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Sabathia’s Competition

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C.C. Sabathia said this morning that he does not intend to opt out of his contract, but stopped short of guaranteeing a return to the Bronx next year. The left-hander can exercise an opt-out clause in his contract and hit free agency after the season if he and his agent see the opportunity for a better deal on the open market. 

Sabathia appears to like New York – he has certainly pitched well since donning pinstripes – so there's no guarantee that he opts out. But we can be reasonably sure of one thing: he won't have much competition from free agent starters if he does choose to explore free agency again. Here's a look at some of the other starters who will be available after the coming season:

It would be hard to fault Sabathia for staying put. The Yankees win and $92MM is a lot of money. But Sabathia has averaged a 3.27 ERA, 234 innings, 197 strikeouts and 20 wins in two seasons as a Yankee. Another similar campaign would put Sabathia in position to obtain more guaranteed money, especially considering the shortage of aces likely to be available in free agency.

Can Teams Find Love On Valentine’s Day?

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That big red day on our calendars has arrived. For some of us, the night will be filled with various distractions to keep our minds from the inescable fact that we are alone in the world. For those of us who are attached, the day can serve as a payment in advance to our spouse, in exchange for the inescable time vacuum to come the moment pitchers and catchers report.

But while we are forced by television show theme episodes and huge pharmacy candy displays to consider the health of our romatic lives, baseball teams have proven to be a surprisingly unsentimental lot. Few transactions occur on February 14th each season- teams have made the incredible decision to sign or trade for players based on need, instead of sprinkling roses across the infield grass to let prospective free agents know that they are, indeed, The One.

For those teams that did in recent years: were they able to find love? Let's take a look.

Last Valentine's Day, not a single transaction occurred. But back in 2009, the Mets signed Livan Hernandez, clearly choosing a partner they knew would stick by them, through good innings and bad. For a while, it appeared a love connection had formed. Hernandez won the fifth-starter spot that spring, and posted a respectable 4.04 ERA through June 28th. But things fell apart quickly after that, with Hernandez putting up an 8.71 ERA in his next eight starts. The Mets told Hernandez they wanted to see other starters, and Livan headed south to the Nationals, where he found a new home. He even came back to face the Mets in April of 2010, pitching seven shutout innings against his former flame. Awkward!

The Mets were also involved with two of the four Valentine's Day signings in 2008: reliever Ricardo Rincon and outfielder Ben Johnson. The team proceeded to stand Johnson up, keeping him in the minors, while Rincon turned out to be a four-inning September fling. 2008's other two Valentine's Day signings, Kent Mercker to the Reds and David Newhan to the Astros, met with some limited success. But King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson it wasn't.

To find a couple that outperformed the critics, you'd have to go back to 2007, when the Red Sox gave J.D. Drew a five year, $70MM contract on Valentine's Day. (Matchmaker Scott Boras brought them together, though it is unclear if he used the phrase "Kismet!") While some thought it wouldn't last, the Red Sox are entering the final season of Drew's contract, and have to be pretty satisfied with the results so far. Drew has given them an OPS+ of 120 over four seasons and 2,093 plate appearances – a solid record of both performance and durability. Here's hoping Theo Epstein sends Drew flowers today.

But it would be downright coldhearted to overlook the other connection that day in 2007, between the Washington Nationals and Dmitri "More to Love" Young. Brought in merely to compete for the first base job, Young seized it and never looked back, hitting .340 by the All-Star break to earn a selection, and finishing up with a season line of .320/.378/.491. Smitten, the Nationals signed him to a two-year, $10MM contract extension. However, the affair turned as one-sided as the coupling between Lisa Simpson and Ralph Wiggum, with Young playing in just 50 games in 2008 and none in 2009.

Still, who are we to judge this brief flame in our nation's capital? So whatever your intentions, may all of your Valentine's Days be as successful as Dmitri Young's 2007.

