Uncategorized News & Rumors

If you'd like to filter MLBTR's information by team or limit it to transactions only, we've got you covered.

In the navigation bar, check out the Feeds By Team dropdown.  Clicking on the name of a team returns all the posts that reference that club.  For example, this page displays only posts with Braves-related rumors.  The newest will always be on top. 

Next to the word "Braves" you'll see an RSS button and a Twitter button.  The RSS button leads here, to the URL you'd put into your RSS reader to receive only our Braves rumors.  The Twitter button takes you to @mlbtrbraves, which shows all posts involving the team.  The MLBTR team Twitter pages are also a place to quickly receive info from team press releases, even if that info is not used on the main site.

Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.

If you'd prefer to monitor only actual transactions, we've got several options.  Our Transactions page shows only posts marked as transactions, such as signings, trades, DFAs, and releases.  You can also get this same info on Twitter and RSS.

We already know the free agent market for starting pitching is likely to lack big names following the 2011 season.  How about those who may hit free agency after the 2012 season?  Ricky Nolasco is off the board; let's see who's left.

The following starting pitchers are on pace to have six-plus years of service time for the first time once the '12 season ends: Jered Weaver, Cole Hamels, Francisco Liriano, John Danks, Shaun Marcum, Chad Billingsley, Jonathan Sanchez, Jeremy Guthrie, Joe Saunders, and Anibal Sanchez.  They're each two seasons away from a shot at free agency, unless they agree to extensions before November 2012.  If top names like Weaver, Hamels, Liriano, Danks, Marcum, Billingsley, and Jonathan Sanchez are willing to gamble that they'll post strong, healthy 2012 seasons, they could be the cream of the free agent crop.

These players are signed to multiyear contracts that will end after the 2012 season: Zack Greinke, Matt Cain, Derek Lowe, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Joe Blanton, Kevin Correia, and Kyle Lohse.  Greinke and Cain are the standouts.

These pitchers have contract options for 2012: Chris Carpenter, Roy Oswalt, Ryan Dempster, Colby Lewis, Aaron Cook, Zach Duke, Jon Garland, Aaron Harang, Scott Kazmir, Paul Maholm, Scott Olsen, and Carlos Silva.  They'd be free agents for the 2011-12 offseason if the options are declined, or the 2012-13 offseason if exercised or vested.  So there's a good chance Carpenter, Oswalt, Dempster, and Lewis become free agents after the 2012 season. 

The following pitchers have options for 2013, which if declined would make them free agents for the 2012-13 offseason: Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, Brett Myers, Tim Hudson, Jake Westbrook, Carlos Zambrano, Jorge de la Rosa, Scott Baker, Jake Peavy, Gavin Floyd, Randy Wolf, and Scott Feldman.  Zambrano's is an unlikely vesting option, so he'll probably hit the market.

Fausto Carmona and James Shields have club options for '12, '13, and '14.  If their '12 options are picked up and '13 declined, they'd join this free agent class.  Additionally, current free agent starters could join this group by signing two-year deals or one-year contracts with options that are picked up.  Still more names will be added from those who sign one-year deals now and again after the season, as well as those non-tendered after '12.

Cot's Baseball Contracts was instrumental in creating this post.

When new Padres shortstop Jason Bartlett wanted to track the progress of his own trade, where did he turn?  Our new Baseball Trade Rumors iPhone app, of course.  The app allows you to select only the players or teams you want, and receive a push notification for every related new rumor.  The app also has a clean, crisp interface with the 25 latest MLBTR posts, easily refreshed. You can customize headline size and leave comments on MLBTradeRumors.com as well.

Even baseball executives are getting in on the Baseball Trade Rumors app.  According to Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Padres GM Jed Hoyer recently purchased an iPhone – and he says Baseball Trade Rumors might be his first application.

If you look at our navigation bar under the site's title, we've got a new button for Tools.  Here you will find our Transaction Tracker, Free Agent Tracker, Remaining 2011 Free Agents List, 2012 Free Agents List, Widget for publishers, and iPhone app.  Similar features will be added to that dropdown in the future.

