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Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

By | at January 21, 2013 11:02am CDT

If you prefer your MLBTR fix limited to only your favorite team, we've got you covered.  Below are links to our team Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds.

AL East

AL Central

AL West

NL East

NL Central

NL West

Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

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How To Use MLBTR

By | at January 17, 2013 12:56pm CDT

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. MLBTR just introduced an Android app as well.
  • 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 Tools dropdown takes you to a number of different places. The MLBTR Widget allows website owners to easily add a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines to their sites.
  • Also under the tools tab is our Transaction Tracker, which enables you to search about anything and everything to do with baseball trades, signings and extensions. 
  • Under the tools tab, you'll find a link to our Forums, a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 9,100 members.  You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
  • MLBTR's Agency Database lets you know which agencies represent which players. It's searchable by team, agency or player, so be sure to check it out.
  • 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.
  • You can also follow Tim Dierkes and Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter for more MLBTR content.
  • On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS.  MLBTR has over 240,000 Twitter followers, over 66,000 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.  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. 
  • There's also a contact form in case you need to reach MLBTR.
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Managers And GMs Entering Their Contract Years

By | at January 16, 2013 7:53pm CDT

After a surprise playoff berth in 2012, the Orioles definitely wanted to keep manager Buck Showalter and executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette in the fold, today announcing that both men had been signed to extensions through the 2018 season.  As Showalter's previous deal only ran through next year, his extension removes him from this list of managers and general managers who are entering the final year of their current contracts and will be looking to earn themselves some Showalter-esque job security.  This list could be partially incomplete, as some teams don't release terms of front office executives' contracts.  Thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts for many of these details.

* Dodgers.  No manager in baseball is under the pressure that Don Mattingly faces in 2013.  Though the skipper has led Los Angeles to a pair of winning seasons while the club was going through the turmoil of the McCourt ownership sale, Mattingly will be expected to deliver a playoff appearance (at minimum) given how much money the new Dodgers' owners have poured into the franchise.  As respected as Mattingly is, the Dodgers could easily make an early managerial change if the team doesn't get off to a strong start.

* Rockies.  A team known for its unusual management moves (ex-manager Jim Tracy's "handshake deal" and the current split of GM duties between Dan O'Dowd and Bill Geivett) made another one in hiring new manager Walt Weiss, who is serving under just a one-year contract.  While this theoretically puts Weiss on the hot seat from day one, you'd think the rookie skipper would be given some rope given that the Rockies are coming off a last-place season and don't look anywhere near contention in 2013.  The Denver Post's Troy Renck examined Weiss' unique contract, a situation that Weiss himself embraces.

* Cardinals.  GM John Mozeliak is entering the last year of his current deal, while manager Mike Matheny is entering his last guaranteed year, though the Cards have a team option on Matheny for 2014.  You have to figure that neither man is going anywhere given Cardinals' recent success.  Mozeliak is a good bet to receive an extension before Opening Day and Matheny could also receive a new deal given how well the team performed in his first year taking over from Tony La Russa on the St. Louis bench.

* Pirates.  It's essentially a winning season or else for Clint Hurdle, as the Bucs' collapse down the stretch in 2012 extended the team's streak to a record 20 straight seasons with a sub-.500 record.

* Mets.  Terry Collins is entering his last season under contract at Citi Field but while the Mets have yet to crack the .500 mark in his two years as manager, one can hardly hold Collins responsible given the team's tumultuous payroll situation.  Collins is probably in no danger of being fired and I'd guess he'll be extended through 2014 unless the Mets' performance really craters.

* Braves.  Fredi Gonzalez is going into his last guaranteed year, though the Braves hold a club option on the skipper for 2014.  One would think it would take a real collapse for that option to not get picked up, as Gonzalez has a 183-141 record in his first two years as Atlanta's manager.  Of course, the team did famously collapse in September 2011 but the Braves rebounded to grab a playoff berth last season.

