Yoenis Cespedes says the six teams with "more interest" in signing him are the Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Orioles, Tigers and Indians, tweets Dionisio Soldevila of the Associated Press. The Cuban outfielder, who struck out in each of his three at bats in the Dominican Winter League last night, will likely become a free agent soon. Cespedes said he isn't worried that his performance in the Winter League will reduce his bargaining power, Soldevila tweets.
Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports hears from people in the know that the Yankees, Phillies, Blue Jays, Rangers and Nationals also have some level of interest in Cespedes. Marlins president David Samson recently acknowledged that his team intends to make an aggressive run at Cespedes, who is represented by Adam Katz of Wasserman Media Group.
I think he should be worried that a poor performance could lessen his bargaining power…how could it not?
because admitting it will cause self induced pressure
I really would like to see him in an Indian uni. Powerful, RH bat at a position of need. Brantley could split time with him or at 1st base.
When did anyone say Cespedes was going to play 1st?
I said Brantley at first.
+1.. Brantley would possibly see time as Grady’s back up in CF when he needs a day off, as LF when a RH is starting and or a day off is needed by someone at any one of three spots. Pinch hitting & running are also in the works. He would be a good fit for the playing time the Indians can offer..
EXACTLY what I was thinking. Wouldnt exactly have the pressure of playing EVERY day. Would be a guy the Tribe HAS to depend on either.
Not only did he K 3 times last night, I heard he was really lost and flailing away at curves and sliders. Good luck Marlins on spending $30 million on Willie Mo Pena II.
come one man…. 1 game and he is lost. Give him a chance to get up to speed! Brutal!
Orioles could have him in LF or DH, or even CF some games. There is always the AJ trade rumors as well. Id rather get Soler though for the future as we probably won’t be making any major noise this year.
I would love to have him in Baltimore but by the sound of it he is Miami’s to lose
I’d rather have Juan Pierre in all honesty.
What are the White Sox doing? I thought they were rebuilding, but yet their after Cespedes>?
They have to make it look like they are trying for this year, no one will come if they “officially” throw the towel in before the season starts.
Sox will be better than a lot of people think. If Peavy goes on DL, Dunn hits a buck 50, Rios hit .220 team is in trouble. History show that won’t happen but any team would be in trouble with those factors. Example – CC on DL, Tex hits .159 and ARod hits .220 Where are the Yankees???????????
Well considering their two best players are Cano and Granderson, Id say probably around 86 wins. But CC>Peavy, Teixeira> Dunn, and Rodriguez> Rios. Dunn and Rios are probably going to have bad years this year as well
One probably will, most likely Rios. But I wouldn’t be depending on it. Dunn is one of the most consistent producers of this generation.
Kenny mentioned the Sox were “rebuilding” once and the media went wild with it. The Sox could catch quite a few by surprise. The Tigers losing V Mart for the entire year has just made the central quite a bit more interesting.
Subtract Edwin and Buehrle as well. They haven’t improved themselves overall. I question whether Dunn can even hit a fastball any more.
Subtract Buehrle, Edwin as well as Santos (closer) and Quentin (2nd best run producer)
The Sox have several closers, the pen isn’t the problem. The Sox locked up Danks which is huge. Danks, Floyd, Sale is not a bad 1-2-3. If Humber is anything close to what he is last year than the Sox will once again put up some of the best pitching numbers in the AL.
Viciedo should be able to pick up where Q left off, part of the reason the Sox didn’t win last year is because of Ozzie and KWs spats and refusal to bring them up. Then when De Aze and Dayan do well they both try to take the credit.
The Sox had arguably the best pen last year.
Good luck on the Northside. Frankly, I don’t really care about all the Sox-Cubs crap. That rivalry is going to be pretty cold for the next couple of years.
Why would signing a 26 yr old (who apparently has many tools) not a good idea for a team who is “retooling”? Granted they would be spending a lot of money, but on a younger guy with a lot of potential coming into his “prime” years.
Its a risk, no idea how he is going to translate.
