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Heyman On Damon, Tejada, Pineiro, Molina

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The latest from SI's Jon Heyman…

  • Heyman believes the Yankees would not go beyond one year and $6MM to re-sign Johnny Damon.  On MLB Home Plate Boras said Damon "would just have to move forward," while not faulting the Yankees for sticking to a budget.  Heyman suggests four alternatives for Damon: the Giants, Mariners, Braves, and Angels.  The Angels would be a tough fit barring a Juan Rivera trade, as their outfield and DH spots are full.  The problem with the Braves is that they're approaching their payroll limit.
  • Despite a report that the Cardinals probably can't afford Miguel Tejada, Heyman sees them as the best fit.  Heyman's $8MM idea seems too pricey though.
  • The Mets debated offering Joel Pineiro a two-year, $15MM Jason Marquis special, but at this point Pineiro seems to be seeking Randy Wolf's three-year, $29.75MM deal.  MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone sees the team landing Jon Garland instead.
  • Heymans says the Mets "seem serious about sticking with an offer of one year and a vesting option" for Bengie Molina.  However, Cerrone "gets the feeling the Mets might have a two-year deal on the table."

Giants Seek Left-Handed Bat

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WEDNESDAY, 11:08am: Schulman adds Cust to the list of bats on the Giants' radar.

TUESDAY, 2:16pm: So far this winter the Giants have spent $15.25MM on Mark DeRosa and Juan Uribe.  After a conference call with GM Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy, Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News and Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle offer insight on the Giants' plans for the rest of the offseason.

  • Uribe could play third base regularly, which would push DeRosa to left field.  Uribe will not compete with Edgar Renteria for the shortstop job.
  • The Giants seek a left-handed hitter.  It would be either an outfielder or first baseman, as Travis Ishikawa is not under consideration to start at first.
  • Sabean said no deals are imminent.  At various points this winter the Giants have been linked to Johnny Damon, Scott Podsednik, and Adam LaRoche.  I should point out that other potentially available left-handed bats include Russell Branyan, Lyle Overbay, Luke Scott, David DeJesus, Jack Cust, Mike Jacobs, Rick Ankiel, and Aubrey Huff.
  • Schulman says the Giants are unlikely to spend much on a fifth starter or catcher.

LaRoche Turns Down Giants’ Offer

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ESPN's Buster Olney reports (via Twitter) that Adam LaRoche turned down a two-year, $17MM deal from San Francisco, and now the Giants may have pulled their offer back altogether.  LaRoche has been mentioned as a possible target for the Giants this winter and would certainly fill their need for a left-handed hitter, but as Olney notes in a follow-up tweet, San Francisco is "discussing alternatives" to signing the first baseman. 

The Giants' stance could also be a negotiating tactic to get LaRoche to drop his asking price given that, as Olney pointed out, LaRoche seems to be down to just the Giants and Orioles as potential suitors.  (The Mariners were scratched from the list given their acquisition of Casey Kotchman.)

Randy Johnson To Announce Retirement

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4:04pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the conference call has been moved up to tonight, and that The Big Unit will indeed announce his retirement.

2:47pm: According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter), it appears that Randy Johnson will announce his retirement tomorrow morning.  A bunch of other reporters are talking about tomorrow's poorly-timed conference call as well.

Johnson would finish with five Cy Young awards, 303 wins, 4,875 strikeouts, and a 3.29 ERA in 4,135.3 career innings.  Baseball-Reference puts his career earnings at $175.55MM.

Odds & Ends: Phillies, Iannetta, Braves

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Links for Tuesday…

  • Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro said a lefty reliever and another starter are still on his wish list, according to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
  • Troy Renck of The Denver Post provides the details of Chris Iannetta's contract extension. The backstop can void the $5MM club option for 2013 if he is traded anytime before then.
  • Braves' GM Frank Wren said he's looking for just "one more small piece" to fill out his club's offensive needs, tweets MLB.com's Mark Bowman. Bowman notes that the Braves need a primary pinch hitter.
  • Adrian Beltre will take his physical on Thursday, tweeted Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports.
  • Joel Sherman of The New York Post provides some thoughts on the Mets' deal with Jason Bay. He notes that the team's scouts "contend Bay is a better defender than (Matt) Holliday," despite what the metrics and people outside the organization say.
  • The Giants designated defensively-skilled shortstop Brian Bocock for assignment to make room for Juan Uribe, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
  • ESPN's Keith Law sees "very little downside" for the Red Sox with the Adrian Beltre deal.  He notes that Boston's defense should be terrific this year.  Dave Cameron of FanGraphs says Beltre is "in the conversation of the best defensive third baseman of all time."  WEEI's Rob Bradford says the Red Sox considered signing Beltre after the '04 season, and even discussed trying him at shortstop.  Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe says Beltre is, at the least, an upgrade over Casey Kotchman.
  • Ken Davidoff of Newsday feels the Mets could raise payroll in 2011, so they won't be limited because of Jason Bay's contract.  By the way, Bradford has the transcript from Bay's press conference today.
  • Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball notes that the ten-day arbitration-filing period begins today.  MLB.com's Doug Miller highlights the biggest eligible names.
  • ESPN's Buster Olney suggests the Giants and Mets have been the slowest to adapt to advanced stats.  He also notes that the proliferation of better defensive metrics could greatly benefit Carl Crawford as a free agent next offseason.
  • MLB.com's Brian McTaggart talked to Astros GM Ed Wade, who said the trade market isn't great because of all the remaining free agents.  Also, Wade is focused on one-year deals for arbitration-eligible players such as Michael Bourn, Wandy Rodriguez, and Hunter Pence.
  • With Matt Holliday inching toward a large contact with the Cardinals, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at other $100MM deals given to outfielders.
  • MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone has a summary of Peter Gammons' appearance on WFAN this morning.
  • R.J. Anderson of DRays Bay interviewed Dan Feinstein, the Rays' Director of Baseball Operations.

