Latest Cubs Rumors: Crawford, Crisp, Ibanez
Cubs rumors abound today. Some sensible, some not. Let’s catch up.
- According to Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune, the Cubs want to re-sign Kerry Wood and possibly give him the closer job. Ryan Dempster could be pushed down the reliever totem pole or traded (he makes $5.5MM in the last year of his deal). Dempster has expressed a desire to start in the past, but the Cubs don’t seem keen on it. UPDATE: The Cubs are keen on Dempster as a starter, as Bruce Levine of ESPN 1000 reported today that he will be switched to that role in ’08. Carlos Marmol, Bob Howry, or Kerry Wood will close.
- Rogers also notes that the Cubs will bring Mark Prior back on the condition that he’ll accept an option for the 2009 season. That way they won’t get burned if he does have a useful 2008.
- Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald says the Cubs have interest in trading for Carl Crawford. Problem is, that would require a king’s ransom in young players. Miles adds that the Cubs are serious about Kosuke Fukudome, and signing him would leave the team with plenty of outfielders. Phil Rogers echoes the Fukudome interest, also mentioning that the Rangers and Giants like him.
- Michael Silverman says the Cubs are among several teams interested in Coco Crisp. Within this piece Silverman says the Rangers are in on Crisp and the Red Sox like expendable catcher Gerald Laird.
- Another name on the Cubs’ radar: Raul Ibanez. He makes $5.5MM in the last year of his deal, though he’s a liability in left field. And the Cubs have Alfonso Soriano there already. Larry LaRue also says the Tigers and Indians like Ibanez; the Tribe could offer Aaron Laffey.
- Not sure why, but the Cubs are also interested in free agent second baseman Kaz Matsui. Would the plan be to use him at shortstop? The Padres also have an eye on Matsui.
Yankees Aiming Higher Than Crede
According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, the Yankees aren’t likely to trade for Joe Crede. They’re aiming for bigger fish like Mike Lowell, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Cabrera, and Scott Rolen. Garrett Atkins has been deemed unavailable. Additionally, Kenny Williams hopes to deal Crede relatively quickly and the Yankees are in no rush to fill their third base vacancy. Maybe the Phillies will jump into the fray for Crede.
Lowell at least won’t involve giving up young talent. But there are some questions about how he’d hit away from Fenway. And we’re talking four or even five years to lure him. Beltre would be a fine acquisition and is affordable, though I don’t know why the Mariners would part with him. And the Ms would want at least one blue-chipper, I’d imagine. The Yanks would have to mortgage tons of young talent for Cabrera. Davidoff’s dark horse, Rolen, suddenly makes the most sense. It would be a salary dump and a health risk, but 3/36 isn’t that scary for the Yanks. And it’s less than Lowell would sign for.
Davidoff has a tidbit at the end of his column, a one-liner, that the Yanks are likely to re-sign Mariano Rivera at three years, $40MM soon. I’m surprised Newsday didn’t call more attention to that part.
Rangers Rumors: DeJesus, Lamb, Millar
Evan Grant writes for the Dallas Morning News, but he posted this column at night. Go figure. He’s got some new info regarding the Rangers.
- As you know, the Rangers have had difficulty finding a long-term center fielder. That’s the main focus of this offseason. The team has already shown interest in Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand, the top center fielders available. Other free agents such as Andruw Jones and Mike Cameron appear to be in play as well. Grant’s trade candidates: Coco Crisp, David DeJesus, Mark Kotsay, and Carlos Beltran. We’ve speculated on DeJesus to Atlanta in the past. With DeJesus signed cheaply through 2011 and the market at the position robust this winter, it might make sense for Dayton Moore to wait a year to shop him aggressively.
- Grant adds that Jon Daniels is considering some affordable options for first base. They’ve already talked to Mike Lamb‘s agent and like Kevin Millar as well. Lamb came up through the Rangers’ system but was traded to the Yankees in ’04. Millar is under contract for ’08 but it’s in the $3-4MM range and the Orioles should be open to a trade. Grant says Ben Broussard could pique the Rangers’ interest if he’s non-tendered.
- Grant concludes with five Rangers whose names will be bandied about in trade talks: Gerald Laird, Vicente Padilla, Joaquin Arias, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Nelson Cruz. Salty’s not being shopped but Grant expects teams to ask. He proposes some kind of bad contract swap for Padilla – Jason Giambi, Richie Sexson, or Adam Eaton are named. I still think it’s funny the way Padilla crawled away from the brawl he started this year.
