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Padres Will Not Pick Up Young’s Option, Hoyer To Meet With Gonzalez’s Agent In Coming Weeks

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Despite a heartbreaking end, the 2010 season should be considering nothing but a smashing success for the Padres. They sat atop the NL West for the majority of the season and were in contention for a playoff spot until Game 162 even though almost everyone considered them to be one of the worst teams in the league coming out of Spring Training. They did all that with a payroll approaching just $38MM (according to Cot's), less than the Yankees pay the left side of their infield.

That said, the team can not afford to spend $8.5MM on an injury prone Chris Young next season, and Dan Hayes of The North County Times reports that the team will decline his 2011 option (Twitter links). The Padres are open to bringing him back, but it would have to be at a lesser price. Young has thrown just 198.1 innings (4.13 ERA) over the last three seasons due to back and shoulder issues, not to mention facial fractures suffered when he was hit by a line drive.

With that out of the way, the focus will inevitably turn to homegrown megastar Adrian Gonzalez, who will become a free agent 12 months from now once the team picks up his $6.2MM no-brainer option for 2011. It's been assumed for two years now that Gonzalez would be traded at some point, simply because the team is unlikely to be able to afford him in the future and they could certainly fetch more value than two draft picks on the trade market.

GM Jed Hoyer told MLB.com's Corey Brock that he obviously wants to keep Gonzalez on the team going into next season, but he would not guarantee that it will happen (Twitter link). Hoyer also said that he will meet with Gonzalez's agent John Boggs at some point in the coming weeks, and indicated that payroll will increase an undisclosed amount next season (Hayes Twitter link). Unless they're expanding the payroll considerably, it's tough to imagine a new contract with Gonzalez being hammered out. 

Amazingly, the Padres only have $1.1MM in salary obligation for next season, and that's broken down into a $600K buyout of Jon Garland's $6.75MM option and a $500K buyout of Yorvit Torrealba's $3.5MM option. Everyone else on the roster is either due to become a free agent in a few weeks or is still in their pre-arbitration or arbitration-eligible seasons when contracts are not guaranteed. There's certainly no albatross contracts hanging over their heads that are preventing them from signing Gonzalez.

During the summer we heard rumors that Adrian could seek an eight-year deal when he hits free agency, likely meaning that he's looking for Mark Teixeira money. The 28-year-old has hit .288/.374/.514 with an average of just over 32 homers per season in his five years as a Padre, but outside of Petco Park those numbers jump to .303/.376/.568. He's also considered to be one of the game's best defenders, so the Teixeira comparisons are appropriate. About the only thing Gonzalez doesn't do is switch hit.

Padres Could Put Bell Back On Trade Market

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The Padres' late-season collapse has no doubt been tough to take for San Diego fans, but it could get even tougher when and if the Friars revert to their cost-effective ways.  San Diego's unexpected playoff push extended Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell's stays with the club, and while the Padres have no ready answer to replace Gonzalez at first base, their deep bullpen may lead to Bell's departure.

ESPN's Buster Olney tweets that San Diego "will at least consider" dealing Bell and installing Mike Adams as the closer going into 2011.  Bell agreed to a one-year, $4MM deal last winter to avoid arbitration, but Olney predicts that Bell could earn in the range of $6-$8MM next year, when he hits arbitration for the final time.  The Padres have the payroll space to pay Bell that much if they wanted to (as Cot's Baseball Contracts notes, the Friars have a measly $1.1MM committed to players for next season), but that type of outlay on a closer is a luxury that small-market teams usually can't afford.

Adams, meanwhile, made $1MM this season and is entering his second arbitration year.  After posting a 1.84 ERA, a 10.2 K/9 rate and a 3.78 K/BB ratio over his three years in San Diego, Adams is sure to earn a nice raise, but it will still fall below Bell's $4MM earnings from this season.  If the Pads were to offer Adams a two-year contract worth $5.5MM, Adams would probably accept to gain a bit of security in case he struggles finishing games.  MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith recently looked at how Adams' contract situation compared to that of Oakland's Michael Wuertz.

Bell is no stranger to the trade market.  His name popped up in multiple rumors when Joe Nathan was injured last spring and was even whispered to be on the block at the July trade deadline when San Diego was in first place.  If the Padres shop him around again this winter, the White Sox, Diamondbacks, Angels and Rays are a few of the clubs who could be looking for a proven closer.  The Braves and Cardinals could also be added to that list if Billy Wagner and Ryan Franklin both retire.

Odds & Ends: Webb, Pirates, Ozzie, Pena, Mets, Lopez

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Some links to check out after the Rangers clinched their first AL West title since 1999…

Odds & Ends: Miller, Laird, Fielder, V-Mart

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As the Giants pick up a major win over the Rockies tonight, here are some news items….

