According to a press release, the Mariners have traded catcher Jamie Burke to the Nationals for cash. Burke has appeared in 184 games in parts of seven big league seasons. He was originally drafted in the ninth round of the '93 draft by the Angels. The Nationals will be his fifth organization.
Mariners Rumors
Odds & Ends: Abraham, Mariners, Free Agency
A few tasty nuggets to fill the gap…
- Peter Abraham is moving to the Boston Gobe to cover the Red Sox…Congrats to Abraham. Well deserved.
- Ryan Divish of the Tacoma News-Tribune is reporting that the Mariners have hired Jeff Kingston to be their new Assistant GM. Kingston was formerly the Padres Director of Baseball Operations.
- Circling the Bases will be counting down the top 111 upcoming free agents starting with the bottom 20.
Branyan Wants To Return To Seattle In 2010
Russell Branyan would like to return to Seattle next season, according to Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times. Branyan signed a one-year, $1.4MM deal with the Mariners last offseason, and has taken advantage of an increase in playing time in 2009, batting .251/.347/.520 with 31 homers.
"I'd love to come back here," Branyan said. "I enjoy playing in this ballpark, I enjoyed getting to play on an every-day basis this year. I'd be excited to entertain the option to come back here next year."
While the 33-year-old Branyan is currently on the disabled list and has slumped since the All-Star break (.193/.274/.414), his overall performance this season has exceeded expectations. If the Mariners were to re-sign him, they would certainly be giving more years and more money this time around to the career .234 hitter.
Odds & Ends: Rios, Hardy, Knapp
A couple more links as the day winds down…
- According to Mark Gonzales of The Chicago Tribune, one scout called Alex Rios "a teaser," and that he's the kind of the guy that "can get you fired." Kenny Williams sure hopes that's not the case.
- Jason Churchill of Prospect Insider explains why the Mariners should go after J.J. Hardy. Something tells me we'll see quite a few more posts like this.
- Jason Knapp, one of the prospects the Indians acquired for Cliff Lee, will have arthroscopic surgery on his throwing shoulder to remove "loose bodies," according to MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince. GM Mark Shapiro says they will not file a grievance.
Odds & Ends: Pirates, Fielder, Nationals
Links for Monday…
- The Pirates have not approached any players about extensions, according to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Kovacevic guesses Zach Duke is the likeliest extension candidate. Also in that article, Kovacevic notes "no new exchanges" between the Bucs and Miguel Angel Sano.
- ESPN's Buster Olney speculates that Prince Fielder will be traded to the Red Sox this winter. Thoughts?
- Mark Zuckerman of the Washington Times runs through possible free agent targets for the Nationals. He figures they can spend nearly $20MM without increasing payroll.
- Baseball America's Jim Callis weighs in on the returns in the two Mark DeRosa trades this year.
- Hideki Irabu was granted his release from his independent league team in Japan, according to Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker.
- MLB.com's Jim Street addresses the future of Felix Hernandez and Adrian Beltre in his latest Mariners mailbag.
Heyman’s Latest: Jeter, Wagner, Delgado, Lackey
No team is successful without good coaching and guidance, so SI.com's Jon Heyman pays homage to those who got the job done behind the scenes by naming his ten most unsung heroes of the 2009 season. Rangers' pitching coach Mike Maddux tops the list, and several other familiar names make an appearance.
Here's the rest of Heyman's rumors…
- Heyman guesses that the Yankees will resign Derek Jeter for at least $60MM over three years once his contract expires after next season. That's a lot of scratch for a guy who would be entering his age-37 season.
- The Red Sox have "every intention" of offering Billy Wagner arbitration, and barring something unexpected, Wagner has every intention of turning it down. He's projected to be a Type-A free agent, so Boston would walk away with two high draft picks in that scenario.
- Out since early May with a hip injury, Carlos Delgado hasn't given up on the idea of playing again this year. The Mets would be happy to accomodate him, because according to Heyman's sources the team has thought about bringing him back on an incentive laden contract. A late season cameo would at least give them a look at what kind of shape he's in.
- Stop me if you've heard this before: the Mets might consider Orlando Hudson this offseason if they can find a taker for Luis Castillo. That's what, three times in the last 24 hours?