Mariners Decline Option On Jose Guillen
UPDATE, 11-3-07: There had been conflicting reports of this, but Cot’s Baseball Contracts had it right. Guillen’s player option is for $5MM, and he’s already said he’s declining it. The Mariners pretty much wasted $500K in declining the club option.
FROM 11-2-07:
The Mariners are saying they put the ball in Jose Guillen‘s court, but they really didn’t. They declined his one-year, $9MM option. Now Guillen can choose to exercise an option for 2008 for $5MM or elect for free agency. Seems pretty clear he’ll pass on that.
It figured to be this way from the start; the $9MM team option really meant nothing because if they exercised it that would mean Guillen was worth more than that on the open market. The $5MM player option only had value if Guillen was hurt or terrible in ’07 and wanted to get paid anyway.
You have to figure it’ll take three years, $30MM to even get in the door on a new contract for Guillen. He wants to stay, but admits the Mariners have to make a choice. That choice would apparently have to be benching Jose Vidro, shifting Raul Ibanez to DH, and using Adam Jones in left. Bringing Guillen back doesn’t seem likely, especially with Wladimir Balentien already sitting on the sidelines.
The Ms also officially ended the Chris Reitsma experiment.
Odds and Ends: Lincecum, Wakefield, Schilling
More random rumors. You know you love it.
- Tracy Ringolsby has some hot stove musings. It’s a fairly sloppy article with one new tidbit: "Tim Lincecum can be had for a quality bat." Either Ringolsby is misinformed, or Brian Sabean has lost it. Lincecum has Cy Young potential.
- A couple of Red Sox mainstays will stay for ’08 – Tim Wakefield and Julian Tavarez. Wake was a no-brainer at his perpetual $4MM, while Tavarez was debatable at $3.85MM. Tavarez expected it to be declined, since the team left him off the World Series roster.
- The Ms will decide very soon whether to exercise Jose Guillen‘s $9MM option. Even if they do, Guillen then can decline it and forfeit a buyout. He most certainly will pass since he can get a two or three-year pact on the open market, mercurial nature and all.
- Re-signing Tony Clark is appearing more difficult than the D’Backs anticipated.
- Reliever Masahide Kobayashi filed for free agency and is interested in MLB offers. He’d prefer to close but it’s not a dealbreaker.
- The Cardinals contacted Curt Schilling today to express interest, apparently after hearing him on a St. Louis radio show. Schilling has a minor update on his blog. Also, he posted the recruiting letter the Red Sox sent to him in 2003.
- Scott Boras client Eric Gagne may return to the Rangers; there’s mutual interest according to Evan Grant.
- Buster Olney points out that Jorge Posada could finish his next contract as the Yankees’ DH, and would probably thrive in that role.
- Don Burke speculates that Tom Glavine might be interested in finishing his career in Boston.
Odds and Ends: Hunter, A-Rod, Bedard
Sunday morning minor rumor collection…
- There’s always some skepticism from readers regarding Charley Walters rumors. Nonetheless I’ll report that he names the Nationals, White Sox, Braves, Yankees, and Dodgers as teams that will bid for Torii Hunter. I don’t see the Braves getting involved at $15MM per. And are the Dodgers ready to move Juan Pierre to left field already? The other clubs named seem reasonable.
- As expected, the Cardinals interviewed Chris Antonetti for their open GM position. No doubt it’s an attractive position but you have to wonder what kind of autonomy he’d have with Tony La Russa around.
- Larry LaRue makes the case for the Mariners tendering a contract to Horacio Ramirez. He also notes that Jose Guillen is as good as gone and the Ms won’t consider A-Rod.
- Speaking of that guy, Bill Price suggests the Mets should sign him and move David Wright to first base. Carlos Delgado I suppose would be a very expensive pinch-hitter in 2008.
- Nick Cafardo expects the Orioles to shop Miguel Tejada this winter, which would surprise no one. But he’s also hearing that Erik Bedard could be available. Trades of either might be unpopular with the fanbase. The trade market for starters could be hopping if Johan Santana, Bedard, and C.C. Sabathia are made available.
- Joel Sherman says Koji Uehara is a free agent, but we have heard differently. Anyway, the success of Hideki Okajima may create a minor bidding war for Hitoki Iwase.
Mariners Hot Stove Chatter
John Hickey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer discusses the Mariners’ offseason situation in today’s column. Let’s summarize.
