11 teams are playing on Mark Buehrle, tweets Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM and ESPN.com: the Nationals, White Sox, Cubs, Marlins, Twins, Rangers, Yankees, Royals, Cardinals, Red Sox, and Diamondbacks. These suitors have all been confirmed by club sources, according to Bowden. The Blue Jays and Angels were named by Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports yesterday, potentially bringing the total to 13. From Bowden's list, I believe the Twins, Cardinals, and Red Sox are new suitors. Cards GM John Mozeliak said yesterday he is not seeking to alter the team's rotation, however.
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Cardinals, eh? I guess we’d move Westbrook
Boy, it’d be nice to eat that Westbrook contract and take on Mark. Given the amount of suitors, however, I’m certain his cost is skyrocketing beyond his actual worth.
Skyrocketing beyond his worth? Please, watch your ignorance. No pitcher is going to give you more innings, and no pitcher is going to boost your clubhouse morale like would. If you don’t appreciate everything he’s worth, you don’t deserve him. 3 year deal, $37M.
Buehrle’s last contract paid him $14 million per year . Your proposed 3yr/$37M would be paying him $12.3 million per year. Even with his age, I don’t think he is going to get less than $14M/year. He said earlier he was not going to give a hometown discount.
I love Mark to death but at best these days he is a #3 starter. I would not pay a #3 guy in my rotation $14-16 annually — which he will certainly get — when there is no strong need for rotation depth comparative to other areas of my ballclub.
Please sign him, Royals…
Only way Buehrle signs with the Cards is if Mo can get Lohse or Westbrook to waive their no trade clause, find someone to take them, and then Buerhrle signs for a ridiculously small contract. Not gonna happen.
It’s not the NTC that makes Westbrook almost impossible to trade. It’s his pitching. If Derek Lowe can be traded, anyone can be. But are the Cards going to eat $6-7 mil and then sign Buerhle to a market contract?? Not if they re-sign Pujols…
I couldn’t imagine Mark pitching anywhere but Chicago. I’m all for trading Danks and Floyd if it means we can retain Buehrle
With that many suitors, I hope Kevin Towers simply moves on and lets the rest of the league fight over him. With his recent performance and his ability to be suddenly magnificent on any given day, along with the number of teams interested, he’s likely to be able to finagle a deal close to $15MM. I’d rather KT pay Saunders his over market $8.7MM that he’ll get through arbitration and spend the other 6 million and change on locking up Kennedy, Hudson, and Montero long-term.
I hope the Red Sox don’t sign him. It’d be brutal to see a soft-tossing lefty pitch half his games in Fenway.
I 100% agree. trying to think of rubbish throwing lefty starters who were successful there for very long and Spaceman Lee is the only one can think of off the top of my head.
Cards or White Sox. Buehrle even said at the end of the year that he really didn’t want to go to the Cubs because of the rivalry or the Yankees.
I still have a hard time believing Buerhle is going to leave $20-30 mil on the table to pitch for the Cards. No way can the Cards sign him for $12 mil+ a season…
Royals could certainly use him and he would be an instant fan favorite.
He’d be a good fit in Washington, giving us a solid lefty in the rotation and a good mentor to the younger arms
I like him over Oswalt, specifically because he’s a lefty (not to mention the lack of health problems). Seems to have a great attitude too.
Proof of a terrible FA market
11 seasons of 200 IP. Nuff said.
Not even close to “nuff said”
…….nuff said -__-
I’m assuming the Cards are touching base to see if Buehrle’s price would be slightly lower to play for STL. He’s stated in the past that he’d love to play for the Cardinals, as he’s from the St. Louis area. I’d also love to be able to move Lohse/Westbrook (or just eat Westbrook’s contract) and sign Buehrle, but even if he was willing to offer the Cards a discount, I doubt the discount would be enough that we would be able to afford him if Pujols gets re-signed.
That being said, if we were just going to eat Westbrook’s contract, any thoughts of moving him to long relief/spot starter? His contract is way larger than I’d like for a long relief guy, but he looked decent in the WS from the relief spot, and if it meant adding Buehrle to the rotation I’d consider it. Granted, this would bloat our payroll quite a bit, so I know it’s just a pipe dream, but I’ve always really liked Buehrle and always hoped he’d come to the Cards eventually.
Westbrook is one of the better 5th starters in the league, we have Miller and Martinez coming up soon, and Lance Lynn as a spot starter. Obviously our rotation would be better with Buehrle for now, but it doesn’t make sense financially or for the future. In a couple years the rotation will be Wainwright, Garcia, Miller, Martinez and maybe Lynn. Assuming they all progress, that’s a very solid rotation.
good young starters are a hot trade commodity, sign buehrle and trade to fill other holes
How far away is Martinez? I know Miller has an outside shot of getting in on the action sometime in 2012, but I don’t have a great idea on when Martinez’s ETA is at the moment. As for Lynn, I don’t know if he’ll really turn into a good starter in the majors. I think he has the stuff to be a good setup type guy if he can consistently throw strikes, but I’m not sold on him as a starter at the major league level. That doesn’t mean he won’t prove me wrong, though.
