Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Mariners Rumors

Quick Hits: Villanueva, Looper, Red Sox, Wilson

By | at

As the Giants raise their World Series banner with an assist from the Say Hey Kid, here's some news from around the majors…

  • The Brewers received cash, rather than a player to be named later, from the Blue Jays to complete the Carlos Villanueva trade, reports the team (and passed on by MLB.com's Adam McCalvy).
  • The Cubs aren't considering trying to lure Braden Looper out of retirement, reports ESPNChicago.com's Bruce Levine.  Looper retired when he didn't make Chicago's Opening Day roster.  With right-handers Andrew Cashner and Randy Wells on the disabled list, the Cubs have a sudden lack of pitching depth, but the team will turn to internal options like Casey Coleman, who will start on Sunday. 
  • The Red Sox got their first win of the season today, but there's still plenty of talk about Boston's slow start.  SI's Tom Verducci thinks there are legitimate reasons for worry, namely that Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka "have to suddenly reverse the downward trends of their careers in their 30s."
  • Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com also questions Boston's pitching, pointing out that barring rebound years from Beckett, Lackey and Matsuzaka, "they’re essentially the same team as the Yankees — terrific offense, deep bullpen, weak back of the rotation."  Rosenthal, however, thinks it is far too early in the season for the Sox and their fans to panic.
  • Jack Wilson asked to be taken out of the Mariners' 7-3 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday, Seattle manager Eric Wedge told reporters today.  Wilson implied that Wedge had removed him from the game, which upset Wedge, tweets Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times.  The Twitter feed of the Brock & Salk radio show on 710 ESPN Seattle reports that Wedge described Wilson's actions as "unspeakable" and wouldn't discuss the veteran infielder's status with the club.
  • Pirates right-hander Tyler Yates has a torn flexor tendon in his throwing elbow, reports Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com.  Yates hasn't pitched since 2009 due to Tommy John surgery, and Langosch reports that this latest injury might convince Yates to retire, a decision he's already considered earlier in his career.
  • The Diamondbacks are looking at Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon and Danny Hultzen with the third pick in this June's amateur draft, says Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.  Sources on other teams think this trio will be the first three players taken in the draft, though perhaps not in that order.  Arizona also has the seventh overall pick, and Piecoro notes that the D-Backs' priority with that pick is to draft a player they can sign.  Vanderbilt's Sonny Grey and high schoolers Dylan Bundy and Taylor Guerrieri are some of the players Piecoro hears connected with this pick.   
  • Doug Davis held another workout today, tweets Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus.  Five or six teams were present, down from the eight clubs that watched Davis throw two weeks ago. 

Olney On Castro, Escobar, Wells, Pineda

By | at

The Red Sox should complete a seven-year extension worth $154MM or so with Adrian Gonzalez at some point in the next ten days, as ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reminds us. On a lighter note, Olney points out that Boston appears to be functioning despite a winless week for the Red Sox. Here are the rest of Olney’s rumors.

  • Starlin Castro has “made the adjustment” to the big leagues and is no longer phased to be playing at the highest level, Cubs GM Jim Hendry says. 
  • Another young shortstop, Alcides Escobar of the Royals, may be the best defensive shortstop in the American League, according to at least one scout. 
  • Angels fans may not like hearing it, but one evaluator says that in sending Mike Napoli elsewhere they “traded a player who would've given them similar production to what they'll get out of Vernon Wells , except it'll cost them about $75 million more." 
  • Instead of delaying Michael Pineda’s service time and/or arbitration, the Mariners called him up to start the season in Seattle. "He earned the right to be on the club," GM Jack Zduriencik said. "We actually talked about calling him up last September."

Quick Hits: Pelfrey, Wandy, Beato, Bennett

By | at

Links for Monday, before Josh Beckett makes his 2011 debut. Will he live up to his extension?

Erik Bedard: This Summer’s Available Ace?