- Jose Guillen will probably decline his $9MM option for ’08, no surprise there. An "inside source" of Hickey’s doesn’t expect him back with Seattle. That puts Ichiro in center and Adam Jones in right, which hopefully makes up for the unpleasantness of Raul Ibanez in left.
- Hickey sees the Mariners having about $15MM to spend this winter. If $10MM of that went to Guillen the Ms would be severely limited in pitching acquisitions. Instead they should and probably will just spend all of it to get at least two hurlers.
- As you know, Hiroki Kuroda is on the radar. I can’t figure out what kind of contract to expect for Kuroda. I’m guessing two or three years at at least $5MM per. I can’t think of a good comparable, as Matsuzaka and Igawa were not free agents.
- U.S.S. Mariner believes Bartolo Colon is the "hidden gem of free agent pitchers," and officially endorses signing him. They suggest he could net a one-year, $9MM deal or maybe two years, $16MM. That sounds fair and I agree that Bart looks like a possible bargain. Scour the free agent list – who’s your #1 bargain among starters? Viva El Birdos likes Jon Lieber. I’ll cast a vote for Brett Tomko.
Tigers Hot Stove Talk
Lynn Henning of the Detroit News runs down all of the big names rumored to be possibilities for the Tigers this winter and assesses the likelihood of each. It’s a well-written article so be sure to read it. Here are the players, ranked by the percent chance of playing for Detroit next year:
Kenny Rogers – 90%
Todd Jones – 80%
Geoff Jenkins – 75%
Edgar Renteria – 50%
Jack Wilson – 30%
Francisco Cordero – 5%
Alex Rodriguez – 3%
Mariano Rivera – 3%
Raul Ibanez – 0.5%
Torii Hunter – 0%
Andruw Jones – 0%
- Henning believes Jenkins is quite likely to become a Tiger on a two-year deal. He only costs money, as the Brewers won’t be offering him arbitration if they decline his option. The Twins may be in the mix for him as well.
- Henning notes that new Braves GM Frank Wren and current Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski have a connection and could easily work together on a Renteria trade. Pitching would be the requirement. Jeremy Bonderman seems like too much; Nate Robertson perhaps too little.
- The Tigers badly want to bring Rogers back; that seems very likely.
- Henning expects Jones back unless he receives an offer from the Braves, located somewhat near his home. That’s not expected.
Jose Guillen Likely To Reach Free Agency
Nothing unexpected here – Jose Guillen‘s agent, Adam Katz, indicated tonight that the player will decline his option for 2008. The Mariners can exercise it at $9MM, but then Guillen has the right to void it and forfeit the $500K buyout. That makes sense – at the bare minimum he’s looking at two years and $20MM. More likely he gets three years from some team, despite his mercurial nature. Mercurial is the word most often used to describe Guillen. I’m not kidding – there are 430 Google results for "jose guillen mercurial."
The Mariners may yet give Guillen an extension; he did a solid job.
Anyway, the most entertaining part of all of this comes courtesy of Jim Street’s MLB.com article:
When asked if there was a deadline to terminate the option, Katz snapped, "There is, but I’m a busy man and I don’t have time to look it up."
OK then. Katz is probably occupied trying to find a team to take Sammy Sosa.
Odds and Ends
More random rumors and reading material!
- Baseball Prospectus’ Nate Silver discusses Ryan Braun‘s undeniably terrible defense at third base, suggesting some interesting trade and signing permutations to get him into right field. Also note that Kevin Kouzmanoff is a butcher at third; maybe the Friars will be in the market for Mike Lowell this winter (a player they’ve expressed interest in in the past).
- Awesome headline for this Garrett Atkins article. Steve King discusses how the Phillies would be a fine fit for a trade, throwing the Dodgers, Twins, Angels, and Astros into the mix as well. Note that Atkins has a career line of .269/.344/.437 on the road and .336/.399/.528 at Coors.
- Sid Hartman is hearing that Walt Jocketty could end up in Baltimore.
- The Daily Herald’s Scot Gregor proposes some kind of Jon Garland for Bill Hall swap, or even a Carl Crawford acquisition by the White Sox. I don’t think the Sox and Rays match up too well for that.
- I thought he’d stay, but Joe Torre has turned down a one-year, $5MM offer from the Yankees. The proposal had another $3MM in incentives and a vesting option for 2009 if the Yanks won the ’08 World Series.
- It’s Hiroshima or MLB for Hiroki Kuroda. Apparently the Ms already have their eye on him. Paul Sullivan also said recently that the Cubs will be in the mix.