Six years ago today, the Diamondbacks officially traded third baseman Troy Glaus and shortstop prospect Sergio Santos to the Blue Jays for righty Miguel Batista and second baseman Orlando Hudson. Josh Byrnes and J.P. Ricciardi were the respective GMs. Glaus' retirement came with little fanfare despite 320 career home runs and four All-Star Game appearances. Santos eventually found his way to the White Sox, who helped him become a successful reliever and recently traded him back to Toronto. Batista is a 40-year-old free agent with 101 career wins to his name. Hudson, a four-time Gold Glove winner, is a trade candidate for the Padres, the team Byrnes now heads up. Ricciardi now serves as a special assistant to Mets GM Sandy Alderson, who appears to have interest in re-signing Batista.
MLBTR was less than two months old at the time of the Glaus trade; you can read my paragraph on it here. Back then the site was a one-man show with gray text against a black background, and Twitter did not exist. We've come a long way! On to today's links…
- Carlos Beltran offered to sign with the Yankees for the same two-year, $26MM deal he ultimately signed with St. Louis, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Adds Heyman, "Like seven years ago, they declined."
- Reliever Manny Corpas, who agreed to a non-guaranteed split contract with the Cubs, has a $1MM base salary while in the bigs with another potential $1MM in incentives, tweets Heyman.
- The Mets sent R.A. Dickey's agent a letter to warn that they can void his contract if he's injured climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in January, writes Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal. As GM Sandy Alderson noted, that hasn't dissuaded the 37-year-old knuckleballer.
- The Rockies' interest in Cody Ross is based on whether they trade Seth Smith, writes ESPN's Buster Olney.
- Yahoo's Jeff Passan looks at the 2012-13 free agent class, writing, "What the class lacks in breadth up top it makes up for in depth." We've got the full list here. The potentially available young starting pitching looks deep in theory, but we'll see which of Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, Zack Greinke, Anibal Sanchez, and Brandon McCarthy are extended.
“Carlos Beltran offered to sign with the Yankees for the same two-year, $26MM deal he ultimately signed with St. Louis, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Adds Heyman, “Like seven years ago, they declined.”
Nice of them to report that 7 years later…
Not sure what that means. It’s been reported many times that before Beltran signed with the Mets, his agent Scott Boras went back to the Yankees and offered them a slight discount from the Mets offer. The Yankees declined. For whatever reason, Beltran has always wanted to play for the Yankees, but the timing has never been right. I understand why they wouldn’t sign him today since they have a solid and cheaper option in Swisher, and Beltran is now in his mid-30s, but they should have signed him seven years ago since Bernie Williams was at the end of his career.
Yup, but George had always wanted Randy Johnson, and there wasn’t room in the budget for both Unit and Beltran.
I don’t see that as having been the primary factor as with or without Johnson on their payroll, the Yankees outfield was full going into 2005 with Sheffield, Williams and Matsui all under contract.
That shouldn’t have prevented them from chasing Beltran (though I’m sure glad they did), that has to be the absolute worst defensive outfield I’ve ever seen.
Awful outfield or not, those three were owed a combined $38.8MM for 2005 (The cheapest of the three was Williams at over $12MM) and all three were coming off of good offensive years. The only way to fit Beltran in there would’ve been to cut fan favorite Bernie Williams (Couldn’t trade him, he had 10/5 rights) and the Yankees caught enough backlash letting him walk in ’07, I can’t imagine how bad it would’ve been for NY’s PR to let him go after the whole ’04 ALCS fiasco.
It was certainly the primary factor. Bernie (nearing the end of his career) would have been the primary DH, or simply benched, if Beltran were on the roster.
Bernie’s dWAR in 2004 was -2.1. He cost the Yankees 21 runs with his contemptible defense. You can probably bet Cashman had his own chair-throwing moment after George forced him to trade for Randy Johnson, when he had the perfect CF replacement nearly handed to him on a silver platter. Quite frankly it’s amazing the 2005 team won so many games.
The Yankees had a full time DH already, unless you think Giambi should’ve made it back into the field full time and huge payroll or not, Cashman wasn’t going to employ a $12MM fourth outfielder and in the unlikely situation he would’ve been willing to force Torre to bench Williams, I have to imagine he could’ve convinced Steinbrenner to squeeze Beltran in the payroll with Williams.
I wonder what number Beltran will wear??? Fucal has 15, he cant go back to his old number 1 because Ozzies number is retired.. Anyone know?
They declined because they already had Matsui, Shefield and Bernie was in the last year of his 16 million per contract.
