Quick Hits: Motte, Cespedes, Garcia, Angels
On this date last year, the White Sox selected Philip Humber off of waivers from the Athletics. The right-hander posted a 3.75 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 163 innings in 2011 and projects to start for Chicago in 2012. We didn't see anyone claimed on waivers today, but we do have these links…
- A multiyear deal between the Cardinals and Jason Motte is ‘in play,’ though nothing is close, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Motte filed for $2.4MM in arbitration, with the Cardinals countering at $1.5MM, as our Arbitration Tracker shows.
- Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes hit his first home run since joining the Dominican Winter League and you can view a clip of it here (hat tip: Keith Law).
- Another Cuban, left-hander Onelkis Garcia, will be eligible for the 2012 amateur draft, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. MLB made Garcia eligible to MLB teams as last year's draft approached, before making him ineligible at the last minute. Scouts tell Badler the 22-year-old projects as a reliever and could be selected in the third round this June.
- Angels GM Jerry Dipoto explained to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times that at one point during the Winter Meetings, the Angels had people negotiating with representatives for C.J. Wilson, LaTroy Hawkins and Albert Pujols in three different places.
- Indians president Mark Shapiro, who is depicted in the Moneyball movie, told Jordan Bastian of MLB.com that he enjoyed the film for what it was. "I appreciate why most people would like it,” Shapiro said. “But I felt like it was an oversimplified kind of view, which is kind of what you have to do when you take a lot of history and condense it into an hour and a half."
Players Avoiding Arbitration: Tuesday
Dozens of arbitration eligible players have agreed to deals with their respective teams today and we've been tracking all of the developments right here. Several teams, including the Rays, Nationals, Marlins, White Sox, Blue Jays, Braves, and perhaps Astros, are known for committing to going to hearings if they get to the point of filing. Keep track of all the madness with MLBTR's arbitration tracker, which shows settlement amounts, filing figures, and midpoints. Today's players to avoid arbitration on deals worth less than $4MM:
- The Cardinals avoided arbitration with pitcher Kyle McClellan, tweets B.J. Rains of FOX Sports Midwest. Joe Strauss of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (on Twitter) that the one-year deal is worth $2.5MM with incentives based on starts. MLBTR projected a $2.7MM for the Steve Comte client.
- MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith reports (on Twitter) that the Padres and Chase Headley agreed to a one-year deal worth $3.475MM, avoiding arbitration. Earlier this evening, the Padres announced that they avoided arbitration with Luke Gregerson, Edinson Volquez, Carlos Quentin and Will Venable. They also avoided arbitration with lefty reliever Joe Thatcher on a deal worth $700K, tweets Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. CAA announced catcher John Baker has signed for $750K. Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported that the Padres reached agreements with Hundley, Chase Headley, and Tim Stauffer. Hundley will earn $2MM in 2012, MLB.com's Corey Brock tweets. Dan Hayes of the North County Times tweets the salaries for Volquez ($2.2375MM), Venable ($1.475MM), Gregerson ($1.55MM)
- The Rangers avoided arbitration with Matt Harrison, tweets Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. The ACES client gets $2.95MM on a one-year deal. MLBTR had projected a $2.9MM salary.
- The Cubs announced that they have avoided arbitration with Jeff Baker ($1.375MM), Blake DeWitt ($1.1MM), Ian Stewart ($2.237MM) Chris Volstad ($2.655MM), and Randy Wells ($2.705MM). MLB.com's Carrie Muskat tweeted the salary figures.
NL Central Notes: Pujols, Beltran, Cubs, Aoki
The Reds signed a catcher today and the Pirates avoided arbitration with a pair of pitchers. Here are some more notes from the NL Central…
- Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said this weekend that his team must stay within certain financial limitations to put a competitive team on the field year after year, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The Cardinals would have liked to retain Albert Pujols, but keeping him wasn’t necessarily realistic. “It's how much can I afford to pay one player and put together a team that's going to be competitive? That's the whole jigsaw puzzle that all teams have,” DeWitt said.
- Carlos Beltran said the Indians, Rays and Giants were among the finalists for his services this offseason, MLB.com's Matthew Leach reports. Beltran said another team offered a three-year deal worth less money, B.J. Rains of FOXSportsMidwest.com tweets.
- Cubs director of scouting and player development Jason McLeod said he's looking forward to meeting with his scouts this week to find ways of drafting more effectively under the new collective bargaining agreement, according to Carrie Muskat of MLB.com.
