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Hot stove wrap-up
Winners and losers from this year's Winter Meetings
Posted: Friday December 8, 2006 12:18PM; Updated: Friday December 8, 2006 1:40PM
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Generally speaking, the biggest winners at the Winter Meetings were players, player agents and the Players' Association. And the biggest loser was common sense, which took a beating here.
The few sensible contracts (Sean Casey for $4 million, Randy Wolf for $8 million, Moises Alou for $8.5 million) were done before anyone got to Disney, the happiest place on earth this week if you can play a lick (or, in some cases, even if you can't). Here's the final score sheet, the winners and losers from the Winter Meetings.
Winners
1. Mediocre pitchers. Ted Lilly, who has more career non-quality starts than quality starts, got $40 million for four years. A day later, Gil Meche, who had all of eight quality starts last year, got $55 million for five years from the Royals. I'll say one thing, neither Lilly nor Meche was a quality signing.
2. Carlos Zambrano. The pitching market is nuts. And this guy will be a free agent in one year. He's 25, he's even better than Barry Zito. And guess what, he can hit, too.
3. A.J. Burnett. Can anyone now question the $55 million the ultra-talented Burnett got from Toronto after Meche got the same?
4. Agent Greg Landry. He's Meche's agent/magician. As one competing agent put it, "He deserves a medal.''
5. Billy Beane, A's GM. He was here all of five minutes (one day, actually), and he got two deals done -- one for Mike Piazza ($8.5 million for one year), the other for Alan Embree ($5.4 million for two). He also scared up some publicity for talking to the Mets about deals for one of two top pitchers, Danny Haren or Rich Harden.
6. The Dodgers. I've got to say that in this market Jason Schmidt looks pretty good for $47 million and Wolf looks like a steal for $8 million. Look at it this way, the Dodgers got both pitchers for the price of Meche. One quibble: silly of GM Ned Colletti to go bonkers about J.D. Drew opting out of the $33 million remaining on his deal when there's double that out there for him. Would Colletti like a chance to double his own pay?
7. Older GMs. It was senior week in Orlando. Phillies GM Pat Gillick proved that he still has a few tricks up his sleeves. After taking a chance on Adam Eaton for $24 million (which doesn't look quite as bad now, not after Meche), and overpaying for Wes Helms ($5.45 million, two years), he made the biggest trade that went through by landing Freddy Garcia, a winner and big-game pitcher. Braves GM John Schuerholz made another great move, picking up talented reliever Rafael Soriano from Seattle.
8. J.D. Drew. From the time he came into the game, nobody's played the market better (with the aid of agent Scott Boras). Now if Drew can just stay on the field like he did two of the last three years.
9. Scott Boras. If not for Meche, the Drew contract would have been the most over-the-top. Still, Boras was by far the biggest free-agent mover. Has anyone noticed he had three former Cy Young winners to sell this year (Eric Gagne, Greg Maddux and Zito), four if you count Daisuke Matsuzaka, the 2001 winner of the Sawamura award, which goes to the best pitcher in Japan?
10. The Padres. They made the right call to stay out of the game for the really expensive players, then imported Maddux, a four-time Cy Young winner and lifetime 333-game winner for $16 million guaranteed. Not too shabby.
11. The Red Sox. They added two useful players, Julio Lugo and Drew, and kept Manny. We learn next week if they're going to sign Matsuzaka, one of the best pitchers on the planet.
12. Center fielders. Their market is exploding. If Juan Pierre gets $55 million and Gary Matthews Jr. gets $50 million, can you just imagine the kind of coins Andruw Jones, Vernon Wells and Torii Hunter, all 2007 free agents, are going to get?
13. Barry Bonds and agent Jeff Borris. OK, Bonds seemed desperate by coming to Disney and getting shut down by 29 teams. But he's getting his old job back, for $16 mil no less, according to MLB.com. That isn't a bad figure for someone who's that reviled.
14. Geezers. Bonds wasn't the only one from the over-40 set to get a big deal. He was preceded by Alou, Maddux, Orlando Hernandez, Jamie Moyer and Tom Glavine (no one can file an age-discrimination suit against the Mets). Plus, Mike Stanton, who's 39 but was done three years ago, got a two-year deal.
