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Dylan Hernandez, Diamond Leung and I got a few minutes with Ned Colletti in the tunnel after the game. Said he might be getting close to acquiring a veteran utility infielder who could better plug the gap while Furcal is out, or if Furcal is out again later in the season.
Esteban Loaiza for Wilson Betemit anyone? ;)
Nothing like some good months-early rumor mongering covering both coasts. MLB Trade Rumors points to a Boston Herald article on the subject, “Free to decide: Players on the open market”…
Now in the final season of a four-year, $36 million contract he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2004 season, Lowe will be a free agent again in the fall. While there are already indications that the New York Yankees will be among Lowe’s suitors during the offseason, the pitcher will have a most obvious strength when it comes time to sit at the bargaining table: Durability.
And since he wouldn’t have to pitch in Coors Field, he’d be just fine, I’m sure. ;)
In Peter Gammons’s “Players keep the game great” column today (ESPN.com $):
Nomar Garciaparra insists he will be physically ready to open the regular season, but even if he is not, Dodgers GM Ned Colletti is not going to rush into a trade for a third baseman.
“We’re not going to make a long-term move because we believe [Andy] LaRoche and [Blake] DeWitt are going to be here for a long time at that position,” says Colletti.
As far as the outfield goes:
Andre Ethier has had what appears to be a breakout spring, but with Juan Pierre’s contract untradeable, the Dodgers will open the season with Ethier, Matt Kemp, Pierre and Andruw Jones in the outfield mix and let manager Joe Torre deal with one daily unhappy camper.
And the lefty phenom with the atomic fastball and nasty curve:
As for Clayton Kershaw, it sure sounds as if the Dodgers believe he will be a factor this season; the issue will be limiting his innings early in the season so that he is fresh come August, which means 150-160 innings for the whole season.
The Marlins have put infielder Jose Castillo on waivers. He’s got stellar defense and is cheap, having signed a $650,000 contract with the Marlins to compete with Jorge Cantu for Miguel Cabrera’s old 3B position. He wouldn’t need to step in and drive the entire offense, just keep things together until Andy LaRoche gets healthy. Plus he could spell Jeff Kent at 2B.
Ignoring last year when the Pirates futzed with him, his stats seem decent enough for the price.
Do the Dodgers wait out the 72-hour waiver to see if the Marlins drop him, or do they work out a trade to make sure they get him? Do they even want him?
Update: So much for that: “Giants Claim Jose Castillo”
Rumor has it the Cubs are looking for a CF and are taking a serious look at Coco Crisp.
The Cubs were reportedly looking to resign Juan Pierre before the Dodgers picked him up. (They gave up a lot to get him in the first place.)
From a Cubs news item on February 2007:
Long gone
CF Juan Pierre: He led the NL in hits with 204 and swiped 58 bases, third-best in franchise history. But Pierre left via free agency because he wanted a long-term deal, and the Cubs didn’t want to block prospect Pie. They’ll miss Pierre’s expertise — he was a good mentor for young players — and his energy.
Think they’d still be interested? If they’re that interested in Crisp, why not Pierre if we subsidized the salary?
2007 stats
PLAYER G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BA OBP SLG Crisp 145 526 85 141 28 7 6 60 28 .268 .330 .382 Pierre 162 668 96 196 24 8 0 41 64 .293 .331 .353
The seeds for this problem were planted eight years ago.
“Another day, another injured third baseman”
Tony Abreu, who yesterday played in his first game after being out of action with an abdominal injury, now has a gluteus injury (a pain in the, well, you know)….Joe and Ned met this morning, and pursuing a 3B from outside the organization was discussed, but don’t look for it to happen until later in the spring, after all other options are explored — and those options DO include trying Delwyn Young and Chin-lung Hu at 3B.
From a Wall Street Journal article dated December 17, 2004:
Adrian Beltre ended his run with the Los Angeles Dodgers, rejecting a six-year, $60 million deal with additional incentives for five years and $64 million from the Seattle Mariners. That robs the Dodgers’ lineup of 48 home runs and 121 RBIs supplied from a player who’s just 25, and has already-annoyed fans hopping mad.
