Hot Stove 2009-2010

[Chad ochoseis]

Frayed Knot wrote: Braves have a 1B prospect who probably would have to be rushed if they wanted him to start by opening day 2010. Glaus gives them time to bring him along more slowly ... or until Glaus gets hurt which will probably be May at the latest.

This makes Adam LaRoche available. Given that most of the usual free-agent signing suspects don't have a need at 1B, he might not be all that pricy.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The Sox are reportedly expanding the budget to offer mo' money to Jason Bay.

The Mets could conceivably be fighting the Sox for Bay and the Yankees for Holliday.

No place for the timid.

[ashie62]

With 81 minutes Ladsen from MLB.com goes from Capps not go to the Nats to Capps has signed a 1 year for 3.5 million with the Nats

[smg58]

The bizarre thing about all the money going to relievers so far this offseason is that there is currently no obvious taker for Jose Valverde's services.

[Frayed Knot]

Part of the reason is probably because Valverde is one of three remaining FAs that will cost the singing team a draft pick - Bay & Holliday are the others.

[ashie62]

Omar is talking to Valverdes agent now

[DocTee]

Mark DeRosa to SF: 2 years/$12 million.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Bobby Howry's a Diamondback. (1 year; terms undisclosed.)

[ashie62]

Fox is reporting the Orioles are offering Holliday 8 years at 130 million

Buster Hymen has the Dodgers pursuing Pineiro

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Regarding the purported O's Holliday offer, Andy McPhail's all: "Wait... WE offered him that? No f-ing way, brah." Or something like that.

OFF THE TABLE TODAY:

-- SP/RP Justin Duchscherer, 1 yr/2M-plus-3.5M in incentives, staying in Oakland
-- SS/2B/3B Juan Uribe, terms unspecified, staying in SF
-- 2B Kelly Johnson, 1 yr/2.35M (plus rights for 2011, as he's still arb-eligible), moving to 'Zona

[smg58]

Johnson barely got more than Cora. It will be interesting to see how Uribe fares in comparison.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

smg58 wrote: Johnson barely got more than Cora. It will be interesting to see how Uribe fares in comparison.

Guh. Yes, but we got the man we wanted there... outbidding the countless teams willing to give a backup coming off a horrible, injury-plagued year 2 million... PLUS A VESTING OPTION.

(Again, guh.)

[Frayed Knot]

Also makes a difference that Cora plays SS. Johnson played it in the minors but not once in the majors and wasn't exactly a great 2B IIRC so I don't see him going back there for anything other than a short-term emergency.
Like it or not, every team needs a back-up capable of playing SS for weeks at a time and most of them hit like Alex Cora.

[Guest Edgy DC]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: smg58 wrote: Johnson barely got more than Cora. It will be interesting to see how Uribe fares in comparison. Guh. Yes, but we got the man we wanted there... outbidding the countless teams willing to give a backup coming off a horrible, injury-plagued year 2 million... PLUS A VESTING OPTION. (Again, guh.)

Is one year, two mills to a utility infielder that much of an issue?

I mean, folks are all over the interwebs claiming that the Mets should have somehow had the depth to withstand the injury pinch. Well, that's what depth looks like. A year and two mills to guys who look a lot like Cora.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Cora is "roster depth" the way Homefill is "furniture."

By definition, you can get replacement-level production for the league minimum. Cora was sub-replacement-level last year with both the bat and glove... by a large margin. If you'll fall sway to market pull on one end and overpay for good years (something this FO's been good for from time to time), then why the hell would you pay above market rate to a player who had that sort of season... much less give ANY last-resort backup an option that vests with playing time? (So, in essence, if we're lucky enough to have 2009 happen again, Cora gets paid for that luck.)

Beyond its being kind of dumb, and locking down a roster spot/2M that could go MUCH more productively elsewhere (and there are a LOT of backup infielders that won't run you that much, or would give you more for that money-- hell, just look at Oil Spill), though... I just don't get it. I mean... him?

[Guest Edgy DC]

One reason is we know he was playing hurt last season.

I don't think he's locking down a roster spot. He's just as releasable as any other guy with a one-year $2 million contract.

As far as guys who will give you more for less, sure, they're everywhere, but the hard part is figuring out who they are among all the guys who won't.

I've been doing this a long time, and folks seem to get mad whenever the Mets sign a utility infielder.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: One reason is we know he was playing hurt last season. I don't think he's locking down a roster spot. He's just as releasable as any other guy with a one-year $2 million contract. As far as guys who will give you more for less, sure, they're everywhere, but the hard part is figuring out who they are among all the guys who won't. I've been doing this a long time, and folks seem to get mad whenever the Mets sign a utility infielder.

This makes sense. It's easy to tell you who would've been a replacement level league-minimum backup in 2009. It's not quite as easy for 2010. Also, you never know how the environment factor will play in. One guys butts head with his manager, doesn't do well. Another guy really clicks with a hitting coach and boom, good year. Cora's just the safe bet, for basically peanuts.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Thank you.

And it doesn't mean that the Mets won't have a potential minimum wage option or two as alternatives at Buffalo, ready to come up if they perform.