 

 

Rangers Could Explore Alternate Trades For Young

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The Rangers discussed a number of potential trades last week as they looked to ship Michael Young and as much of the $48MM they owe him as possible out of Texas for something valuable. GM Jon Daniels hasn't worked out a deal yet, but that doesn't mean he's short on options. ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports that the Rangers still have some “potential threads to pull on to make a deal.” It remains possible that the Rangers won’t deal the infielder, however.

Olney suggested over the weekend that the Brewers could acquire Young and make him their starting shortstop. That's one possible alternate destination for Young, who can block trades to 21 clubs. Young drew little or no interest from the Yankees, Phillies, Cardinals, Twins, Mariners, Tigers, Astros and Angels and while the Rockies and Dodgers have had serious discussions about Young, they aren't close to acquiring him.

Albert Pujols Rumors: Sunday

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Joel Sherman of the New York Post typically covers New York's baseball teams, but in today's column he acknowledges that many of the sport's biggest stories are taking place outside of the Big Apple. His number one story to watch as Spring Training gets underway? Albert Pujols' contract negotiations with the Cardinals. An AL executive told Sherman that the Cards' nightmare scenario involves not only failing to extend Pujols, but seeing him end up in a Cubs uniform in 2012. The three-time MVP winner "would be to the Cubs what [Barry] Bonds was to the Giants, but with a nicer face and nine games a year at Busch Stadium," said the exec. Here are the rest of the latest stories on the negotiations:

  • Agent Dan Lozano has told multiple teams that the Cardinals have "no chance to sign [Pujols]" before free agency, tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  • The Cards' star slugger turned down the club's offer about two weeks ago, a source told ESPN's Buster Olney (via Twitter). 
  • Pujols has turned down the latest offer from the club and unless a dramatic change is made, he will announce Tuesday that he's shutting down contract talks for the rest of the season, a person close to Pujols told Bob Nightengale of USA Today. 
  • St. Louis GM John Mozeliak declined comment on whether the team has made a formal offer to Pujols. Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hears that no official offer was on the table as of early last week, with the club "expected to present a bid" closer to Pujols' deadline.
  • Whether or not an agreement is reached, the Cardinals plan to publicly address the negotiations on Wednesday, Strauss adds.
  • Bernie Miklasz of the Post-Dispatch views the Spring Training deadline as merely the "first checkpoint" in extension discussions, calling it "essentially bogus."
  • A GM for a larger-market team weighed in on the topic while talking to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe: "[The Cardinals] should stick to a number that makes sense for them, and if it’s not good enough, then you walk away." However, the GM went on to say that he thinks a deal will get done. "They probably have to do it," he said. "Because not doing it would create chaos and possible loss of revenue."

Cubs, Marmol Close To Long-Term Deal

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FEBRUARY 13TH: The deal is expected to be for three years and worth around $23MM, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times.

12:54pm: Marmol's agent, Barry Praver, arrived at Fitch Park in Arizona today to finalize a multiyear deal for the closer, tweets Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. The contract extension is expected to be announced Monday, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times (via Twitter).

FEBRUARY 3RD: The Cubs are close to signing closer Carlos Marmol to a long-term contract extension, according to Fred Mitchell and David Kaplan of the Chicago Tribune.  The new deal is expected to be announced before Cubs pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in Mesa, Arizona on February 13th.

The deal would buy out Marmol's remaining two years of arbitration eligibility for 2011 and '12 and perhaps lock him up beyond that.  The righty had asked for $5.65MM in arbitration with the Cubs countering at $4.1MM.  Marmol is the Cubs' final remaining arbitration-eligible player, as our Arbitration Tracker shows.

Marmol, 28, is coming off an excellent season in which he posted a 2.55 ERA and a whopping 16.0 K/9 en route to 38 saves.  He gets it done with an extreme blend of strikeouts, walks, and flyballs.

Quick Hits: Johnson, Dodgers, Aardsma, Padres

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Sunday night linkage..

