Many teams now find themselves flush with cash thanks to lucrative national and local TV contracts, making this a promising offseason for free agents, writes Buster Olney of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd). "There's so much money out there, it's scary," said a highly ranked executive. Top free agents such as Zack Greinke are obviously in line for major paydays, but other free agents such as Angel Pagan, Ryan Ludwick, and Mike Adams could be in for more money than they ever imagined. More from around baseball..
- Even after moving Chris Young, the Diamondbacks could part with Justin Upton and go with an outfield of Gerardo Parra, Adam Eaton, and Jason Kubel with A.J. Pollock in reserve, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Arizona could also move Kubel and keep Upton instead, but financially it would make more sense to move Upton as he is owed $38.5MM over the next three years.
- Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times imagines that the Rays would have interest in Alex Rodriguez as a DH if the Yankees were willing to eat enough of his contract. The embattled third baseman is owed $114MM over the next five years and holds a complete no-trade clause.
- Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News lists some possible destinations for Rodriguez in 2013.
- Yankees' GM Brian Cashman told ESPN Radio he will listen to offers for Rodriguez (h/t MLB.com's Evan Drellich). "It's not like I'm going to hang phones up on anybody who wants to make any overtures about anything. You're talking about realistic stuff and unrealistic stuff. I don't think it's realistic at all for us to be moving forward with anything but Alex Rodriguez at third base."
- Jim Bowden of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd) suggests that the Yankees blow up the team in an effort to get younger and more athletic. Bowden's proposed plan calls for the club to start by convincing Rodriguez to waive his no-trade clause and filling his spot with the likes of a Chase Headley.
- The Orioles should have interest in Scott Feldman, if the Rangers decline his $9.25MM option, reasons CSNBaltimore.com's Rich Dubroff. The Orioles need additional rotation depth and a long reliever, roles Feldman has performed before. The right-hander is also liked by manager Buck Showalter, who was the Rangers' skipper when Feldman made his debut in 2005.
- The Blue Jays will look to trade Yunel Escobar but it won't be easy because of his reputation, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.
- The revival of Mark McGwire's baseball career stems from the opportunity former Cardinals manager Tony La Russa gave the slugger as the team's hitting coach, writes Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. For McGwire, he's brought staggering results to the St. Louis lineup as the team has led the National League in batting average over the past three seasons under his tutelage.
Daniel Seco contributed to this post.
wrong Upton.
Justin Upton*
Since when did the Dbacks have B.J. Upton?
Bowden has some of the most unrealistic trade ideas.. Hard to think this guy was a GM.
That’s why he “was”
He came up with the statistic OPS+RBI in an ESPN column he wrote last year.
Lol wut?
Haha, I like the part where he took two random statistics and added them together.
can you even imagine the kind of package it would take to get headley? he’s cheap for two more years is coming off a dark horse mvp type season in the worst hitting environment in baseball.
there’s probably 3 or 4 teams that even have the prospect firepower to pull off that kind of deal and none of them is the yankees. seriously it would have to be revolve around a profar/bundy type player and that’s just not gonna happen.
The Yanks might do it if they offered Gardner, Nova, Bichette Jr. Sanchez
don’t see the padres taking that…Gardner would be a good target for them but he’s coming off injury. Third base and catcher are positions where they already have some premier prospects (Gyorko, Grandal, Hedges), and they probably aren’t going to trade headley towards a pitcher unless he is a top of the rotation type. they effectively have a log jam of ivan nova types.
like i said, its gonna take one of those blue chip organization-changing prospects to get a deal. headley is a guy you can build a team around and the padres are close to competing.
The Diamondbacks could trade BJ Upton?? Well, I guess it’s possible… they did just trade Michael Young… 🙂
Chris Youngyou mean lol
He was making light of the fact that the article originally said that the D-Backs could trade BJ Upton though, as we all know, they have Justin Upton.
Blue Jays wont trade Yunel
They really want to, and there may be some teams intersted. Rays, A’s, Pirates, Giants, D’Backs are all possibilies, some more than others.
apparently you havent been watching NL playoffs. No need for Escobar. Crawford showing his potential
not sure if san fran would be the best place for yunel after his ‘incident’ anyways.
Nice. 🙂
It’s not the wisest move to deal Yunel after coming off a down year. Not only that but he is seen as a trouble maker.
I would rather see Yunel play in 2013 to raise his value and deal him at the trade deadline or the next off-season. Even if the Blue Jays can land one B prospect from Yunel, I would be thrilled.
Yeah, I’m sure talks of Yunel being dealt for a Starter are long gone now. The best thing we could get is probably next to nothing for him now. A bag of balls…but then again I’d let him walk to any team for any decent prospect trade now.
BJ upton or justin Upton
I think Jim Bowden should put the controller down and stop playing MLB The Show.
AHHHH they fixed it.
The Yankees don’t have enough to make a deal. Headley would require ML ready Grandal/Alonso like talent. Who do the Yankees have the Padres would want?
They have young pitching talent, but Cashman may be loathe to move any if they actually intend to hold to that self imposed budgetary constraint this coming season.
