Quick Hits: Draft, Cubs, Theriot
Links for Thursday, as Yogi Berra celebrates his birthday (number 86!) along with current players Evan Meek (28), Felipe Lopez (31) and Wes Helms (35)…
- Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon and Bubba Starling remain atop Keith Law's latest ranking of the top 100 draft prospects. Law says Starling could be "the single most talented player in this draft."
- MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo also has some info about draft prospects, including promising Kentucky right-hander Alex Meyer.
- Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports says this isn't the year the Cubs win the World Series.
- At ESPN.com, Casey Stengel tops David Schoenfield's list of the ten greatest managers in baseball history.
- A few St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writers weigh in on the Ryan Theriot acquisition. Bernie Miklasz says the Cardinals acquired the infielder to be an upgrade on offense and increase the team's toughness.
MLBTR's Mark Polishuk also contributed to this post
Nationals Acquire Gregor Blanco
The Nationals acquired Gregor Blanco from the Royals for a player to be named later, according to the team's Twitter account.
Blanco, 27, is a career .258/.358/.324 hitter who came to the Royals with Tim Collins and Jesse Chavez in the trade that sent Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel to Atlanta last season. Ironically, Blanco may be an option to challenge Ankiel for playing time in Washington. The Nationals have been looking for center field options after trading Nyjer Morgan to Milwaukee and making Ankiel their everyday center fielder. Ankiel has struggled with just a .221/.302/.288 slash line in 118 PAs.
Blanco's best assets are his ability to draw a walk (career BB% of 12.8%) and his speed. He owns 209 minor league stolen bases to go along with 26 at the Major League level. While he struggled early in his career, his success rate has improved over the past few seasons.
Red Sox Still Considering Catching Options
The Red Sox have made contact with Bengie Molina, but aren't ready to move on him yet, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. With Jason Varitek and Jarrod Saltalamacchia hitting a combined .179/.246/.241 in 123 plate appearances this season, Molina could grow more appealing to the Sox in the near future.
We heard last month that Boston was eyeing catching help and that Molina was on the team's list of possibilities. Although Ivan Rodriguez and Chris Snyder were also on that list, Rosenthal says the Sox are "cool" on Pudge, and the Pirates are more inclined to move Ryan Doumit than Snyder.
Jeff Mathis, who received high praise from Varitek, could be available as well. However, as Rosenthal points out, while Mathis is a strong defensive backstop, his .199/.262/.311 career slash line wouldn't help the Sox.
Quick Hits: Barnes, Chavez, Kasten, Simon, Berkman
Congrats to Justin Verlander. The Tigers' ace threw a no-hitter against the Blue Jays this afternoon, the second of his career. He's now one of only 28 men to throw multiple no-hitters in the big leagues. Here are Saturday's links…
- Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was personally scouting UConn RHP Matt Barnes tonight, reports Dom Amore of The Hartford Courant (on Twitter). Barnes is expected to go in the first round this year, in which the Red Sox have two picks.
- Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reports that the Rangers called up Craig Gentry to replace Nelson Cruz, who was placed on the disabled list (Twitter links). He notes that one possible reason why they didn't call up Endy Chavez is because they'd have to place him on waivers once Cruz was healthy.
- In a guest post for Through The Fence Baseball, MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith took stock of the winter's biggest offseason deals.
- Bill Madden of The New York Daily News wrote about the numerous big-money players that are struggling this year, including Derek Jeter and Hanley Ramirez.
- Stan Kasten confirmed to Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post that he sold his ownership stake in the Nationals this March. Kasten stepped down as team president late last year, but it's unclear what he'll do next. He was mentioned as possibly trustee when MLB took over the Dodgers' financial operations.
- Alfredo Simon was in the Orioles' clubhouse today, and will continue working his way back with a minor league appearance next week according to Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun. Connolly says the team will have to recall, waive, or release Simon by "roughy May 22" after he spent two months in a Dominican Republic prison and being placed on the restricted list.
- Bernie Miklasz of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch spoke to Cardinals GM John Mozeliak about the resurgent Lance Berkman. "We did a lot of due diligence," said the GM. "We truly believed he could have a bounce-back year. When we looked at it, we knew he was working extremely hard on his conditioning, was getting the knee healthy, was getting himself in tremendous shape, and that he'd be a lot stronger. That was a big thing. We knew that he still had an eye for hitting, and he would work the count and take walks. The question was, how would he be physically. And once we knew how much he was putting into his training, it gave us confidence."
Heyman On Reyes, Lowe, Peavy, Howard
The Cardinals, Giants, Brewers, Red Sox, Twins and Mariners are possible suitors for Jose Reyes this summer, writes Jon Heyman of SI.com. However, the Mets don’t have an obvious replacement for their shortstop and attendance could suffer if they deal Reyes, as Heyman points out. (Though the Mariners have won seven of their last nine games and haven't obtained much production at short, it's still extremely difficult to imagine them trading for Reyes.) Here are the rest of Heyman’s rumors:
- Derek Lowe could be available at the trade deadline given the Braves’ starting pitching depth.
- The White Sox have insurance on Jake Peavy, according to Heyman. This means that the team may already have started receiving payments to help cover the injured right-hander’s $16MM salary.
- Heyman, a defender of Ryan Howard’s five-year, $125MM contract from the start, says the first baseman has been “worth every penny so far.”
- On the one-year anniversary of Howard's deal, I concluded that Howard and agent Casey Close had done well to sign the contract.
- The Nationals may want to consider locking manager Jim Riggleman up, Heyman writes. The Nationals have a team option for Riggleman's 2012 services.
Quick Hits: Minaya, Weaver, Danks, Zimmerman
Emilio "Millito" Navarro, believed to be the oldest living professional baseball player at 105, passed away in Puerto Rico today. The former Negro Leaguer also played in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico during his career. Our condolences go out to his family.
- Paul Hoynes of The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports that former Mets GM Omar Minaya has spent the past two days on a "friendly visit" with Indians GM Chris Antonetti, president Mark Shapiro, and manager Manny Acta. Cleveland interviewed former Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes during the offseason, and Hoynes says Antonetti has "made [it] no secret that he'd like to add the right person to the front office."
- While researching the impending free agency of young stars, SI's Jon Heyman (via Twitter) learned that we can count on Jered Weaver and John Danks filing after 2012.
- It's been a bad day for star third basemen, writes Justin Sablich of the New York Times. The Giants lost Pablo Sandoval for 4-6 weeks with a broken bone in his right wrist and the Nationals announced that Ryan Zimmerman, who has been on the disabled list since April 12, will miss at least an another six weeks. If both players return within those timeframes, it's unlikely that either squad will look for an out-of-house fill-in.
- Matt Klaassen of Fangraphs questions the Blue Jays' wisdom in demoting Travis Snider to work on his hitting after just 99 plate appearances in 2011.
Rosenthal On Reyes, Rodriguez, Nationals, Orioles
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports brings us some interesting tidbits in this week's installment of Full Count..
- The Mets will not sign Jose Reyes to a monster contract similar to the one given to Carl Crawford (seven-years, $142MM). However, despite the Mets' financial troubles, keeping Reyes is not out of the question if he's willing to accept a shorter deal in the vicinity of three-years, $45-50MM. Reyes, if healthy, will get more than that on the open market but it's still not a sure thing that the club will deal him. They'll have to consider their position in the standings, how it would impact attendance, and what the return in a trade would be versus the high draft picks they would get if Reyes left via free agency.
- The Mets won't have to worry about Francisco Rodriguez finishing 55 games if they deal him to a club that would use him as a set-up man as opposed to a closer. The Rangers, for example, have Neftali Feliz (if healthy) to finish games. K-Rod can block deals to as many as ten clubs as part of his deal but the Mets, to facilitate this deal, would gladly pick up the $3.5MM buyout to get rid of him.
- Nationals manager Jim Riggleman is one of a handful of managers whose future is uncertain beyond this season. The club has yet to pick up his option for '12 even though most in the game say that the Nats are on the right track. Riggleman's agent told Rosenthal that he is hopeful that the club will either exercise the option or sign him to a multi-year deal by Father's Day.
- The Orioles collected a number of veterans on one-year deals thinking that, at the very least, they'd have trade chips at the deadline. General Manager Andy MacPhail & Co. may need to think again as Derrek Lee and Vladimir Guerrero have done very little at the plate and J.J. Hardy has missed most of the year with an oblique injury. All of this could change, but Rosenthal wonders if manager Buck Showalter and owner Peter Angelos would even approve of a sell-off.
Red Sox Continue Eyeing Catching Help
The Red Sox continue to look out for possible catching help and the names on their potential wish list include Bengie Molina, Ivan Rodriguez and Chris Snyder, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Peter Gammons said today on WEEI’s Mut & Merloni show that the Red Sox are prepared to continue with Jason Varitek and Jarrod Saltalamacchia even though they’ve considered other options.
“I know what they were trying to do. They looked around. They didn’t have money to spend,” Gammons said. “They couldn’t go get Bengie Molina. They weren’t going to spend the money at this point.”
Boston’s interest in Snyder would likely fade if Pittsburgh’s asking price is high and Rosenthal hears that the Pirates are pleased with the catcher’s game calling and receiving ability so far in 2011. He's hitting at a respectable .333/.387/.407 clip so far and Arizona is responsible for $3MM of the $6.5MM remaining on his contract. As a result, it doesn’t appear that the Pirates are intent on moving him.