Discussion: Jose Bautista

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On Friday, Jays outfielder Jose Bautista told Ken Fidlin of the Toronto Sun that he has set a deadline for extension talks with the club.  The slugger and the club have an arbitration hearing scheduled for tomorrow and it seems like a safe bet that the meeting will go through as planned.  While Bautista would like to sign a multiyear deal with the club, the Blue Jays have yet to put an offer on the table.

Today, Fidlin implores Toronto to lock the 30-year-old up with a multiyear pact.  It's possible, he says, that the club is wary of signing another monster deal after having just gotten themselves out from under two monster contracts in the past year-and-a-half.  It's also possible that Alex Anthopoulos & Co. are wary of Bautista's shocking and sudden emergence as a primetime player.  After hitting .238/.329/.400 from 2004 through 2009, the veteran broke out in 2010, hitting .260/.378/.617 with a staggering 54 home runs – eclipsing his previous watermark of 16.

There remains a considerable gap between the two sides as Bautista seeks $10.5MM while the Blue Jays are offering $7.6MM.  Fidlin argues that the outcome of the hearing is rather inconsequential in the scheme of things.  The club has a limited time to work out a long-term deal with the Super Two star and must get a deal done while they can.   If you were in Anthopoulos' position, what would you do?

Red Sox Notes: Papelbon, Pena Jr., Jenks

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Let's take a look at some Red Sox-related tidbits from around the web..

MLBTR Originals

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It's time to take a look back at all of the original reporting and analysis MLBTR has come up with this week..

  • This week we asked our readers where they think Michael Young will wind up and where pitcher Kevin Millwood will sign.
  • Confused about aspects of the Bernie Madoff/Mets situation?  Don't fret, you're not alone.  This week Howard Megdal brought us a simple guide to the Metropolitans' mess.
  • Mike Axisa rounded up the best baseball writing from around the web in this week's edition of Baseball Blogs Weigh In.
  • Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya is about to enter a Make Or Break Year.
  • As of last Monday, only 13 arbitration eligible players were still unsigned for 2011.  To keep up with all of the remaining cases, check out the MLBTR Arb Tracker.
  • Three contracts signed this winter prevent the team from offering arbitration if the player is a Type A at the end of the term and Tim Dierkes ran them down in one handy post.
  • Having trouble keeping track of all our original work?  Check out this list of our regular MLBTR features.
  • Steve Adams took a look at minor league deals that could be worth a million or more.
  • Our own Ben Nicholson-Smith is doing his thing over at Fangraphs in a series of guest posts.
  • We fielded your questions in our weekly chat.  If you missed out, you can take a look at the transcript right here.
  • February 6th has been a busy day in years past, as Luke Adams pointed out.
  • Do you love baseball?  Do you speak Spanish?  You just might have what it takes to work for MLBTR as a translator.

Rockies To Sign Chris Sampson

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FEBRUARY 13: With the Rockies already at full capacity for non-roster Spring Training invitees, Sampson will not receive an invite, Goff writes.  Instead, the reliever will be reporting to minor league camp in Arizona.

Sampson told Goff that the Rockies intend to give him every opportunity to succeed at the Triple-A level and will likely be in position for a potential call-up if he stays healthy.  The deal will become official upon Sampson passing a physical exam.

FEBRUARY 9: The Rockies have agreed to a minor league deal with right-handed reliever Chris Sampson, according to Stephen Goff of Examiner.com.  The pact includes an invite to Spring Training.

Sampson, 32, spent his entire career with the Astros up until now.  After turning in a 5.93 ERA with 4.7 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 on the season, Houston removed Sampson from the 40-man roster.  The reliever chose to accept his demotion to the minors and delay his entrance to the open market.

In five big league seasons with Houston, Sampson owns a 4.42 ERA with 4.4 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.  The Texas native is represented by Hendricks Sports.

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