15. Agent Adam Katz. He got $100 million for one-dimensional, overweight Carlos Lee. Katz then topped things off by keeping Guillermo Mota employed after his failed steroid test. Now he's got a real challenge, Sammy Sosa.
16. The Blue Jays. Perhaps they were disappointed to have been beaten out for Lilly and Meche. But this comes under the heading of "sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make ...'' Look at it this way: they are smart to have gotten Roy Halladay under contract at $13 mil per. And Frank Thomas was a legit MVP candidate in 2006, so $18 million over two years for him wasn't as bad as everyone previously said.
17. Mets negotiators. For $30 million, the Mets got Alou, Glavine and Hernandez, three key players.
18. Agent Fern Cuza. The Alfonso Soriano deal he and Diego Bentz negotiated for $136 million came a couple weeks ago, but you could still see the glow on Cuza's face as he left here for Tampa to meet Mariano Rivera.
20. Wrigley Bleacher Bums. They'll have more to cheer about between beers. And they don't have to write the checks
Losers
1. David Ortiz. He's still got Manny Ramirez to hit behind him. And he'll welcome in new No. 5 hitter Drew. Although there's one problem, Drew now makes more money. Assuming the Red Sox pick up the option on Ortiz's deal, which was completed only eight months ago, his is for $65 million over five years, or $5 million less than Drew will get in the same period.
2. Travis Hafner. Congrats to GM Mark Shapiro and his guys for locking up Hafner on what one agent called the "worst player contract in baseball.'' The fellow with perhaps the best numbers in the AL will make $4 million this year and $5 million next, making him underpaid by at least half.
3. Agent Greg Genske. He's the agent for Hafner. Not to mention for Manny, who still hasn't gotten his wish to leave Boston.
4. The Giants. Their attempt to put together a young team didn't quite come together.
5. Jon Garland. I guess some could argue that almost going to Houston is better than actually going to Houston (sorry, cheap joke). But he can't be too happy his bosses wanted him there for a while.
6. The Astros. Roy Oswalt's deal looks like a steal at $73 mil now, and Lee will help them by depositing a ton of homers into the Crawford box. But they got hit by a little bad luck. By coming close to acquiring Garland (but not getting him), they just might have annoyed Andy Pettitte enough to make him go back to the Yankees.
7. The Royals. What made them do it? Do they feel guilty for lining their pockets with the cash of big-market teams for years? And one more question: Rather than spend $60 million on Meche and Octavio Dotel, might it have been better to spend that money on draft choices and amateur free agents and shoot for 2010?
8. Cubs bookkeepers. Not all the Cubs' deals were over-the-top. Mark DeRosa ($13 million, four years), Kerry Wood ($1.75 million) and Lou Piniella ($10 million, three years) were bargains. But how do their actuaries keep up?
9. The Nationals. Their one goal was to trade fourth-outfielder type Ryan Church, and they couldn't get it done. They seemed to be dangling closer Chad Cordero, who won't have enough to do for Washington next year, for pitching help. As one NL exec put it, "They have only one [starting] pitcher. [John] Patterson, that's it.'' But alas, they do have 21 six-year free agents coming in.
Around the Majors
• Eric Gagne is primed to join the "winners' category. He's not going to have to undergo tryouts and will have a deal that could pay him close to $10 million (with incentives), with either the Red Sox, Indians or Rangers. While Texas has Akinori Otsuka to close, they're willing to bet on a comeback for Gagne, who'd take over the closing duties if acquired.
• The Royals may still be trying to land Miguel Batista (perhaps for $25 million over three years) after spending $60 million Thursday on Meche and Dotel.
• Dotel had two- and three-year offers but preferred to prove himself first, then go back onto the market. Good for him.
• The Yankees are willing to give Shea Hillenbrand $5 million on a one-year deal but Hillenbrand reportedly has two-year options elsewhere. Maybe the Yankees should ditch their idea to get a righthanded hitter for first base and try to reacquire Nick Johnson. Just an idea: How about Humberto Sanchez for Johnson?
• Interesting last-day lobby scene: Jerry Krause, who's now a Mets scout, chatting it up with White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. I didn't give in to my wish to eavesdrop. But I bet they were reminiscing about the good old days, when they had Michael Jordan under contract for far less than Meche is getting.
