10 names to watch during this week’s MLB Winter Meetings
SAN DIEGO — Dave Dombrowski was enjoying a relaxing moment in the lobby of the Machester Grand Hyatt on Sunday.
However, the Detroit Tigers president and general manager knows there probably won’t be many of those between Monday and Thursday during baseball’s annual Winter Meetings, which will be held in San Diego for the first time since 1985.
“I’m ready to do some business, and I think so is everyone else,” Dombrowski said. “It might be an interesting couple of days.”
It very well could be.
While rumors typically fly around the sport at this time of year, there does seem to be more than normal. Like Dombrowski, other general managers have the feeling there could be plenty of action this week.
“You get the sense a lot of teams are kind of ready to do something,” Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said.
Milwaukee Brewers GM Doug Melvin won’t even let a broken right ankle deter him after slipping on some ice and falling recently in Wisconsin.
“I’m ready to go,” he said.
Here are 10 names that could be in the news this week during the meetings:
—Left-hander Jon Lester and right-handers James Shields and Max Scherzer
The three top starting pitchers on the free agent market need to be considered as one entry because their fates are intertwined.
Lester figures to be the first to sign, potentially this week, and is considering the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. Those who know the left-hander say the Dodgers and Giants are longshots because Lester is not a California-kind of guy and would prefer to go a comfortable situation with either the Red Sox or Cubs.
Lester had spent his entire nine-year career with the Red Sox until being traded in July to the Oakland Athletics. Lester knows Cubs team president Theo Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer well from their days together in Boston.
For those teams who lose out in the Lester bidding, Shields will be next on many of their lists. Shields is durable and has won big games while helping lead a pair of franchises, the Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals, to improbable World Series berths.
Unlike Lester, Shields is a native southern Californian and would likely relish the chance to pitch for the Dodgers or Los Angeles Angels.
It might seem strange on the surface that there has been no buzz surrounding Scherzer, who won the American League Cy Young award in 2013 and is the top free agent on the market. However, as he so often does, agent Scott Boras is waiting the market to shake out before finding a home for his client.
Many teams are professing they can’t afford Scherzer, who turned down a six-year, $144-million offer to stay with the Tigers in spring training. However, the Tigers, Dodgers, New York Yankees and Washington Nationals — and possibly the Angels — will likely jump in at some point.
—Left-handers Cole Hamels and C.J. Wilson and right-hander Jeff Samardzija
Two quality left-handers (Hamels and Wilson) and a standout right-hander (Samardzija) are available in trade for those teams that either want to sit out free agency or end up losing out on Lester and Shields.
Hamels is the most intriguing of the three because he still has four years and $90 million left on his contract. He can block trades to 20 of the 29 other clubs as part of his contract but can be dealt without permission to Atlanta, the Cubs, the Angels, the Dodgers, the Yankees, San Diego, St. Louis, Texas and Washington.
That the Angels would be willing to part with Wilson, who is owed $38 million over the final two years of his contract, despite having little starting pitching depth suggests they would take the savings and apply to it one of the other big-name free agent starters.
The Athletics acquired Samardzija from the Cubs in a July 4 trade with the hopes he would help get them to the World Series. However, that didn’t happen and now they will attempts to get something of value back before he becomes a free agent at the end of next season.
—Outfielder Matt Kemp
New Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman realizes he must break the team’s logjam of starting outfielders, which has been the source of headaches for manager Don Mattingly over the last two seasons.
Kemp bounced back this year after two sub-par and injury-filled seasons but was reticent when Mattingly moved him from center field to right field last July and switched Yasiel Puig from right to center. Kemp is owed $107 million over five years but, if the Dodgers are willing to absorb enough of that money, the Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners are among the teams that are interested.
—Outfielder Justin Upton
Although Upton’s contract expires at the end of next season, many teams in win-now mode believe that trading for the Atlanta Braves outfielder as a one-year rental makes more sense than committing to a long-term contract with outfielder Melky Cabrera, who is looking for a five-year deal in free agency. Upton also has a better track record of durability than Kemp.
—Third baseman Chase Headley
The third baseman hit 31 home runs and drove in 115 runs in 2012 for the Padres but then had a combined 26 homers and 99 RBIs over the last two seasons. Nevertheless, Headley is expected to wind up signing a four-year contract as a free agent worth in excess of $60 million.
Headley spent the final two months of last season with the Yankees, who would like to re-sign him, and he is at the top the Giants’ list to replace Pablo Sandoval, who jumped to the Red Sox as a free agent. The Miami Marlins are also in the chase.
—Executive VP Dan Duquette
While executives usually do the trading at the meetings, the Orioles’ executive vice president and general manager might be dealt.
The Toronto Blue Jays want to hire Duquette as their president/COO but have been denied permission to speak to him by Orioles owner Peter Angelos. Duquette was named the MLB Executive of the Year by Baseball America and The Sporting News and it is certain Angelos won’t let him leave without getting compensation in the form of players, money or both from the Blue Jays.
Angelos release the following statement on the issue Sunday:
“As far as the Orioles are concerned, (Duquette) is our GM and we expect him to remain for the four years remaining on his contract, and very likely for additional years once that contract has expired. We’re not relinquishing him, period. There’s no reason we’d be willing to transfer his presence to any other ballclub.”
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John Perrotto is The Sports Xchange’s baseball insider. He has covered Major League Baseball for 27 seasons.
