Since it’s not easy for even the most dedicated fan of the game to keep track of everything that happens during the off-season, I’m going to try to make it a point to provide a brief update each week of the significant transactions that occurred over the last 7 days. Some of these, of course, you’ll certainly have heard about already, while I suspect others will have flown under your radar.
Yesterday saw several interesting, varied and, in some cases, surprising developments in Major League Baseball:
- Mike Mussina announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the majors, just 30 wins shy of 300. This, of course, will set off much discussion and debate regarding his Hall of Fame worthiness. Expect more on that subject from this writer at a later date.
- The World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies (a rarely uttered phrase) announced that second baseman Chase Utley will need off-season hip surgery, which could potentially cause him to miss the first two months, or more, of 2009.
- 39-year old Hal Steinbrenner, and not his older brother Hank, was officially named managing general partner of the New York Yankees, succeeding his father in that role, and taking over the club at an even younger age than George did. Hal then announced that the Yankees will establish a deadline for CC Sabathia to accept their contract offer.
- The commissioner’s office announced that they will make it an official rule that all post-season games will be played to completion, and cannot be shortened due to weather. I can’t imagine that anyone could possibly consider this a bad idea.
A few more significant items from this past week:
- On Wednesday, the Boston Red Sox traded outfielder Coco Crisp to the Kansas City Royals for relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez, in what Keith Law describes as a move that may end up hurting both teams. Red Sox Nation, though, has already anointed Ramirez as the man who will allow Justin Masterson to team with Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka and the soon-to-be-acquired A.J. Burnett as the 5-man rotation equivalent of the ’71 Orioles.
- Also on Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners hired Don Wakamatsu as the 14th manager in their history. More importantly, Wakamatsu, who was the Oakland Athletics’ bench coach last year, becomes the first Asian-American manager in major league baseball history.
- On Tuesday, The Chicago Cubs re-signed starting pitcher Ryan Dempster, with the two sides agreeing on a 4-year, $52 million deal. Dempster, of course, will remain in last year’s role as one of the top three hurlers in the Cubs’ rotation.
- On Monday, relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt became the first free agent of this off-season to sign, coming to terms with the San Francisco Giants on a 2-year, $8 million deal. The left-handed Affeldt pitched for the Cincinnati Reds last year, and will most likely fill a setup role in front of closer Brian Wilson.
And, just in case you missed anything that happened prior to my last hot stove report:
- On November 13, the Yankees traded utility infielder Wilson Betemit, and pitching prospects Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez to the Chicago White Sox for first baseman/outfielder Nick Swisher and minor league pitcher Kanekoa Texeira.
- Also on the 13th, the Cubs acquired relief pitcher Kevin Gregg from the Florida Marlins for minor league pitcher Jose Ceda.
- On November 12, the Athletics acquired outfielder Matt Holiday from the Colorado Rockies for relief pitcher Huston Street, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez.
- Also on the 12th, the Yankees re-signed relief pitcher Damaso Marte to a three-year deal for $12 million, with a club option for a fourth, in what has to be a record deal for a relief pitcher who is neither a closer nor a primary setup man.
- On November 11, the Washington Nationals traded second baseman Emil Bonifacio to the Marlins for starting pitcher Scott Olsen and outfielder Josh Willingham.
- On October 30, the Marlins began this year’s fire sale by sending first baseman Mike Jacobs to the Royals for relief pitcher Leo Nunez.
I don’t have a lot of analysis this week, but hopefully some of the stories mentioned here will generate some discussion. Meanwhile, I’ll end this with a few predictions as to the domino effect that will decide where a few of the biggest free agents will land:
- CC Sabathia will spurn the Yankees’ offer, and disappoint the players union, but will end up making more per year than Johan Santana did last year as he accepts an offer to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- The Dodgers aren’t going to sign both Sabathia and Manny Ramirez, so Manny will move just southeast to Orange County and sign with the Angels.
- The writing seems to be on the wall that the Angels aren’t going to work that hard to bring Francisco Rodriguez back anyway, but the Manny signing will make this reality even clearer. The only big market team that is shopping for a closer will make K-Rod the late inning King of Queens.
- With the Yankees losing out on Sabathia, and not really being that serious about Manny, their relative quiet on the Mark Teixeira front will pass, as they and the Red Sox compete much harder for his services than they did for Santana’s last year. I haven’t yet decided how this one will turn out.
I’d love to hear the opinions or predictions that any of you may have. Let the discussion begin.
I’m confused – hasn’t Hank been doing all the talking up to this point? Is this gonna become a sibling rivalry?
Here’s my crazy prediction – the Sox trading Crisp opens up the move for Teixeira. How? You ask. Kevin Youkilis is gonna take one for the team and serve as a platoon player in the outfield and infield. Youk proved himself capable of playing left field a couple of years ago when Manny had another one of his injuries. Youk will give Bay a rest from time to time. Bay can move over to right when Drew starts having a problem with hang nails or whatever? Also Youk will play some third and some first.