Winners and losers from this year's Winter Meetings
Posted: Friday December 8, 2006 12:18PM; Updated: Friday December 8, 2006 1:40PM
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Generally speaking, the biggest winners at the Winter Meetings were players, player agents and the Players' Association. And the biggest loser was common sense, which took a beating here.
The few sensible contracts (Sean Casey for $4 million, Randy Wolf for $8 million, Moises Alou for $8.5 million) were done before anyone got to Disney, the happiest place on earth this week if you can play a lick (or, in some cases, even if you can't). Here's the final score sheet, the winners and losers from the Winter Meetings.
Winners
1. Mediocre pitchers. Ted Lilly, who has more career non-quality starts than quality starts, got $40 million for four years. A day later, Gil Meche, who had all of eight quality starts last year, got $55 million for five years from the Royals. I'll say one thing, neither Lilly nor Meche was a quality signing.
2. Carlos Zambrano. The pitching market is nuts. And this guy will be a free agent in one year. He's 25, he's even better than Barry Zito. And guess what, he can hit, too.
3. A.J. Burnett. Can anyone now question the $55 million the ultra-talented Burnett got from Toronto after Meche got the same?
4. Agent Greg Landry. He's Meche's agent/magician. As one competing agent put it, "He deserves a medal.''
5. Billy Beane, A's GM. He was here all of five minutes (one day, actually), and he got two deals done -- one for Mike Piazza ($8.5 million for one year), the other for Alan Embree ($5.4 million for two). He also scared up some publicity for talking to the Mets about deals for one of two top pitchers, Danny Haren or Rich Harden.
6. The Dodgers. I've got to say that in this market Jason Schmidt looks pretty good for $47 million and Wolf looks like a steal for $8 million. Look at it this way, the Dodgers got both pitchers for the price of Meche. One quibble: silly of GM Ned Colletti to go bonkers about J.D. Drew opting out of the $33 million remaining on his deal when there's double that out there for him. Would Colletti like a chance to double his own pay?
7. Older GMs. It was senior week in Orlando. Phillies GM Pat Gillick proved that he still has a few tricks up his sleeves. After taking a chance on Adam Eaton for $24 million (which doesn't look quite as bad now, not after Meche), and overpaying for Wes Helms ($5.45 million, two years), he made the biggest trade that went through by landing Freddy Garcia, a winner and big-game pitcher. Braves GM John Schuerholz made another great move, picking up talented reliever Rafael Soriano from Seattle.
8. J.D. Drew. From the time he came into the game, nobody's played the market better (with the aid of agent Scott Boras). Now if Drew can just stay on the field like he did two of the last three years.
9. Scott Boras. If not for Meche, the Drew contract would have been the most over-the-top. Still, Boras was by far the biggest free-agent mover. Has anyone noticed he had three former Cy Young winners to sell this year (Eric Gagne, Greg Maddux and Zito), four if you count Daisuke Matsuzaka, the 2001 winner of the Sawamura award, which goes to the best pitcher in Japan?
10. The Padres. They made the right call to stay out of the game for the really expensive players, then imported Maddux, a four-time Cy Young winner and lifetime 333-game winner for $16 million guaranteed. Not too shabby.
11. The Red Sox. They added two useful players, Julio Lugo and Drew, and kept Manny. We learn next week if they're going to sign Matsuzaka, one of the best pitchers on the planet.
12. Center fielders. Their market is exploding. If Juan Pierre gets $55 million and Gary Matthews Jr. gets $50 million, can you just imagine the kind of coins Andruw Jones, Vernon Wells and Torii Hunter, all 2007 free agents, are going to get?
13. Barry Bonds and agent Jeff Borris. OK, Bonds seemed desperate by coming to Disney and getting shut down by 29 teams. But he's getting his old job back, for $16 mil no less, according to MLB.com. That isn't a bad figure for someone who's that reviled.
14. Geezers. Bonds wasn't the only one from the over-40 set to get a big deal. He was preceded by Alou, Maddux, Orlando Hernandez, Jamie Moyer and Tom Glavine (no one can file an age-discrimination suit against the Mets). Plus, Mike Stanton, who's 39 but was done three years ago, got a two-year deal.