I think the deal could happen in more of a three team deal if the Yanks unload Arod for prospects. They won’t get much quality major league talent for him, but could net some good prospects. They could then flip some or all of them to get Headley. People on here have blinders on and are so anti-Yankees to be realistic about that type of trade happening.
There will be no Headley-to-NY trade this offseason. The Yankees farm system is baron and everyone knows it. Unless they have a major league ready SS prospect (no, Nunez won’t cut it), either a 2B or RF prospect capable of playing and succeeding right away, and a controlable SP handy, the Yankees don’t have the juice to get Headley.
Not quite sure the Padres would be looking for a 2nd baseman. They have to decide between Forsythe and Gyorko for the upcoming season and as long as Spangenberg can come back from his concussion, which it seems he is, they will have another 2nd baseman ready two years down the road.
SS is a major concern, but there are very few teams with can’t miss SS prospects and even fewer that would be willing to deal them. As far as I can see it only the Rangers(Profar+), Pirates(Hansen + high end pitching), Orioles(Machado+) and Indians(Lindor+) have the players that the Padres would want and with the Rangers having Beltre and the way the Orioles played last season, they are probably out.
That leaves the Pirates who defiantely have the high end pitching prospects(Cole and Taillon) along with a SS prospect who is shooting up prospect lists everywhere(Hansen) and the Indians who have Lindor and I’m not sure who else the Padres would be interested in. The winter meetings could be a very interesting time for the Padres and their fans.
You forgot about Adienny Hechevarria. He’d fit SS in the future well for anybody.
as long as they don’t mind a SS that cant hit
Alex Gonzalez version 2.0! Old School.
Dude he may have had a slow start hitting, but he hit more than 1 homer and made some good infield plays/got some timely base hits here and there. And we need more starting pitching right now then a productive shortstop in the line up everyday.
Plus do you remember how half ass good Elvis Andrus was at first coming up?
I’m pretty sure AA will be keeping him and getting rid of Escobar because of the issues he had this year.
So how do the Yankees get younger by giving up their 3 or 4 best prospects for Headley?
37 year old Arod to 28 year old Headley?
minus 3 or 4 early 20 year olds.
They don’t even have 3 or 4 good prospects
They have plenty of good prospects. Some have fallen off this year like Betances and Banuelos but others have improved like Tyler Austin and Mason Williams. They obviously overhyped Betances and Banuelos but they can still bounce back so who knows.
3 Yankees alone (Mason Williams, Gary Sanchez, and Tyler Austin) all ranked in the top 50 prospects list from Baseball America in July.
Is Escobar going to become the next “John Farrell” since his situation been resolved now amongst the uninformed media looking for type space? Is it going to become Justin Upton? Who is going to take over the next mass hysteria whipping boy target from these writers now?
Isn’t this getting old?
The Chris Young B-Ref link that goes to the Mets pitcher, not the Diamondback/A’s outfielder.
I don’t understand why so many people consider Headley in such a high regard. I think he’s a good player, and his BA and high OBP have been consistent for the past two years which is great but a jump in 100 points in OPS in just one year is not enough to warrant Latos package. His jump from 11-12 to 31 HRs is huge and he probably will not repeat this again, maybe hit 20-25 but not 30+. If he can repeat 2012 numbers again then yes, but one year is not enough to declare him an “elite” player. Remember what happened to Maybin? He had a somewhat fluke year in 2011, which could be the same for Headley.
Headley stands to be one of the better 3B in the league. Mixed in the fact that the 3B market is really thin and his value jumps. However, with the media, they like to pick one thing, beat it to death and the move on to the next big thing.
Of course, the media are seemingly blind to any other possibilities or openings, like Beltre/Olt, Castellanos/Cabrera, Flores/Wright, Rendon/Zimmerman, Carpenter/Freese.
The issue there is a lot of those pairs are being groomed for other positions. Olt is being worked at 1b and the OF. Castellanos is being worked in RF. And again, I don’t know that the Yankees have what the Tigers would want at this point… Our needs mirror a lot of what SD needs. A long term shortstop(Peralta played well this post season, but he’s short on time in Detroit I think). A 2B for after 2013, corner outfield, and some BP help. I’m not really up on the Yanks farm, but if they don’t have what SD would be looking for… and the Tig’s have similar holes… ya know…
Chase Headley and Evan Longoria are tied as the best Road hitting 3B in baseball since over the last 3 years. David Wright it 3rd the first two have a 135wRC+ Wright has a 130 wRC+ in that stretch.
It’s likely a stretch, but I wonder if McGwire’s work with the Cardinals will heal some of the damage to his rep from steroids when it comes to the Hall?
Good call, it was probably the whole reasoning why he got back in. Kind of like a LaRussa favor
No. TLR really had to convince him to get back into baseball. He wanted him because he’s a really good hitting coach.
Hey Jim, Sanchez and Williams are not a Latos type package. Just thought I’d let you know.
Why dont the Yankees just cut A-Rod and hope someone claims him. May get nothing back for him, but they wouldn’t have to eat his salary.
Because there would in no way be a team dumb enough to take that contract. Then again, the Angels did take Wells.
Didnt Chicago take Rios