* Phillies.  Before Charlie Manuel signed his last extension, he said that he wanted to manage until he turned 70 and then would discuss his future with Phillies management.  Manuel's advancing age may be the excuse the team needs to make a change at manager, especially if the Phils have another underwhelming season.  If the Phillies are successful, Manuel and the team could choose to pursue Jim Leyland-style one-year contracts for 2014 and beyond if Manuel has doubts about how much longer he wishes to manage.

* Nationals.  Unlike many managers on this list, Davey Johnson is entering his last year as manager by choice, as his extension with Washington will only keep him on the bench through 2013 and he will continue as a team consultant in 2014.  It seems likely that this will be Johnson's last year of managing as he obviously could have gotten a longer deal had he wished, given the Nats' run to the NL East crown last season.  One of the top storylines of the 2013-14 offseason will be who gets the coveted job of Nationals manager, as few jobs in baseball have as much long-term potential.

* Mariners.  Eric Wedge and Jack Zduriencik are both going into the last year of their deals and following consecutive losing seasons, Seattle may have to see significant improvement on the field if either man is to be retained.  The announcement that Safeco Field's fences are being moved in could buy Zduriencik a little time, as he could be given another season to attract hitters to Seattle if it becomes clear that Safeco is no longer an extreme pitchers' park.  Zduriencik has been bold in his pursuit of hitting talent this winter, acquiring Kendrys Morales and Michael Morse on top of trying to trade for Justin Upton and going after free agents like Nick Swisher and Josh Hamilton.

* Twins.  Ron Gardenhire has won six division titles as Minnesota's manager but only has one playoff series victory to his credit and now has suffered back-to-back last place seasons.  That said, now-permanent GM Terry Ryan said last August that he didn't plan to fire Gardenhire, so we could see the Twins skipper get something akin to a one-year extension during Spring Training just so Gardenhire can avoid lame-duck status.  It may seem odd to extend a manager coming off seasons of 99 and 96 losses, respectively, but I'd guess that Gardenhire's track record has earned him some leeway.

* Tigers.  Jim Leyland signed another one-year extension following the World Series, which is how he prefers it at this stage of his career.  He and the Tigers seem content to handle things on an annual basis, and obviously the team is pleased with Leyland's recent results.

* Royals.  The pressure will be on Ned Yost as Kansas City has legitimate hopes to contend for the time in years.  The Royals exercised Yost's 2013 option last February and if the team gets off to a slow start, Yost could very well be fired as soon as late April or early May.  Conversely, Yost could be an early extension candidate if K.C. starts out playing well and management decides they're on the right track.

* Yankees.  Because the Yankees generally don't pursue extensions before contracts expire, manager Joe Girardi has little room to negotiate, no matter how much his record with the team may make him seem like a no-brainer extension candidate.  Hypothetical scenario: if Mattingly is fired by the Dodgers after a winning (but non-playoff) season and the Yankees don't at least win the AL pennant, just imagine how heavily the New York media will push the idea of the Yankees bringing Mattingly back to the Bronx as the team's new manager.

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More Multiyear Deals This Offseason

By | at January 10, 2013 3:35pm CDT

From Zack Greinke's record setting $147MM contract to Gerald Laird’s relatively modest $3.3MM guarantee, MLB free agents have been cashing in with multiyear deals all offseason long. To this point in the winter 46 free agents have signed multiyear contracts with MLB teams, as MLBTR’s Free Agent Tracker shows.

With players such as Michael Bourn, Kyle Lohse, Rafael Soriano, Joe Saunders and Scott Hairston remaining on the free agent market, there’s reason to believe that total will continue rising in the weeks leading up to Spring Training. MLB teams have already surpassed last offseason’s total of 39 multiyear deals and the 2010-11 offseason total of 44, according to MLBTR’s Tracker.

In total, 24 of the 30 MLB teams have signed a free agent to a multiyear deal this winter. The Orioles, Astros, Mets, Marlins, Rockies and Padres are the only teams that have yet to make a multiyear commitment to a free agent.

MLBTR’s Free Agent Tracker allows you to filter free agents by many criteria: team, position, signing status, years, and dollars. This year we made it possible to filter free agents according to whether they obtained, accepted and declined qualifying offers. You can also link to your search results.

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Regular MLBTR Features

By | at January 10, 2013 11:45am CDT

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 - Join me 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 remarkable how much happens in seven days. Every Sunday night, Daniel Seco summarizes the week's biggest stories in our Week In Review posts.
  • MLBTR Originals - Edward Creech gathers all our original analysis and reporting in one place every Sunday night.
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Examining The Market For Right-Handed Relief

By | at January 10, 2013 9:32am CDT

It’s possible to group players in any number of ways — age, position and contract status to name a few. Like every player, Rafael Soriano falls into a number of categories. In the past month or so, he has often been grouped along with Michael Bourn and Kyle Lohse, since all three Scott Boras clients declined qualifying offers earlier in the winter. They're now the only three free agents linked to draft pick compensation.

While that’s a useful way of viewing Soriano, looking at him through another prism provides additional context. At a basic level, he’s a right-handed reliever. And, as MLBTR’s Free Agent Tracker shows, there’s an abundance of right-handed relief available in free agency, even as Spring Training draws closer. Admittedly Soriano just had a tremendous season, and he’s the top reliever available. Boras will surely remind general managers and owners of those facts in the coming weeks.

That said, the market for right-handed relievers doesn’t seem robust at this stage in the winter. There are lots of options out there and, seemingly, few teams looking to spend aggressively on them. That dynamic impacts everyone, Soriano included. Here’s a look at the latest rumors surrounding some of the second-tier right-handed relievers available. I’ve added the latest rumors when possible, though some of these players have had a quiet few months…

While some or all of these players could be drawing interest that hasn’t been reported, the market seems quiet. In this context, ACES, the agency that brought Brandon League and the Dodgers together early in the offseason, has additional reason to be quite pleased with its three-year, $22.5MM deal.

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Commenting Policy

By | at January 4, 2013 11:16am CDT

MLBTR is increasing efforts to enforce our commenting policy.  The goal is to raise the level of discourse in the comments, part of which involves eliminating inappropriate language and insults.

Comments of this nature are not allowed:

  • Attacks or insults towards other commenters, the post author, journalists, teams, players, or agents
  • Inappropriate language, including swearing and related censor bypass attempts, lewdness, insults, and crude terms for body parts, bodily functions, and physical acts.  Overall, we don’t want any language that a parent would not want their kid to see.
  • Juvenile comments or extensive use of text message-type spelling
  • Writing comments in all or mostly caps
  • Spam-type links or self-promotion.  Please submit to our weekly Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature if you have a website or blog.  Currently, permissible links in the comments are limited to MLB.com, Cot’s Baseball Contracts, FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball-Reference, and (of course) MLB Trade Rumors.  Comments linking to other sites will be deleted.
  • Comments about how you're sick of this topic or it's not newsworthy
  • No inappropriate avatars or images are allowed
  • Anything else we deem bad for business

If you see comments that fit the above criteria, please flag them and/or contact us.  Those who repeatedly violate the policy can be banned at any time.  Bans may be handed out liberally by our moderators, without second chances.  Remaining civil is not that difficult, though, and most commenters have no problems doing so as well as helping rein each other in.  We at MLBTR are grateful for long-time commenters and readers, though this policy applies equally regardless of tenure.  This policy is always available at the bottom of the site, and will be re-posted monthly.

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MLBTR Seeks Part-Time Writing Help

By | at January 3, 2013 9:14am CDT

We’re looking to add to the MLB Trade Rumors writing team. The position pays on an hourly basis. The criteria:

  • Exceptional knowledge of all 30 MLB teams, no discernible bias. Knowledge of hot stove concepts such as arbitration and free agent compensation.
  • Availability to regularly work evenings and weekends, sometimes on short notice. Holiday availability is a big plus.
  • Writing experience is necessary and online writing experience is preferred. 
  • Journalistic experience writing and reporting is also a plus.
  • Attention to detail and ability to follow the MLBTR style and tone.  
  • Ability to analyze articles and craft intelligent, well-written posts summing up the news concisely. 
  • Ability to accept and learn from constructive criticism. In general, a team player.
  • Ability to use Twitter and an RSS feed reader such as Google Reader. You must be able to multi-task.
  • If you're interested, email mlbtrhelp@gmail.com and explain how you stand out in a couple of short paragraphs. Hundreds will apply, so we will not be able to respond to most applications.
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The Key “Non-Moves” Of 2012

By | at December 31, 2012 3:22pm CDT

As the cliche goes, sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make.  Some teams greatly benefited by standing pat on certain trades or signings during the past year while others may have hurt their prospects for the 2012 season and beyond by not striking when the iron was hot.  Here is a list of some of the most intriguing non-moves (the good and the bad) of 2012…

* Giants don't sign Tim Lincecum to a long-term extension.  San Francisco signed five of their biggest stars to multiyear extensions last offseason, handing out five-year deals to Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner, a three-year deal to Pablo Sandoval and two-year contracts to Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong.  As MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith pointed out in August, four of those deals already look like winners for the Giants, especially given the club's World Series victory two months later.  The one exception was Lincecum's two-year, $40.5MM contract, which suddenly looked like a mistake given how Lincecum struggled in 2012, though "the Freak" seemed to rediscover his form pitching out of the bullpen in the postseason. 

While Lincecum's $22MM salary in 2013 is a short-term concern, the Giants may have escaped larger pain given how they were exploring longer-term, nine-figure contracts with the two-time Cy Young winner last offseason.  Lincecum's stated preference for short-term deals may cost him millions unless he rebounds next year.  If he doesn't, then the Giants can part ways with Lincecum and free up payroll space for another acquisition or for extending Buster Posey.

* Reds don't move Aroldis Chapman to the rotation.  It's always been a matter of when, not if, the Reds would shift Chapman to starting pitching to see if his electric arsenal would translate into being a staff ace.  There were hints Chapman would make the room last spring, but after Ryan Madson underwent Tommy John surgery and was lost for the season, the Reds kept Chapman in the bullpen and eventually slotted him into the closer's job.  The rest was history.  Chapman delivered one of the most phenomenal seasons by a closer in baseball history (1.51 ERA, 5.3 K/BB ratio and 122 strkeouts in 71 2/3 innings) and the Cincinnati rotation didn't miss him, as the Reds' durable five starters combined to make 161 of 162 possible starts. 

One can't help but wonder, however, that the Reds might've gotten further than the NLDS if Chapman had been a starter and delivered anything close to his relief performance.  Now that Cincinnati has re-signed Jonathan Broxton, it looks like we'll finally see Chapman as a starting pitcher in 2013.

* Pirates don't sign Mark Appel.  The Stanford right-hander was considered to be a candidate for the first overall pick of the 2012 amateur draft but fell to the Pirates at #8, possibly due to the expected salary demands from Appel and adviser Scott Boras.  As you would expect, the lower draft standing didn't lower Appel's price tag and the Bucs weren't able to reach an agreement with Appel by the signing deadline, which Boras blamed on a lack of dialogue between Appel and the Pirates before the draft. 

This was the first high-profile instance of the collective bargaining agreement's new draft signing rules coming into play.  Pittsburgh could've gone over slot to sign Appel without any penalty in past years (as ESPN's Keith Law pointed out) whereas under the new rules, the Pirates would've risked losing future draft picks for exceeding their draft cap to sign Appel.  The end result is that Appel will again be one of the top prospects heading into next year's draft, and the Pirates will receive the ninth overall pick in the 2013 draft (considered by some pundits to be a relatively weak class) as compensation for not signing Appel last summer.  Taking the risk on Appel left the Pirates without a top prospect for the year, a setback for an organization that needs as much blue-chip talent as possible.

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