15. Agent Adam Katz. He got $100 million for one-dimensional, overweight Carlos Lee. Katz then topped things off by keeping Guillermo Mota employed after his failed steroid test. Now he's got a real challenge, Sammy Sosa.
16. The Blue Jays. Perhaps they were disappointed to have been beaten out for Lilly and Meche. But this comes under the heading of "sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make ...'' Look at it this way: they are smart to have gotten Roy Halladay under contract at $13 mil per. And Frank Thomas was a legit MVP candidate in 2006, so $18 million over two years for him wasn't as bad as everyone previously said.
17. Mets negotiators. For $30 million, the Mets got Alou, Glavine and Hernandez, three key players.
18. Agent Fern Cuza. The Alfonso Soriano deal he and Diego Bentz negotiated for $136 million came a couple weeks ago, but you could still see the glow on Cuza's face as he left here for Tampa to meet Mariano Rivera.
20. Wrigley Bleacher Bums. They'll have more to cheer about between beers. And they don't have to write the checks
Losers
1. David Ortiz. He's still got Manny Ramirez to hit behind him. And he'll welcome in new No. 5 hitter Drew. Although there's one problem, Drew now makes more money. Assuming the Red Sox pick up the option on Ortiz's deal, which was completed only eight months ago, his is for $65 million over five years, or $5 million less than Drew will get in the same period.
2. Travis Hafner. Congrats to GM Mark Shapiro and his guys for locking up Hafner on what one agent called the "worst player contract in baseball.'' The fellow with perhaps the best numbers in the AL will make $4 million this year and $5 million next, making him underpaid by at least half.
3. Agent Greg Genske. He's the agent for Hafner. Not to mention for Manny, who still hasn't gotten his wish to leave Boston.
4. The Giants. Their attempt to put together a young team didn't quite come together.
5. Jon Garland. I guess some could argue that almost going to Houston is better than actually going to Houston (sorry, cheap joke). But he can't be too happy his bosses wanted him there for a while.
6. The Astros. Roy Oswalt's deal looks like a steal at $73 mil now, and Lee will help them by depositing a ton of homers into the Crawford box. But they got hit by a little bad luck. By coming close to acquiring Garland (but not getting him), they just might have annoyed Andy Pettitte enough to make him go back to the Yankees.
7. The Royals. What made them do it? Do they feel guilty for lining their pockets with the cash of big-market teams for years? And one more question: Rather than spend $60 million on Meche and Octavio Dotel, might it have been better to spend that money on draft choices and amateur free agents and shoot for 2010?
8. Cubs bookkeepers. Not all the Cubs' deals were over-the-top. Mark DeRosa ($13 million, four years), Kerry Wood ($1.75 million) and Lou Piniella ($10 million, three years) were bargains. But how do their actuaries keep up?
9. The Nationals. Their one goal was to trade fourth-outfielder type Ryan Church, and they couldn't get it done. They seemed to be dangling closer Chad Cordero, who won't have enough to do for Washington next year, for pitching help. As one NL exec put it, "They have only one [starting] pitcher. [John] Patterson, that's it.'' But alas, they do have 21 six-year free agents coming in.
Around the Majors
• Eric Gagne is primed to join the "winners' category. He's not going to have to undergo tryouts and will have a deal that could pay him close to $10 million (with incentives), with either the Red Sox, Indians or Rangers. While Texas has Akinori Otsuka to close, they're willing to bet on a comeback for Gagne, who'd take over the closing duties if acquired.
• The Royals may still be trying to land Miguel Batista (perhaps for $25 million over three years) after spending $60 million Thursday on Meche and Dotel.
• Dotel had two- and three-year offers but preferred to prove himself first, then go back onto the market. Good for him.
• The Yankees are willing to give Shea Hillenbrand $5 million on a one-year deal but Hillenbrand reportedly has two-year options elsewhere. Maybe the Yankees should ditch their idea to get a righthanded hitter for first base and try to reacquire Nick Johnson. Just an idea: How about Humberto Sanchez for Johnson?
• Interesting last-day lobby scene: Jerry Krause, who's now a Mets scout, chatting it up with White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. I didn't give in to my wish to eavesdrop. But I bet they were reminiscing about the good old days, when they had Michael Jordan under contract for far less than Meche is getting.
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