An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:

• If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi.  It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
• If you're an iPhone user, be sure to pick up our app for the latest news and rumors.
• If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket.  You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS. 
• To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title. 
• The navigation bar will cover many of your needs.  Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers. 
• The Contact button takes you to a page where you can write an email message to the MLBTR writers.  If you have a link to a rumor we've missed, please send it in through the Contact page!  Also use the Contact page to inquire about advertising on MLBTR.
• The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth.  If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page.  Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
• The Widget button takes you here, where website owners can easily add to their sites a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines.
• The Forums button takes you here, to a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 5,500 members.  You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
• Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown.  Hover over it to see all 30 teams.  Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top.  These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc.  Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons.  Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter.  Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams?  For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would get the latest Tigers updates. This week, follow @mlbtrorlando for updates on the GM Meetings.
• On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS.  MLBTR has over 55,000 Twitter followers, over 28,000 Facebook fans, and over 53,000 RSS subscribers.  Sign up for these and you'll be the first to receive all of our posts.
• Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.
• On to the sidebar.  It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs.  Go here for a quick update on the most important stories.  Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him. 
• MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists, 2011 draft order, list of Scott Boras clients, official 2009-10 Elias Rankings and GM-related stuff.  Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh. 
• Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines.  Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts.  Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
• Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy.  For example, read about the reasons young starters are not extended.
• We've also added a Transaction Tracker, which enables you to search about anything and everything to do with baseball trades, signings and extensions. 
• Be sure to check out our Free Agent Tracker in case you're wondering about this year's free agents. Which left-handed relievers are available? Which third basemen have signed? We've got all the information you need.

Multiyear free agent contracts are on the rise again. If the first six weeks of the 2010-11 offseason are any indication, teams are offering more long-term deals than they were a year ago.

Over the course of the entire 2009-10 offseason, 27 free agents signed multiyear contracts. A month and a half into a new offseason, owners have already surpassed that figure and agreed to 28 multiyear deals, as MLBTR’s Transaction Tracker shows.

After two offseasons of relatively restrained spending, baseball owners are pursuing top free agents with vigor. Already, Jayson Werth, Carl Crawford and Cliff Lee have agreed to nine-figure contracts (though Lee declined to take the biggest offer available to him).

It’s the first time since 2006-07 and just the third time in baseball history that three free agents have signed deals worth over $100MM in the same winter. Alfonso Soriano, Barry Zito and Carlos Lee all signed for $100MM-plus in a 2006-07 offseason that stands out as one of the more player-friendly winters in recent history. Six years before that, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Mike Hampton signed nine-figure deals within three weeks of one another. 

Barring another coup by Scott Boras, who represents free agents such as Adrian Beltre, Rafael Soriano and Magglio Ordonez, Lee's contract will be the last $100MM deal of the current offseason. However, the winter promises to bring a number of more modest multiyear deals. Carl Pavano, Adam LaRoche, Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, Grant Balfour and others could sign for two or more years before the offseason ends.

Please note that extensions like the ones Troy Tulowitzki and Jay Bruce signed are not counted as free agent signings, since they weren’t completed on the open market. Multiyear deals signed by international free agents like Aroldis Chapman and Noel Arguelles are not counted either.

I'm proud to introduce another great new MLBTR feature: the Transaction Tracker.  This is a robust database unlike anything else on the web – it sorts and filters transactions by player, date, team, transaction type, GM, agency and more.

Want to see all the trades Billy Beane made with Kenny Williams? The recent deals the Red Sox made with Scott Boras? All Rockies extensions worth at least $2 million?  Which Brian Cashman signings cost a draft pick?  The possibilities are endless.  Click here to access the free database, and here to read the user guide.

Many thanks to Ben Nicholson-Smith, Mike Melusky, Cale Cox, Daniel Lowenstein, and Tony Bennett – their hard work made this new feature possible.

