Archives for February 2012

Garrett Jones Had Arbitration Hearing Today

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | February 15, 2012 at 5:01pm CDT

Pirates outfielder/first baseman Garrett Jones had his arbitration hearing today, the Associated Press reports (via ESPN.com). Jones and his representatives at SFX asked for $2.5MM, while the Pirates offered $2.25MM. Arbitrators Margaret Brogan, Dan Brent and Matt Goldberg are expected to reach a decision by tomorrow.

Jones posted a .243/.321/.433 line with 16 home runs in 477 plate appearances for the Pirates last year and drew some trade interest from the Yankees this offseason. Casey McGehee, whose numbers and salary demands are comparable to those of Jones, is scheduled for the last arbitration hearing of the offseason. So far this winter teams have won four of six arbitration cases, as MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker shows.

NL East Notes: Kazmir, McCann, Hamels, Oswalt

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | February 15, 2012 at 4:08pm CDT

The Mets took a chance on Jason Isringhausen exactly one year ago, signing him to a minor league deal. Isringhausen collected his 300th career save in 2011, and the Mets obtained 46 2/3 innings of 4.05 ERA baseball from the 39-year-old right-hander. We haven’t heard much about Isringhausen’s free agent prospects in recent weeks, but we do have some links from the NL East…

Ten years ago the Mets made Scott Kazmir their first round pick. Much has changed in the last decade, but the Mets have some interest in bringing the left-hander back, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News tweets. The Mets were expected to have someone in attendance at Kazmir's audition in Houston today.
Brian McCann said he's not concerned about signing an extension for 2014 and beyond, David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. The Braves have a 2013 option for McCann on his current contract and they figure to exercise if after the season.
Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. joined Jim Duquette and Kevin Kennedy on MLB Network Radio and said he's still hoping to work out an extension with left-hander Cole Hamels. The sides haven't set a deadline for a long-term deal.
Amaro suggested the Phillies don't have the payroll flexibility required to add Roy Oswalt. "I just don't know that it's a fit for us right now," he said.
The Phillies and Marlins are among the teams eyeing Cuban outfield prospect Jorge Soler.

How To Use MLBTR

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | February 15, 2012 at 3:30pm CDT

An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:

If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi. It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
If you're an iPhone user, be sure to pick up our app for the latest news and rumors. MLBTR just introduced an Android app as well.
If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket. You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS.
To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title.
The navigation bar will cover many of your needs. Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers.
The Contact button takes you to a page where you can write an email message to the MLBTR writers. If you have a link to a rumor we've missed, please send it in through the Contact page! Also use the Contact page to inquire about advertising on MLBTR.
The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth. If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page. Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
The Tools dropdown takes you to a number of different places. The MLBTR Widget allows website owners to easily add a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines to their sites.
Also under the tools tab is our Transaction Tracker, which enables you to search about anything and everything to do with baseball trades, signings and extensions.
Under the tools tab, you'll find a link to our Forums, a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 9,100 members. You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
MLBTR's Agency Database lets you know which agencies represent which players. It's searchable by team, agency or player, so be sure to check it out.
Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown. Hover over it to see all 30 teams. Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top. These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc.
Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons. Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter. Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams? For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would get the latest Tigers updates.
You can also follow Tim Dierkes and Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter for more MLBTR content.
On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS. MLBTR has over 150,000 Twitter followers, over 52,000 Facebook fans, and over 53,000 RSS subscribers. Sign up for these and you'll be the first to receive all of our posts.
Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.
On to the sidebar. It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs. Go here for a quick update on the most important stories. Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him.
MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists, non-tender candidate and projected arbitration salaries. Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh.
Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines. Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts. Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy. For example, read about the worst extensions from two offseasons ago.

Giants To Sign Ramon Ortiz

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | February 15, 2012 at 2:53pm CDT

The Giants announced that they invited right-hander Ramon Ortiz to Spring Training, presumably on a minor league deal (Twitter link). Praver/Shapiro represents the 38-year-old, who split the 2011 season between the Cubs and their Triple-A affiliate.

Ortiz appeared in 22 games for the Cubs last year, posting a 4.86 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 33 1/3 innings. The 11-year MLB veteran also made 16 starts at Triple-A, completing 99 1/3 innings with the Iowa Cubs. The Cubs were the only other team that was publicly linked to Ortiz this offseason.

Minor Moves: Fisher, Crowe, Rockies

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | February 15, 2012 at 2:12pm CDT

Keeping track of the latest minor moves from around MLB…

The Reds assigned Carlos Fisher to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports. The right-hander, who was designated for assignment last week, receives an invitation to Major League Spring Training.
Outfielder Trevor Crowe will be in Indians camp as a non-roster player, MLB.com's Jordan Bastian tweets. Cleveland outrighted Crowe off of the 40-man roster back in November.
The Cubs released right-hander Robinson Lopez, according to Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus (on Twitter). Chicago acquired Lopez from Atlanta in the 2010 Derrek Lee trade.
The Rockies signed right-hander Zack Segovia to a minor league deal, Goldstein tweets. Segovia, 28, appeared in the Majors with the 2007 Phillies and the 2009 Nationals.
The Rockies signed Jared Wells, a right-hander who pitched briefly with the 2008 Mariners and Padres, according to Goldstein (Twitter link).
The Marlins signed 32-year-old infielder Chase Lambin, Goldstein tweets. Though Lambin has 500-plus games of Triple-A experience, he has yet to play in the Major Leagues.

Which Players Might Bring Draft Pick Compensation After 2012?

By Tim Dierkes | February 15, 2012 at 11:43am CDT

After accepting Boston's arbitration offer this winter, David Ortiz submitted a $16.5MM salary figure for 2012 against the team's $12.65MM. They ended up settling at the midpoint recently. Ortiz's $14.575MM salary will not be possible for a free agent accepting arbitration after the 2012 season, however, because the new collective bargaining agreement simplified the process. Draft pick compensation for a departing free agent will require the team to make a "qualifying offer" in the $12-13MM range. The qualifying offer amount will be determined by averaging the top 125 salaries from 2011. This offer will be fixed each offseason, even for players already earning more than the qualifying offer amount, MLB told me today.

Though 2011 salaries are used for the 2012 qualifying offer (which reflects the player's potential 2013 salary), MLB does not seem to know the exact amount, so we'll use $12.5MM as a proxy for now. For elite free agents, a qualifying offer will be a lock, as will their decision to turn it down. The locks for 2012 appear limited to starting pitchers: Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, and Zack Greinke. A look at the more borderline potential free agents from the 2012-13 class follows.

Yadier Molina, Mike Napoli, Miguel Montero: $12.5MM catchers are pretty rare, though one could make a sabermetric case that all three will be worth risking that amount on a guaranteed one-year deal if they have solid 2012 seasons. Montero seems the least likely of the trio to receive a qualifying offer, however.
Lance Berkman: If Berkman replicates his 2011 season, the Cardinals won't mind risking a raise of less than a million bucks. But if he plays 125 games and is only pretty good, it'll be a tough decision.
Brandon Phillips: By exercising his 2012 option, the Reds showed they were comfortable with an $11.25MM net price on Phillips. If he slips back to his 2008-10 production level, that may give the Reds pause. If they offer and Phillip accepts, there would be a trade market if the Reds find the salary prohibitive.
Erick Aybar, Stephen Drew: Like Montero, the player may be worth $12.5MM in a sense, but the large raise could be hard to stomach. Some of these qualifying offer questions are likely to be eliminated by extensions or diminished performance.
David Wright: If Wright struggles to an extent in 2012 where the Mets determine he is not worth a $15MM net option price for 2013, would they be willing to risk $12.5MM for two potential draft picks? Would Wright be too insulted to consider accepting?
Josh Hamilton: I almost had Hamilton as a lock, as it's difficult to picture a scenario where the Rangers are unwilling to offer a one-year, $12.5MM deal.
Michael Bourn, B.J. Upton, Shane Victorino: Bourn and Upton are good examples of a borderline guys, as the Braves and Rays will probably not be thrilled with the idea of offering them $12.5MM for 2013. Victorino seems a bit more likely to get an offer from the Phillies.
Andre Ethier, Carlos Quentin, Nick Swisher, David Ortiz: It's tough to call until we see how these guys play in 2012, but Ortiz seems to have the best chance of an offer.
Edwin Jackson, Hiroki Kuroda, Colby Lewis, Shaun Marcum, Brandon McCarthy, Anibal Sanchez: Sanchez seems the best bet here, given a typical season. No one else quite feels like a $12.5MM pitcher, but with decent years they'd all have cases. Even Francisco Liriano could merit consideration with a bounceback campaign.
Ryan Madson, Mariano Rivera, Francisco Rodriguez, Jose Valverde: I expect qualifying offers for relievers to be hard to come by, and my guess is none of these guys receive one.