Giants Re-Sign Juan Uribe

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The Giants officially re-signed the versatile Juan Uribe to a one-year, $3.25MM deal today.  Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that the Giants appeared close to a deal with Uribe on December 24th.  Jon Heyman of SI.com first tweeted that the sides had reached an agreement, while ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted the value.

With new addition Mark DeRosa guaranteed a starting job, the Giants could once again use Uribe as a super-utility player. His January minor league deal with the Giants proved to be one of last offseason's best, as he hit .289/.329/.495 in 432 plate appearances while playing solid defense at second base, shortstop, and third base. The 30-year-old split his time evenly between the three positions, playing about 300 innings at each. Uribe, who played center field for the Rockies once in 2003, is just as versatile as DeRosa.

Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.

Odds & Ends: Orioles, Braves, Indians

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Lots of other bits of information to get to on a busy Monday:

  • The Baltimore Sun's Dan Connolly has several pieces of information about once and perhaps future Orioles. Former Oriole Melvin Mora has three suitors, according to Mora's agent, two National League teams and one American League team.
  • Mark Hendrickson, by contrast, could well return to Baltimore. He lives in nearby York, PA and wants to play in Baltimore. His agent, Joe Urbon, said both sides have talked, but there's been no movement yet.
  • David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution believes that if his price tag drops to well below $10MM, Johnny Damon could be a good fit for the Braves. You'd have to think the Yankees would get back involved at that price, however.
  • Matt Klaassen of Fangraphs.com thinks a disparity in GM talent could be behind the gap between the National and American League.
  • And if Cleveland fans weren't upset enough over recent deals for Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia and Victor Martinez, MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince checks in with when he expects Cleveland to begin looking to trade Grady Sizemore in his latest Inbox.
  • MLB.com's Chris Haft thinks the Giants should take a look at Mike Jacobs.

Miguel Olivo Reaches Agreement With Rockies

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MONDAY, 8:27pm: Harding is up with a story now that includes contract details. The Rockies will pay Olivo $2MM in 2010, and then either exercise a club option for $2.5MM in 2011, or go with a $500K buyout.

MONDAY, 4:56pm: MLB.com's Thomas Harding tweets that an agreement has been reached on a one-year deal with a 2011 option.

WEDNESDAY, 7:35pm: Troy Renck of the Denver Post says Olivo's contract is for one year with a club option.  Renck also reports that the Rockies and Torrealba solved the issue of the $400K salary gap, but were instead held up by how a reported two-year, $6MM deal would be paid out over 2010 and 2011.  Renck outlines the whole situation in a blog post and notes that the Mets and Giants are both interested in Torrealba.

5:25pm: Free-agent catcher Miguel Olivo and the Rockies "are attempting to work out final details" on a deal that would make Olivo the new backup in Colorado, reports Tracy Ringolsby of FOX Sports.

Olivo hit .249/.292/.490 in 416 plate appearances with Kansas City last season, leading the Royals with 23 home runs.  It wouldn't be a surprise to see Olivo earn regular playing time in Colorado given that Iannetta ended up losing the starting job to Yorvit Torrealba down the stretch last season (though, to be fair, Iannetta posted an .804 OPS himself in 2009 and is the clear incumbent given his new contract).

Should Olivo sign with Colorado, it would close the door on any chance of Torrealba re-signing with his former club.  Torrealba and the Rockies were in talks earlier this winter, but apparently couldn't close the gap on a $400K difference between Torrealba's demands and what the Rockies wanted to pay him.

GM Trade Histories: NL West

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Today Brendan Bianowicz updates the GM Trade History series for the NL West.  You can download the info-packed Excel spreadsheets below.

Odds & Ends: Rincon, Calero, Rangers, Encarnacion

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Here are some links to kick off the weekend…

  • Troy Renck of The Denver Post provides the details on Juan Rincon's contract with the Rockies. He'll earn $800K plus incentives in the big leagues, or $20K per month in the minors.
  • Satchel Price at Beyond The Box Score wonders why we haven't heard more about Kiko Calero this offseason. The Cubs and Giants were interested in the righthander at various times this offseason.
  • Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas reiterates what we heard yesterday: the Rangers are seeking a veteran catcher. He mentions that they've shown interest in both Rod Barajas and Dioner Navarro.
  • Edwin Encarnacion suffered burns to his face in a fireworks accident according to ESPN Deportes' Enrique Rojas. He will not require surgery, and will be ready to go in Spring Training.
  • Jeff Passan at Yahoo! Sports lists ten players we should keep an on eye to see how their market develops during the remainder of the offseason. His list is led by Matt Holliday and Aroldis Chapman.
  • MLB.com's Matthew Leach notes that if the Cardinals felt they weren't in a good position to re-sign Holliday, they would have moved on to other targets by now. 
  • Dick Kaegel of MLB.com says that "it would take a calamitous showing" for Royals' manager Trey Hillman to lose his job this season given his relationship with GM Dayton Moore.
  • Steve Slowinski at DRaysBay goes back in time to evaluate the Danys Baez and Lance Carter for Edwin Jackson and Chuck Tiffany trade.
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