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Archives for November 2010

Odds & Ends: Westbrook, De La Rosa, Papelbon

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Links on a busy Tuesday as the first day of the GM Meetings wraps up…

Torrealba Cutting Ties With Padres

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The Padres view Nick Hundley as their starting catcher of the future, and Yorvit Torrealba isn't looking to take a diminshed role or salary. While the 32-year-old had already declined his side of a $3.5MM mutual option, he further confirmed his bachelorhood in a phone interview with Carlos Alberto Gonzalez of Lider en Deportes (link in Spanish) yesterday, saying:

"It's not very likely that I'll continue with the Padres, because they want to reduce payroll and they're offering me much less than I had hoped; in fact, they want to give me less than I made this year."

And it's not just his own case that soured Torrealba on the Padres. He also questioned the team's approach to its star players, saying, "It seems like they want to get rid of Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell." In the short term, Torrealba said his agent will be at the winter meetings this week trying to wrangle a two-year deal, preferably from a National League team. His former team the Rockies are the only NL team he noted as having called him thus far, while from the American League he has received queries from the Mariners, Rangers, and Red Sox.

In platoon duty with the Rockies and Padres over the last two years, Torrealba has shown he can still get on base at around a .350 clip and respectably control the running game. He threw out 37% of would-be base stealers last season in just under 800 innings, his best marks in both categories since 2007 and 2006, respectively. Torrealba generally shows more power against right-handed pitching, but his OBP has actually been higher against left-handers in three of the last four seasons, and his .698 OPS against lefties this season was higher than a number of higher-profile regulars, including fellow free agent A.J. Pierzynski.

MLBTR's Tim Dierkes sees Torrealba taking over first-string catching duties from Russell Martin in Los Angeles, though a reuinion of the Torrealba/Chris Iannetta platoon that put the Rockies near the top in catcher OPS leaguewide in 2008 and 2009 could also be interesting. However, if the catcher has his eyes on something closer to a full-time role than he had in San Diego, one of the AL squads he mentioned could be his best bet. On the Padres' side, they have one more week to offer Torrealba arbitration and potentially earn another draft pick if the catcher—who is a type B free agent—follows through and signs elsewhere.

Rizzo On Willingham, Bench, Payroll

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Earlier this evening, Nationals GM Mike Rizzo updated MLBTR on some of his team's offseason plans:

  • Josh Willingham has said he's open to playing just about anywhere on the diamond, but Rizzo plans to keep him in the outfield. "We see him as our everyday left fielder, middle of the lineup hitter right now," Rizzo said.
  • Rizzo says the Nats are looking for a "makeup" type utility player who is versatile enough to play a number of positions, but there's no timeline for adding such a player.
  • MLB.com reported last week that the Nationals are interested in Willie Bloomquist, Aaron Miles and Miguel Cairo.
  • Rizzo told Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post that he can boost payroll in 2011 "if it makes sense for '11 and the long term" (Twitter link).
  • Agent Alan Nero told Kilgore that Chien-Ming Wang hopes to remain with the Nationals in 2011.

Red Sox Willing To Trade Marco Scutaro

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Multiple teams are showing interest in Red Sox shortstop Marco Scutaro according to FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal, and sources tell the Fox scribe that they're willing to move him for the right return. The Sox would then install Jed Lowrie at short while presumably strengthening another aspect of the team.

Scutaro, 35, signed a two-year deal worth $12.5MM with Boston last offseason. He hit .275/.333/.388 in 695 plate appearances during his first year with the team, solid but not on par with his 2009 performance (.282/.379/.409). Bonafide everyday shortstops are tough to come by, plus the sheer number of teams looking to shore up the position likely means that the Red Sox will get a good return if they do make Scutaro available.

Yankees Interested In Bill Hall

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Given all of the injuries they dealt with in 2010, the Red Sox were happy to have Bill Hall around. The former Brewer hit .247/.316/.456 with 18 homers in 382 plate appearances with Boston, his best effort since the breakout 2006 campaign that landed him a four-year, $24MM contract. Now another AL East club is looking to bring him aboard, as FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal says the Yankees have interest in Hall according to major league sources.

“We have a good utility guy in [Ramiro] Pena,” said GM Brian Cashman. “We think Eduardo Nunez will be an everyday shortstop in the big leagues, but he very well could be a utility guy for us. [Brandon] Laird plays first base, third base and outfield."

“Obviously, are there better veteran guys available in free agency or the trade market? Very probably, there are. But is that the best way to go? We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Hall, 31 next month, works with Yankees' hitting coach Kevin Long during the offseason, so there's already a relationship in place. Of course the team's first priority is re-signing Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, not to mention making a run at Cliff Lee, so any pursuit of Hall will likely wait until after those other items are addressed. 

Vlad Looking For Multi-Year Deal

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Vladimir Guerrero was hoping to sign a two-year contract last winter, but after finding surprisingly limited interest, found himself settling for one year, $5.5MM plus incentives. As MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith noted last week, Guerrero made the Rangers look quite the clever shoppers, but the 35-year-old slugger told Hector Gomez at the Dominican paper Listin Diario (link in Spanish) yesterday that his resurgent year at the plate has once again raised his expectations for the offseason.