If you're a regular MLBTR reader, you'll be familiar with our chats, our Week In Review posts and Mike Axisa's Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature. Here's some more detail on when you'll see our weekly features and exactly what to expect from them:

• MLBTR Chats – Come by every Wednesday at 2pm CDT to chat about the latest trades, signings and rumblings around the major leagues.
• Baseball Blogs Weigh In – Every Friday morning, Mike Axisa directs you to some of the best writing on baseball blogs around the web. Whether it's opinion, stats or something else entirely, you can connect to the best of the blogosphere once a week on MLBTR. If you want to send Mike a post of yours, reach him at: mike@riveraveblues.com.
• Week In Review – It's amazing how much happens in seven days. Every Sunday night, we summarize the week's biggest stories in our Week In Review posts.
• MLBTR Originals – We gather all our original analysis and reporting in one place every Sunday night.

The Tigers, Red Sox, White Sox and Nationals have already proven that they're willing to surrender top draft picks to sign top free agents. Victor Martinez, Carl Crawford, Adam Dunn and Jayson Werth all cost draft picks, but they aren't the only ones attached to selections in the 2011 draft.

Teams will also have to surrender draft choices to sign Type A free agents Grant Balfour, Adrian Beltre, Scott Downs, Cliff Lee and Carl Pavano since those players all turned down offers of arbitration. Keep in mind that the Tigers, Red Sox, White Sox and Nationals have already surrendered their top pick, so signing one of the remaining Type A free agents would only cost them a second or third rounder.

A little historical context: last offseason, teams gave up picks to sign Jose Valverde, Matt Holliday, Jason Bay, Mike Gonzalez, John Lackey, Chone Figgins, Marco Scutaro and Billy Wagner.

In the 2008-09 offseason, clubs surrendered draft choices to sign Orlando Cabrera, Juan Cruz, Orlando Hudson, Derek Lowe, Mark Teixeira, Brian Fuentes, C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Raul Ibanez and Francisco Rodriguez.

Victor Martinez, John Buck, A.J. Pierzynski, Miguel Olivo and Yorvit Torrealba have all agreed to multiyear deals this offseason and the pool of available free agent catchers figures to shrink a little more if Henry Blanco works out a deal with Arizona, Matt Treanor returns to Texas and Russell Martin signs with one of his AL East suitors. Here's a look at which teams could use catching depth and where they might find it:

Teams with potential interest in catching depth:

• Baltimore – The Orioles have Matt Wieters, but could look to upgrade over Jake Fox and Craig Tatum.
• St. Louis – The Cardinals are looking for a backup catcher and they consider Gregg Zaun a fallback option.
• Milwaukee – The Brewers could add a backstop to compete with Jonathan Lucroy, George Kottaras, Mike Rivera and Wil Nieves.
• Los Angeles – A.J. Ellis was a serviceable backup last year, so the Dodgers' need for catching is mild.
• San Diego – The Padres are looking for someone to back up Nick Hundley. Something tells me that Luis Martinez won't still be the only other catcher on the team's 40-man roster this spring.
• Colorado – Now that Olivo's back in Seattle, the Rockies may look to find a new complement to Chris Iannetta.
• Diamondbacks – If their discussions with Blanco fall through, they could be looking for depth.

Catchers on the free agent market:

• Josh Bard
• Gerald Laird
• Bengie Molina
• Gregg Zaun
• Henry Blanco, Russell Martin and Matt Treanor are all free agents, but are reportedly nearing deals.

Potential trade targets:

• The Pirates appear willing to part with Ryan Doumit.
• It wouldn't be shocking to see the Angels trade Jeff Mathis or Mike Napoli.
• The Yankees (Francisco Cervelli) or Red Sox (Jarrod Saltalamacchia) would have surplus catching if they sign Martin.

At least seven teams could be in the market for a backup catcher and there are not that many viable options on the free agent market, so teams with catching depth will likely draw interest in their extra backstops this winter.