MLB Free Agent Market To Open Friday
MLB players have filed the paperwork, teams have drawn up their wish lists and, in many instances, the silent mating dance has already begun.
And, later this week, the orchestra will join in and baseball’s free-agent season will burst into full bloom. Precisely, one minute after the stroke of midnight Friday, interested clubs will be able to start talking money with 182 free agents on the market.
Talking money, or just whispering it. As with any free-agent market, the cream of this one offers the opportunity to get better — at a heavy price. Or, a little lower on the list, a chance to get lucky.
In either case, buyer beware.
“Finding value with top free agents,” said Boston general manager Theo Epstein, “is sometimes hard to do.”
The two-week window to file for free agency, which opened the day after the conclusion of the World Series, closes Thursday. In the interim, only their 2008 teams are able to extend concrete offers to free agents, only two of which have re-upped thus far.
St. Louis backup catcher Jason LaRue re-signed with the Cardinals on Oct. 31, and last week, reliever LaTroy Hawkins agreed to a new $3.5 million deal with the Astros.
While some other “lesser” deals could be struck during the remaining days of negotiating exclusivity, the big spenders and big players are merely settling into the starting blocks for early Friday’s go-ahead.
Green light, blue chips:
• Manny Ramirez, fresh off his Los Angeles fantasy, may be the most compelling offensive name out there, but first baseman Mark Teixeira will be most in demand.
Other big sticks available belong to Milton Bradley, Garret Anderson, Raul Ibanez, Bobby Abreu and at least two on the Hall of Fame waiting list, Ken Griffey Jr. and Ivan Rodriguez.
• Among starting pitchers, CC Sabathia is expected to set the market others such as Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett, Ryan Dempster and Oliver Perez will follow.
• Record-setting Francisco Rodriguez headlines an upper crust of closers that also includes Kerry Wood, Brian Fuentes, Brandon Lyon, Chad Cordero and, for the time being, Trevor Hoffman.
Enough stars for you in the free-agent galaxy?
And, just as all the planets revolve around the sun, the free-agency universe revolves around the twin moons of the Yankees and Scott Boras.
Boras represents more than a dozen free agents, but the prominent agent is distinguished not by quantity but by quality.
Boras is front man for both Ramirez and Teixeira, as well as for Lowe and for another whose next move is of tremendous intrigue, Boston catcher and captain Jason Varitek.
The Yankees always have to be respected with a shopping list in their hands. But coming off their first non-playoff season in 14 and approaching the lucrative opening of a new stadium, they are double threats.
The offseason pitchers’ market clearly will have to go through Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, committed to overhauling the team’s starting rotation. He will be pitching hard for Sabathia and Lowe and so on, down the list.
Equally tuned to injecting spark into an aging offense, Cashman is as rabid for Teixeira, an East Coast native who won’t have to be paid a premium to be drawn there.
Even before teams can begin to fill in the blanks on their blank checks, the free-agent temperature may be spiked by a young man who has yet to play an inning of organized, much less big league, ball.
But Dayan Viciedo — due to work out Wednesday for club reps expected to thereafter bid for his services — is no ordinary 19-year-old.
He is a Cuban emigre whom MLB suddenly declared a free agent Friday, 5 1/2 months following his settlement in Mexico, igniting a frenzy in the front offices of Major League teams needing a third baseman who “was going to be the Babe Ruth of Cuba.”
That is one of agent Jamie Torres’ descriptions of Viciedo, who had made the Cuban national team as a 15-year-old and at 16 hit .337 with 14 homers. Although Viciedo’s subsequent conditioning and commitment have come under questioning, his upside is expected to spur spirited competition.
There aren’t many teams with deep enough pockets to compete for Ramirez — who will be signing his first new contract in eight years off his remarkable 10-week run with the Dodgers (.410, with 21 homers and 63 RBIs in 61 games, including postseason).
Los Angeles GM Ned Colletti isn’t saying how he expects his opening offer — two years for $45 million, plus a $15 million option for 2011 — to stand up in the open market, saying cryptically, “I’ve been at it long enough to tell you that I’m not going to tell you what my gut feeling is.”
Eight years Ramirez’s junior, the 28-year-old Teixeira has about a third of the 30 Major League teams in serious pursuit, not scared off by Boras’ quest for Alex Rodriguez coin. The agent entered the offseason talking in terms of 10 years and $200 million.
The Angels, who fell deeper in love with Teixeira during the two months they spent together following his acquisition from Atlanta, aren’t hiding their desire to retain him. Angels GM Tony Reagins will also make a play for and may actually have a better chance at Sabathia, a California native who prefers pitching in his home state.
Or, it may simply be some posturing by Sabathia. That would not make the hefty lefty unique. There is a lot of posturing to the opening chords of the free-agent mating dance, which doesn’t make it any less fascinating to watch. That floor will soon be crowded.
- Tom Singer, MLB.com