- The Angels tried to sign John Lackey for four years and $60MM last offseason. Given the lack of impact starting pitching available this year, Lackey's price has gone up.
- In regards to Ken Griffey Jr. and his .214 AVG, Heyman says "this has to be the end, no?" Griffey hasn't said anything about his future yet, though.
- Kansas City ownership has "often prevented its baseball people from making deadline trades in order to avoid the dreaded 100-loss season." This strategy probably works against them in the long run, but Heyman suggests it may "make them a tougher team than some also-rans who hit the wall."
- There's no evidence that Lou Piniella is a candidate to be fired (his $4MM option for 2010 has already been picked up), but the question about whether he wants to return or not has to be asked. Sweet Lou's body language did not look good last weekend.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Papelbon, Jeter, Jurrjens, Braves, Nats
On this date 11 years ago, the Dodgers hired Kevin Malone to be their General Manager, replacing Tommy Lasorda. Three months later, the "new sheriff in town" signed Kevin Brown to a 7-year/$105MM contract, making Brown the first $100MM player in baseball history. The deal would cover Brown's age 34-40 seasons. Malone also avoided salary arbitration with Carlos Perez that off-season, giving him a 3-year/$15.5MM deal. Perez would spend the final year of the deal in Triple-A and never signed another big league contract. As most teams start looking to the off-season, let's take a look at what is being written in the Blogosphere…
- Jorge Says No! revisits the worst contract extensions from the past off-season.
- Fire Brand of the American League takes a look at what it would mean to the Red Sox if they traded Jonathan Papelbon.
- River Ave. Blues takes a look at what it will take to re-sign Derek Jeter.
- MLB Notebook can see Jason Bay signing with the Mariners this off-season, but suggests it is not a good fit.
- Talking Chop argues that trading Jair Jurrjens this off-season would be more beneficial for the Braves than trading Javier Vazquez or Tim Hudson.
- Capitol Ave. Club previews the Braves' free agent class.
- DC Sports Plus projects the Nationals' roster for next season, including the addition of Aki Iwamura.
Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com. If you have a suggestion for this feature, Cork can be reached here, and followed on Twitter here.
Odds And Ends: Sweeney, Padres, Saito
Some links for the morning…
- We already knew Mike Sweeney would consider signing with the Mariners and Angels after the season. Now MLB.com's Jim Street adds the Padres to Sweeney's list of preferred clubs.
- Like GM Kevin Towers, Padres CEO Jeff Moorad expects the team to be "competitive" next year, according to Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
- Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports that Takashi Saito will make $500k when he appears in his next game. Even more incentives kick in if he continues picking up appearances throughout the season's final month.
- Pirates GM Neal Huntington tells Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Joel Hanrahan has seemed like a different pitcher in Pittsburgh because he was unlucky as a member of the Nationals.
- ESPN.com's Rob Neyer doesn't expect the confusion surrounding Jose Valverde's age to have much of an effect on the contract he signs in the winter.
Odds & Ends: M’s, Peavy, Metropolitans
A handful of links for your Wednesday evening viewing pleasure…
- Matthew Pouliot of NBC Sports has concluded his "Restoring the Rosters" series. Pouliot's No. 1 organization, "if given only the players it originally signed," is the Seattle Mariners. All 30 squads are now available for review.
- According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Jake Peavy's debut with the White Sox is still "up in the air." Here's Peavy's take: "I can promise you this. On Feb. 15 or whatever day it is I report [for spring training], I'll be in as good of shape as anybody and be ready to pitch and expect nothing less than what I've done in years."
- R.J. Anderson of FanGraphs doesn't believe "blowing up the Mets" is the answer. In fact, he likes their current nucleus. "Heading into next season," Anderson writes, "the Mets will have David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran. Depending on Johan Santana’s health, they could legitimately post four four/five win players without spending a dime on free agency."
Mike Sweeney Hopes To Play In 2010
Designated hitter Mike Sweeney hopes to play again in 2010, according to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times. He'll have to postpone microfracture knee surgery to do so. The 36 year-old is hitting .277/.335/.441 in 236 plate appearances, his best power display since '05. He's on a $500K minor league deal signed in January.
Sweeney told Baker he decided to play next year after receiving support from his wife. His two choices are the Mariners and the Angels.
