Cardinals Sign Cesar Izturis
According to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cards have signed shortstop Cesar Izturis to a one-year deal. The amount is $2.85MM with another $650K in incentives. You know the story with Izturis – anemic bat, stellar glove. He’ll offer a bit more than Brendan Ryan would’ve and doesn’t cost much. If John Mozeliak finds something better it will be easy to pull the plug.
This also signals the end of David Eckstein as a Cardinal, as expected.
Strauss adds that the team has "strong interest" in acquiring the Brewers’ Chris Capuano. That’s a reasonable target and a nice buy-low idea. The Brewers would like to unload him given their starter surplus and his rising salary. In a radio interview on 590AM, Post-Dispatch columnist Rick Hummel indicated it could be an even swap for Anthony Reyes.
Stark’s Latest: Edmonds, Pierre, Guillen, Santana
ESPN’s Jayson Stark always cranks out a bunch of new rumors when he writes a column. This week is no exception.
- Jose Reyes: going nowhere.
- Probably since they hope to include him in a Johan Santana deal, the Red Sox won’t trade Coco Crisp until that situation is resolved. The Rangers liked Crisp, but are considering interesting alternatives: Rocco Baldelli, Jim Edmonds, and Juan Pierre. If only Ned Colletti could get someone to take his Pierre contract. Then he could sign another one almost equally as bad. Then he could trade Aaron Rowand a year from now and repeat the process.
- The Braves also liked Crisp, so they’ll move on for now. Stark speculates a stopgap like Dave Roberts could work.
- More speculation: Andruw Jones as a darkhorse signing for the Royals. I guess that would push David DeJesus out of center field.
- Is there an unmentioned Mystery Team in on Johan Santana? Stark’s sources suggest the Mariners, but those guys must not read Jon Heyman’s column. I’ll go with the Reds as my guess on the Mystery Team, if there is one.
- Speaking of guesses, Stark surmises that the Padres and Mets could be interested in Jose Guillen, aside from the Royals.
- More rumblings that Vicente Padilla could be traded this winter. Funny quote about how Padilla doesn’t have baggage – he has luggage. In fact his luggage cannot be carried, rather it requires a mid-sized cart.
Brewers Rumors: Rolen, Andruw, Mench
MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy posted a Brewers article yesterday that’s worthy of discussion.
- One reliever Doug Melvin has considered that I hadn’t heard before: Eddie Guardado. Hey, at least he’d come cheap.
- Players like Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, and Corey Hart won’t be moved. No surprise there.
- McCalvy says Melvin confirmed having internal discussions about Scott Rolen. Would John Mozeliak trade him within the division? More importantly, would the Brewers take on the money and injury risk? The obvious match would be to send a starter over to St. Louis for Rolen.
- Which starters are available? Though you can never have too much pitching, Dave Bush, Chris Capuano, or Claudio Vargas might be considered expendable. Their salaries will all be rising as they are arbitration-eligible. None will be non-tendered.
- Aside from Rolen, another unlikely possibility is Andruw Jones. Melvin did at least speak to Scott Boras about him. Moves for Rolen or Jones would of course involve moving Ryan Braun and/or Bill Hall to other positions, something Melvin prefers not to do.
- If Melvin can’t trade Kevin Mench at the Winter Meetings, he’ll probably be non-tendered.
- By the way, Tom Haudricourt echoes the Rolen and Jones rumors in his blog this afternoon.
Cards Could Get Morris, Wilson From Pirates
Yesterday Joe Strauss wrote how the Cardinals’ #1 reasonable target for shortstop appears to be the Pirates’ Jack Wilson. Today, Dejan Kovacevic confirms it and adds Matt Morris as another possibility to head to St. Louis.
Kovacevic notes that the Cardinals tried to acquire Morris last summer, though that wasn’t John Mozeliak. The Pirates would have to be willing to eat some of Morris’ salary, though they would take on all of Wilson’s. So far Anthony Reyes, Tyler Johnson, and Brad Thompson are named as the pitchers the Cardinals will trade. I still have some hope for Reyes.
Kovacevic adds that the Bucs are in on Japanese reliever Kazuo Fukumori. The Padres, Rockies, and Red Sox may also have Fukumori in their sights.
Cards Considering Jack Wilson, Izturis, Tejada
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss has an excellent update on the Cardinals’ pursuit of a new starting shortstop.
- Sounds like the end of the David Eckstein Era in St. Louis – Strauss says it’s a widespread belief that Eckstein will not be offered arbitration and probably will not stay around.
- While the Cards are drawn to Miguel Tejada, a deal seems highly unlikely. John Mozeliak wants to move quickly to fill the shortstop position and the Orioles are taking their time with Tejada.
- Sounds like there’s a very good chance the Cards get Jack Wilson from the Bucs. They’re OK with paying all of the $13.75MM owed to him through 2009.
- If Wilson doesn’t work out, Cesar Izturis is the one free agent the Cardinals are considering. They could have some competition from the Rays.
- There isn’t much interest in acquiring Juan Uribe or going with internal option Brendan Ryan.
- A few speculative options not mentioned by Strauss: Cristian Guzman, Alexei Ramirez, Jason Bartlett, Adam Everett, Joaquin Arias, Clint Barmes, and Russ Adams.
Odds and Ends: Riske, Bedard, Wolf
And now for your daily jumble o’ rumors. More to come.
- The Twins cleared several spots on their 40-man roster…will they be active next week?
- The Yankees have "reached out" to free agent reliever David Riske. Troy Percival and Ron Mahay have also been linked to the Yanks this offseason.
