Yesterday it was reported that the Cubs aren't out on Prince Fielder, despite acquiring Anthony Rizzo. Fielder met with the Rangers, who, along with the Nationals and Cubs, could offer a six-year contract with an average annual value in the $22-24MM range. Fielder and Yu Darvish may not be mutually exclusive for Texas, but they may need to choose whether to invest in Fielder or Josh Hamilton long-term. Here are today's rumors:
- Talks between the Nationals and Fielder are back on according to Pete Kerzel of MASNSports.com, and Washington is "again making a strong pitch" to sign him.
- Signing Fielder is "just not going to happen" for the Cubs, manager Dale Svuem told reporters, including Chris De Luca and Godron Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link).
- Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets that the Rangers were impressed with how trim and fit Fielder looked in their meeting yesterday.
- Nolan Ryan says the Rangers' meeting with Fielder yesterday was just to see where he was at in the free agent process, tweets Anthony Andro of FOX Sports Southwest. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram also tweets that the talks were preliminary.
Cubs ain’t bringing him home
As much of a homer as I am and as sentimental as I can be about players I like, if it comes down to the Rangers needing to pick between Fielder or Hamilton for the next six years – welcome to Arlington, Mr. Fielder. You’re going to enjoy that jet stream.
Moreland may end up being Hamiltons replacement. He’s already got the power to do so, and he’s always been a solid contact hitter, so it’s very possible.
Am I the only one who thinks that this Fielder thing is getting a bit ridiculous? We are getting unbelievably close to Spring Training and he doesn’t know if he’s going to Florida or Arizona yet.
absolutely right on…….and what makes it more funny is that boras is losing teams by the day to do the leverage thing with…..also it’s worth mentioning that he has other clients that aren’t signed either….im sure he will get a nice christmas card from ejax……….
borass , has alienated entire teams , who just basically refuse to deal with his crap , im sure madson loves his one year deal , an ejax well he should get ready for less than half of what borass had predicted, hopefully more players will cop and drop that shylock
right on, plus there are other guys that aren’t boras clients that are waiting for fielder to sign so they can figure out where they stand with certain teams………all this is doing is pi##### people off and making it so fielder loses money by the day……..
How do you know what deal Scott Boras “predicted” in his confidential communications with his client?
Boras no doubt started the bidding high while teams starting the bidding low … Boras needs only find one team to meet somewhere in the middle.
The most effective agent in the business will remain in demand.
is that you scott ?
How do you know what deal Scott Boras “predicted” in his confidential communications with his client?
Boras no doubt started the bidding high while teams starting the bidding low … Boras needs only find one team to meet somewhere in the middle.
The most effective agent in the business will remain in demand.
Not only ridiculous…but theater of the absurd. I have never seen a big-ticket free agent remain on the market this long; I thought that this would have gotten done by the winter meetings or just after that at the latest.
Boras may well have screwed the pooch here with respect to both Fielder and Edwin Jackson.
It’s not just Boras that is making a mess of things in regards to Fielder though. Once Pujols signed, and CJ went to the Angels, the pressure was put on TEX to keep up. From that point on, there was almost ZERO chance that Fielder would agree to a contract before Darvish signed. Even if a team were to step forward now and offer 10/200, I would be surprised if it was accepted before Darvish was made a Ranger and the Rangers were then given a chance to couter-offer. Realistically, he really only has two or three places to go and one of those is in the NL where he won’t be able to pad his worth as a DH.
At this point the SMART move for Fielder is to do nothing.
so what your saying is, he only wants to play for the rangers? because that is what it sounds by saying he is waiting on darvish. alittle fyi a pitchers contract has no effect on fielders contract what so ever. if the nationals were to offer a 10 year 200 million dollar no trade clause contract right now, he would say yes. that has been the issue, he wants a full no trade clause and teams are reluctant to give it to him.
As a Cubs fan the thought of signing Prince sounds awesome, at first. After thinking about it, I don’t think its the right move. I don’t see his body holding up and that’s a lot of money. We need pitching and to strengthen our farm system.
Fielder has never posted back to back seasons of 1.000+ OPS. His fielding is suspect. He could very well be on the decline at 27 years of age. Please, sign him Texas!
…and Matt Kemp has NEVER posted a 1.000 OPS over ONE full season. Is he on the decline too?
Oh gosh yeah, he just had one of the best years of his career. He must be on the decline.