Gammons noted that the Red Sox don’t feel they have the answer to their catching issues in the minor leagues. That means trade chatter will likely continue until their current catchers start hitting or they make a move.
Stark On Millwood, Nationals, Fuld
ESPN.com's Jayson Stark breaks down the possible implications of expanded playoffs before providing some rumblings from around the league. Here they are:
- Even though Kevin Millwood has won both of his minor league starts and posted a 1.29 ERA, scouts say he doesn’t look very good. Millwood, whose fastball is averaging 85 mph, can opt out of his contact with the Yankees this Sunday.
- Rival teams are eyeing the Nationals’ catching depth, but they’re finding that after missing two seasons with labrum surgery, Jesus Flores isn’t ready.
- Sam Fuld has become an important piece for the Rays, but the Cubs expected to move him last offseason, according to Stark. Fuld had a history of getting injured, was behind Kosuke Fukudome and Tyler Colvin on the depth chart and was out of options and when the Cubs sent him to the Rays.
Center Field Options For The Nationals
Six days ago, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported that the Nationals are searching for a center field upgrade. They haven't talked to the Rays about B.J. Upton, but it's unlikely we'll see any significant trades in general until the second half of June anyway. Which center fielders might be available this summer aside from Upton? We won't consider those who will be eligible for free agency after the season, other than Sizemore.
- Angel Pagan, Mets. Pagan will be eligible for free agency after the 2012 season, so the Mets might not consider him their long-term answer in center field. Would Sandy Alderson be open to sending him to a division rival? He's struggling so far in his second full season as a regular.
- Marlon Byrd, Cubs. Brett Jackson, perhaps the Cubs' top prospect, is primed to push Byrd aside soon. Byrd, 33, is owed $6.5MM next year. He might not be what the Nationals have in mind.
- Matt Kemp, Dodgers. The Dodgers can easily keep Kemp and Trayvon Robinson in the same outfield by moving Kemp to a corner. I can't picture the Dodgers' ownership situation forcing a trade of Kemp, even if his salary exceeds $10MM next year before he hits free agency. I could see a new owner agreeing to a mega-extension with Kemp, but if they can't find common ground perhaps he'd become available this winter.
- Michael Bourn, Astros. Bourn is a viable trade candidate. The Scott Boras client is under team control through 2012 and earns $4.4MM this year.
- Rajai Davis, Blue Jays. The Jays are light on short-term alternatives without Davis – note that Corey Patterson is starting in center while Davis recovers from an ankle injury. Still, I expect Alex Anthopoulos to keep an open mind. Davis' contract will look team-friendly if he starts performing.
- Julio Borbon, Rangers. If the Rangers continue to gravitate toward David Murphy in center field and feel good longer-term about Engel Beltre and Leonys Martin, Borbon could be expendable.
- Aaron Rowand, Giants. Rowand is having a decent April, taking over in center when Andres Torres hit the DL. However, the Giants would have to pick up almost all of the $22MM owed to him through 2012 to move him.
- Grady Sizemore, Indians. The first-place Indians hope to be thinking about adding rather than subtracting this July. If things go wrong, Sizemore will be very attractive on the trade market, even though his 2012 option becomes a player option upon a trade. For that reason, he may not be a fit for the Nationals even if he's made available.
- Chris Denorfia, Padres. He continues to play well in a fourth outfielder role, but perhaps he could be had.
- Felix Pie, Orioles. Pie is another fourth outfielder type who can handle center. The Orioles need him around as a center field backup, but they'd have to listen if the Nationals made a solid offer.
- Chris Heisey, Reds. Heisey is a cost-effective left field option for the Reds, so he might be hard to pry loose.
- Charlie Blackmon, Rockies. The Rockies' #11 prospect could work his way into the right field mix, or the team could consider a trade.
- Scott Cousins, Marlins. Cousins ranked seventh among Marlins prospects heading into the season, according to Baseball America. Right now he's needed by the Marlins as Chris Coghlan's center field backup, and he'll see increased playing time while Logan Morrison is out. They may prefer to maintain the depth. The Marlins did deal within the division with the Dan Uggla trade.
- Mitch Maier, Royals. Maier has played center field more than anywhere else. The 28-year-old may have to settle for an extra outfielder job if he remains in Kansas City.
- Torii Hunter, Angels. What do the Angels do when Mike Trout is Major League ready? Vernon Wells is probably immovable, so you have to wonder if they could trade Hunter. Hunter is only under contract through 2012 though so it's quite possible they make it work without a deal.
As you can see, I can speculate on more than a dozen center field trade candidates. However, some might not offer a clear upgrade over the Nationals' internal options. At this point, Bourn and Upton seem like the most likely fits if they become available this year.