Red Sox Sign Felipe Lopez

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Felipe Lopez has joined the Red Sox for the remainder of the 2010 season, reports Scott Miller of CBSSports.com.  Lopez was released by St. Louis on Tuesday and was claimed on waivers by the Padres earlier today.  Lopez chose to veto San Diego's offer and instead signed with the Red Sox. 

A source tells Miller that one of the reasons that Boston was interested in Lopez was because, as a Type B free agent, the team can get a compensation pick if Lopez signs elsewhere in the winter (provided he turns down Boston's offer of arbitration).  As Miller points out, it's odd that Lopez would pass on the chance to play in a pennant race with San Diego, even though he wouldn't have qualified for the Padres' postseason roster anyway.

Padres Claim Felipe Lopez

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The Padres placed a waiver claim on Felipe Lopez and are waiting to see if they will be awarded the claim according to MLB.com's Corey Brock. The Cardinals released the infielder earlier in the week, partly because he was late more than once. Lopez didn't hit particularly well either, posting a .231/.310/.340 line as a utility player in St. Louis.

Some teams might hesitate to add an apparently unmotivated player in the thick of a pennant race, but the Padres are just a half game behind the Giants in the NL West and they need all the support possible, especially now that Jerry Hairston Jr. is on the disabled list again. Lopez played all four infield positions in St. Louis and his versatility could help Bud Black's Padres over the course of the season's final nine games.

Mike Adams & Michael Wuertz

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Mike Adams was never going to match the 0.73 ERA he posted for the Padres in 2009, but his 2010 season hasn't been bad at all. In a career high 63 appearances, Adams has a 1.79 ERA and he's striking out more than a batter per inning. If the Padres choose to extend Adams this offseason, they could model a deal after one signed by another right-handed setup man who strikes out tons of batters without the benefit of an upper-nineties fastball.

When Michael Wuertz signed an extension with the A's last offseason, he had similar career numbers to the ones Adams has now. Adams has a lower ERA than Wuertz did and he walks fewer batters, but he hasn't pitched as much as Wuertz had. As the table below shows, Adams is now in a similar position to the one Wuertz found himself in a year ago.

Wuertz & Adams
Wuertz ultimately signed a two-year $5.25MM extension that covered his remaining two arbitration seasons. The Padres could look to buy out Adams' remaining two arbitration seasons for a similar amount this winter. Given the pitchers' remarkably similar rate stats, service time and salaries, a two-year deal worth $5MM or so would be fair value for both sides.

D’backs Notes: Padres, Maddux, Towers

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New Arizona GM Kevin Towers told reporters yesterday that he intends to get to know the existing D'Backs front office within the next couple of weeks. But after decades in the game, he has lots of connections of his own and some of them could end up in Arizona. Here's the latest on which former Padres people Towers may add to the Diamondbacks front office:

  • Towers has targeted Padres scout Bill Bryk and assistant GM Fred Uhlman Jr, according to Tom Krasovic of AOL FanHouse.
  • Towers told Bob Nightengale of USA Today that he'd like to hire Greg Maddux as the team's next bench coach or pitching coach. "I told Greg two years ago as soon as you want to be on the field please make me the first call," Towers said. The bullpen will be a priority for Towers, who signed Maddux as a free agent twice.
  • MLB.com's Fred Claire says the GM-manager combination of Kevin Towers and Kirk Gibson provides the D'Backs with the "detail-oriented, passionate" leadership the organization needs. I'm willing to take Claire's word for it, since he was Gibson's GM in Los Angeles and worked opposite Towers as Dodgers GM early in Towers' tenure with the Padres, from 1995-1998.

Odds & Ends: Stairs, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Nats

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Links on a very rainy evening in the Bronx..

Towers To Prioritize Bullpen, Bench

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Kevin Towers says he’d like to see next year’s Diamondbacks team surprise people just like this year’s Padres team did. But only two clubs have lost more games than the Diamondbacks this year, so the new Arizona GM has some work to do. And Towers knows which areas of his new club he'll be targeting first.

“The focus will probably be primarily on the bullpen this winter, as well as the bench,” Towers told reporters via conference call.

That isn’t to say that the entire ‘pen will be turned over, but the Diamondbacks will consider every possible avenue as they look to improve upon an MLB-worst 5.82 bullpen ERA. Towers said he’ll explore major league free agency, minor league free agency, international options and the Rule 5 Draft in search of better production.

Towers gets credit for assembling the Padres bullpen, which has an MLB-best 2.85 ERA this year. Replicating that success in the desert “really boils down to good scouting and good evaluations,” Towers said. In particular, Towers’ scouts will be instructed to look for big pitchers (potentially starters who fit best in the ‘pen) with good fastballs and “plus” secondary pitches.

The Diamondbacks will also look to acquire starting pitching depth this winter; until then, Towers is familiarizing himself with the team and his new staff. After 14 years in San Diego, Towers has many connections in the Padres front office and didn’t rule out the possibility that he might bring some of his former Padres employees to Arizona.

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