- The Dodgers have an interest in Tony Clark, which has to bum out James Loney. Dylan Hernandez also notes that the Dodgers’ talks for Erik Bedard have stalled because the Orioles want to see what happens with Miguel Cabrera first. Ned Colletti expects Jeff Kent back, by the way.
- The Cards won’t be afraid to trade their young pitching (Anthony Reyes, Tyler Johnson, and Brad Thompson) for veteran pitching. They also still like Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse, if the price is right.
- Bob Dutton reports that the Royals’ Yasuhiko Yabuta signing will be finalized at week’s end. Meanwhile nothing is imminent with Jose Guillen.
- Linked to this earlier in a D’Backs post…the Phils are in "serious talks" with Randy Wolf. As I said there, that shouldn’t stop them from going after a more reliable starter.
- Things are heating up between the Twins and Red Sox for Coco Crisp, but that’s all Gordon Edes has for us on the topic.
- As expected, the market for Mike Cameron has picked up now that Torii Hunter signed.
Odds and Ends: Santana, Hunter
Let’s kick off the morning with some odds and ends, absent any earth-shattering rumors. I’ll keep adding to this post.
- Awesome inside look at the Torii Hunter deal via Bob Nightengale. Hunter’s first choice outside of Minnesota was the Cardinals, but they weren’t interested.
- Hunter – not overpaid? So says J.C. Bradbury.
- Still some confusion about Johan Santana‘s no-trade clause. Buster Olney says it’s full and doesn’t indicate that the rights change on any certain date. Matthew Cerrone says it’s a full NTC only until Opening Day ’08, when it switches to 12 teams. Those are not mutually exclusive comments, so I guess we’ll see.
- Phil Rogers doesn’t think the Cubs will re-sign Kerry Wood. He also sees the Giants in the lead for Miguel Cabrera now.
- My coworker Jonathan makes a good point – thought the Sox wouldn’t give four-year deals to pitchers? They made a huge fuss over Mark Buehrle. Suddenly Scott Linebrink is worthy of breaking the rule again? Some are skeptical.
- Bobby Kielty typically smacks around left-handed pitching (Brian Fuentes for example). He’ll hook on as some team’s fourth outfielder as a free agent. He’d like to return to Boston, but that would require a Coco Crisp trade. Rob Bradford names the Twins, Braves, Rangers, and White Sox as possibilities otherwise.
Morning Tidbits
Hmm. Not much really going on this A.M. Hopefully we’ll see some rumors crop up as the day progresses. Until then, here are just a few teasers on this Black Friday.
- Remember when the Blue Jays claimed Cory Haerther off waivers from the Cardinals? Well, now the Cardinals have claimed Haerther off waivers from the Blue Jays and have added him to the 40-man roster, thus protecting him from the Rule 5 draft.
- "Indications are" that the Twins are talking with closer Joe Nathan about a contract extension. Nathan has one year left on his deal, and could price himself out of the Twins range. No word on the number offered.
- C.J. Henry was a 2005 first-round draft choice of the Yankees. After a rough introduction to the pros, Henry was sent to the Phillies in 2006 as part of the Bobby Abreu deal. Well, the Phils have released him, and despite stories that he was going to play college basketball, he has re-signed with the Yanks.
- Infielder Ramon Vazquez has re-upped with the Rangers for one year and $810,000. He hit .230/.300/.373 in 300 at bats in 2007.
Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.
Stark’s Latest: Santana, Hamilton, Snell
Ah, a new Rumblings and Grumblings from Jayson Stark. Let’s dig in.
- It sounds like the Yankees would discuss Phil Hughes and the Red Sox might part with one of Ellsbury/Lester/Buchholz to acquire Johan Santana. The acquiring team would need an extension window though. The Mets are in on Santana big-time and would have to give up Carlos Gomez and then some. If the Twins do trade Santana, they would probably hang onto Matt Garza. But otherwise Garza could be traded for a young hitter, as we’ve been hearing.
- The Fish want four 0-3 players for Miguel Cabrera, pretty much the names we’ve been tossing around here at MLBTR for a while.
- The Marlins would ask for two 0-3 guys for Dontrelle Willis, but aren’t inclined to trade him unless they’re blown away. Stark names the Mets, Mariners, and D’Backs as suitors. So think Gomez, Adam Jones, or Carlos Gonzalez.
- The Orioles and Cardinals don’t want to eat any money on Miguel Tejada and Scott Rolen, respectively. The Cards were asking for too much from the Yanks for Rolen – one of their top three young pitchers (you know the trio).
- The Reds are willing to trade Ryan Freel or Josh Hamilton to clear space for Jay Bruce.
- Ian Snell could be available. It’s not the first time his name has appeared in the rumor mill. Hell, Snell for Hamilton kind of makes sense.
Odds and Ends: LaRue, Rogers, Hunter
Some random rumorage before I shut it down for the evening…
- My 2008 MLB Free Agents list is current; take a gander.
- The Cardinals signed Jason LaRue to be their backup catcher. LaRue had a nice five-year trend of rising OPS, culminating with an .806 mark in 2005. Then he lost all ability to hit whatsoever. Fortunately, he can still throw guys out. The Cards also inked a couple of sweet former Rated Rookies in Dewon Brazelton and John Wasdin.
- The Tigers have begun chatting with Kenny Rogers again, this time with The Gambler representing himself.
- Don’t buy that Torii Hunter White Sox jersey just yet – Hunter is finishing up a tasty meal at Tom Hicks’ house as we speak. If Hicks was smart he whipped up some chicken fried rice for Torii.