to see any writer make a Pirates-Werth connection, but SI's Jon Heyman has said they've been aggressive in making free agent calls so far.

Odds & Ends: Padres, Choo, Willis, Guillen

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Links for Monday night. with just one day remaining for teams to determine whether to offer arbitration to their ranked free agents…

Cardinals, Padres Interested In Bartlett

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The Cardinals and Padres are among the teams showing some interest in Jason Bartlett, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. The Nationals, Giants and Orioles also reportedly have interest in the Rays shortstop. 

As Morosi notes, we should soon learn which team won the bidding for Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Once the Rays know which teams missed out on Nishioka, they’ll be better-positioned to consider offers for Bartlett. 

The 31-year-old earned $4MM in 2010 and will likely earn over $5MM through arbitration in 2011, his final season before hitting free agency. After a 2009 season in which he hit .320/.389/.490, Bartlett slumped to .254/.324/.350 in 2010. His career line (.281/.345/.385) suggests he's capable of bouncing back in 2011.

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