Rangers right-hander Koji Uehara is drawing “considerable interest,” MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports. A possible deal with the Blue Jays fell through, but the Orioles are intrigued and other teams have shown more interest than Baltimore.
Scott Feldman has also drawn interest, Sullivan reports. However, the 28-year-old right-hander will make $6.5MM in 2012 with a $9.25MM club option for 2013 ($600K buyout), and he spent much of the 2011 season recovering from a winter knee operation. I expect the Rangers would pick up the majority of Feldman’s contract in any trade. He posted a 3.94 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 32 innings in the second half of last season.
Uehara posted a 2.35 ERA with 11.8 K/9 and 1.2 BB/9 in 65 innings for the Orioles and Rangers in 2011. However, he allowed 11 regular season home runs and three more in the postseason. He'll earn $4MM in 2012.
What would it take for the Orioles to get Uehara and Feldman?
I was thinking the same thing, the rangers and the O’s like to do business but I’m not sure what the rangers would be looking for. I’d take a shot in the dark with maybe Josh Bell or Ryan Adams type with some low level minors players… and that would be with the O’s taking alot of Feldman’s contract.
Trading Bell doesn’t really make much sense for the Orioles.
Makes all the sense. Bell is a AAA roster spot for us.
And Bell would free a 40man roster spot
Except we don’t need Bell.
Keeping Bell makes less sense.
Doesnt make much sense for the Rangers either. Bell stinks.
Really? So far I don’t see much “business” between the Rangers GM & Duquette.
There hasn’t been, but the Orioles have a strong relationship with Texas’ front office. (See, Mike Gonzalez, Koji Uehara, Chris Ray)
The O’s traded Uehara to the Rangers for Chirs Davis and Tommy Hunter last year. It would be hilarious if they traded one of them to get Uehara back.
Unlikely, Buck is IN LOVE with Chris Davis.
Hey, Buck “loved” Andino last Spring Training and look what happened. One of Andino’s best years. These guys know talent. Hopefully Buck is right again. No doubt the guy has power.
Last July, traded Uehara to the Rangers for Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter. Last August, traded Michael Gonzalez to the Rangers for a PTBNL. Last September, signed Pedro Strop, who was waived by the Rangers. Last November, claimed Darren O’Day off of waivers from the Rangers. Last December, traded Randy Henry and PTBNL for Taylor Teagarden. Earlier this month, traded Brandon Snyder to the Rangers.
Now they just need to trade us Jim Johnson or Adam Jones 😉 lol
lol you got enough prospects in the system that I wouldnt mind trading Jones. I just dont think out field is a priority for the Rangers
Actually, the Rangers could get better in CF. If Hamilton is in left and Cruz in right, that leaves Borbon and Gentry to duke it out in a featherweight battle for the starting gig.
Leonys Martin.
Pedro Strop was from the Mike Gonzalez trade.
Pretty much half of the Orioles roster is former Rangers.
I think that would probably depend on how much of Feldman’s contract the Rangers pick up, wouldn’t it?
The only player I see Texas having interest in is Adam Jones and there’s no way the Orioles would do that.
How do you come up with $10.9M for Feldman? Cot’s shows Feldman at $6.5M this year with a $0.6M buyout for his ’13 team option of $9.25M.
Ditto. Looks like they added his 2011 salary to the 2012 salary, but didn’t include the option buy out ($4.4 million in 2011, $6.5 million in 2012).
uehara can only block 6 teams he already blocked one!
Phillies would make sense for both….they need another arm out of the pen and Uehara wants to be closer to his family in baltimore. As far as feldman maybe the phils realize that they cannot depend on blanton so feldman would be solid competiton.
I know that Uehara wants back in Baltimore. That’s where he lives int he offseason, where his kids attend school, and frankly, it’s where he is comfortable at-and the stats show it.
Look at his numbers in TEX, they weren’t that good because he was away from home, and his original organization. If he goes back to Baltimore, the comfort will come back and he can help the far east players (Chen and Wada) with their MLB transition.
“they weren’t that good because he was away from home, and his original organization”
ridiculous
I don’t see whats wrong with that. Some people just feel “More comfortable” in certain cities or organizations. Being thrown into a new situation can rattle some people.
those are facts. “uehara pitched worse than usual for 18 innings because he was away from home” is not a fact; it’s a theory – a completely unsupported one
As a baseball palyer myself, its true.
Plus Uehara, is Japanese, going to a new Organization, he was comfortable in Baltimore with the team and organization.
It’s not like he was ridiculed with racial slurs when he got into the clubhouse. Texas’ players are very welcoming. We have a great clubhouse where everyone cares about each other.
Young and Kinsler both said last week that they love to play pranks on rookies, and as far as they knew Yu Darvish is a rookie.
My point is that with our guys, we know Koji was heavily welcomed to the team. Plus, Yoshinori was/is here.
Yes and if you had kids in elementary school, and a wife all of whom lived in Baltimore, I’m sure you would be a little on edge, homesick, and wanting to go home to the family.