I am liking the thought of Masterson joining the rotation.
Hank and Hal have technically been co-chairmen all along. It’s just that Hank has a bigger mouth, and Cashman has been reporting to him.
I don’t think Youkilis in the outfield is a good idea. In a pinch, yeah, but I wouldn’t want to count on him essentially being your 4th outfielder. At best, he’s a below average outfielder, essentially Manny but without the deceptively good throwing arm. It would be interesting to see what they would do if they sign Teixeira and everyone stays healthy.
Keith Law also said that Masterson is much better suited for the bullpen than the rotation:
“This trade could lead them to push Justin Masterson back to the rotation, but he’s better suited to relief work given his arsenal and low arm slot, which leave him very vulnerable to left-handed hitters, and he’s clearly a better option than Ramirez in the setup role.”
Personally, I think the Royals should have got more for Ramirez than Coco Crisp is he’s really an option to replace Masterson as the main 8th inning guy. I have a feeling they think they’re selling high with him.
“Red Sox Nation, though, has already anointed Ramirez as the man who will allow Justin Masterson to team with Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka and the soon-to-be-acquired A.J. Burnett as the 5-man rotation equivalent of the ‘71 Orioles.” Wow!
Since you bring up the ’71 Orioles, was it the gloves who helped the pitchers, or the pitchers who helped the gloves? Four O’s grabbed Gold Gloves that year – Brooks Robinson, Mark Belanger, Davey Johnson, and Paul Blair. That defensive corps won 4 gold gloves 5 of 7 years during that period.
I was, obviously, exaggerating how over-hyped a move like this has been already. New guys are generally drooled on like Smitty does with Matt Cassel. 😉
That’s a pretty impressive defense, and those four guys played four of the five most important positions.
Oops – correction needed – Bobby Grich replaced Johnson for a couple of those. How could I forget Grich?
Oh …and ouch Smitty – are you gonna take that? 🙂
Chas
What do you think of the new avatar?
Love it. My new one is another that suffers from its lack of detail, but I’m sure you can tell what it is.
Here is hoping that the Red Sox do NOT sign AJ. Burnett. Between his desire being questioned and his ability to stay healthy – just not sure if I am interested in giving him 4 or 5 year at $15 million a year. Just doesn’t seem like Theo’s type of signing and seems more like a Yankee signing (4 or 5 years and spend most of it on the DL.).
As for the Ramon Ramirez trade – I like the trade – just not ready to move Masterson to the starting rotation. I liked him coming out of the bullpen and he seemed to help calm the bullpen problems. Plus, I don’t think you can ever have a shortage of arms in the bullpen. Coco wanted out , requested a trade to play full time and the Red Sox did right by him. I think they got pretty good value in return, but I will wait to see how Ramirez handles the Boston limelight..
I think Boston is going to try and add a 4th OF that is going to provide a little bit more offense. If they bring back Varitek, the bottom of the lineup resembled more of a NL team and in the AL – that just doesn’t work.
The more I listen to guys like Keith Law McCloskey, Peter Gammons, etc the more I think that neither the Yankees or the Red Sox will end up Teixeira. I am really thinking that the “X” Factor team whether it is the Nationals or the O’s will overbid and land Texiera.
Sabathia ends up in LA – could he take the offer in Milwaukee? He supposedly liked it there and they offered a pretty impressive deal. I have heard rumors of the Giants being interested in Manny – considering their pension for old players – this doesn’t seem too far off..
I actually should have written that Law said both teams could wind up disappointed by the Ramirez/Crisp trade, not that it could hurt them. The Red Sox got rid of a non-starter for a useful guy in an area that they needed to add depth. While Crisp’s specific skills are not easily replaceable, it won’t be hard to find a fourth outfielder who is equally as good.
I’m just as likely as anyone to criticize the Pavano signing, but that’s looking back on it in hindsight, which is quite easy to do. But, the fact that he pitched only 45 innings over the last three years of that contract is something that no one could have predicted. Make fun of the Yankees all you want for that deal, but don’t forget the name Matt Clement when you have that discussion. Not quite as bad simply due to less money invested (and he had a 1/2 of a good year out of 3), but you get the idea.
I was just looking back at Ryan Dempster’s career. Even with last year’s stats factored in, he is a below average pitcher over the course of his career. Of his 9 seasons since he became a full-time major leaguer prior to 2008, only two of them were above average performances: one of those was 2000 and the other was the only year that he did an adequate job as a closer (2005). Strikingly similar to how Pavano earned his big payday, I say, except that Dempster is three years older than he was then.
Keith Law McCloskey? I don’t know who that is, but he sounds brilliant. 🙂