From an LA Times article dated Mar 12, 2000:
Unable to reach agreement on a multiyear deal, the Dodgers renewed Adrian Beltre’s contract Saturday, upsetting Beltre’s agent and further complicating a difficult situation.
Facing Saturday’s major league player-signing deadline, the Dodgers renewed Beltre’s contract at $330,000 this season. Beltre, who made $220,000 last season, was given a one-year salary higher than most second-year players have received from the team, but that didn’t satisfy [Scott] Boras.
Assisted by the Major League Players Assn., Boras is trying to have Beltre declared a free agent because the Dodgers violated major league rules by signing him before his 16th birthday. The commissioner’s office punished the Dodgers by forcing them to suspend operations in Beltre’s homeland of the Dominican Republic, but the club retained Beltre’s rights.
It’s been a weird few days in Dodger land. First off, of course, Joe Torre is still our manager — I keep forgetting, then I remember and utter a Keanu-like “Whoa.” But even stranger were the MLB headlines the past couple of days, where you could see simultaneously:
Surreal.
The latest news is Jeff Kent finally got around to telling the Dodgers he was coming back. Oh, and we might have won the Hiroki Kuroda sweepstakes, according to various media reports. My favorite is Tony Jackson’s “Kuroda update: He’s leaving on a jet plane”,
A non-stop flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, to be exact, and due to land at LAX at 9:30 tomorrow morning, from what I understand. That could mean one of two things. One, that he changed his mind yet again and decided to go ahead with his recruiting trip to Seattle and Los Angeles. Or, more likely, that he has decided to sign with the Dodgers. Sounds like this is really close to happening.
Now this is some better rumor mongering, via Ken Gurnick on MLB.com “Dodgers, Jones inch closer together”:
The Dodgers and free agent Andruw Jones inched closer to common ground on Wednesday, although general manager Ned Colletti said that any significant announcement before he returns to Los Angeles on Thursday night “is a real longshot.”…
Yet the negotiations have continued throughout the Winter Meetings, with indications that Jones is warming to the idea of a two- or three-year contract that would allow him to rehabilitate his stats in time for another bite at the free-agent apple while still in his prime….
…Another former Atlanta teammate, Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal, is said to have placed more than one recruiting phone call to Jones, understandable because they were the closest of friends when they played together.
Yes, please! This would also counter the Angels’ “Center Fielder With Weirdly Spelled First Name” move. ;)
The NY Times has a brief story on Don Mattingly at the Winter Meetings, “Donnie Baseball Emerges as Donnie Dodger”. Within that,
Mattingly says he is here to learn as much about his new organization as possible. He is studying videotapes of the Dodgers and videotapes of National League pitchers. Mattingly compared the learning process to how he felt when he returned as a Yankees coach after being out of baseball for several years….
He doesn’t think it’ll be weird putting on another uniform. I have to say it will be weird seeing him in Dodger Blue.
UPDATE
Tony Jackson points out another Mattingly-related wrinkle:
One more indication that new Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly is the heir apparent to manager Joe Torre when Torre’s contract expires after the 2010 season: while Torre is missing these meetings for personal reasons, Mattingly is here, and when reporters went into Colletti’s suite for their daily briefing, he was there, too, along with player development director DeJon Watson and special assistants Vance Lovelace and Bill Mueller.
Coaches rarely attend the winter meetings. Managers, however, almost always attend and are part of their GMs’ inner circle, participating in meetings along with all the top front-office brass.
Regarding the rumored acquisition of Joe Torre and Don Mattingly, it wouldn’t be the first time the Dodgers have welcomed former Yankee superstars to their coaching staff, particularly one (like Donnie Baseball) who desperately wanted the Bronx manager job.
You might recognize the fellow in the middle of this picture, who traded his pinstripes for a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform for half of the 1938 season:
