Now that the World Series is over the 15 day free agent filing period is underway. The period gives teams an “exclusive” negotiating window in which players can talk to other teams, but not talk contract parameters. So we won’t know exactly what will happens with the Tigers quartet* of impending free agents for awhile, except that they will go through the procedure of filing for free agency.
Steve Kornacki of Mlive did some catching up with a few of the possibly future former Tigers and got their thoughts on returning.
Fernando Rodney would like to stay in Detroit but is looking for a 3 to 4 year deal. It’s safe to say that he won’t get a 3 or 4 year deal from anyone (maybe 2 years with a club option for a 3rd) so that doesn’t really clear things up.
Of course the Rodney situation is in some ways tied to Brandon Lyon’s status. Understandably Lyon would like some clarification on what his role would be if he were to sign with Detroit.
And then there is what could be the Tigers nearly-departed double play combo. Everett liked his Detroit experience (quotes in the Mlive piece) but I don’t know if he liked it enough to sign a similar one year $1 million deal like he did last year when he was coming off an injury season.
The Polanco situation is the most interesting. Scouts say Scott Sizemore is ready now to hit in the big leagues. Polanco is at a tenuous age for second baseman. Polanco is a Type A free agent which means if the Tigers offer him arbitration they would net a first round pick and a sandwich pick if he signs elsewhere. Polanco is likely to get a more lucrative deal on the open market than he would with the Tigers, but that lucrative deal likely won’t be there if it means the signing team has to surrender a draft pick. Throw in the fact that the Twins** may have interest in Polanco and the situation has a whole new layer.
*Yes, I know there are 6 Tigers free agents but Aubrey Huff and Jarrod Washburn just aren’t coming back so we’ll just assume they are gone already. Washburn in fact is already talking about his return to Seattle.
**The Twins just nabbed J.J. Hardy to play shortstop in exchange for Carlos Gomez. And just because I have no place else to put this, the White Sox traded their second baseman Chris Getz, along with Josh Fields to the Royals for Mark Teahen. Maybe.
**: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/11/royals-agree-to-trade-mark-teahen-to-white-sox.html
looks official
I like the deal for KC. None of these 3 players have proven to be highly attractive, so the cost savings is the best part of the deal.
I was hoping the Tigers would get Hardy so I’m not happy that the Twins got him. Hardy will probably be comeback player of the year now that he’s with the Twins.
Considering that the Twins gave up very little to get Hardy, this definitely looks like a great deal for them.
Wow, yeah great deal for the Twins. That sucks. Hardy is a better SS in my mind than ANY FA SS out there. The only guy I like more than him is Tejada, but Tejada is so much more expensive and older and clearly out of our price range. Plus there’s no guarantee he will be available for free w/o losing draft picks.
Any way you slice it, Hardy is definitely the best SS acquisition possible if you grouped him with ALL SS FAs and didn’t count other SSs that might be available via trade. I have a hard time believing that there is any other SS out there for trade that can be had for practically nothing that is as good as Hardy is. Great job by the Twins.
Once again, another team making a move that the Tigers should’ve pursued — though I’m not sure who we could’ve given that would’ve helped the Brewers immediately like Carlos Gomez. Still, we could’ve given up Wilkin Ramirez + someone else for him and been just fine. Sucks.
Seems a little weird. Unless Carlos Gomez was a guy the Brewers specifically love for some reason, I can’t believe they wouldn’t have been able to get a better player back.
With Hardy gone, a guy I like to be next year’s SS is Mike Aviles. He was a 4+ win player in his only full season, but the Royals got a relatively expensive SS while he was injured, and would seem to not need/like him.
The Royals have already shown a willingness to trade within the division. Their front office is bad. Maybe a package of Thames and, say, Fien? Maybe just Thames? Dolsi and Iorg? The remains of Matt Anderson? They did give up actual honest-to-god baseball players for Yuniesky, so all things are possible. Aviles is a guy who has a huge ceiling and an injury problem. If he can be bought low on, I’d be all over it.
If not him, I’d look at Reid Brignac or Brandon Wood. I’m sure they cost a whole lot more than Aviles, though.
Brewers needed a CF, so I’m not sure how the Tigers could have gotten this deal done. The only other option might have been a starting pitcher, but the Tigers don’t have any that the Brewers would want (that we would trade).
It’s frustrating to see Hardy go to a rival, but I don’t see what we could have done differently.
But Carlos Gomez sucks. so they still need a CF. They might be better off with Raburn as a CF before Gomez. 😉
I’m just wondering why nobody has commented on the coolness of the picture 🙂
That’s Polly and Everett. I thought you were talking about the picturein the other post with the guy stretching his arm out.
It’s cool. The players are in color and the crowd is black and white. How’d you do that?
It’s a picture I snapped, and then I used The Gimp photo editing software to do the color/b&w effect.