By | at

I've recently opined that it's difficult to identify an ace starter likely to hit the trading block in July.  However, in most years a few would-be contenders are surprisingly bad and a few pitchers have breakout or unexpected seasons, giving the trade market some semblance of an available #1 or #2 starter.

Bedard

Could the Mariners' Erik Bedard be that pitcher in 2011?  As MLB.com's Cash Kruth notes, Bedard will take a Major League mound today for the first time since July 25th, 2009.  He had multiple surgeries in the interim, as doctors repaired a torn labrum in his pitching shoulder.  The 32-year-old made it through Spring Training unscathed, and pitched well aside from his final outing.

Bedard's Seattle career to date consists of 30 starts spread across two seasons.  Though he was working through shoulder issues, the numbers are strong: a 3.24 ERA, 8.9 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, and 0.9 HR/9 in 164 innings, with only 135 hits allowed.  Bedard averaged fewer than 5.5 innings per start, so he'll be most effective on a club with a strong bullpen. 

Bedard is not the #1 starter he was in 2007 with the Orioles, but he could still be the best available at the trade deadline.  We've seen injuries kill his trade value before, so there's no point in getting serious about suitors until July.  Still, the Yankees would make sense, assuming the two front offices can put aside any bad blood from last year's Cliff Lee talks.  Otherwise, we'll have to wait to see which contenders develop rotation needs three months from now.

Quick Hits: Aardsma, Angels, Padres

By | at

Saturday Night Links..

Ichiro Hints At Prolonged Career With Mariners

By | at

Ichiro Suzuki hinted to John Hickey of Sportspress Northwest that he wants to re-sign with the Mariners after his current contract expires. Ichiro, whose contract expires after the 2012 season, is now 37, but he says age is more of a distraction than a limitation. 

“Take the talk of age. It’s something that I will have to battle," Ichiro said. “When you have to think about something like that, it’s not a positive for you. I mean, it’s something you don’t have to think about, but when you have people around you talking about it, you don’t want the negatives to get in.”

There were lots of positives for Ichiro in 2010. He led the league in hits, reached the 200 hit plateau for the tenth consecutive season and stole 42 bases, hitting .315/.359/.394. As Ichiro points out he can still play though, “there are players who are 25 who play already like they’re 40.”

He has 2,244 hits as a Major Leaguer, so the 3,000 hit plateau is within reach, even though he didn’t make his MLB debut until he was 27. Ichiro admits that his goals were once personal, but says they have become more team-oriented as he has become a fixture in the game and, especially, in Seattle.

“For me, it’s about going to the playoffs with the Mariners,” Ichiro said. “It’s all the time you’ve spent getting there."

Today’s Outrights: Marquez, Mather, Rizzotti, Misch

By | at

Several players cleared waivers and were removed from the 40-man roster today by way of an outright assignment.  The latest:

  • Jeff Marquez of the White Sox cleared waivers and is headed for Triple-A, according to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (on Twitter).
  • Braves utility player Joe Mather cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A, according to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (on Twitter).
  • The Phillies removed Matt Rizzotti from the 40-man roster and outrighted him to the minor leagues, according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer (on Twitter).
  • Mets lefty Pat Misch was outrighted to Triple-A, tweets Andy McCullough of the Newark Star-Ledger.  He's expected to accept the assignment.  Misch, 29, posted a 3.82 ERA, 5.5 K/9, 1.0 BB/9, 1.0 HR/9, and 52.0% groundball rate in 37 2/3 innings for the Mets last year, tossing another 150 2/3 innings across 23 starts in Triple-A.
  • Brewers outfielder Brandon Boggs was outrighted to Triple-A Nashville, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.  Boggs, 28, hit .290/.406/.470 in 439 Triple-A plate appearances last year while playing all three outfield positions.  He has until Wednesday to decide whether to accept the assignment or elect free agency, tweets Haudricourt.
  • The Mariners outrighted southpaw Cesar Jimenez, tweets ESPN's Shannon Drayer.  Jimenez, 26, missed most of the 2010 season recovering from labrum surgery.

Mariners Release Josh Wilson

By | at

The Mariners released infielder Josh Wilson, tweets MLB.com's Greg Johns.  Wilson, 30, hit .227/.278/.29 in 388 plate appearances for the Mariners last year, logging 839 innings at shortstop.  By cutting him now, the Mariners owe only 45 days termination pay.  On a $725K salary that amounts to about $179K.

The Everett Herald's Kirby Arnold tweeted earlier today that the Mariners selected the contracts of Chris Ray and Jamey Wright, so today's purchase of Adam Kennedy's contract fills up the team's 40-man roster.  Wilson told Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times the Mariners are keeping non-roster invitee Luis Rodriguez as well, which can be made possible by placing Mauricio Robles on the 60-day DL.

What They Said When The Mariners Signed Silva

By | at

Former Mariners GM Bill Bavasi signed Carlos Silva to a four-year, $48MM deal in December of 2007.  Two years later, Jack Zduriencik sent Silva and $9MM to the Cubs for Milton Bradley in a bad contract swap.  Yesterday, Silva was released by the Cubs with $13.5MM remaining on the contract.  Silva, known as an innings eater at the time of the signing, has provided a 5.82 ERA over 296 2/3 frames over the last three years.  Let's see what was being said at the time of the signing…

—————————————————————————————————–

Tim Dierkes, MLB Trade Rumors

This is the new price of a big league innings eater.  Silva may not be anything special, but he's shown the ability to eat American League innings.  Those guys don't grow on trees.

—————————————————————————————————–

Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner

The strike throwing, no outpitch hurler is just a very easy skillset to find in a pitcher. Throwing a huge amount of money at Carlos Silva simply because he’s proven is a gigantic waste of resources.

This was actually written before the Mariners signed Silva, but it still sums up Cameron's evaluation of the deal.

—————————————————————————————————–

Jeff Sullivan, Lookout Landing

There's no doubt in my mind that this is a financially irresponsible contract, and that you could get 90-100% of Silva's production going forward from someone else for a tiny fraction of the price. Of that I don't think there's any question. But overpaying is nothing new for this team, and at the end of the day, I would so much rather pay too much money than give away too much talent.

Note: this was Jeff coming to terms with the deal, after saying worse things about it previously.

—————————————————————————————————–

Geoff Baker, Seattle Times

Did the M's truly overpay for Silva? We'll know the answer in a couple of years if he misses a season with a blown out elbow ligament. But if he stays healthy, the way Washburn and Batista have to this point, you get a slightly above-average pitcher for what should be a below-market rate.

—————————————————————————————————–

Keith Law, ESPN

If we set the length of the contract aside for a moment, the signing of Carlos Silva makes some sense…The contract itself, however, is lunacy…While he's likely to be an immediate upgrade over the internal options Seattle had, the odds of him turning out to be a good investment over a four-year period — even before we consider the chance he suffers a major injury — are low, and if the Mariners' defense declines via a trade of Adam Jones or Adrian Beltre, Silva's performance will take a direct hit.

The three quotes I pulled out from Law's blog post are best read in context, if you have ESPN Insider.  The entire post is a good read.

—————————————————————————————————–

Silva ended up performing worse than any of us thought he would.  Most writers agreed when he signed that he made the Mariners better, which never happened.  Aside from missing the mark on Silva's ability to continue eating innings, I also failed to recognize that his contract was an outlier rather than the new standard for innings eaters.  Three years later, innings eater types are only getting $4-8MM per year and one or two years.

Mariners Release Gabe Gross

By | at

Gabe Gross requested and has been granted his release from the Mariners reports MLB.com's Greg Johns (on Twitter). The outfielder hit just .077/.200/.231 in 23 at-bats this spring after signing a minor league deal last month.

Gross, 31, hit just .239/.290/.311 for the A's last year. He's a .239/.330/.385 hitter in 1,680 career plate appearances, though his defense in right field has been particularly strong.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top