Well pack up the family and bring ’em on over.
if you had said “as koji uehara myself, it’s true”, i’d have been convinced. that you are a baseball player doesn’t change anything
As a baseball fan myself, I agree with notsureifsrs. Unless Uehara says otherwise, I don’t think being homesick can be speculated as his reason for not doing as well.
They weren’t that good because he was pitching in an extreme hitters park.
Funny that our other relievers were fine. He was giving up bombs everywhere.
Koji only pitched 18 inning here. Let’s actually give him a chance to get comfortable before trading away a guy as good as he is.
I’m not against keeping him. I was defending our other pitchers.
Oh I gotcha. But yeah, I think our current staff has proven its not impossible to be a top pitching staff in Arlington.
Though I highly suspect the lack of comfort in TEX had something to do with his performance, I keep wondering how his inflated HR numbers pitching in Arlington come as that big of a shock. He barely had time to get settled in before the season was over and Arlington is hardly a pitcher-friendly park. It’s understandable why TEX wants to part ways with him, but quite frankly, theymight be giving up on him too soon. But hey, if they can get something for him AND make him happy, then it’s a win-win.
not as ridiculous, but it’s equally unsupported. uehara’s only problem was the long ball. his k/9 was over 11 in texas, his BB/9 was under 1. that’s phenomenal pitching
but his HR/9 was 2.5, which is crazytown. 25% HR/FB
arlington’s fault? intuitive, but the HR park factor there is 119 for left-handed batters, 114 for righties
uehara moved there from camden yards. camden yards’ HR park factor is 118 for left-handed batter and 123 for righties. in other words, arlington is less of a HR park than the park uehara came from
he doesn’t need to have been homesick; he doesn’t need to have been unable to pitch in arlington. relievers are volatile. mike adams blew his first performance after the trade and 2 of his first 9 appearances with texas. maybe he missed san diego, maybe pitching in arlington is hard. or maybe crap happens sometimes and he’s still a very good pitcher, just like koji
Yea, Adams even gave up a home run in Detroit that lost us the game.
If the Rangers can’t get something decent for Uehara i’d like to see us keep him.
Agreed. Uehara has a spot in the pen. Feldman is the man without a country right now. Unless the Rangers get a good offer for Koji, they should keep him. Feldman, on the other hand – well, if they can get someone more useful than a rarely used, high priced long reliever – go for it.
The only thing wrong with Feldman is his salary. He’s a very good reliever and spot starter, but he just costs too much.
My thinking is Uehara is going back to O’s. Feldman to Cardinals or Boston. Than Rangers sign Oswalt and resign Gonzalez.
Texas doesn’t need Oswalt. Trade Feldman for a bag of balls to free up money for extensions, keep Koji, and sign Gonzalez.
Hey Red Saux, lets get on the Uehara deal.
I’d take a stab in the dark and say if the Jays were on his NTC the rest of the AL East might be there as well.
I’d bet his NTC teams were chosen geographically. Probably no Canada and some of the boring fly over states. Guy probably wants a coast city.
Or Baltimore where lives.
Guy wants to be closer to Baltimore, as he has made clear.
Just based on last season, I’d keep Feldman over Uehara. Feldman did a decent job in relief and is valuable as a spot starter along with Ogando. Uehara was a complete failure in his stint with Texas last season. If somebody else wants him, I’d give him up, but maybe a potential partner would also want to give us a better player for Uehara packaged with maybe Harrison or Moreland (for a 1B)…then you could bring in Oswalt.
Man…if the Reds hadn’t done that trade with the Padres, we might have been able to trade some pitching to them for either Joey Votto or Yonder Alonso.
Your crazy if you think the Reds would even consider trading Joey Votto this offseason, even before the trades we made. Walt has beat a dead horse with that topic.
Why are so many people willing to trade Harrison? It drives me crazy. He was highly successful last season and was our second best starter. He’s good, young and cheap.
Uehara was heartbroken when he was traded and even got emotional behind the scenes when it all happened. He has said on more than one occasion while playing for Texas that he wants to return to Baltimore with his family. He’s playing for Texas while he says he wants to go back to the O’s. It seems pretty obvious to me that he wants to be in Baltimore and nowhere else.
It’s not ridiculous at all that he would be home sick and wanting to be with his family in Baltimore. It was an emotional separation for him. He didn’t want to leave Baltimore and wants to be back there.
Ok, we get it.
You are a professional athlete making $4 million a year. Quit acting like a baby. Grow up or quit baseball all together and you can live wherever you want to. I am sure there are many people out of work that would live anywhere to make a fraction of that salary. Get off the teet dude, time to grow up.
I completely agree
What are the odds that Koji Uehara invoked his no-trade clause because he wants to be on this team? He has one of his high school teammates next to him (Tateyama), and the #1 pitcher in his home country for the last 5 years as a teammate.
Feldman to the Cardinals