Hamilton is a great guy and all, but I really hope the Rangers give him the CJ treatment. I don’t see how he could possibly stay healthy enough to earn his contract
The length of contract would be what I would think the Rangers would be more worried about than AAV. Hamilto, even the way he has been the last few years is still worth $13-16MM/year. At 2-3 years, the Rangers could do far worse than bringing him back, especially if they were to also sign Fielder. It’s if he wants that happy 5 year deal that they should let some other team overpay for him (and someone will).
By “trim and fit”, do they mean they thought Prince was over 300 lbs?
Hey, that blousey Brewers jersey adds 30 lbs. by itself… then there’s the TV cameras to consider on top of that.
Agreed, he’s not THAT fat in person. More portly, or stout. Really his weight is no big deal…He’s going to play in 160+ games a year until hes 32 or 33.
They were surprised he fit in his chair.
They were surprised he fit in his chair.
If there is one gaping hole the Rangers have, its scoring runs.
“they may need to choose whether to invest in Fielder or Josh Hamilton long-term.”
If this is true, and they decide to invest in Fielder, I wonder if they would attempt to move Hamilton, or if they would just let him leave as a free agent at the end of the year? Just thinking out loud, but I could see several teams being very interested in him if he were on the market.
These sources have consistently been wrong about how much money Texas has. Texas has that huge TV deal coming up soon and I thin they have the money to sign Darvish, Fielder and Hamilton. Young comes off the books soon, so Texas could backload his contract a bit. It really just comes down to wether or not the FO thinks he can stay healthy enough to earn a contract worth 15 million or more over at least 3 years.
I’m not personally ruling out the Rangers signing both Darvish and Fielder and extending Hamilton, just asking an interesting question based on the speculation of someone else saying that “they may have to chose which one to invest in.”
They might have to. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if Prince is signed and Moreland replaces Hamilton when the time comes. But with Young, Torrealba, Lowe, and Cruz all coming off the books soon, I think Texas can absorb all three contracts quite comfortably. We do have a group of incredibly wealthy owners after all. Hopefully they’re willing to add a bit to the payroll.
Only way Hamilton gets moved is if the Angels are running away with the division come July 31. That is unlikely, so Hamilton probably isn’t going anywhere.
You’re probably right, but if they could replace Hamilton’s production with Fielder’s production, while turning Hamilton into several other pieces to help them now and in the future, I would think they would have to at least consider it.
Obviously they would have to get a really good haul for Hamilton, and they’d have to have someone to replace him in the outfield (I have no idea if they do, or if it would have to come in the theoretical trade), but I could definitely see a scenario where it would make sense for them to trade him now rather than let him walk for (maybe) draft picks.
If Fielder goes to Texas I might switch allegiances. I think Fielder in Texas is the most perfect and player/park combination possible. He would hit BOMBS there.
Fielder in Yankee Stadium would be even better. Or Colorado because the ball flies.
If he’s willing to accept an offer that low, and the Mariners believe that Montero can stick at catcher, there’s no reason NOT to sign Fielder. A lineup started by Ichiro, Dustin Ackley, Jesus Montero, and Prince Fielder is a lineup that may be able to win some games.
I wouldn’t count on Montero sticking at catcher- everything out of New York prior to the trade said he wasn’t developing defensively plus the fact that New York went ahead with the trade even with Posada retiring and Martin a potential free-agent after 2012 and their 1st base and DH slots clogged by Teixeira and an aging left side of the infield- all of that says to me that New York views him as 1st base/DH material.
I still view the trade as reasonable on both sides with both taking on some risks with potential upside while helping to address immediate needs of both teams. My gut says Montero has a slightly lower potential peak value (think Carlos Quentin- hopefully without the injuries) but the risk of injury for pitchers or even their just coming untracked is usually greater.
I think the Mariners are still in on Prince Fielder. Montero is not enough but both of them with young guys like ackley and carp would then be dangerous. Anyone else agree that Mariners aren’t done?
they are done……why would they give up pineda for montero???…..this move makes alot more sense for seattle as to where they feel as though they don’t have to sign fielder……
Exactly — now they should be in more than ever, especially @ 6 years, $23MM.
Would it really be dangerous? Or would it just be a regular offense for once?
I don’t see how fielder would effect Hamilton. Young comes off the books the tv deal kicks in and ticket sales have sky rocketed with back to back world series runs. Fielder at 6/120 should not mean anything for Hamilton at 3/60 maybe 3/45( injury prone) sign them both they have the money. Heck throw an opt out clause in fielders contract. A line up of kinsler-young-Hamilton-fielder-beltre-Napoli-Cruz-Moreland-andrus is scary!
If they sign Darvish, Fielder is sure to have an impact on Hamilton. That is if they sign him. There is also the possibilty that Darvish chooses to return to Japan and Fielder doesn’t sign with them.