- Tom Haudricourt on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets that there's an expectation that the Brewers will sign outfielder Norichika Aoki. They have until 4pm CDT tomorrow to sign Aoki, or else he’ll be returned to the Yakult Swallows and the Brewers will get their $2.5MM posting fee back.
Mozeliak On Pujols, Molina, Oswalt, Fielder, Edmonds
Cardinals GM John Mozeliak spoke to fans and media at the team's 16th annual Winter Warm-Up today, touching on a wide range of topics. MLB.com's Matthew Leach was there, and provided us with a rundown of all the news. Let's recap…
- Mozeliak called the Albert Pujols negotiations "exhausting (and) frustrating," but said it is time to move on. "[It] just creates new opportunities for us," he added.
- "In terms of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, I really can’t get into those types of details," said Mozeliak when asked about a potential contract extension for Yadier Molina, who can become a free agent after the season. "But I assure we’re going to try to find a way to make it work. I know that he also wants to try to be here as well, so usually when you have that type of understanding and mutual agreement, you usually can get something resolved.”
- "I haven’t heard anything about it and I probably won’t until they see that I’m healthy and out there rolling," said Adam Wainwright when asked about a potential contract extension, according to Leach. "But of course I want to finish my career here, everybody knows that. Everybody that plays here wants to finish their career here."
- When asked about the possibility of signing Roy Oswalt, Mozeliak replied that he likes "the idea of an insurance policy" for the rotation. "There’s no doubt that he would be a nice addition, but I just don’t know how practical it is at this time," he added.
- Unsurprisingly, Mozeliak made it very clear that the Cardinals will not be signing Prince Fielder. He said any further additions would likely involve a pitcher and not a hitter.
- Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny have spoken about bringing Jim Edmonds back to the organization in some non-playing capacity. “As far as what the role looks like or how we define it, we haven’t done that yet,” said the GM.
NL Central Notes: Madson, Wood, Miller
The Reds signed Cuban left-hander Aroldis Chapman for $30.25MM on this date in 2010. The 23-year-old has a 3.27 ERA with 12.8 K/9 and 6.5 BB/9 through 63 1/3 innings in parts of two seasons with Cincinnati. He figures to join lefties Bill Bray and Sean Marshall in the Reds' revamped bullpen this year…
- The Reds’ one-year, $8.5MM contract with Ryan Madson is “perhaps the deal of the offseason so far,” ESPN.com’s Keith Law writes. Law says the Phillies seem like losers and that their four-year, $50MM deal with Jonathan Papelbon “looks absolutely comical.”
- The Cubs, who appear to be nearing a deal with Kerry Wood, reached out to the right-hander last night and stepped up their offer, David Kaplan of CSNChicago.com tweets. The Tigers and Phillies are fallback options for Wood, Kaplan notes.
- Cardinals pitching prospect Shelby Miller told Casey Stern and Jim Bowden on MLB Network Radio that he's looking to pitch well in Spring Training and make it difficult for the team to keep him off of the MLB roster.
Cardinals Sign Koyie Hill
The Cardinals have signed catcher Koyie Hill to a minor league deal, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets. Turner Gary Sports represents the longtime Cubs backstop.
Hill, 32, figures to compete with Bryan Anderson and Tony Cruz for playing time behind Yadier Molina. He posted a .194/.268/.276 line in 153 plate appearances for the Cubs last year, stopping 24% of stolen base attempts. The eight-year veteran has a career batting line of .211/.275/.298 and has stopped 28% of the stolen base attempts against him.
Cardinals Shopping For Right-Handed Reliever
The Cardinals are shopping for a right-handed reliever, hears Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Adding a righty reliever would make a Kyle McClellan trade likely, he adds.
The Cardinals' bullpen includes righties Jason Motte, Fernando Salas, Mitchell Boggs, and Lance Lynn, as well as lefties Marc Rzepczynski and J.C. Romero. Our free agent tracker shows that Luis Ayala, Shawn Camp, Todd Coffey, Francisco Cordero, Brad Lidge, Scott Linebrink, Ryan Madson, Chad Qualls, Dan Wheeler, Kerry Wood, and Michael Wuertz are among the unsigned right-handed relievers.