(I have a 40 oz can of super-salted peanuts here on my desk that my company gave me as a Christmas gift. I don't want it and don't need it. But damned if I didn't read the word peanuts in the previous post and find myself reaching for the can and stuffing my fat face.)

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Thank you. And it doesn't mean that the Mets won't have a potential minimum wage option or two as alternatives at Buffalo, ready to come up if they perform. (I have a 40 oz can of super-salted peanuts here on my desk that my company gave me as a Christmas gift. I don't want it and don't need it. But damned if I didn't read the word peanuts in the previous post and find myself reaching for the can and stuffing my fat face.)

Unfortunately, Bengie Molina has the same problem.

*snickers at himself*

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Edgy DC wrote: One reason is we know he was playing hurt last season.

And it was a stand-up move. Frankly, though, a smart team's not rewarding an easily-replaceable spare part for his getting hurt.

Listen, I know the guy who bitches to Joe Benigno about why the team signs a backup, and wonders why the team can't sign Orlando Hudson AND Placido Polanco to back up our starters. Trust me; I'm not that guy.

I'm just wondering why the hell the team would pay a guy who was hurt AND had a down year last year-- causation doesn't matter so much in this case-- more than virtually any other utility-infielder on the market (Ramon Martinez, Wilson Valdez, Adam Everett, Bobby Crosby... hell, Omar Vizquel), along with giving him a vesting option that runs counter to your team's wishes/desires. It's the low-rent equivalent of giving, say, Ben Sheets $12 million guaranteed coming off an injury, and it makes no sense to me unless Omar made him promises in return for playing hurt (in which case O REALLY shouldn't have "GM" on his nameplate anymore).

Hell, apart from this and (apparently) not seriously kicking Holliday's tires, I've liked the way the Mets offseason is run. But deals like this just make me think bad thoughts about the org's player valuation... and give me Molina-for-three night sweats.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Why.

Well, the relevance of him being hurt isn't that he wasn't hurt AND had a down year. He was hurt and THEREFORE had a down year. He might have been terrible anyway, I don't know. But this particularly brand of terrible was pretty directly linked to his injuries. That's not proveable, but it seems pretty clear. And a wise team accepts that it has to make decisions on things that aren't necessarily publickly proveable.

As for getting more money than Ramon Martinez and Wilson Valdez, I think they reasonably expect him to be more useful than those guys. Probably Omar Vizquel, too. That may not work out. But he looks like the better bet to them. I don't think it's so obvious that they're wrong as you seem to be, but the guy can play a little.

As for the vesting option, who cares? We really don't expect him to start 80 games in 2010, do we? He started 67 in 2009 and that's with everything going terribly wrong in the starting lineup.

I imagine if he starts 80 games, there's an 80% chance he will have earned another year, and maybe a 25% chance he will have earned another year at more money. (Cool. I rarely get a chance to use the future perfect on this forum.)

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

After paying him a pretty high amount for a MI backup, they expected they had bought solid defense, a startable bat, and-- at the very least-- for the guy to play all year. They didn't get any of it. So they bring him back... at the same price-- with no discount for injury risk OR performance degradation from that injury-- plus one vesting option year? As simply as possible: you can disagree about the degree to which it's bad, but it seems inarguable that buying Cora at that price is bad shopping.

But, yeah... future perfect awesomeness! Grammar five!

Edited December 31, 2009 by Guest

[Frayed Knot]

Marlon Byrd to the Cubbies for 3 years - they're apparently going to play him in CF.

[Valadius]

Adrian Beltre to the Red Sox for 1 year plus an option. This makes Mike Lowell expendable, with rumors swirling that the Mets are taking a look at him as a first baseman.

[nymr83]

i dont think Lowell is a good enough hitter at this point to make it worth taking him on and switching his position to get him in the lineup

[seawolf17]

Pass.

[Frayed Knot]

Well Lowell always was available - hell, he was traded once already this winter but it fell through due to a failed physical.
Texas was reportedly willing to re-do the trade they just wanted to pay a lower price in terms of players sent to Boston. The Sox were already picking up most of Lowell's price tag for 2010.

Depending when he is expected to be ready I could see taking a shot at him for a PH-er and RH platoon for Murphy.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

If they're getting this back, they probably aren't eating much Lowell salary.

And then there's this bit from Lennon and the Newsday bunch. A Puerto Rican/Cuban sammich? Seems a bit extravagant... but if the NL ever goes beer-league rules, we're instant favorites.

[Frayed Knot]

Lowell still managed to bang out 47 XBHs in less than 500 ABs last season so he can still swing the bat a bit.
Yeah, I'm sure Fenway helped to some extent but playing him only 3 or so days per week might help to keep him fresher.

I have no idea why Boston would want Castillo with Pedroia anchored at 2B.
The theoretical contract exchange would come out even except that Lowell's cash would all be in this year instead of over the next two seasons.
Mets would also have to know that they could sign Hudson or someone else at a reasonable rate.
It would mean a sizable jump in payroll this year which may eat into the pitching budget.
In all I suspect this is nothing more than fan-invented day dreaming.

[ashie62]

I see a source has Lowell to Mets for Castillo, Mets assume most salary and then sign Orlando Hudson

Sounds like fantasy land

However, MLB.com reports the Mets are very interested in bringing Delgado back..

Where would that leave muffy?