If somehow the sky were to fall and Darvish doesn’t sign with TEX, Fielder and Boras will be getting a HUGE payday as TEX will almost certainly overpay to make sure they land Fielder. Heck, in that scenario Boras might even get a 2 for 1 and get them to sign Jackson as well.
Texas would replace Darvish with Oswalt most likely.
I tend to agree, though it would not surprise me if the get Oswalt regardless of how all this plays out.
It would actually surprise me a lot. We currently have 6 potential starters on this team. 7 if Darvish signs. If we sign Darvish, I doubt Texas does anything pitching wise except find a lefty reliever.
I think with Hamilton it’d have to be closer to 5 years at close to $90M.
if thats all it takes for a center fielder with his production, i can see about 10 teams in on him. Its gonna take more..
Moreland looks so out of place in that line up. Hamilton moves back to CF in your proposal?
I have to wonder if this is a negotiating ploy by Texas in their dealings with Yu Darvish. In other words, they are showing Yu their alternative if they can’t reach an agreement.
I have to wonder if this is a negotiating ploy by Texas in their dealings with Yu Darvish. In other words, they are showing Yu their alternative if they can’t reach an agreement.
I personally want Fielder to sign with the Rangers so they have to let Josh Hamilton go. The Braves are going to have some serious coin next winter and I think Hamilton should be on Frankie’s wish list.
Rangers wouldn’t have to let Hamilton go because of Fielder. Young. Huge rise in attendance in recent years, huge tv deal coming, and Lowe, Torrealba, Young and Cruz coming off the books soon. Darvish, Fielder, Hamilton and extension to Napoli, Kinsler and Lewis can all be done in the next two seasons.
keep dreaming silly rangers fan. Fielder wont be a ranger. he will stay in the NL. and i will laugh if they cant get a deal done with darvish either.
Lol somebody seems to have a personal vendetta against Texas. Guessing you’re a Yankee fan huh?
Oh look at that, once your avatar loads, you are a Yankee fan! So obviously you must know all about the Texas organization to say we can’t get Fielder.
And I will laugh if an NL team signs Fielder. Have fun with that glove in 5 years.
If its a 6 year deal, as a Nats fan, I won’t care what his glove is like in five years because he’s almost at the end of his deal and we would have (hopefully) gone to the playoffs multiple times
They don’t have offense with montero alone. Adding a bat with montero makes sense.
If I’m the Nats, I’d take a 6 year deal for Prince, easy.
Watch out for the Dodgers. They will b the team he goes too.
Boras must have told Prince to wear a girdle during the Rangers meeting.
Boras must have told Prince to wear a girdle during the Rangers meeting.
You guys really need to stop posting this nonsense about the Cubs going after Fielder. They didn’t trade Andrew Cashner so Rizzo can rot in the minors and go sign Fielder. Sveum, Theo, and Hoyer all keep saying they are not going to sign Fielder and have no interest in him. Period. Their situation makes no sense to sign someone like Fielder. Perhaps in 2-3 seasons signing a big name, big salaried free agent would fit, but not until then.
I know it seems unlikely, but don’t rule the mariners out just yet!
If they feel like Montero’s bat is good enough to play catcher, or think they can develop him there, then there is still a spot for Fielder! Unless of course, they plan on playing Fielder at catcher…
The Decision II : Fielder’s Dilemma
Prince Fielder is a guy who is consistently on the field. Very consistently. His body should hold up unless he gets a freak injury. However, it doesn’t make sense to sign him to a big contract when that isn’t what anyone wants. Look at Soriano. If all goes incorrectly, we could have another one of those on our hands. And with Theo’s recent bomb of Carl Crawford in free agency, he probably doesn’t want to go for it either.
Second, we just go Rizzo, and Bryan LaHair looks like he could be really good for a few years. He hit 38 homers last year in Iowa I believe, and came up and hit .288 with the Cubs with 2 shots in 59 at bats.
Right now, my priority is trading Soriano. If it’s true that 8 teams have inquired, and now that Victor Martinez tore his ACL, I see this getting done. Say the Cubs eat most of the contract, then why would a team like Detroit NOT go for it? Because right now, their backs are against the wall and they could potentially be risking a lot of Cabrera’s production without V-Martinez behind him.
Back to Fielder (sorry for the spiel). He’s not going to sign for one-year in Milwaukee, he’s not going to the Cubs. That leaves Texas and Washington. Once Texas signs Darvish, I believe they’re done spending big money. Darvish will end up costing them higher than $100 million including the bidding, and Prince will be that much too. In my mind, he’s going to Washington.