Olney On Castro, Escobar, Wells, Pineda
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
Links for Monday, before Josh Beckett makes his 2011 debut. Will he live up to his extension?
- Rival executives don’t expect Mariners ace Felix Hernandez to be available this summer, but they’re eyeing Wandy Rodriguez and Mike Pelfrey as potential trade targets, according to ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark.
- If you want to look a little further ahead, check out Tim Dierkes' preview of which starters will be available next offseason.
- ESPN.com's Keith Law suggests the Orioles will regret leaving Pedro Beato off of their 40-man roster last fall. The Mets nabbed the reliever in the Rule 5 draft and he's now on the team's active roster.
- Former Braves reliever Jeff Bennett is trying to revive his career after seeing it hit rock-bottom, as Greg Sullivan of the Tennessean writes.
Erik Bedard: This Summer’s Available Ace?
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.
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
Saturday Night Links..
- Mariners pitcher David Aardsma, the subject of many trade rumors before undergoing hip surgery in December, could be back on the mound sooner rather than later, writes Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times.
- Versatile multi-position players need to be developed and compensated well, writes Peter Gammons of MLB.com.
- Shoulder soreness will keep Joel Pineiro out of the Angels' rotation for longer than first anticipated, but Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times writes that the club will fill the void internally.
- Former Padres draft pick Griffin Benedict has retired as a player to join the club as a bullpen catcher, writes Bill Center of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Griffin is the son of former major league catcher Bruce Benedict.
Ichiro Hints At Prolonged Career With Mariners
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
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
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
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…
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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.
Mariners Return Rule 5 Pick Jose Flores To Indians
The Mariners announced that they returned right-hander Jose Flores to the Indians (Twitter link). Seattle had to offer the Rule 5 pick back or keep him on the 25-man roster all season long and Cleveland accepted Flores back and assigned him to minor league camp.
The 21-year-old, who signed with Cleveland as a non-drafted free agent in 2005, posted a 12.27 ERA in four relief appearances this spring. He has a 3.92 ERA with 7.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 79 minor league games, but has yet to pitch above Class A.
Cleveland could re-obtain another Rule 5 pick before long, as the Pirates may not have roster space for infielder Josh Rodriguez. Oddly, the Mariners still have two pitchers named Jose Flores in their system even after today's transaction.