Rebuilding and Getting Younger are two very different things. Sox will spend money on young promising talent, that is a proven fact. Cespedes is a rare free agent due to his age and upside. What the White Sox will NOT do is waste funds on FA’s in their 30’s that are on the tail end of their prime.
Brian – you are right on. Sox have a ton of revenue – a huge factor will be Ram and Vido. both Cubans. Got both of them when Jose C was on team. I see the Sox all over this. You don’t sign 34 year old pitchers to 50M 5 yr contracts
The Sox are the only team with Cubans on the roster?
You think these are scared little kids who need fellow Cubans on the team to hold their hands?
Cespedes and Soler will sign with whoever makes the best offer, not with who has the most Cubans.
I very much agree that Cespedes definitely will want to sign for the best offer. However, I think rockfordone was more likely suggesting that players from a certain area (in this case Cubans) do like to sign where they have fellow countrymen to help with the adjustment to life in the US / MLB, as well as to have someone to get along with on the bench more easily. I don’t think I would necessarily call it an advantage for teams with Cubans to sign Cespedes or Soler, but it definitely would not hurt.
$52,000,000 for 4 years of Adam Dunn begs to differ.
Wow 3 teams from the American League Central and 2 teams from Chicago. The orioles are pretty much in on anyone these days (desperate times) but the Miami Marlins could be the aggressor in this. Does that make Miami the favorites? Who knows but historically both Chicago teams and Detroit have been known to throw crazy amounts of money at players they view highly.
DD is apparently all about the foreign talent as evidenced by the wada and Chen signings. Wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Os heavily in on him
Of course, the O’s signed Wada for $8MM and Chen for $12MM.
It would be extremely out of character for that organization to spend more than $30MM on a free agent.
And, frankly, if a team like the Orioles is going to invest that heavily in a free agent, said free agent should be an MLB-proven commodity.
Dave Dombrowski has dibs on the “DD” moniker! 🙂
I think Soler is more intriguing than Cespedes. Less polished maybe, but I think the better prospect of the 2. Cespedes’ Ks worry me.
Why would anybody give Cespedes 50 million dollars or whatever it cost to sign him. I heard the cuban league is the pretty much the same as A ball and last I checked A ball was a long ways from the bigs. He hasnt been exposed to anything close to major league pitching. Same thing with Darvish he might get a 75 million dollar contract and he is a prosect A PROSPECT for crying out loud. These foreign players are overhyped and grossly overpayed when you can get players with equal talent and for less money in the mlb draft.
He could be the next Kendrys Morales (sans busted leg), or he could be the next Wilkin Ramirez (five tool bust).
Mets prospect Juerys Familia struck Cespedes out on 3 pitches yesterday. 3 95 mph fastballs in the DWL. Might not be the Mets yr in 2011 but our future looks alot brighter Go ahead and sign him Miami
A prospect struck out a K-prone unproven Cuban prospect? Get the floats ready… World Series parade is coming to Flushing!
Marlins are a lock.
ok lets get this straight ok. the marlins will not get him. not a chance. the two teams that have the best chance in signing him are the yankees and white sox. why i say that? Yankees have the money..and the white sox are so cuban friendly its crazy. marlins dont need him anyways. jesus they have a team. they dont need anyone else.
so the team that has been spending like crazy that has fifty times the cuban population of the white sox home city has no chance? Interesting. Not to even mention the marlins stadium is built in what is considered little havanna?
As much as I think the Sox should sign Cespedes, I’d put my money on the Marlins all the way. It seems the only thing that would keep Miami from signing this kid is if they wind up signing Prince Fielder instead. Dave Samson, Marlins president, says their pursuit of Cespedes will be aggressive to the point of stupidity. Considering Miami’s recent spending spree, and the buzz surrounding this kid, they seem the most logical team to land him. Even though the Sox have the superior connection to Cuban players, that probably won’t be enough without the dollars to back it up.
What people do not realize is the rich Cuban history of the White Sox going all the way back to Minnie Minoso. Heck just Latin America in general… I think the fact that they have Viciedo and Ramirez will make a huge impact. Not only are they fellow countrymen but I believe they all played on the Cuban National team as well. You fact checkers may want to make sure of that for me though. haha