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Archives for January 2010

Three Teams Eyeing Melvin Mora

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Yesterday, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun learned from Melvin Mora's agent that the third baseman has two NL clubs and one AL team as suitors, none in the Eastern divisions.  MLB.com's Joe Frisaro may have solved this riddle, as he tweets that the Rockies, Mets, and Angels have talked to Mora.  The Mets don't fit given the non-eastern criteria, however.

Mora's agent, Eric Goldschmidt, says his client is looking for a team that will contend and "maybe give him 300-something at-bats."  Mora, 38 in February, hit .260/.321/.358 in 496 plate appearances this year for the Orioles while playing 1,050 innings at third base.

Randy Johnson To Announce Retirement

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4:04pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the conference call has been moved up to tonight, and that The Big Unit will indeed announce his retirement.

2:47pm: According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter), it appears that Randy Johnson will announce his retirement tomorrow morning.  A bunch of other reporters are talking about tomorrow's poorly-timed conference call as well.

Johnson would finish with five Cy Young awards, 303 wins, 4,875 strikeouts, and a 3.29 ERA in 4,135.3 career innings.  Baseball-Reference puts his career earnings at $175.55MM.

Odds & Ends: Phillies, Iannetta, Braves

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Links for Tuesday…

  • Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro said a lefty reliever and another starter are still on his wish list, according to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
  • Troy Renck of The Denver Post provides the details of Chris Iannetta's contract extension. The backstop can void the $5MM club option for 2013 if he is traded anytime before then.
  • Braves' GM Frank Wren said he's looking for just "one more small piece" to fill out his club's offensive needs, tweets MLB.com's Mark Bowman. Bowman notes that the Braves need a primary pinch hitter.
  • Adrian Beltre will take his physical on Thursday, tweeted Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports.
  • Joel Sherman of The New York Post provides some thoughts on the Mets' deal with Jason Bay. He notes that the team's scouts "contend Bay is a better defender than (Matt) Holliday," despite what the metrics and people outside the organization say.
  • The Giants designated defensively-skilled shortstop Brian Bocock for assignment to make room for Juan Uribe, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
  • ESPN's Keith Law sees "very little downside" for the Red Sox with the Adrian Beltre deal.  He notes that Boston's defense should be terrific this year.  Dave Cameron of FanGraphs says Beltre is "in the conversation of the best defensive third baseman of all time."  WEEI's Rob Bradford says the Red Sox considered signing Beltre after the '04 season, and even discussed trying him at shortstop.  Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe says Beltre is, at the least, an upgrade over Casey Kotchman.
  • Ken Davidoff of Newsday feels the Mets could raise payroll in 2011, so they won't be limited because of Jason Bay's contract.  By the way, Bradford has the transcript from Bay's press conference today.
  • Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball notes that the ten-day arbitration-filing period begins today.  MLB.com's Doug Miller highlights the biggest eligible names.
  • ESPN's Buster Olney suggests the Giants and Mets have been the slowest to adapt to advanced stats.  He also notes that the proliferation of better defensive metrics could greatly benefit Carl Crawford as a free agent next offseason.
  • MLB.com's Brian McTaggart talked to Astros GM Ed Wade, who said the trade market isn't great because of all the remaining free agents.  Also, Wade is focused on one-year deals for arbitration-eligible players such as Michael Bourn, Wandy Rodriguez, and Hunter Pence.
  • With Matt Holliday inching toward a large contact with the Cardinals, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at other $100MM deals given to outfielders.
  • MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone has a summary of Peter Gammons' appearance on WFAN this morning.
  • R.J. Anderson of DRays Bay interviewed Dan Feinstein, the Rays' Director of Baseball Operations.

Reds Sign Josh Anderson To Minor League Deal

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The Reds have signed outfielder Josh Anderson to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training, according to a tweet from MLB.com's Mark Sheldon. 

The speedy outfielder has bounced around from Houston to Atlanta to Detroit to Kansas City in his brief big league career, during which he's hit .272/.313/.352 in 519 plate appearances. Johnson has stolen 36 bases in 43 tries, though UZR says he's a poor defender in center but strong on the corners.

Kelly Shoppach Signs Two-Year Deal

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3:20pm: Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times says Shoppach is guaranteed $5.55MM – $2.25MM in '10, $3MM in '11, and a $3.2MM club option with a $300K buyout for '12 (the option year has incentives).

10:30am: Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach signed a two-year, $5.5MM deal to avoid arbitration, writes ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.  Crasnick says the deal also includes a club option on Shoppach's first free agent season, 2012.  Shoppach was acquired by the Rays with cash from the Indians on December 1st; the Rays ended up sending pitcher Mitch Talbot to Cleveland.