Betran went FA a year too soon. If he had been a FA after 2006, He would have been a Yankee and not a Met
And the Yanks medical staff would not have screwed up his problem with his knees
I think you misunderstood, this is news from now but they are saying the Yankees declined his offer “now” just like they declined his offer seven years ago
Good for you Dickey. Certainly an admirable cause you’re working for and a very great accomplishment if successful.
interesting. who are they planning on giving RF to next year? hamilton? the list of impending free agents isn’t too impressive and they don’t have any standout internal candidates. 2 years for beltran would have made lots of sense when you factor in what they’d have gotten back for swisher
Well, what would they have gotten back for Swisher? Would it have been equivalent to a first-rounder and a supplemental pick, which is what they can pick up for him after he leaves as a free agent (and they offer him a 1-year $12M deal which he rejects)? I highly doubt it.
Other than 1B, RF is probably the easiest position to fill. I don’t think the Yankees are too concerned about their RF-er in 2013.
I imagine Swisher would probably accept arbitration, honestly. I don’t imagine any other MLB team will pay him much more than $12 million with how streaky he is and how poorly regarded his defense is. It’s a pay raise either way and he seems to like playing in NY, so I wouldn’t consider compensation for him a given.
The Giants, Cardinals and Braves all very likely would’ve been very interested in him and the Braves in particular have a pitching surplus. I could imagine the Yankees getting something decent back from Atlanta, especially if they ate some salary.
The real concern I’d see is that moving Swisher would’ve been tough with Beltran on the market and signing Beltran with Swisher under contract puts the Yankees in a situation where they’d essentially have to move Swisher, which makes for a risk.
“I imagine Swisher would probably accept arbitration, honestly.”
Well then, good deal for the Yankees. So they have Swisher for two years for $23M, rather than injury-prone and old Beltran for two years for $24M.
So, either way, Beltran didn’t make any sense for the Yankees, because Swisher is a better option.
His uzr has been pretty ok for most of his career and was good last year. But ya i cant imagine what the yankees would get back once other teams knew swisher had to be traded.
it’s not a knock on swisher to point out that beltran is better. beltran’s just very good. it takes some pretty creative rationalization (see comment above yours) to come to the conclusion that they’re better off going this route
off the top of my head, beltran+jurrjens >>> swisher
and i don’t even like jurrjens
I wasnt being defensive about just pointing out swisher defense isnt that bad. I would take beltran over swisher without hesitation, there have been reports his knees scared them. If i had to guess i’d say they want to sign soler. But beltran and jurgens would have been great.
Cue the Braves fans and their “we don’t want Seth Smith” whining.
All the damn rumors linking the Rockies to the Braves originated from a Rockies writer attempting to stir up some optimism for a 4th place team. Im glad you had some fun antagonizing people over unrealistic trade proposals.
Don’t blame others for your inability to filter out and ignore what you thought to be so irrational in the first place. LOL
Why would I need to filter anything out? I get a kick out of calling you out the same way you get a kick out of being annoying.
You are giving me far too much credit if you feel you have to “call me out” for creating the Prado and Seth Smith trade rumor. LOL I didn’t start the rumor and I’m only mocking the continued fixation you Braves fans have with it. Notch it up as a silly rumor and move on. There are dozens of false rumors a year for every club. You don’t have to continually rally against this one. It only makes it look like you actually fear it will happen which if you really believe it to be so absurd you shouldn’t be fearing it at all.
Is that the same Sergio Santos that closed for the White Sox last year?
Read the rest of his post!
Haha, thanks, not my brightest moment
What would that be- naming yourself bonestock94?
Ok chico65
Arguing about names is the most pointless thing I’ve seen on here.
I don’t know…commenting on people discussing names might take the cake.
Nah, man. I was serious. Figured you were celebrating a great orgy back in the glory days or something, some sort of shining moment.
lol, it’s a car reference that I used completely out of context on here. But I like your explanation much more.
Hmm…I’d combine the two and say it took place in an unmodified car…
Congrats MLBrumors! What six years makes. My favorite website (and i aint joking)
Hey, coollet with the brown-nosing, will ya? 😉
nice burn
Some aloe vera will help coollet for you
Are we making Red VS Blue references now?
id take beltran over swisher any day of the week! at least beltran knows what a post season hit looks like!
The Rockies signed Cuddyer and traded for Tyler Colvin. At this point I cannot understand any level of interest in Cody Ross, even if they trade Seth Smith. Ross would make for a VERY expensive 4th OF.
Does Beltran’s interest in the Yankees indicate that he’s only after money, or that he just really loves that team?
I would assume he just likes the Yanks… seeing as he’s willing to go there for the same price or even less in some instances