McClellan, 27, posted a 4.19 ERA, 4.8 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.33 HR/9, and 50.6% groundball rate in 141 2/3 innings last year, including 17 starts. Matt Swartz projects a $2.7MM salary through arbitration.
Cafardo On Red Sox, Soriano, Madson, Mahay
Within this week's Sunday Baseball Notes, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reported that Kevin Cash has decided to end his playing career. Let's take a look at a few other notes Cafardo shared in his column….
- Addressing the starting rotation, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington says the team may "buy low on some guys and create a competition in camp." One buy-low candidate the Sox are known to be eyeing is Paul Maholm. Cafardo expects the former Pirate to sign a one-year, incentive-laden deal somewhere.
- The Red Sox may also have Joe Saunders on their radar. One NL scout weighed in on the southpaw: "You'd be afraid that he'd give up some homers at Fenway. But on the other hand, when you've got a guy who can pitch 200 innings from the No. 4 spot in your rotation, I'm telling you, that is effective because that's one of the bullpen spots in the rotation. I mean, that's where you normally believe you have to use a lot of your pen, and if a guy like that saves you, that's important."
- The Cubs are willing to absorb most of the $54MM remaining on Alfonso Soriano's contract in order to facilitate a trade.
- According to Cafardo, many teams, including the Red Sox, Cardinals, and Rays, will become more interested in Ryan Madson if and when his asking price drops. I have my doubts that Madson will become inexpensive enough for the Rays to get too involved.
- 40-year-old lefty Ron Mahay says he feels great and intends to continue his pitching career. Mahay recorded a 3.44 ERA in 34 innings for the Twins in 2010, but couldn't crack the big league roster for the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, or Cardinals in 2011.
NL Central Notes: Cubs, Rizzo, Cardinals, Lee, Heisey
Here's the latest from the NL Central…
- Cubs GM Jed Hoyer wants to add more depth to his pitching staff, reports MLB.com's Carrie Muskat. "At this point, we're still very much in the process of gathering as many quality arms as we can, and we'll put those pieces in place as we get closer to Spring Training," Hoyer said. "We have worked hard, and we continue to work hard, and hopefully we'll have even more starting-pitching acquisitions….We want to go seven, eight, nine deep in the rotation and we hope to replenish the bullpen as well."
- ESPN's Keith Law gives the Cubs the "slight edge" in today's Anthony Rizzo-for-Andrew Cashner trade. Law says he would rather have Rizzo than Yonder Alonso, who the Padres acquired from the Reds last month as part of the package for Mat Latos.
- The Cardinals announced Derek Lilliquist will become the team's new pitching coach, with Dyer Miller taking Lilliquist's old job as bullpen coach. The moves may or may not be permanent as former pitching coach Dave Duncan is on an indefinite leave of absence to be with his wife, who underwent brain surgery last August.
- The Pirates have shown some interest in bringing back Derrek Lee but "the first baseman doesn’t seem to have reciprocated that interest," writes MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch. Of the five remaining Pirate free agents, Langosch thinks only Paul Maholm has a chance of returning, but the Bucs will likely be outbid by one of Maholm's several other suitors.
- Incumbent Reds left fielder Chris Heisey talks to John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer, who thinks Heisey has earned "a long trial" at the everyday job. The Reds have recently been connected to free agent outfielders Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick and Cody Ross.
- The Reds have announced the signings of catcher Corky Miller and left-hander Jeremy Horst to minor league contracts with invites to the Major League spring training camp. Miller, a 10-year veteran, was originally drafted by the Reds in 1998 and has spent the last three years in Cincinnati's system. Horst, 26, made his Major League debut last season with the Reds, posting a 2.93 ERA in 12 relief appearances. Previously-announced signings Brian Esposito, Sean Gallagher, Daryl Jones, Chad Reineke, Clayton Tanner and Kanekoa Texeira were also confirmed as non-roster invitees.
Dave Duncan Taking Leave Of Absence
Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan is taking a leave of absence due to family matters, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Duncan's wife has been battling cancer and had surgery to remove a brain tumor in August. Joe Strauss of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the team will issue an announcement tomorrow (Twitter links).
“As far as how long he’ll be gone, no one knows,” said GM John Mozeliak to Rosenthal.
Duncan, 66, has been the team's pitching coach since 1995, and he is widely considered to be one of the very best in the game. He was in the second year of a two-year deal signed last offseason. Bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist has filled in for Duncan in the past, though it's unclear if he will do so again.