For what it's worth, Shoppach's top Baseball-Reference comparable is Colorado's Chris Iannetta.  Iannetta will earn $6.1MM for his last two arb years, writes Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post.  Other comparisons: Chris Snyder earns $7.75MM over his last two arbitration years and Ryan Doumit gets $8.65MM.  It's a reasonable price for the Rays, but they lose the advantage of going year-to-year with Shoppach.

Twins Release Bobby Keppel

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According to the transactions on the team's official site, the Twins have released righty reliever Bobby Keppel. Keppel appeared in 37 games for Minnesota last season, and had a 4.83 ERA with a 5.3 K/9 in 54 innings. He's also pitched for the Royals and Rockies in his career.

Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker passed along a report earlier this offseason saying that the Hanshin Tigers were looking at Keppel.

Giants Re-Sign Juan Uribe

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The Giants officially re-signed the versatile Juan Uribe to a one-year, $3.25MM deal today.  Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that the Giants appeared close to a deal with Uribe on December 24th.  Jon Heyman of SI.com first tweeted that the sides had reached an agreement, while ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted the value.

With new addition Mark DeRosa guaranteed a starting job, the Giants could once again use Uribe as a super-utility player. His January minor league deal with the Giants proved to be one of last offseason's best, as he hit .289/.329/.495 in 432 plate appearances while playing solid defense at second base, shortstop, and third base. The 30-year-old split his time evenly between the three positions, playing about 300 innings at each. Uribe, who played center field for the Rockies once in 2003, is just as versatile as DeRosa.

Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.

Red Sox, Mets Discussed Castillo For Lowell

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TUESDAY, 12:52pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports finds Castillo "highly unlikely to be traded, for Lowell or anyone else."  Joel Sherman of the New York Post learned that the Mets and Red Sox have not discussed a Castillo-Lowell swap for weeks.

MONDAY, 9:52pm: WEEI.com's Rob Bradford writes that a Castillo-for-Lowell deal is "not close."  He feels that it's most likely Lowell will have to prove his health in Spring Training before a trade occurs.  Meanwhile, Yahoo's Tim Brown tweets that the Rangers "have not ruled out re-engaging on Lowell."

6:56pm: ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick tweets, "I just heard that Red Sox have talked to the Mets about a Mike Lowell-for-Luis Castillo trade. Not sure how serious it is." He adds that Lowell is expendable with Adrian Beltre in the fold. Also, with Castillo gone, the Mets could go after Orlando Hudson.

The deal certainly clears an unwanted player for both teams. But while it is easy to see Lowell getting some at-bats for the Mets at first, and even spelling David Wright at third base, where Castillo fits in- given his poor defense at second base, and the existence of Dustin Pedroia– with Boston is harder to understand.

The money would be even in such a deal. Lowell is owed $12MM in 2010, while Castillo is owed $6MM in each of the next two years.

Phillies Sign Danys Baez

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The Phillies signed reliever Danys Baez to a two-year, $5.25MM deal today.  SI's Jon Heyman first tweeted the agreement on Thursday of last week, while MLB.com's Todd Zolecki added the value today.

Baez, 32, posted a 5.0 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, and 4.02 ERA in 71.6 innings for the Orioles this year.  Among free agents with 50 innings, Baez ranked behind only non-tenders Brian Bass and Mike MacDougal in terms of groundball rate.  That makes him a good fit for Citizens Bank Park, though the multiyear commitment is questionable.  Regardless, it's not nearly as bad as the three-year, $19MM deal the Orioles gave Baez in November of '06.  In a September blog post, Stacey Long of Camden Chat reflected on that brutal $41.5MM commitment Mike Flanagan and Jim Duquette made to Baez, Chad Bradford, and Jamie Walker. 

Tim Dierkes contributed to this post.

Indians Sign Austin Kearns

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The Indians signed outfielder Austin Kearns to a minor league deal, according to a team press release.

Kearns, 30 in May, hit .195/.336/.305 in 211 plate appearances for the Nationals this year, logging 363 innings in right field.  He had thumb surgery in August, ending his season.  The Nats predictably declined Kearns' $10MM club option after the season, finishing a three-year, $17.5MM extension given by Jim Bowden in January of '07.  Bowden's July '06 acquisition of Kearns, Felipe Lopez, and Ryan Wagner from the Reds for Bill Bray, Royce Clayton, Brendan Harris, Gary Majewski, and Daryl Thompson was seen as a masterstroke at the time.

Kearns has been lousy offensively the last two years, though his right field defense remains a plus.  It's a decent no-risk pickup for the Tribe, who also added Shelley Duncan yesterday.

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