"I want a two-or three-year contract," Guerrero said, "but I'm not going to say the amount of money I want, just that I want a contract in line with the type of season I had." The first half of that season saw Guerrero looking like the beast of old, putting up a .319/.364/.554 line, and even after his .278/.322/.426 second half, he joins Jim Thome at the head of the free agent DH class this offseason. Guerrero told Gomez his primary remaining goal in baseball is to hit the 64 home runs he needs to reach 500, which would be feasible over a three-year deal. However, a glance at this year's free agents reveals all the same names that Guerrero was up against last winter, showing how rare multi-year deals have become at the position.

Friedman Talks Best-Case Scenario For Tampa Bay

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The Rays have proven that small market teams can win in the American League East. It just takes a lot of talent, careful timing and some good fortune. Tampa Bay faces payroll cuts and the likely free agent departures of Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Rafael Soriano this offseason, so president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman knows it's too early to say exactly what will happen this winter. But a few months from now when Friedman looks back at the offseason, he knows precisely what he would like to see.

"That we were able to add a meaningful number of bullpen arms," Friedman told MLBTR. "Some with guaranteed deals, some on Spring Training invites and just have the options in house for us to pick and fill out a bullpen. Also to add a bat or two to the mix that helps balance us out offensively and ideally have an extended term of control beyond just 2011 [for the hitter] in an ideal world. Ideally. You asked for ideally. It may not play out that way; we may get a guy on a one-year deal and that's fine."

The Rays bullpen will look considerably different in 2011, since Soriano, Randy Choate, Grant Balfour and Dan Wheeler are all free agents.  How does the team address a bullpen that's completely in flux?

"It's a good question," Friedman said. "We don't really know the answer yet in that we have a number of trade targets that we're focused on, we have a number of major league free agents, we have a number of six year [minor league] free agents and [from] some combination of all three of those pools of players, we're going to have to come out of it with four or five bullpen guys that hopefully offer a diversified look and allow us to replicate some of the success we've had recently in the bullpen."

Building a 'pen in the AL East is tough, but the Rays will look for relievers with above average pitches and hope for good luck. They won't necessarily wait around to address the 'pen, but like the Padres, they will probably add relievers later on in the offseason.

Reds Prioritizing Leadoff Hitter, Bench Help

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The Reds won their division for the first time since 1995 this season, and did so thanks to an offense that led the NL in runs (790), batting average (.272), slugging percentage (.436), and OPS (.774). They did all that despite a collection of leadoff hitters that reached base just 30.6% of the time, third worst in baseball. Unsurprisingly, GM Walt Jocketty told MLB.com's Marl Sheldon that finding someone to bat atop the lineup is one of their offseason priorities. 

"We've been talking to clubs and looking for a potential leadoff hitter, and maybe someone to improve our bench," said Jocketty. "There's not a great deal to do, but we're talking a lot. Generally, we talk to clubs before we come down and follow up here with discussions. We, hopefully, finish what we start [here] at the Winter Meetings. I don't know if we'll find a [leadoff hitter] or not."

Brandon Phillips settled in as the team's leadoff hitter in late June but didn't improve the situation; he hit just .247/.302/.387 from that point on. Ideally the team would employ his power lower in the lineup anyway. Orlando Cabrera also spent time hitting leadoff, but he produced just a .225/.268/.297 batting line from the top spot.  Last week, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes predicted the Reds would fill their leadoff need by signing free agent Scott Podsednik.

The team just re-signed catcher Ramon Hernandez to a one-year, $3MM contract, a deal that is looking good in the wake of John Buck's near-agreement with Florida.  Earlier tonight we learned that Jocketty will get in touch will Miguel Cairo, who hit .290/.353/.410 in a reserve role last season. That won't solve Cincinnati's need for a table-setter, but should help shore up the bench.

Chiba Lotte Marines To Post Tsuyoshi Nishioka

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TUESDAY, 7:55pm: NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman tweets that we should know the high bidder by the 22nd or 23rd.

MONDAY, 8:26pm: The Chiba Lotte Marines are set to announce that they will post infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka within the hour, reports FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal and Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan (Twitter links). Rosenthal notes that Nishioka will be represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council while Passan speculates that the bidding could approach $15-20MM in a thin shortstop market.

Both the Giants and Dodgers have expressed interest in the 26-year-old switch-hitter, who hit .346 with 22 steals in 2010. ESPN's Keith Law (Insider req'd) described Nishioka as "valuable as an everyday guy on a second-division club," though he mentions that he struggles with good fastballs and doesn't offer much in the power department. NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman offered up his thoughts at FanGraphs recently, saying he sees Nishioka as a Ryan Theriot/Chone Figgins type.

White Sox Meet With Dunn’s Agent

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While many expect the Cubs to pursue Adam Dunn this offseason, it was their neighbors to the south that met with Dunn's agent recently according to ESPN Chicago's Bruce Levine. White Sox GM Kenny Williams had preliminary discussions with Dunn's people to gauge what the free agent first baseman is seeking in terms of a contract. One GM said that three years and $40MM would be the starting point for discussions.

"Anytime you spend time opening up dialogue and building on relationships, it can't help but to forge a deal at some time," said Williams. "Whether that helps this year or not remains to be seen."

"We are in the process right now of determining whether or not adding to the current mix we have would be the most prudent thing to do and gives us the best chance to win a championship or turning some of our players into young, impact guys," he added. "What we don't want to do is we don't want to be in the middle."

The Nationals had a three-year contract offer on the table for the last three months, so it makes sense that three years would be a starting point if he turned that down. Dunn, 31, hit .260/.356/.536 with 38 homers this season, and in terms of OPS it was his least productive season since 2006. I broke down his free agent stock just a few days ago.

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