And I agree that the financials just don’t work out. There’s no way we’ll be able to move Westbrook/Lohse AND take on Buehrle. I’ve just always really coveted him as a pitcher and think that a rotation of Wainwright/Carpenter/Buehrle/Garcia/Lohse would have the potential to be absolutely dominant for a couple years.
Martinez threw 84 innings this year. He’s 3 years away from a 180 inning guy…
An ERA+ of 78 doesn’t make you ‘one of the better 5th starters in the league’. Especially at $9 mil.
Buehrle in my opinion is the best starter on the market. No one else has the long proven track record that he has. He’s been consistently a #2-#3 starter (depending on the team) for his whole career. I did a little comparison. He has just 6 less wins than Mike Mussina over the same time period, a slightly higher ERA, a very similar BB/9, though less K/9 and more H/9. As we all no, Mike Mussina was a pretty darn good pitcher. Buehrle is a guy not riddled with potential, but he has time in and time out proven that he can pitch on a consistent basis putting up decent stats. He’s one of those players that people neglect to really consider a top free agent in the market, but if you need a decent innings eating veteran, he is your guy! Low risk, decent reward….as opposed to everyone else who is high risk, decent-good award.
Buehrle > Wilson, Harden, Bedard, etc
Have to agree with this. Buehrle has been very good for a pretty long time, while most of the other pitchers on the market either have a relatively small sample size/no sample size (Wilson, Darvish if he gets posted), have been wildly inconsistent (Javier Vazquez, Edwin Jackson) or have major injury concerns (Oswalt, Bedard, Harden). Buehrle may not have true staff ace potential, but you know what you’re getting from him, which is an extremely solid pitcher who could make just about any pitching staff better.
Buehrle isn’t a #2 or #3 starter. He’s been the opening day starter for the Sox for a million years. I think you severely underrate him calling him an “innings eater”.
Well he is going to be the Cardinals #3 guy now.
Wainwright
Carpenter
Buehrle
Garcia
Loshe
Nastiness.
He might have been an opening day starter, but he’s not an ace quality pitcher these days. Sox afforded him that honor out of longevity and durability more than performance He’s had 2 “ace quality” seasons, the most recent was 7 years ago. He’s certainly still an innings eater, but he gives up a ton of hits too. He needs a good defense behind him. He’s a number 2 on some staffs and a number 3 on others.
Mark is a #1 on a thin rotation, maybe, just as Roy Oswalt would be the number one on a team like the Rangers or the Royals. On most contending teams, he is a #3.
HE will be a Whitesox or Marlin…only two options…
I think the cubs are a real choice as well
I don’t know about that. I could see either of the Missouri teams being a factor as well.
If the Red Sox hit the FA market for a starting pitcher, it’d be for Buehrle no doubt. But, it’s more likely that they do some kind of trade. I’d love to see Buehrle with the Sox though.
It would be no surprise to me if Mark comes to St. Louis. He went to high school here, his family lives here (Right down the street from me actually) and he has been fined in Chicago for wearing Cardinals apparel into the clubhouse (Shows his love for the team). He is one person I could see really wanting to end his career in St. Louis to be with his family and friends for the first time in a long time.
It would surprise me.
The Cardinals already have Wainwright, Carpenter, Garcia, Westbrook and Lohse under contract for 2012. Are they going for a six man rotation?
The strong interest in Buehrle makes me think the Brewers would be wise to dangle Randy Wolf out there. Wolf is almost 3 years older, but his numbers over the past few seasons are pretty comparable. and he’s owed $9.5 million in 2012 and has a $10 million team option for 2013 (with a $1.5 million buyout). Brewers could use the salary space if they are serious about Reyes or Rollins. They’d have to come up with a starter to replace Wolf but they’ve got some internal candidates, most notably Wily Peralta.
Buehrle is in the driver’s seat with half the major league teams interested in him. He will be able to go where he wants and will be over paid. Teams are desperate to get pitching!
Anybody claiming the Twins are in on Beuhrle has zero credibility. His extremely negative opinion of the Twins is well-known.
Even though I think Mark Beuhrle would pitch very well in Target Field, I’d prefer to see the Twins sign somebody younger such as Edwin Jackson.
Even though he’s been a rival all these years, he’s still a fun pitcher to watch. I know that it’s not going to happen, but it would be interesting if he did sign with the Twins. I could really throw that in the face of some my friends that are sox fans. But, I think everyone knows the Twins are an extreme long shot.
Twins would be interesting as long as Pavano gets the boot.
Pavano is our second best starting pitcher.
He was ok last year, he’s better as a three or four though.
He was okay last year, but he was even better the year before. I view Pavano currently as our second best pitcher, behind Baker. If we signed someone like Edwin Jackson, then yes he could be our number 3 starter. Our rotation would struggle without Pavano’s presence though, believe it or not.