John Hickey has an update as the Gil Meche sweepstakes seesaws back and forth between the Cubs and Blue Jays.
With the Yanks and Cubs chasing Lilly and the Jays and Cubs after Meche, one of the teams is going to be left standing when the music stops.
Ken Davidoff of Newsday has the scoop after talking to Ted Lilly’s agent: his decision will come down to the Cubs or Yankees. He meets with the Yankees tonight.
The Cubs made an offer to Ted Lilly this weekend; the Blue Jays chimed in late last night.
Lilly’s agent meets with six clubs today; perhaps a contract will be reached.
Vernon Wells, the possible $20 Million Man, could be a target for the White Sox.
This kind of acquisition is just the kind of splash we’ve come to expect from Kenny Williams. The Jays are said to want a starter and a center field prospect in return. It doesn’t seem that the White Sox would have the best package to offer, but you never know.
As far as I can tell, Kenny Williams has never made a trade with J.P. Ricciardi. His most frequent trading partner has been Jim Bowden.
Already, speculation is starting that Blue Jays’ center fielder Vernon Wells could be the next player to command $20MM annually. Wells turns 28 later this month and will be a free agent after the 2007 season.
Wells’s offensive production this year ranked third in baseball for his position, behind only Grady Sizemore and Carlos Beltran. Bill James’s panel of fielding experts ranked his glovework 8th among CFs. J.P. Ricciardi seems willing to let Wells play out the string in his walk year rather than try to cash in. The bidding war a year from now could involve the Rangers, Red Sox, White Sox, Phillies, Astros, and Cubs.
For 2007, baseball has three players set to earn $20MM or more: Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Jason Giambi.
With that, let the Winter Meetings begin! No more puff pieces about Zito or the number 51.1111 or the 2000 meetings in Dallas…it’s time for action.
Ted Lilly is looking for a four-year deal at close to $40MM. It’d be tough to hand that contract to a guy with his injury history, but five teams are said to have serious interest.
There are two mystery teams, one from each league, in addition to the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Cubs. The NL club could be the Giants. But how about the Mets? They have plenty of competition for Barry Zito, and Lilly might be the best remaining southpaw starter.
The AL club could be (pure speculation) the Orioles, Royals, Mariners, or Rangers.
My money is on the Cubs, as the Blue Jays seem to be more into Gil Meche and the Yankees don’t seem thrilled with Lilly.
Ken Rosenthal reports that the Blue Jays signed Royce Clayton today to be their starting shortstop, at a price of $1.5MM.
As Rosenthal suggests, Clayton’s main skill, defense, has been deteriorating. He isn’t much range-wise and probably shouldn’t be starting for anyone. At least when the Red Sox went with Alex Gonzalez last year, he truly was saving runs with glovework.
While I don’t love the signing, the Blue Jays will still field a fine club in 2007 once they add some starting pitching.
Adam Eaton is going to the Phillies for $24M over three years. It’s an interesting harbinger of the contracts to come–that isn’t far out of line of all the $21/3 contracts that have been signed in the last couple of years. Eaton is a bit of an injury risk, I suppose, but there’s nothing else keeping his value down. Aside from the obvious cases–Barry Zito, Andy Pettitte, and Jason Schmidt–the only pitchers on the market who may get bigger deals that Eaton are Gil Meche and Ted Lilly. It would be fascinating if the market for pitching remained as people predicted, while the market for hitters exploded.
David Dellucci signed a similarly sane deal to go to Cleveland: he’s getting $11.5M over three years. Given Casey Blake’s versatility, Eric Wedge can play the hot hand with a number of players, including Dellucci, Blake, Jason Michaels, Shin-Soo Choo, and Ryan Garko.
It looks like it’ll be Gregg Zaun, and not Rod Barajas, who serves as the Blue Jays catcher next year. Apparently the Barajas talks hit a snag, and Zaun stepped right back in. That means Barajas may be headed to one of Zaun’s earlier targets: San Francisco, or a backup job in New York or Boston.
Speaking of catchers, I’m sure you’re all relieved to know that Chad Moeller found a job for 2007. He got a major-league deal to join the Cincinnati Reds, which is Wayne Krivsky’s way of saying, "Jason LaRue, you suck!" Interesting how Brewers backup catchers stick around in the division: if Gary Bennett stays with the Cardinals, two of the worst backup catchers in baseball will be former Brewers in the NL Central.
By Jeff Sackmann
Tim sends his best from Cancun and wishes everyone was with him.
Not!
They are still trying to find their honeymoon hotel so he’s not quite sure when he’ll be back. And, no, he didn’t send any Cancun beach shots. Dang..
Speaking about vacations, how about the Astros signing Lee at $100m/6? Wow. My take is this – the power starved Astros obviously felt they were one player away and Lee happened to be available. He’ll probably hit 40 home runs despite all the talk about his lack of power after April last year. Don’t forget Minute Maid is full of hot air.
The Astros also jumped on Woody Williams at $12.5/2. I suppose this is a message to Astros fans that Pupura doesn’t expect the Rocket to resign. Just a guess. At 40-years old, Williams is a huge risk of course.
The Rangers signed Frank Catalanotto to a $13.5m/3 year deal today too. Dan Szymborwski at the Baseball Think Factory believes it is a solid deal for the Rangers, and I agree.
MLBTR’s reader eeleye99 was kind enough to offer up that the Blue Jays are reportedly ready to sign Rod Barajas as their every day receiver around $6m/2. Nice catch eeleye99 – thanks.
Another MLBTR reader – Rayman, found that Dave Roberts is reportedly picking the Giants over the Brewers. Kudo’s for the find Rayman.
At The Plate has started compiling all the teams top 10 prospects by publication. They have done a great job of this for several years now. You might want to bookmark the site.
Bucco Blog has indicated that the most sought out pitcher on the Pirates staff this winter has been southpaw Tom Gorzelanny. There have been rumors that the Braves wanted Gorzelanny and Maholm for LaRoche, and today Tracy Ringolsby, the award winning columnist of the Rocky Mountain News, has indicated that a Rockies Brad Hawpe trade has been discussed with the Pirates who will only give up Maholm. I assume they also want Gorzelanny in any package. I love Tracy’s writing – the guy is flat out kewl.
Interestingly, Ringolsby is also reporting in that article that agents are complaining that the Rockies didn’t offer enough to Francis in his latest $13.5/4 year deal. I suppose the agents had to find a way to say the "C" word this year, despite the soaring value of contracts so far.
Have you ever read the The Carbolic Smoke Ball blog? OMG – it is Hilllll ar ious.
By Jake at Bucco Blog
Here are notes from the blog of Paul Hoynes, Indians beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. These were posted yesterday.
Hoynes says the Blue Jays are talking to Rod Barajas and have some interest in Mark Mulder. Even if they signed both, the Jays would still need to come up with a shortstop and one decent starter.
The Tribe is expected to bid on lefty Kei Igawa, who will be posted next week. If they win, the Indians, like the White Sox, would be six deep in their starting rotation. A good kind of problem.
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