Giants Notes: Jeter, Fontenot, Uribe, Tejada
The Giants have agreed to a deal with Miguel Tejada and may still be pursuing a deal for Jason Bartlett. Here's the latest on GM Brian Sabean's search for infielders:
- The Giants contacted Derek Jeter's agent, according to the Wall Street Journal, but Brian Sabean explained to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle that team's discussions with Casey Close revolved around another client, Mike Fontenot. (Twitter link). Fontenot, a non-tender candidate, would earn over $1MM next winter if the Giants tender him a contract.
- Before the Dodgers signed former Giant Juan Uribe, San Francisco offered the infielder a three-year deal worth $20MM, according to Schulman (on Twitter). That's $1MM less than the Dodgers offered and $5MM less than Uribe was asking for.
- The Giants weren't the only NL West team to lose an infielder to a division rival this week. The Padres spoke to Miguel Tejada's agent today, but weren't willing and/or able to match the Giants' $6.5MM offer, according to Dan Hayes of the North County Times (on Twitter).
Mets Interested In Chris Young
9:10pm: The Mets may have interest in Young, but they aren't nearing a deal with him, according to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. Young told CBS Sports' Scott Miller he's talking to the Mets and seven or eight other teams, including the Padres.
6:24pm: The Mets are closing in on a deal with right-hander Chris Young, ESPN.com's Buster Olney hears (on Twitter). Young has been offered multiple incentive-laden one-year deals, according to Yahoo's Jeff Passan (on Twitter). The signing would be Sandy Alderson's first major deal as Mets GM and it would reunite him with a player he had in San Diego as the Padres' CEO.
Johan Santana will probably miss the beginning of the season, so the Mets were looking to add depth behind Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese and R.A. Dickey.
Young battled through shoulder issues in 2010 and he appeared in just four games. He allowed only two earned runs and 11 walks in 20 innings for the Padres, who turned down the 31-year-old's option earlier in the offseason. Young has always been hard to hit, but walks have been a problem for him throughout his seven-year career.
Kevin Correia To Decline Arbitration
The agent for Kevin Correia says the right-hander will turn down the Padres' offer of arbitration, according to Dan Hayes of the North County Times (on Twitter). Correia is open to returning to San Diego, but is not yet ready to rule out other teams. The 30-year-old pitched to a 5.40 ERA in 145 innings last year and posted 7.1 K/9 with 4.0 BB/9, but lost his rotation spot to Tim Stauffer after slumping late in the season. Baseball understandably took a backseat in Correia's life this year, as he tragically lost his 21-year-old brother in May.
If you're wondering which ranked free agents have accepted or turned down arbitration in advance of tomorrow night's deadline, check out MLBTR's free agent arbitration offer tracker.
Who’s Looking For Starting Pitching?
We're a week from the Winter Meetings, and starting pitchers Jon Garland, Hiroki Kuroda, Ted Lilly, Javier Vazquez, and Jake Westbrook have already signed – three of them with the Dodgers. For the many teams that can't afford Cliff Lee, it's down to Jorge de la Rosa, Carl Pavano, and a field of comeback candidates or back-rotation arms. Let's take a look at which teams are in the market.
- Astros – They subtracted Felipe Paulino, and have been linked to Brandon McCarthy and Jeff Francis. GM Ed Wade explained earlier this month that he'd like to add someone on a one-year deal similar to the Brett Myers contract.
- Athletics – They showed their desire to add starting pitching by bidding $19.1MM for the right to negotiate with Hisashi Iwakuma. If they're unable to reach a deal with him by Wednesday of next week, the A's could check out the free agent market. They're known to be interested in McCarthy.
- Brewers – They're in on McCarthy, Francis, and Jarrod Washburn, but are expected to focus on trade possibilities as they look to add a starter or two.
- Cubs – The Cubs have five starters, but could add insurance with Jeremy Bonderman, Aaron Harang, Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, or Brandon Webb.
- Diamondbacks – They were linked to McCarthy prior to acquiring Zach Duke. With their front four settled, I expect them to worry about other needs.
- Mariners – They've been linked to McCarthy and Jeff Francis, suggesting they're targeting injury comeback candidates.
- Mets – The rumor mill has been quiet, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post can see them getting in on a reclamation-project starter in the new year.
- Nationals – The Nationals are seeking pitching by trade, free agency, or both. They're in on Lee, De La Rosa, Webb, and Pavano at the least.
- Orioles – They apparently have tepid interest in De La Rosa, and have been linked to position players more frequently this offseason.
- Padres – Garland's gone and Kevin Correia is a free agent. The Padres have been linked to McCarthy and will probably seek late bargains.
- Pirates – They seem very likely to sign some kind of free agent starter this winter. They've moved on from Duke and are eyeing Scott Olsen, De La Rosa, Webb, and Francis.
- Rangers – They could move Neftali Feliz to the rotation, but the top priority is signing Lee. If Lee signs elsewhere they're expected to look into Zack Greinke. They're known to be in on Webb, and happen to employ Webb's surgeon Dr. Keith Meister as the team physician.
- Reds – They've been loosely linked to Webb based mainly on geography, but already made a big commitment to Bronson Arroyo and don't have a ton of spending money.
- Rockies – They're likely to add a starter and are in on Webb and Francis. They could also look at trades and lesser free agents, but at least they've added Paulino.
- Royals – The Royals cut Brian Bannister and are interested in Kevin Millwood, to name one option. If Kyle Davies is non-tendered on Thursday that would heighten their need.
- Tigers – They seem content with their rotation options, but they were among the seven clubs linked to McCarthy.
- Twins – They'll need an arm, possibly Pavano. They placed a bid on Iwakuma and have been tied to Webb. Washburn could also work.
- White Sox – They haven't been linked to anyone, and appear to be in good shape even with Jake Peavy missing the beginning of the season given the possibility of moving Chris Sale into the rotation. However, I won't rule Kenny Williams out if he finds one of the aforementioned free agent arms intriguing.
- Yankees – They're the favorites for Lee, and Andy Pettitte might be leaning toward a return. The Yankees are not expected to participate in the next bracket of free agent starters if one of those options falls through, and the trade market is barren if Greinke is off-limits.
- The Angels, Blue Jays, Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, Indians, Marlins, Phillies, Rays, and Red Sox have either stayed out of the rumor mill or already made their additions. Still, it would not be a shock for some of these teams to add starting pitching.
Cafardo On Gonzalez, V-Mart, Rangers, Nishioka
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
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
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
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
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
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.