Rays Extend Joe Maddon

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | February 15, 2012 at 10:00am CDT

WEDNESDAY, 10:00am: The Rays officially announced Maddon's three-year extension.

TUESDAY, 4:04pm: Maddon will earn approximately $2MM per season under his new contract, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe tweets.

11:13am: The Rays have agreed to a three-year contract extension with manager Joe Maddon, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Maddon's contract had been set to expire after 2012, and the sides had been working on an extended agreement over the course of the offseason. An announcement is expected tomorrow, according to Topkin.

Maddon, the 2011 American League Manager of the Year, has managed the Rays to three playoff berths in the past four seasons, including an AL pennant in 2008. In six years under the 57-year-old Maddon, the Rays have a 495-477 record.

Twins Avoid Arbitration With Alexi Casilla

By Tim Dierkes | February 15, 2012 at 9:44am CDT

The Twins avoided arbitration with infielder Alexi Casilla, agreeing to a one-year, $1.3825MM contract, tweets director of baseball communications Mike Herman. The Proformance client settled $25K below the midpoint, avoiding an arbitration hearing. Casilla received a $517,500 raise his second time through arbitration. MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith looked at some possible comparables last week.

As MLBTR's arbitration tracker shows, the Twins are now finished with their arbitration eligible players. They committed a total of $8.432MM to Casilla, Francisco Liriano, and Glen Perkins for 2012.

Two arbitration eligible players remain unsigned overall: Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee of the Pirates.

Athletics Notes: Manny, Cespedes

By Tim Dierkes | February 15, 2012 at 9:27am CDT

The A's made a splash Monday, signing Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to a four-year, $36MM contract that allows him to reach free agency at its conclusion. The latest on the club:

"The A's are likely to sign Manny Ramirez just before or soon after the start of spring training," writes Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Pitchers and catchers are due to report Saturday, while the full squad reports February 24th. Manny, of course, has a reputation of arriving late to spring training. Ramirez would serve as designated hitter for the A's, but he'd first need to serve a 50-game PED suspension.
Despite the Cespedes signing, Coco Crisp still feels he's Oakland's best center field option. Crisp told Slusser, "Unless he's a demigod come down from the heavens, no one is going to outshine me in center field." Crisp noted that a center field job was one of the reasons he chose the A's over the Rays, but concluded, "I'm excited to play alongside Cespedes – no matter what side that may be."
Cespedes' no-arbitration clause is precedent-setting, writes ESPN's Buster Olney, as in the past only Japanese players have managed to secure free agency without the typical requirement of six years of Major League service.
As I noted earlier today, the A's have four out of options players on the 40-man roster with fewer than five years of Major League service: Brandon Allen, Jerry Blevins, Joey Devine, and Kila Ka'aihue.

Out Of Options 2012

By Tim Dierkes | February 15, 2012 at 7:37am CDT

The following 40-man roster players have less than five years service time and are out of minor league options. That means they must clear waivers before being sent to the minors. I've included players on multiyear deals. This list was compiled through MLBTR's sources.

« Previous Page

Load More Posts

Headlines

Archives for February 2012

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect